I’m looking for something to do some small milling projects with as a hobby. I’ve been looking at Mill/drill machines lately. I came across a good deal on a jig borer that appears to do the same functions as a mill/drill. Which one do you think is better? And yes I’d love a full size Bridgeport but don’t have the room for one.

My dad asked if my home shop was busy, I said not at the moment knowing he needed a part made, so I asked what he needed and he needed a new hydraulic cap for his skid steer, couldn’t find a over the counter replacement, so I whipped one up in 45ish minutes. Then I had to send him an invoice for funsies 😂 after he got the invoice he called me and told me to keep the part lmfaoo

Our system is having a folder that is called "updated" which the supervisor is supposed to review the programs that come from the machines and then override them but there is also another folder called "pending update" which could be where a program is stored. Or it could still be on the machine because it's a frequent job.

Our customer wasn't happy and is requiring us to develop a better system so I'm hoping for some ideas.

Thanks

Has anyone ever seen a setup for manual tracing with a Bridgeport mill? Here's the situation. At the museum we are trying to remove the old rubber from the track links of an M3 (Stuart) light tank. The rubber is probably 80 years old and rock hard. We've tried drilling, shaving, sawing, etc but what we've hit on is to chuck the track pads in the Bridgeport Mill and mill most of it out. We're in the process of making a jig to hold the links to avoid the time-consuming job of measuring each link before cutting but that's a different issue. What I've considered was if there was away to run a tracing probe, just a tad bigger than the mill tool on a processed (cleaned) track link held in a similar jig as the work piece, we could just trace the cleaned example and get most of the rubber off. This does not require 0.001" accuracy 0.1" would be good enough for what we are trying to do.

So, I know of Bridgeport tracing mill and True Trace attachments. I'm just wondering if anyone has seen a trick to do tracing on a standard vanilla Bridgeport? Thanks!

(Also considering a pantograph router.)

We had a 5/8” gang jig that was very crappy (probably older than me) so I decided to take some time to make a new one.

Stock was squared up on grinder. Checked with indicator on each face and they were all square/parallel to each other within reason

Took it to the mill, made sure vise was trammed in perfectly. Set it on two known good parallels. Indicated basically every point on the face to make sure it was perfectly flat in the vise. Spot drill, drill, ream. Flip to do the tapped holes.

A few were too tight, so I took them to the hone. All pins fit perfectly with zero play, even “pop” when i take them out

Appears now that 1. The holes angle downward (see marks on the pins 2. they aren’t at the same height

The height isn’t a big issue, but I don’t like how the flat i’m grinding has a slight taper to it

Any tips? I’m pretty much self taught and the only machinist at my company lol

I’m starting a training program from scratch and want to set new employees up for success and part of that will involve note taking. What notebooks have you seen last the longest on the shop floor?

I’ll also have handouts— are page protectors the best option, or is worth it to laminate everything?

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

*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.

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.

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 might buy this Atlas Lathe, the owner wants 1500€ Should i get it or not?

Hello my fellow machinists.

Here at work we are strating a big project that will involve a lot of parts made of steel. Yes we allready made some steel parts but it wasnt too many so my tool crib made of endmills labeld as UNI (AlTiN coating) that doll a lot. We are mainly working with aluminium aloys. I am looking for any typs of choseing the optimal endmills that will survive upcoming work. So far i have found that TiAlN coating with 5 fulte endmills are best for the work. What is you opinion. Any sugestions are wellcome.

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?

Would like a little help identifying these Brown & Sharpe cutters. I'm not familiar with them. The have the vibe of a boring head cutter. Thanks in advance!

Im running a fanuc controlled hyundai lathe... My biggest issue with how this machine is setup is that all the drill holders and boring bars have physical clearance issues. This is my first time being a lathe guy, i pretty much taught myself on this thing since nobody else knew anything about it.

Is there something i can do about this that doesnt involve me having to do seperate ops with new setups for tools that have interference issues? if i gotta make something i will i just havent though of a way to clamp it in the turret without it blocking the bolts.

By the way these are actual interference issues, i set the first part and check tool position with nothing in the chuck and it will literally hit whatever is sticking out.

Does anybody have any experience with Haas GM-1 or GM-2? We have been turning down work lately that requires a lot more travel in X and Y ( 35”+60”+ ) we also do a lot of long tube modifications 72”+ lengths.

My question is what kind of tolerances this machine can hit? A lot of our parts require circular interoperating holes within +\-.0002”. And hitting hole to hole location tolerances within .001”. The sales rep just said it’s “not as accurate “ as the VF series but couldn’t really tell me what exactly he meant as that.

If anybody can tell me their experience with this machine and what tolerances they were able to hit with it it would be really appreciated!!

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.