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!!!
Working on boring out this hole to 7.5”, need to insert the tool holder on the end like this on my boring head. Last time I did this part, I just ran the tool in reverse and took light cuts. This time the entire head unscrews any time I touch material. Do I need a LH insert holder to run the tool out like this now?
Got this old Szim lathe I'm working with at a new shop and in trying to identify what style of spindle nose this is. It looks like a typical short taper except the threaded holes are on the chuck/adapter plate instead of on the spindle nose. Haven't seen this style before and I'd like to have a name that will let me look for more adapter plates/chucks designed for this spindle nose.
So as the title says, I've been a welder for 15 years, and now I've been hired into a machinist position, but I'm running the machine shop in this business. I've done machining work related to the welding I've done, sometimes even working as a machinist when the welding work slows down. My last job was 90% machinist work with 10% welding repair.
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.
Hi guys, for reference I run 2 Prototrak lathes, one 3 axis bed mill, and a few other 2 axis retrofits. My company is big into Prototrak for my semi-manual repair side of the shop. I was just wondering, with how unique the programming experience is on Prototraks, will I be able to take what ive learned to other machines? Before these I was only manual so this is really the only "CNC" experience I have so far.
Hey folks, pardon the rookie question. We need to build a few hundred of these per year, so I thought I'd tool up, and wanted to figure out how to do this "cheaply".
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.
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
I've wondered for a while, there are lots of things that attract people to machining, and with that come areas. My previous instructor would say (in no offense)
but in this class we are not doing wood working, we are doing precision machining ".
he also dabbled in leather working in his free time. So it raises the question "do people that do machining mostly do purely metal working or other tasks including wood or leather just as much?"
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.
Need some help with overcoming the initial hurdles of a learnjng curve. I'm in a fake it till I make it type situation right now. We acquired most of the equipment that a machine/fab shop would have and most of them, there is plenty of information online to learn from. Except for the horizontal boring mill, and I am struggling. The tooling all needs to be made up for it. Nothing I can purchase direct. The spindle is a MT6. My supplier can only get me reducers to MT5. And setting up parts is quite time consuming.
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