Turned a shaft collar into a hex index and it didn’t quite clear the hardware as anticipated. Still works though!

I use these everytime I setup a machine and I made some foam cutouts to fit in the slim low profile packout box. Super nice I just carry it to whatever machine i’m running / setting up no need to grab a handful of tools. Bonus it snaps to the 15” milwuakee packout tote I have!

I teach first semester machining at a community college in MN and every year I have students tell me they want to machine a twenty-sided dice. Every time I have to re-ground them back to reality and explain how difficult that would be.

I finally found some time this summer to commit to figuring out a way to accomplish machining a twenty sided dice using manual machines only. I am very happy with the results, the pictured part is my best attempt so far, some of the vertices are a little mismatched, but I know what I did wrong.

Anyway, it was a really fun challenge. Now when a student says they want to make a twenty-sided dice I can pull this out and they can try to figure out how I did it.

Edit: I used a tiliting rotary table and custom soft jaws. I had to make the soft jaws on the rotary table as well. Lots of geometry.

*SOLVED

Running on Mazak Quick Turn Nexus 400-11M. Part is ~29”. Machine program is hitting the Z-soft limit at the start of the program. Options are to somehow change the home position of the program or the soft limit parameter and I don’t know how to do either, nor can I find anything online. Any help would be great.

Probably not to impressive with all the stuff on here but I just finished my 45° vise for my apprenticeship. Almost entirely done on a surface grinder. While closed the top surface all within. 0001. When open the vise has +-.0002 across the top.

Hey everyone,

I’m still pretty new to the trade and wanted some honest opinions from people who’ve been doing this a lot longer than I have. For some background I have about three years of machining experience from a vocational high school program. During that time I learned blueprint reading, precision measuring tools, basic machining and CNC fundamentals. So I’m not coming into this completely blind I understand a lot of the concepts but I definitely needed a refresher because it had been a while since I had worked in a machine shop. I’ve been at my current shop for about four weeks. It’s a production environment and I’m running a 2015 DMG Mori Seiki lathe. My day mainly consists of loading parts, making offset adjustments, performing quality inspections, checking dimensions and keeping production going. I inspect parts with micrometers, calipers, bore gauges, depth gauges, and a microscope when required. I can read blueprints, make work offset corrections and keep the machine producing parts within tolerance.

My first question is: Would you consider me a machinist, or am I more of a machine operator at this point? I’m genuinely curious where I fall.

As for the second part;
My first trainer (I’ll call him Bob) made my first few weeks miserable. Every day I was trying to learn he’d call me a dumbass, make me feel stupid for asking questions, dismiss things I didn’t understand and generally made me feel like I wasn’t welcome. Instead of teaching me it often felt like he was tearing me down.
One incident really pushed me over the edge. Before break Bob told me NOT to run the machine until he got back. So after break I sat at the machine and waited exactly like he told me.
Then another lead (Lets call him Jay) walked over and started yelling at me asking what the hell I was doing telling me to get my ass up and go do scrap work in the back. I was honestly confused because I was following the instructions I had just been given.
After several weeks of dealing with this kind of treatment and I finally filed an HR complaint. I gave them a detailed timeline of everything that had happened and HR met with me to discuss it. I explained that the constant insults, yelling and lack of actual teaching direction were causing me a lot of anxiety and emotional stress.
I also have ADHD which is even harder on me however I learn best by asking questions and writing things down. Because we work in a controlled facility phones aren’t allowed on the floor so I can’t keep digital notes with me. I’m doing my best to learn but being insulted every day instead of taught made it much harder.
HR ended up moving me to a different trainer.
My new trainer is definitely more respectful but he’s almost too hands on. Even when I’m doing something correctly he’ll stop me grab the part out of my hands or inspect everything himself before I can finish. I know he’s trying to make sure I don’t make mistakes but sometimes it feels like he doesn’t trust me enough to complete the process on my own.

So I have a few questions for the experienced machinists here:
Was I wrong for going to HR?

Is this kind of treatment just considered “normal shop culture” or was it actually out of line?

Based on what I’m doing now would you consider me a machinist or still just an operator? (My guess is an operator from what I’ve been doing)

Is it normal for a trainer to constantly step in even after you’ve shown you can perform the task?

Any advice for surviving the first few months in a production shop?

I’m not looking for validation I genuinely want honest opinions. If I handled something poorly tell me. If I need thicker skin tell me that too. But I also want to know if what I experienced would be considered unacceptable at most shops.

https://api.p1.mks.com/mam/
celum/celum_assets/resources/MKS-Labor-
Policy pdf

Any feedback is appreciated!

I’m looking for a small local machine shop, independent machinist, or someone with a decent lathe in the Inland Empire who can make a prototype steering-rack bushing set from Delrin/acetal.

This is not a large production order. I’m looking to have two prototype sets made first so I can install and test one set on my own truck.

The parts are mostly simple turned bushings:

• Two flanged cylindrical bushings
• One larger double-flanged round bushing
• Center bores through each part
• Possibly simple steel crush sleeves and bolt-through hardware later

I already have the original polyurethane bushings, caliper measurements, and basic 3D models/STL files. The final dimensions and tolerances can be discussed with whoever machines them.

I would prefer a smaller no-frills shop or an experienced home machinist rather than a high-end production shop with large setup charges. I’m not looking for free work—I’m ready to pay a fair price for the material and machine time.

Ideally somewhere around Ontario, Rancho Cucamonga, Fontana, Montclair, Riverside, San Bernardino, or nearby.

Does anyone have a local recommendation or know somebody who takes on small prototype jobs?

how do i bypass the tailstock interlock. I'm unable to program to face/center drill, then engage the tailstock and continue machining. in order to do so, I need to manually go into the operator panel each time, to turn on and off the tailstock. very annoying

I took everyone’s advice from my last post. I called both my boss and the production supervisor over to the machine tool, broke down every single reason for our delayed project output one by one, and ran a live demonstration to prove the machine’s rigidity. I left them to negotiate and work out solutions between themselves.

For context: The beat-up no-name 3-axis linear guide CNC the production supervisor keeps complaining about is only used for roughing aluminum parts. All finishing work gets sent to our DMG 5-axis machine. Our 5-axis mill sits idle constantly, stuck waiting for this old 3-axis machine to finish stock removal first. That means maximizing material removal rate is our top priority here.

But the supervisor always runs cutting parameters far below what the cutting tool manufacturer recommends, claiming the machine is too worn out to handle aggressive feeds and speeds. Truth be told, this old girl has lost all its precision for fine work, but it’s just like an antique steam train — it’s got endless brute torque. I fully accounted for the machine’s mechanical limits when I laid out the entire machining process plan from the start.

Still, I do understand where he’s coming from. Who wouldn’t want to take it slow at work, sneak in World Cup viewings or grab extra coffee breaks while the machines run? That’s exactly why I chose to demonstrate the machine’s actual cutting capacity, pushing him and my boss to hash out the productivity issue head-on.

If I hadn’t done this, my boss would have blamed all the slow output on flawed process planning from my side. Unfortunately, I couldn’t afford to prioritize the shop crew’s easygoing rhythm. I feel terrible about putting him in this spot, but upholding production efficiency is my job responsibility. I have no idea if he’ll resent me for this, yet my boss has completely run out of patience with our glacial workflow.

Should I ask him out for a drink to explain everything and clear the air between us?

I’m not a native English speaker, so I use translators, sorry for any weird phrasing. This is all my own writing, no AI made this.

Need some advice on how I knock down my electric motor shaft from 7/8 to 22mm. I don’t have access to a lathe but I do have a mill drill. I’m not wanting to alter the pulley because it’s not being made anymore. I’d rather mess up on a 80 dollar used motor than the original pulley. Any advice would help. Also the shaft does have a keyway.

I feel like I don't know enough to call myself a machinist but the people my shop hires as operators are not who I would pick. I guess it's hard to find good people but Jesus… I was wondering if I know enough to call myself a machinist and ask for more money. I make 30/hour in the upper Midwest. 

I can look at a print and set up my tools. I understand the differences in material and can figure out appropriate speeds and feeds for the different tools. I usually look at similar tools and how they were set up or find them in a program and see what someone else did. I use those to help me guess. I can convert between rpm/cutting speed/ipm/SFM. I understand deep drilling cycles, I understand why the tools run the way they do. If I see something different I ask around about it to know why. I understand manual programs.

We use both conversational and g code where I work. If I need to make a program for something I can look at other programs to see how someone did something, or unit copy and edit if I have something I can use that’s already loaded, to patch together a program in a pinch. I can follow every movement in g code on the screen as my machine runs and know what it's doing, and why. I can read through a conversational program and since I know what should be happening I can tell you how the program will run without looking at priority numbers. I can number my print from my program without running graphics. I can hear a drill running and know something is wrong.

I can inspect a part and tell you exactly what drill is chipped in your magazine, or catch a programming error, or tell you to flip your inserts. I can troubleshoot when a problem comes up and figure out what is wrong with the program or tool. 

I can write simple mill programs from scratch. I couldn't write a complicated one from scratch but I could tell you how that program should run. I understand what my program is doing and why. Could I write code to interpolate a tool? No. I also rely heavily on charts and plugs for serious changes to programs. And charts for tool data. But I think that's okay and normal...

Am I an operator or a machinist? Do I deserve more money?

I'm looking to start classes towards a B.S in mechanical engineering and I'm curious what y'all are getting paid having hands on experience, especially compared to other engineers that only have schooling.

Also looking for any input on things to look for or avoid while going through school and work. Thanks yall.

How do you guys do this stuff?? I‘m new in the industry, still in school but completed two semesters of precision machining at college, been at a job shop 1/2 a year.

I program, set up, and run all my parts with relatively little guidance, I’ll ask maybe 5 minutes worth of questions to an experienced guy if it’s a new feature or something I’ve not done yet. Otherwise, very little training happening.

I do tabletop work with press fit tolerances, 7 operation tabletop stuff because parts are bigger than my machine, harder materials all day, slots that are +.001 -.000 with extended tooling requirements.

For $21 an hour. McDonald’s pay for 10 hour days. I know I‘m new, but I seriously don’t think I can take much more of the smog filled air and 10 hours of standing on concrete for that money. The stress of making these parts is making me hate my job. I love machining, but I‘m already burnt out here. Is it just my workplace? I get good insurance benefits and the shop is relatively laidback, but no vacation or 401k till a year in.

I‘m curious of conditions in other shops and what others in job shops feel. Did you start in a job shop? How long did you stay?

I’d like to stay for at least two years to get as much knowledge as I can, but it’s really taking a toll on me.

I feel like a dumbass. Genuinely so stupid. I was tightening a tool in my cnc lathe and my hand slipped, hit a facing tool with a brand new insert, boom deep cut on my hand and now i need stitches.

I'm new to this, have only been working in machining for a month but am i just inattentive or bad at this???? For reference i don't really cut myself often, but when i do its a pretty big scratch and it bleeds. Maybe once every two weeks? I dont know.

How common is this? Is this job just not for me? I really like working as a machinist :/ but will i endlessly hurt myself

Always had trouble to read the cutter setting tool, and so I build a double check caliper dro. We have 3 bore heads 28mm 54mm and 84mm, I can change the preset with the little button at the back, naturally the esp board doubles what the caliper outputs.

I build the hardware, and coded everything with the help of Gemini based on the hardware I have. I've made it so it goes to sleep after the caliper is turning itself off, also the caliper runs on a 3v battery but I've removed it, so I am powering it with the esp board from the 3.3v output. There's also a battery and a charger inside.

The caliper has a micro USB port

So recently I started my first union gig as a millwright. I currently run a cnc plasma cutter and a lathe and I was just wanting to know if it’s common for millwrights to be doing this kind of work.

20/yo.
Left the collision industry after 3 years. Got a offer from a friend on a family aerospace/war machining company. Jumped on it and am excited. Started off at 1 shop for 2 years and took over as head painter and then left for a high end shop and started as head painter… don’t think I’ll miss it one bit. Excited to learn this industry!