Machinist

(dw it's antifreeze)

So those who know me IRL or cyber stock me. Know that in my free time i do have a very small laser cutting business, i started off with a really crap diode laser and eventually made enough to purchase a full size C02 Laser. Now one of the most important thing that machining has thought me. Is that WORK HOLDING IS BASED. Why indicate a shitty piece of bar stock each time when you can just make a jig/fixture and run thousands with minimal work. So i very much took this to heart and instead of spending 20 minutes to frame a coaster in my laser cutter to make sure it is 100% straight. I took a ratty piece of sheet metal (that i paid WAAAAY to much for $90USD) and made my "ghetto bed". now it was handcrafted the same way a child makes a macaroni picture. Very imprecise, and not flat at all i tried my best at making it flat but well, im a machinist not a metal worker. which truly shows my 1/1 piccaso's masterpiece. So i hear you WHERE IS THIS GOING!! this "ghetto bed" worked very well for small stuff, when family and friends would order something i would quickly throw in my jig load up my file and BAM its ready to go. This bed was purely a proof of concept, from the post i saw on light-burns forum of a guy doing something similar with sheet metal. So fast foward 3 years later and i bought plate 3/4 plate stock (which i paid out the ass for) order it to size and draw up a CAD model. a few thing i learned from the original "ghetto bed" was that the exhaust is underneath the bed and needed some way to quickly slurp up the smoke, for this i have a snorkel i am 3d printing and running downward (still work in progress as we speak) and secondly and most importantly! I wanted threading, i originally drilled 7/16 holes to which i just vaguely threaded bolts and nuts through. But now i have 1/4-20 spaces 1.30 inches across the bed, which will make setting up fixtures more solid and repeatable unlike the original bed. i did go with 1/4-20 for a few reasons, first off its standardized and very cheap for bolts, second and most importantly its a small hole. Which then allows me to drill and re-tap if i strip a thread and it also gives me alot of mounting holes. However having tons of holes were also a nightmare to hand tap and debur the backside.

With the vast majority of global machine tools coming out of Europe and Asia, California-based Haas Automation might sound like it’s in a perfect position to benefit from tariffs placed on imports that President Donald Trump says will kickstart American manufacturing.

Currently trying to come up with a way to make them more than one at a time.

About an inch deep all along one side of the sheet, it split in half.

Haven't turned anything in a while. Chips!

Since lemmy loves FOSS here’s a Linux CNC program

Barfeeder again! About a minute per.

About 1:30 each on the bar feeder, 6061 Aluminum.

It's o-rings and spacers stacked and compressed, pushing the o-ring out like an expansion collet.

From 1" 12L14, about 20' of stock. Barfeeders are great.

Alternative Youtube Link

Alternative Youtube Link

The company didn't pay the mortgage for over a year, and our nearly new lathe got very rusty.

Pretty nifty. Using several clamps, I could see this working just fine for short run aluminum jobs.

You can really see the difference few inches in

So for the last month-ish Ive been working at my new job as an injection mold operator, which has been rather interesting. I first thought of injection molding as a basic concept of hot plastic gets shot into a mold and gets ejected. But there is so much more that goes into injection molding. There is back-pressure 5 heating zones a TCU which helps the plastic cool in the mold before it is ejected. Then the eject pins extension length and speed. There is probably a lot more as-well but that's just to name a few. There is so many variables into running a injection molding machine, luckily the company i currently work for is teaching me everything and im trying to learn as much as i can (which is slightly overwhelming).The only real annoyance is the plastic smells quite a bit and i read all the MSDS's i can. Something i learned that was a neat tidbit is that plastics like Acetal and TPV, and many other co-polymers is they have alot of nasty stuff in them, and the nasty stuff is only released if it gets above the recommended plastic temperature which is rather important to keep it with a safe range.

its an enco and i cant find much info on it is most likely not more than 2 horse. i dont plan to do any crazy pocketing and REALLY WANT A MILL to match the sexy tractor lathe and use it for hobby projects.

I thought this group might be able to appreciate this part. I ordered 5 from PCBWay. They are 1/4" mild steel. For just over $30USD each I got them in 16 days. But I have SO MANY questions about their process.

jig i made for easy gripping for turning the bottom side in the background.

Just make it from the stock out back.

Private equity is the instant death of any company's quality or professional values. Starrett is dead.

So I bought a small box of tap wrenches, and it had a dollar general dial caliper in it, as well as this. The guy had no idea what idea it is, and neither do i, he seemed to think it had to do something with machining

so i went to a booth with this older man selling all kinds of stuff, Cameras, glassware and all kind of knick nacks. I then found this beauty under some washers and bolts. It's a brown and Sharpe No.38 and looks pretty good for how old it is. i also got the lot for $15 and I can't complain.

The bigger the better, and the parts just keep getting bigger. 10” major diameter, 4350 heat-treat, ~40Rc. This bitch is tough, but that’s that shit I like. Blurry 6” scale for reference on my tool post.

So, for a recap for people who don't know my current situation. I've been working at a die shop for 6 months, and the position is in maintenance. I was told that after an amount of time, a machinist job would open, and I could continue to learn so much about the amazing trade that is machining. However, it has been 6 grueling months. I have worked part-time 3 days a week as the employer would not hire me full time. Although I did enjoy the free time, I would like to be able to afford things. Plus the working conditions have been sketchy at best, So after I left some slight insight into my work on this community, it was evident that I'm not just being a complainer and my job actually sucks. My duties at this job have been, in order, from what needs to be done first to last. Assembling push pins (for a process on a die) Brazing solider pins, cleaning up mill and lathe, facing cutting and polishing dies on lathe, punching out reclaim dies.

Solid aluminum, I really really enjoyed this job

Facing off two large 45° blocks for a material provider near us, spindle out about 20” on a clapped out Summit

The things you can do with knowledge and a decent home shop are amazing.

So I enjoyed r/Machining on Reddit, but Reddit kinda dead, so I decided to make a new community! Thanks for looking feel free to post. -Edit I also want to say thanks for interacting and helping me out with identifying tools and stuff, I hope to learn a lot from you all, and I hope you can learn something from me as well Cheers!!!

so for a while at work, we have ran the Tormach. so originally we had the same coolant as a Hurco CNC and the tormach is in a small room, which made the EDM guys displeased because it reaks. so we switched it out for the coolant that originally came with the Tormach and it didn't stink as bad. well finds out that coolant does stop rust that bad. so we took it out and were trying to clean it up.

so fun fact inhaling yummy iron dust is not very BASED. and i mean i could wear a respirator, but the whole thing is even with wearing some safety's and a respirator i still got iron dust in my eyes, and have had about 4 eye infections. so last weekend i decided to fix that, i took a Hepa filter and laser cut a mount for a delta server fan and made 2 rings which hold the filter via caughter pins, i also had a mic arm that i lost the end. It sucks up all the iron dust from polishing. And if your wondering i really have only been at this die shop for a few months (basically 1 month after i started this form.) and Ive had a lot of challenges with working at this establishment, at least job wise. the people that i work with are really nice and have never had any problems. but the jobs are shitty to say the least and pay is not that good. im technically a maintenance worker, but i end up doing all the "shitty jobs" and i really dont get paid that much, im part time and get paid $14.60 hourly which a walmart worker gets paid $14 from where i live. and i really have a passion for machining, my senior year i took a machining class, and i was hooked. all i really do is cut, size and polish dies and other junk like running the cnc (which i am a legit a button pusher) i know a little gcode like g73 is a peck drill can cycle. but i dont get to program or anything, i just take parts of of the vice and put new ones in and press cycle start the shitty part is that for a lot of local shop you needed to know how to run a CNC. and sadly the class i took was a 2 year course and the second year was learning CNC, so i never got to. and that left me to finding a job that i could be hired and hopefully work my way up. at this point i don't think im ever going to get a promotion, and am currently searching for a new job. i know this is rather personal, but what do you guys think? ive been on the fence about leaving, and some of you may be wondering why i made the filter, and its because its kinda the whole fuck around and find out thats at my work place. if a worker asks for something like new ppe, the boss dislikes you and you basically get punished in a way, shittier jobs, less hours, denied days off.

So, last week before Christmas (also late merry Christmas) I was running this super neat and terrifying Hydraulic press. I asked are resident machinist about it, and he told me "it was a military surplus Hydraulic press, it was originally made for WW2 and crimped bullet casings". I can't show a photo of it because it's in are store room with lots of "trade secret" stuff. But ill explain it with a very poorly drawn version

people of Facebook give me a brain aneurysm.

https://strawpoll.com/kogjkMNj1Z6

I thought this was an extremely insightful documentary about why "Made in Japan" speaks volumes about quality versus the "Made in USA" counterpart. We as machinists are an intimate and integral component to the quality chain. Look around you, Japanese machines and tools dominate the precision market. Okuma, Yasda, Makino, Mazak, Mitsui-Seiki, dmg Mori (the Mori Part at least). While All American brands with the exception of Hardinge are left as a 'value' brand.

Image originates from this video by OSG..

So this week at my workplace, Mr. Boss man wanted me to recycle spools. of unused/unwanted wire. Also, I kid,--{edit fromthe future} he was a piece of shit, worse boss i ever had. dont let shitty people be in your life, i know work at a place that actually cares about my well-being. , I really do like my boss and my workplace anyway the slight problem is that the spools are made of steel and the wire is aluminum. so I had to figure out a way to get the wire off. The original plan was to use a hacksaw and cut through the end of the spool. However, as I know from last week of doing precisely that with smaller spools. IT SUCKS DONKEY BALLS, my wrists were roached by the weekend. So I figured that the spool had a metal rod that was crushed inside to hold it together, as well as the heads of the spool had bent over tabs. Which my co-worker had the idea of using a chisel, to break off the tabs then I used ye-old South Bend to drill a hole into the taper and bust off the side of the spool. Video of turning down inside, https://files.catbox.moe/n6t3el.mp4 https://files.catbox.moe/n6t3el.mp4