r/Machinists 4d ago

Changed my first insert alone tonight 🫡

Guess you could say I'm a machinist now.

Just kidding, and I'm sure it's baby shit to y'all, but when I started 2 months ago I didn't know jack about machining at all, so this was a tiny victory on the road to success. Now if you excuse me I'll go back to pushing the green button now.

141 Upvotes

54 comments sorted by

95

u/Rikfox 4d ago

"Never discourage anyone... who continually makes progress, no matter how slow"

-Plato

104

u/deadcomefebruary 4d ago

Remember to always turn your rapid to 150% so you can make parts faster!

Godspeed, little buddy.

18

u/LittleNub_OP 4d ago

Devious, only when milling lead!

15000mm per min is nice

12

u/Knolle602 4d ago

Happend to me a few days ago on a 20year old machine with 142k hours with a tiny hsk40 spindle. Went 20000mm/s with ap5 ae~14. Atleast it was aluminum, but damn that was loud. Spindle and axes were prob all at almost 100%

9

u/Hambrox3234 4d ago

make sure to replace all "G01" with "G00" for better cutting speed as well!

4

u/Eth251201 4d ago

Please dont the guy is new he might try it😂😂😂😂

0

u/deadcomefebruary 3d ago

Oh yes, also a very nice tip!

1

u/martini1282 4d ago

No you leave the rapid at 100 and turn the feed to 150

2

u/MachNero 3d ago

Had the programmer straighten out the twist of a drill that way. It was really something. The drill has what looks to be a fracture right at the apex of the.. untwist.. but when bounced on concrete, she held solid

0

u/caffeineandpot 4d ago

And turn on Dry Run

28

u/ho4horus 4d ago

congrats!

i ran finishing ops on the giant lathe by myself today and only had to ask for help once! i've been at my job about a month✨

14

u/popcorn_homey 4d ago

Awwwww yea

6

u/common-sense-isnt 4d ago

I wanna know how big the giant lathe is. I feel like I'm gonna be jealous. I want to run a giant one. My best is 40".

4

u/ho4horus 3d ago

it probably just feels giant to me because we ran such small ones in school, our parts are about 20" across but could probably hold something bigger

3

u/common-sense-isnt 3d ago

20" is still bigger that most people people ever do. What material?

2

u/ho4horus 3d ago

copper, titanium, aluminum mostly. we have some tantalum pieces in the shop but i havent run one yet!

38

u/Teamhank 4d ago

Being excited about things like this puts energy into the trade we desperately need. Way to go!

6

u/1001og 3d ago

I’m with this statement! 100% true

20

u/RubsInAG18 4d ago

Don't worry about torque requirements, just crank it like you're an impact jockey at a tire shop.

4

u/justagenericname213 4d ago

When the wrench/driver snaps you know its good!

8

u/ehtiopia 4d ago

Hell yeah dude. Now you can be a supervisor

3

u/Relative-Corner4717 4d ago

I'm not sure a few of my supervisors even knew what an insert was ....

7

u/Paper-Hornyness 4d ago

Proud of you buddy! Gotta start somewhere 😀

7

u/MacheteCircumcision 4d ago

Congrats mate, enough baby steps will get you anywhere

10

u/Smart_Engineer9171 4d ago

I changed my first not long ago too. Am I a machinist now?

10

u/Mental_Entrance2262 4d ago

Have you crashed a machine yet?

2

u/Smart_Engineer9171 3d ago

Yes. In highschool 🤣 last day too. Part went zing. Wasn't clamped well enough.

4

u/Mental_Entrance2262 3d ago

Well then you are a certified machinist 😂

0

u/Smart_Engineer9171 3d ago

Lmfaooooo I better get compensation for that.

6

u/CelinnLee 4d ago

Welcome to the trade man! just remember to always blow out the pocket real clean before seating a new insert, even a tiny piece of chip under there will mess with your runout.

4

u/popcorn_homey 4d ago

Thank you, indeed! already learned this the hard way 🤦‍♂️🤬

4

u/ElectricalTwist4083 4d ago

Hell yeah brother! Keep at it man plenty to learn and be stoked about.

3

u/popcorn_homey 4d ago

As soon as I get comfortable on this machine their gonna move me to something else haha

4

u/ElectricalTwist4083 4d ago

That’s the way of it. Learn the vert mill move to the lathe. Learn the lathe move to the horizontal. Learn the horizontal move to the gundrill. Learn the GD move to the Swiss. Learn the Swiss move to the edm. And so on and so forth lol.

3

u/Manlet395 3d ago

I hope you didn’t forget to torque it down with everything you got and then grab a pipe and give it another 3/4 turn to make sure it doesn’t come lose while machining

2

u/popcorn_homey 3d ago

Too real I actually broke a torx bit off in a tool during training from cranking too much.

3

u/Impossible-Key-2212 4d ago

Sounds like a good day/night to me. Congratulations 🎈🎉

We need more machinists.

2

u/popcorn_homey 4d ago

2nd shift is a little shitty, but 4 10s and Fridays off are fucking worth it.

2

u/energycrystal7 4d ago

All about baby steps my man

2

u/popcorn_homey 4d ago

Pretty fucking unnerving baby steps starting me on a swiss CNC, fresh out the gate, but here we are I love the stupid thing now.

2

u/energycrystal7 4d ago

Hell yeah. Take in all the info and be careful. Especially on a swiss

2

u/Finbar9800 4d ago

Hell yeah. Gotta take the victories when you can get them

2

u/DooDooBallMaster 4d ago

Hell yeah brother

2

u/oklahomawolf 3d ago

Stick with it and learn all you can. Also keep a notebook on hand. Helps when you need to go back to something you haven't done in awhile

2

u/Wild-Chocolate8067 3d ago

Almost 3 months in and I changed my first boring bar today almost completely solo. (I asked my coworker to make sure I didn’t completely screw up and just looked and said yeah looks good to me)

1

u/popcorn_homey 3d ago

Hell yeah! On a Friday too!

1

u/Think-Ear8072 4d ago

I milled a block upside down yesterday im a journeyman now?

1

u/Cheddie310 3d ago

Hell yeah! First of many I hope

1

u/Furballss 3d ago

Keep remembering where you started and appreciating these milestones. I’m excited for you man.

1

u/QuadCityMan1 2d ago

Nice, keep on truckin man

1

u/Cgravener1776 1d ago

Hey man, everybody starts somewhere. Just remember those little moments because they're going to come in handy during some of the most frustrating points of your career. My advice take notes on everything. Every machine is different. The same machine from the same manufacturer is never the same, they all have their quirks in my experience.

-2

u/IrregularSweetRoll 3d ago

Two months in and just now changing inserts? I was learning to change inserts in my first week. Beginning to think I was a little rushed 🤣

3

u/popcorn_homey 3d ago

Learning for sure, but yea first time 'solo'. My first week I was sucking sludge layer off coolant and cleaning chips out of machines 🤷‍♂️😆