Alternative Youtube Link

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

Alternative Invidious Link

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

If it's stupid but it works it ain't stupid

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.

On a side note the last place i worked, i liked the people but hated the job and lots of people said the equivalent of "same shit different pot" aka the job you had is going to be alot of the same even if you move. And there mostly right, instead of carbide and kobalt its plastic. The only big diffrence is this place is full time and actually doesn't bully you for wearing PPE, as-well the people there are also rather nice just like the old place.

also any other injection molding operators in the community, and if so do you like the job? as-well as any experiences with it.

also huge thanks to everybody in the thread for helping out and getting me to this point!

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.

whada u think machinists? i cant imagine it going for more than $500 as its not a knee mill

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.

I wanted to share my incredulity with group that might also have their minds blown with this.

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.

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?"

https://strawpoll.com/1MnwO2Av5n7

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. !

There was also 2 mics which were no name and one that is very hard to read but says "Central man. Co Auburn MI certified accuracy" on the black tag !

I also found a mic operation manual

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also, there's just something so neat about old school graphics !

I got a Lufkin manual as well, sadly there was no Lufkin.

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Here are the pages if anyone wants to read it.

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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

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Crossposted from [email protected]

Recap

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.

These are all the thing I do in my day-to-day job and I somewhat enjoy facing and polishing dies, however It's pretty far down on the list, and I've had 4 eye infections because of grinding dust ending up in my eyes (yes I wore safetys). So thats what I do, I love the people at my current job. They are all supper friendly and I know a lot of them thought family and friends before I started working there. So with great help from the community I've been looking else where, I looked at one shop that was hiring for a manual machinist (I've never programmed a CNC, I'm a button pusher). So I thought "sweet a new job, and it's machining and the starting pay is $17 an hour" So I looked them up drove there got an application, and got an interview. Talked to some old timers and a self-taught machinist, They were both pretty cool guys. So they sat me down in the break room and asked the generic questions, do you have a valid driver's license, why are you leaving your other job, have you committed any crimes? the answers were pretty easy (I never did anything stupid) then they gave me the shop tour....

Bunch of South Bend lathes, 1 Atlas 12in (I thought that was pretty funny to see) Mill ports, bridge ports, boring mill, BIG ASS Cincinnati lathe. And they did have a CNC, it's from 1995 And it runs Mylar ticker tape. Ok, maybe not the most up-to-date shop, but I'm not picky. So I talk to the Old timer for 30 minutes, He tells me that they have had tons of people that come in and say they're machinists, and they don't know shit. He told me a story where a guy came in, First day on the job puts a block of steel in a vice then starts to load an end mill into the collet. Old timer goes, "you're going to want to use the Edge finder" and hands it to him. The guy puts the collet down and puts in a Jacobs chuck and doesn't turn the spindle on and just pushes it up against the block and says "ok got it set" Guy was fired by lunch.... Anyway I talked to the Old Timer for a bit, and he told me starting pay would be $15 an hour (so they lied on indeed), and we went to the office, the HR lady asked "is he a keeper" and the old timer shrugged. The HR lady gave me a folder full of insurance paperwork and company polices. I said I would have to think about taking the job. Yeah, I didn't, So I was on the job hunt again and heard of this company a little ways out of town. 2 weeks ago sent them my resume and Nims Certifications attached with the Application, get a call last week to set up an interview, went to the interview. They were impressed, they asked generic questions like what tools I've used mic's calipers, that kind of stuff. I tell them I took a machine class, the guy asked what metals we used. I named all of them 1014L 3003 Aluminum, and some other random stuff (donated steel). The guy seemed surprised, we finished up the interview, and they took me on a shop tour. My god, it was eye-opening the floors and the wall were not covered in black dust (probably carbide) and you could eat off the floors. It was that clean, my job starting out would be deburring and adding a chamfer to a part on a Bridgeport mill. They said, "your hands are probably going to be covered in oil so it's going to be a little dirty job, are you still interested?" for context, my hands are black at the end of the day at my current job from polishing. plus, starting pay is $15 minimum, and they are willing to pay you more based on your experience level. They said it would be about 30 hours of deburring every week and 10 hours of helping out other departments, and they are going to cross train me in other departments. Tomorrow I have a 2nd interview lined up with them, and I am super excited and can see the light at the end of the tunnel!

Thanks for the support, Guys!

---update

Went to the 2nd interview, they thought I would be a better fit for running an injection molding machine. Because I'm mechanically inclined, and evidently impressed them. I told them I have never ran an injection molding machine before. And they said that's perfectly fine and are willing to teach me, they made sure to infasize that if you don't know how to do something make sure to ask. (because mold are super expensive) Which I really appreciate, you can tell at my current job I irritate people by asking lots of questions. And the new company was very upfront about everything and asked multiple times if I was still interested in the job throughout the interview, as it would be lots of learning. They wanted to hire me because their current guy that is running the injection molding machine, will soon have to run other machines and tasks. Currently the machines are fed by medium-sized bags that are manually fed every 2 hours to the hopper. The company is working on buying large pallet boxes and vacuum system to make it easier on the workers. My duties of the job will be inspecting the parts, making adjustments if needed. Starting and stopping the machine at the end of the day, and changing molds every week. As well as, they plan to teach me to use a forklift for moving pellet containers. And during the job if I am not doing anything I am to help in other departments as it is a small company.

I am a little nervous but excited for all the new learning opportunity and plan to give my current boss my 2 weeks notice.

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.

Any advice or know how on being able to turn a profit on this machine would be appreciated.

The machine is a TOS W100 in mostly good working order. Apart from the boring head dropping 0.020" if I cut in reverse travel after forward travel cutting.

Thanks

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

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 !

It was really neat to learn about the history of this neat machine. And the challenges we're currently dealing with. Such as it runs for 20 mins then shuts off the one smart other maintenance guy said it was the pump going bad and we're probably going to have to replace it. The press is kinda scary though, the punches blow apart if you load something wrong (which is my fault) and hearing it start to move down the punch is quite scary as I have seen punches explode, and metal shards fly everywhere. But it was kinda fun in the scary kinda way!

There's so much untapped potential with a probing system and macros that aren't being utilized at all.

This video demonstrates how powerful a quality machine and probing can be towards a future of automation and simplifying incredibly difficult setups.

What gets me unsettled but also inspired is... This isn't entirely limited to the machine tool or probing system demonstrated on the video. We can do this NOW. Existing machines are entirely capable of exploiting their probing systems beyond their usual simplistic usage (part pickup, measurement). And the only thing really lacking is the brains to figure out all the heavy duty math.

people of Facebook give me a brain aneurysm.

https://strawpoll.com/kogjkMNj1Z6

I am rather interested in what brands of tools everybody uses in there shop. ive seen lots of shops use mitutoyo but my shop uses just as much Fowler as mitutoyo and how does that compare to other shops. if i didn't include your brand please leave a comment.

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.

I never really liked the phrase "it's good enough". It always gives the impression to me that they've never really had to put something together and have it perform. I hear this all too much in job shops that make parts rather than assemblies. Never in Tool & Die. Sure, the component has a .010" tolerance but if the machinist was to hold everything within .001 or less, it makes assembly work a lot more consistent and predictable.

The linked video is part 2 of a 3 part video series.

Here is part 1 youtube

part 3 youtube

So what's your thoughts on quality? Does the shop you work at feel like they value your effort towards quality?

Roders are some impressive machines. Wonder what kind of accuracy the machine is capable at that velocity.

Image originates from this video by OSG..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u286ZNupi8M

The material being cut is PEEK Glass-Fiber 30%. It looks like it's fixtured to a Delrin block some how.. Any ideas on this black magic?

Glue? Threaded from the bottom up?

Running into a dilemma...

I have no trouble ending up with an accurate finished part with really tricky features.

BUT...BUT I can't figure how to quickly develop a roughing strategy. I'm always doing short run items so I don't have many opportunities to be hogging out material repeatedly. So, when I get a 1pc job that needs a lot of material removed, I'm very slow.

To a point, where I'm getting micromanaged.... on roughing.

I'm inclined to be safe and prioritize process stability over Material removal rate. For example in HEM, Instead of doing 10% stepovers, i'll do 6%. In turning, I'll keep DOC down on the bottom left end of recommended specs instead of burying past the insert radius. I don't get off on huge MRR like others, my moment of glory is hitting incredible tolerances on a difficult design/material.

What really scares me is... that a mistake in roughing parameters comes with bigger risk than just "tighten the bolt until it loosens up and quarter turn back". It's the part becoming a projectile/scrap, machine damage, and at worst an injury. Lathe work where I have only a fraction to hold onto and inches of material to remove....

How have you developed a 'sense' for how aggressively you can rough?

So this week at my workplace, Mr. Boss man wanted me to recycle spools. of unused/unwanted wire. Also, I kid, 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

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6.875" x 5"

I used to lug the shipping crate of a case around but I needed all the space I can get in my toolbox. Also tried to make this a one-handed design. Press down into the cavity with my pinky and pick up what I need with the index and thumb.

https://www.printables.com/model/657221-compact-organizer-for-6-machinist-parallels