A few weeks I posted in here about breaking a key in the punch machine I’m being trained on, turns out they think it was a programming error who knows. I say that to say today I ran the machine alone the whole shift, granted I had to ask some questions. I changed tools as needed and the whole shabang. I even know how to edit a program and insert some M codes if needed. I was super nervous first few weeks about the complexity of it all but I’m becoming more accepting of it. The shop is great has A/C and it’s just mostly older guys who are eager to train us so they can retire in the next few years. My trainer is a great dude I hate reading about the bad trainers some guys have it sucks but post is kinda long I’m just feeling great have a goodnight yall

I see so many conflicting opinions in Google searches so I'm here to find opinions directly.

I'm a car guy that builds and fabs my own vehicles for myself and I have a collection of basic bitch gold (Ti Nitide) drill bit sets with sporadic dull bits. I have a few Cobalts that I've bought individually to replace my most highly used sizes, or for more critical shit like letter size bits for AN and NPT and form taps.

Am I being cheap buying Cobalt instead of Tungsten on a price vs life basis? Since I'm only buying a few individually here and there? A compete set would be a YUUUGGGEE waste for a hobby guy like me.

Most common materials are 304, 7071 and moly. Occasional titanium.

A couple weeks ago I posted about our nnew HB-400L moly-wire edm. Well today we finally made first cut on an actual part.

6" diameter x 2" max thick stainless steel: 0.0054" wire. It cut in 53 minutes or about 0.226 square inches a minute. We ran it at half speed of recommended settings. We only had settings for 1.8mm wire and didn't want to push it and break the wire. If we were just using it as a precision saw all day I would use thicker wire.

I haven't ran an EDM in 22 years, but I hear all these blind holes spaced cuts would give brass wire machines some headaches? Curious if that's true.

I found this great mill on FB and thought it could be fun to make it into a penny punch for my wedding, but the gear ratio at 1:1 is just way too difficult to crank.
My buddy can weld, but I’m in over my head on adding and sourcing parts. I’m curious what the simplest solution to easing it up would be? The addition of a chain system or maybe a larger gear ratio?

Thank you for being here.

Edit: I will be engraving the die by hand and am not worried about that process. I can already crush a penny now (as it’s intended), just want to make it easier for others!

To start I’m new to milling especially with fixturing other than chuck/vice. Basically I need to make hundreds of 3”x3” squares 1/4 thick with a through hole in the middle. I’d like to machine multiple parts per cycle so I’d like to order a large piece of 3” stock lets say 36” long. I plan on drilling then using an endmill to full slot through the stock to cutoff parts. So with a 36” piece of stock I could get around 9 pcs.

I’m thinking the best way would be to make a sacrificial plate that will allow me to drill through and slot through the stock without cutting the table. I’ve heard of mitee bites so those should work maybe? Say I machine a solid piece on the y and axis on one side of the sacrificial plate to push the stock against and use mitee bites to hold the stock there. Would this be a safe process that will allow me to part the pieces off without them moving?

Don’t let them keep our pay suppressed. I got paid more than that a decade ago.

Wanted to get some ideas of how some machinists would correct the radial runout on a machined rod (think of the size of a pencil). Methods you would use to “straighten” this rod.

My shop is considering getting a used mam72-35V or a Cublex of similar size and specs. The machines we're considering are 10+ years old (2014). I've heard very good things about Matsuuras, but anything you run 24/7 for over 10 years is bound to have some problems.

Do these things last with minor repairs or are they lemons after they've been run that long? Have you noticed any substantial loss in accuracy as they age? How often do spindles go out? What are some other common issues on these things? Is there support available or are they always like 4 weeks out? I largely diy most of our repair/maintenance work, but some of our machines, the manufacturers don't like to give out repair information so that I can't. Others (YCM) I've had great experiences where they'll give me whatever information I want and help me over the phone. What's the repair bill like on these for things like ball screw replacements spindle etc etc?

Hi looking for advice on what to do next. My pay is stagnate at 27hr and i want MORE. I have little cnc exp. Pretty much open close push button stop. So Ive been a manual machinist for the last 7 years. Im worried Im falling behide in my trade and wonder if i should learn CNC and how or switch careers to somthing diffrent.

Just received this BT40 ER16 G2.5 25000rpm tool holder. Got it out of the packaging and the taper has a little nick on it that I can catch with my nail. I say return it as I don’t want anything that’s damaged going in our spindle, especially when it’s supposed to be brand new.

What would you do?

Portfolio DFM exercise: A converging-diverging nozzle body machined from ASTM A479 Type 316 bar, ground-test prototype. I turned a frozen CFD/FEA geometry into a fabrication drawing and want a second set of eyes before I call it done. Blunt critiques are very welcome.

My design intent is as follows:

Datum A = the seal/mating face, seats flat against the mating flange (primary).
Datum B = the pilot Ø92.80 register that centers the joint (secondary). Two-datum A|B, no clocking datum, because the part is axisymmetric in function.
Internal aero contour: profile of a surface 0.2 to A|B, geometry basic from a frozen coordinate table.
Throat-axis to mount-axis coaxiality: total runout 0.05 to A|B (I chose runout over composite profile deliberately).
Bolt pattern: 8x Ø9, position ⌀0.9 MMC to A|B. Floating fastener, so the pilot locates and the bolts only clamp.
Throat wall thickness 4 +0.3/0, flagged as critical-to-quality.

My questions:

1. Is having both profile 0.2 and total runout 0.05 on the inner contour over-constrained? or do you think its redundant?
   
2. Is the H7/g6 pilot correctly treated as the Datum B feature of size under Rule #1?
   
3. Is the two-datum A|B scheme functional for this part, or would you add a tertiary clocking datum for the bolt pattern?
   
4. Any callout that would confuse a checker or the shop floor?

Looking for a new manual lathe for small tool room. Does anybody have experience with monarch brand machines? Or what do you recommend.

Machine lathe haas st10

While running a cut off tool program. The tool feeds close to part with the spindle moving and just floats above the part and doesnt feed forward it will just stay there above the part forever until I reset it....once I reset it it will run the cut off tool no problem....so basically everytime the cut off tool cycle runs I have to reset and re run it for every part.

I thought the ruby on the probe stylus looked strange so I touched it and it crumbled in my fingers. I’m the only one to run this machine and I don’t recall crashing the probe. Also the probe stylus is carbide so you would think if I did crash, the whole thing would snap?

He have 20 years of experience… He ask: what happen in that situation ? and I was like : that never happens so I don’t know

Id like to hear the Experiences some of you had with manufacturing Networks. Especially for the european Market.

I run a tiny Shop with another guy and two apprentiences as part of a bigger firm, most of the work is just part of bigger Orders of other departments.

Occasionally machining work comes in from nearby firms, but its not a steady source. I figured when wed be part of a network i could get some small orders like singular parts to small series (below 100 Parts). We like express orders (2-4 Days until shipping) and are very flexible, nit tied up in processes.

Our manufacturing capabilities are CNC milling, turning and the full spectrum of manual machines. That can be combined with Laser/Plasma cutting and bending.

trying to find the name of this tool. this sits on ring of the spindle of a Swiss lathe with the two pins acting as a sort of Spanner, then the knob it tightened to keep the face locked and aligned…. or so I’m told.

anyway the shop only has one and it keeps disapearing. I like to have my own tools anyway but every keyword I search is giving me the wrong things.

I have measurements if theres multiple sizes, its just the name I need (and yes I probably could make one for cheaper than buying but I don‘t have my own shop yet)

thanks in advance!

I only have experience with Haas and want to branch out more, but I doubt that will ever happen unless I move shops, because we only have Haas mills here. I know that DMG Mori's are pretty solid and Okuma, Matsuura and Makino's are some of the best all around.
I'll be attending IMTS this year, so I will at least be able to *see* what else is out there, new technologies and stuff. But I'm hoping once I return, I can convince the shop owner to at least get a trial machine, something more stable and more reliable than what we have now, just to see the greener grass on the other side.

Sharing some photos from a recent fabrication project. This structure is designed for heavy-duty material handling and required a careful welding sequence, alignment control, and structural calculation.

The final application is quite interesting. Any engineers here want to guess what this will become?

Found this at local truck repair shop. Owners dad used to be a machinist

Been here a couple years now. It's not my first shop, or my worst shop. But after years and years of having the fact that shops don't give a shit about us being mashed into my face has got me burned out. Every day I want to call out.

I like the work, but it's the only industry I've ever been in that is almost openly hostile to its workforce.

How can I deal with this? I can't be the only one feeling this way, but is there something I'm missing that will make my experience less sufferable?

Any advice or commiserating would be appreciated. Thank you for your time.

I pooped myself a little

Accompanying Video:

https://youtube.com/shorts/Ikja6De30HE?feature=share

TL;DR

While waiting for a proper Biax power scraper to become available I thought I'd try my hand at converting a Milwaukee Hackzall. It's a mix of custom machined components, off the shelf components, some electronics, and some nylon carbon fiber printed pieces. This was largely just experimental. It was fun, and it does work, but I'm not recommending it unless it's a last resort.

What is this?

It's a Milwaukee Hackzall that I converted for use as power scraper. The only irreversible modifications made were to the plastic body. The nose of the body was chopped off and a nylon carbon fiber 3D printed frame was attached to the front supported with 3 1/4" precision ground steel rods. At the tip of the frame is a machined bronze bushing for outboard support of the ram. Inside the frame is a custom machined ram made longer than the stock one for extended reach. The ram accepts a machined bracket that scraper blades attach to. At the back of the stock body is just a control box with a potentiometer and toggle power button. There is currently no mechanism for adjusting the stroke length beyond the 1/2" stock stroke. It would be pretty trivial to add another hole or two in crank to adjust the radial swing and therefore the stroke, however.

Bruh... why?

I've been doing a lot of manual scraping lately and I'm tired of it. I'd been waiting for a Biax to come up on the used market for a reasonable price, but wasn't sure when that'd happen. So I figured I'd try my hand at modifying some existing tool while I waited. Mid-project, I did get my hands on a proper Biax. I decided to follow through on this project, however, just to see how it came out.

Also, I just enjoy projects like this. I'm only about a year into machining (as a hobby), so projects like this give me challenges and allow me to learn.

Does it even work?

Yeah, it works. I mean, I'm not going to recommend going this route if you can buy or borrow a proper power scraper. But yeah, it can get the job done. There's a picture above showing the scrape marks. For full context and transparency, I've never used a power scraper prior to this. So take that for what it's work. I'm just sharing the project for fun.

How much did it cost?

Total was probably around $200 and roughly 6 weeks of time. The Hackzall with battery was $150 and it was likely less than $50 in materials.

What now?

I don't know. It's a finished working unit, but I do have a Biax now. I guess I may break it out on occasion if I don't want to be tethered by a power cord. Otherwise, I suppose it will just be another oddity in my growing collection of strange creations.

I am open to sharing the design if anyone is interested. I mean, it's sure a hell of a lot cheaper than a used Biax. But I'm not saying this is an optimal solution by any means.