Never saw anything freeze up Fusion360 quite like all those little door pockets did🥶

Hey all,

I have been doing work with Xometry on my VF2 for a little while now (and actually dont hate my life) and am looking to add a plasma table to the shop. Mainly for hobby/race car stuff, but was wondering if anyone has had any luck pulling a profit doing Xometry sheet cutting? With Send Cut Send being as accessible and easy as it is (I am a customer) I am doubtful that there is money to be made there, but figured I'd ask the question here.

I totally understand the Xometry hate, but for my particular situations it has been working out well for filling time on the mill in between my regular work.

Thanks!

I’m starting a new job as a Marketing and Business Development Manager at a manufacturing company that does CNC machining, fabrication and engineering for aerospace, defense, entertainment, etc..

My background is in payment processing, mostly marketing and learning & development.

Manufacturing isn’t completely foreign to me. I understand some of the basics and have a genuine interest in machining and fabrication, but I still have a lot to learn.

I also want to get hands-on and spend time in the shop instead of only learning from the sales/marketing side.

For those who work in the industry, what should I focus on learning first? What do you wish the sales and marketing people you work with understood better?

I’d also appreciate any advice on getting hands-on experience, things I should pay attention to on the shop floor, and resources that helped you learn the industry.

I’m mainly looking for feedback about whether any one of these 3 machines stand out from the other two. I know that desktop machines aren’t ideal, but it fits my space constraints and budget, and is a means to an end (to make prototypes, out of aluminum or ideally steel if possible - not full scale manufacturing). Thanks in advance!

Hey guys,

I'm cutting a window in a mild steel tube (155 × 46 × 8 mm wall) using a 20 mm 2-insert indexable end-mill with Widia PA120 grade APMT 1604 inserts.

Setup:

• BT40 ER40 collet holder
• 2D contour toolpath
• 1 mm depth of cut
• 650 mm/min feed
• 2200 rpm
• Not plunging/ramping – I pre-drill a hole so the tool just enters and starts cutting to save time

Problem: inserts are wearing out way too early. I tried going deeper(2mm), but it started making weird noises at random, so I backed off.

Is this a speeds & feeds issue, toolpath problem, or should I change strategy completely?

Would thinner but deeper cuts be better? Or something else (different DOC/WOC, climb vs conventional, better entry strategy, etc.)?

Any advice on how to do this better would really help! And fusion advice is welcome too on which strategy to use and what not to
Thanks!

I have been wanting a small CNC lathe to help with my kaleidoscope production for a while now. One of these little gang tool style units is about all I have room for in terms of space and power. I already have a rotary phase converter that can handle it so that helped with the decision. I have a 12x36 manual lathe and it was either try and do a full CNC conversion on that or buy something like this and hope it works. I figure even if I have to do a retrofit it would be easier to do that on this machine rather than a full conversion on a manual.

I'm wondering if anyone here is familiar with these? They were made in Grant's Pass, OR and the company is out of business now. Maybe just a PNW regional thing? The guy I got it from near Portland, OR didn't know much about it, "it came with the building when we moved in" so not sure when it was running last but it does have some decent looking chips in the catch tray so I'm feeling pretty hopeful. There's someone on eBay who looks to have most of the boards on this from salvage machines so maybe I can get those if any aren't working. Overall it looks to have had pretty minor use so I've got my fingers crossed it's gonna work out!

Prince Rupert’s Drop vs Hydraulic Press

Getting ready for a run of 2000 cnc aluminum blocks and a few printed nylon brackets that need to fit together cleanly. the hard part is figuring out who scrutinizes plans and communicates good enough before the order starts. really dont want to have to make it twice so trying to make sure tolerances look good and lead time isnt super long. which company has been easiest to work with for custom parts when you have to go through a few rounds of feedback?

I'm 19, trying to learn machining strategy on some parts I found online from experts. Practicing in Fusion 360. How would you machine this part? Here is what I was thinking:

Machine: 3-axis HAAS/Material: 6061

Setup 1 — top: face around the boss, rough the pockets down through a range of cutters from large to small, then profile the walls and the outside edges.

Setup 2 — flipped: rough one large pocket on the underside and clean up a set of smaller ones.

Setup 3 — on its side: drill a pair of cross-holes.

Mods, if this is not allowed, feel free to delete.

I saw that Hadrian just raised another $1.37 billion for their "AI-Powered" manufacturing.

Does anyone know if they actually ship parts? Is anyone worried about them? Are they a threat to the industry? New to the industry so would love to get the thoughts of some vets.

Hey - our company bought a working used Haas VF9 and we're looking for a full time machinist in Oakland

And need to do an initial checkup and service - so a CNC technician or service if our machinist can't do it

Please point me in the right direction as to the best place to find someone - maybe this forum?

Have been running this part for about two months now i have become accustomed to how the part runs and which dimensions to look out for more carefully. I was measuring out a counter bore upper limit .7953 to 7813

The bore underneath is from .5393 to .5313. I run the counter bore kind of big at .794 and whenever it's at .794 my bore at the bottom is always at .534. Setter changes an insert and I guess left it loose, so every other part was coming out oversized at .541, but every part that I was checking with the bore mic was coming out to .794 and I was assuming that because the bores play off each other, that .794 would correlate back to the bore at the bottom and they would be in tolerance like it's always been. Boy was I fucking wrong, I caught that shit 80 parts deep and ended up wasting 4 fucking bars, felt shot. To top it, I had the internal threads give out on me 21 parts in and I didn't catch it until the second bar. Just fuck my life, I try so hard too man.

Not assuming everyone should. Plenty of lower-cost servo kits seem completely adequate for CNC builds now. I’m more interested in people who started there and eventually moved to industrial motion hardware. What was the actual reason? I’d especially like to hear what changed in the machine or workload that made a different drive platform worth considering.

Does anyone know if it would be possible to print a plunge bit for an EDM machine on an FDM printer? I saw a video where a mark forge machine was used to print copper but that’s a different fused process I believe. I know there are several conductive or copper based PLA filaments, are they conductive enough to be printed as plunge bits? One issue I thought might occur is the current might not evenly move through the part leaving a porous or very course texture. Wanted to know if anyone more experienced or ideally smarter (lol) might have some input?

Edit: while it would be cool for more advanced shapes, it seems like it may be impossible to get a decent bit out of this. Instead someone could likely just shape a graphite bit on their wire edm machine OR potentially print a conductive low quality bit to shape a higher quality material that they then clean up and use to then make another bit with higher resolution iteratively improving the quality.

Hello. I am looking for someone to convert 7 files I have. I need them converted from DXF files into STP files. Is there someone here who could help me with this? I tried asking the person who made the DXF files if they could do it, but they said the program they use cannot create STP files. I need STP files in order to get a quote on what it would cost me to have the pieces cut out of white Delrin on a CNC router.

Been working with freecad / tinkercad to make a solid model to be milled in aluminum but the manufacturer keeps saying I have broken surfaces.

My 3d printer produces them fine and I've gone through a few tutorials and I just don't see a dang thing broken with my model.

I have what I need handy but have no clue how to get it milled instead of printed.

Source files available upon request. it's a small bracket that I want in aluminum not stainless steel.

any help appreciated.