The Reel DealClassic

Fly-fishing reel manufacturer relies on CAM to revive a languishing business

You might say that Joe Saracione is a very sophisticated user of CAM (Computer Aided Manufacturing). But that wasn’t always true.

The sophisticated part of this statement has to do with manufacturing medical instruments for neurological research. Back in 1999, his company, Cartesian Research Inc. of Sandy, Oregon, had two very successful, patented products in that arena. For those products, they had assemblies with hundreds of parts all built up in solid models. They would pull the parts from the model, create the toolpaths, and machine them.

The unsophisticated part involved another business Joe owned, Saracione Manufacturing Co, producer of classic Saracione Fly Fishing Reels. Starting in the early 1980s, manually machined Saracione reels gained an international reputation for excellence. (To see just how big his reputation is, Google “Saracione” … nothing but fly reels comes up on the first pages, and little else but his reels on the next few pages that follow.) However, in the new century, the business was languishing under the weight of its own outmoded manufacturing processes. Product quality was not a problem. The company just could not make reels fast enough to keep up with demand, and even if they could, the high cost of manual machining made them less attractive to even high-end retailers.After Saracione sold his medical research patents from Cartesian Research, he had the time and resources to see what would happen if he turned his solids design and advanced CNC manufacturing expertise loose on his fly-fishing reels. Saracione has refined the designs of his latest classic fly reels so that 90% of the parts can be manufactured in a single setup on a newly acquired mill/turn center. He says, “A lot of fly reels are being machined offshore now, and the only way I can compete is by using the multi-axis/multi-tasking turning center. The programming is considerably more complicated, but I have learned that with Mastercam X2 CAD/CAM software (CNC Software, Tolland, CT), we can program a Y-axis subspindle machine just like a 3-axis or 4-axis vertical milling machine and build better products with less cost.” Early on, however, he had to overcome something that prevented him from obtaining these results.

Swallowing His Pride
Saracione considered himself an expert in programming his 2-axis lathe. “I can write G-code on a 2-axis lathe longhand so fast that a lot of guys laugh. I can fat-finger it in as fast as I can talk,” he says. With Mastercam, creating toolpaths for the 3- and 4-axis mills was also second nature. However, he soon found creating toolpaths for his multi-axis, multi-tasking mill-turn system was a real challenge.

“I figured I would be able to pick it up on my own, so I toughed it out for about a month. It was taking me all day to program in bits and pieces. I was writing some code, CAMing some code, and then I would cut and paste. I would put it on the machine and do a dry run and there would be a problem. Next, I would go back and start over. It was trial and error programming.

“It was like I was moving up from a Volkswagen Beetle to a Formula 1 race car. After a while, my gut reaction was that I would never be able to get clean code. I started to blame it on Mastercam. Then I thought, ‘you can't take a guy off the street, put him in a Formula 1 and ask him to handle the car at 200 mph.’ I needed some training.”Saracione gave in and signed up for a 3-hour training session with Tim Rowley, his local Mastercam Reseller from MCAM Northwest, and that was all he needed. “First, Tim explained the configuration, and then setting up, how you look at the part in the different planes, and how you have to move around in the graphics view and the tool plane and so on to get it all to agree. “I watched over his shoulder while he went to work programming my own parts,” Saracione said. “He would say, Okay, you can turn on this option in the configuration area and turn this off and repost it and you get this beautiful clean short code and the part runs faster.’

“I realized that if you break it down simply, it’s just like working with a 3-axis machine tool. Then he showed me how I can work with the solids modeler and still do turning operations. You are able to roll back features on the solid model so you can turn. As you progress through the solid model, you roll back up through the solid exposing the different mill cuts and so on. It is very, very powerful software, but it’s not all that difficult if you break it down.”

Reel Productivity
After the one training session, Saracione says his programming and manufacturing productivity for the mill/turn system improved 300%. He was laughing at himself. He’d spent over a quarter of a million dollars for a very sophisticated machine tool and then lost a hundred thousand dollars worth of productivity because he was too proud to spend $375 for three hours of training.Now he believes multi-axis machining and advanced CAD/CAM have so much untapped power for transforming his business that he plans to get three hours of training every month until he is really proficient.With Mastercam, Saracione designs his new reels as complete assemblies within the software’s solids module. Then each part can be separated out from the model and toolpaths created again within the solid model. Productivity has gone off the charts, particularly for parts manufactured on the mill/turn system. For example, one critical part for the reel--the frame--required five setups, and an hour of total machining time on the lathe and two different mills. “Now we have it down to just under 15 minutes with a single setup on the mill/turn machine,” Saracione says.

He has also uses the fine control of toolpaths to chamfer all edges and create smooth toolpath lead-ins and lead-outs that eliminate the need for secondary finishing operations. That translates into more time savings and a better-looking product.Quality has also improved. Tolerances no longer accumulate as a result of multiple setups,so mating parts align with greater precision for a smoother acting reel and faster, easier assembly. Thanks to his solids-based CAD/CAM system and single setup multi-axis/multi-tasking manufacturing, Saracione has eliminated 75% of his former manufacturing costs for comparable products.

Inundated With Orders

In the past, fans of the Saracione fly reel could only purchase the product direct from the manufacturer. There was not enough margin in the product for the retailers to want to carry the product. Not so today. The product is “keystoned.” That means a classic Saracione reel that normally sells for $1000 can be purchased by the dealer for $500--a 100% mark-up. And there are no minimum orders. Saracione says he is building the best fly reel he has ever made in his entire career, and his company is inundated with orders. The company is selling more in a month than he would previously sell in a good year, and he may soon be in the market for another mill/turn system.His biggest problem now is just finding a little time to field test his new products in some of Oregon’s fine salmon streams.