So for context, I was takeing the chip bin out, and saw something not so chip like... I have only 2 questions... HOW DID SOMEONE DO THIS... AND WHY IN THE CHIP BIN

Fellow experts, how do I align the glass panel, it got knocked out of alignment.

How else you gonna reach that edge?

After a series of layoffs over the years from several companies, I want to change career fields. Money isn’t a huge factor at this point, quality of life and stability is what matters. I’m taking a boot camp crash course for machining at a local school and I find this industry extremely interesting.

I’m coming from a IT management and real estate sales background.

From what I’m researching it seems to be a young persons starting career and the people in my age group have decades of experience in this field already.

What challenges would I face starting as an entry level operator at this age? How physical taxing is this on the body? Is it worth pursuing given the experience needed to be a machinist or programmer at this point?

Any insight would truly be appreciated!

Good morning, I was hoping someone might be able to help ID this set of collets I 'saved' from the junk bin at work.

It is a complete imperial and metric set. Each are marked C [dia] [unit] SF (ex: C 30 MM SF).

They have the following dims:

2.735 in OAL

1.460 body diameter

2.760 major diameter

There is a flat below the lip at the top.

Not threaded.

Hey Guys I'm a Mechanical Engineer currently active in a Project. We are now at the end of our design Phase and for the manufacturing we are probably buying a 4 Axis desktop CNC.
I don't have much experience with Machining at all. How viable is it to make a part like this with a 4 axis CNC? We want to use Alu-7075. The upper hole is 8mm H7 and the smaller holes are M6 through holes.

I want to use this opportunity to learn how to design in a way that doesn't make Machinists want to kill me.

My biggest point of uncertainty is keeping precision when flipping the component...

Lost another Starrett to a hammer...

I have access to a Crusader Deluxe lathe which I have cleaned down, changed the oil, greased and squared up, but I am at a bit of a loss of what to do next; what would be the best set of basic tools and any good projects you would recommend? I am also not 100% sure on all the dials on the feedbox, so any advice would be much appreciated. All questions outlined below:

1. Tooling

        I have a 7-piece set of indexable lathe tools:

    https://warco.co.uk/products/indexable-lathe-tools-7-piece-set-8mm-10mm-12mm-10mm

        I am looking at getting indexable 6mm shank and 12mm shank boring bars with CCMT09T304 inserts. 

    It has a DRO, 3 jaw chuck, 4 jaw chuck, steady rest, follow rest, morse taper chuck and centre drill bits. 

Are there any other tools that you would consider essential? I'm not fussed if I don't have a very specific bit to machine an inside rear face foe example, but I would like to know if I have a glaring limitation.

2. Good projects

        Simple really, what are some useful things I can make? If it is a tool/jig/accessory for the lathe, even better, I just can't be wasteful and make knick knacks. I've made a machinists hammer, but would like a challenge. We have 6, 8, 10 and 20mm round bar.

3. Operation

        I understand the other control points, except the feedbox dials and the charts. 

I believe, "S" controls the feed rate but this is not what you would use for threading, just material removal, for threading, it would need to be switched to "M?" However, when I switch from "S" to "M," the feed shaft does not turn. Is this normal? I am half remembering it does move the cross slide, but I am away from the lathe right now and can't confirm, but if so, I guess threading is done by movement of the cross slide and not main carriage?

Then I literally do not understand the indicator table at all. I know it gives some numbers that you need to have the indicator dial set to, but I don't know why or when you'd need that or how to make the dial move.

Please let me know if you have any questions, any help/advice would be much appreciated, thank you.

Hello, I’ve been running CNCs now for 5 years at my shop. The only shop I’ve ever worked at. Ran OKUMA bar fed lathes(2axis) for a couple years and now I’m on combos or “millturns”. Run a LB3000 ex2 which I love for the most part. No problems there. Other one is the b250 multus. With the Multus I’ve had 2 catastrophic crashes. First one was totally 100% my fault. Walked away from the machine during a part feed out and the stock got pulled out a couple inches over the z-zero and the 1st tool which was an index drill just smashed on top of the stock. 100% avoidable, had I been watching the machine. Machine was down for a few months.

A couple weeks ago something similar happened but this time I left a part in the sub jaws after discussing a quality issue. I watched the 1st tool come in no problems, then on the 2nd tool( drill) I went full send leading to my 2nd catastrophic crash. Machine is for lack of better terms totally fucked. Everything is out even though I didn’t hit the main spindle on the B axis the crash must’ve messed up the spindle bearing. They are saying both main spindles are out of wack. Even though I didn’t touch the 1st spindle during the 2nd crash. The rails have to be replaced. There’s another mark on the head which indicates another bump which they are silently blaming me for. My work says they understand but there’s a silent undertone I just can’t ignore. It’s like the theory of when your co workers give you shit because you know they like you, but everyone is just being nice to me and kinda keeping their distance. Can’t help but think it’s maybe time to move on. It would be a tough decision because I do like working there.

Keep in mind it’s a small shop I work at. ~60 employees.

I got a Deckel GK12 last year and I now got around to disassemble the spindle to clean and grease it, but I have trouble finding the right lubricant.

The manual says "Isoflex Super Tel" but that is from the 80s. Searching that gives me "Klüber Isoflex Super Tel" and some sites talking about it, but no one selling it, at least to private customers.

I also found some other versions like "Isoflex Tel/3000 Altemp", "Isoflex NCA 15", "Isoflex NBU 15", "Isoflex LDS 18" and "Isoflex Topas" with different letters and numbers, all from Klüber.

I have absolutely no idea what's the difference between them and I couldn't find anything.

I also don't know which one is suited for my application. The biggest tool the spindle can hold is 6mm and it goes from 1.500 to 15.000 rpm.

I hope someone can help me. Thanks in advance

I had a dream about this last night and was giggling about it this morning. If anyone from McMaster is here, feel free to steal the idea 😂

Hello tool room machinist im a young machinist that got the opportunity to get hired as a tool room machinist at 28/hr that specializes on engraving and hand stamping machine shop, my responsibility is in the tool room area for making parts that later gets engraved on edm wire, i get to learn to run bridgeports, manual lathes, surface grinder, 2 axis okuma cnc lathe from the 1980's and hurco 3 axis cnc mill machine. I only got cnc machine shop experience in production shops but this is completely new to me im learning about different material heat treats application, in a job shop environment. This place their machinist are in the brink of retiring, im the youngest machinist there besides another one. In this place i feel like im learning to be more like machinist compared working a cnc production shop, and i have been enjoying it, the machinist are t3aching me a lot in here. But Fortunately i got a job offer to work in a swiss contract aerospace/medical machine shop. They say imma learn to do set ups and learn programming on their multi axis lathe swiss machines but imma start as an operator, i do have some swiss machine experience but the machinist wants to start me slow. They do have new jobs and new programs that they work with titanium, inconel, copper, super alloys aerospace material and the machinist seems he is willing to teach me and let me advance to become a cnc swiss machinist. I dont know what to do, both places are great for me and the learning opportunity. The only thing on a swiss machine shop they do production runs but they do have low quantity jobs. They offer me 25/hr but advancement is there and the pay comes with it. But im just going to be a cnc swiss machinist, the engraving shop i get to be a machinist in variety of machine not just cnc. What would be the better option to stay at and learn for my machining career? If you come from cnc and went to toolroom machinist or vice versa, which did you you enjoy the most?

Just wanted to see what the recommended speed and feed would look like

How did it unfold because it almost happened to me

I've been in my current role for about 3 and half years. Started with having maybe 6 months at the pervious job being a glorified button pusher. My current role i started with the more simple jobs that I could be shown how to load my part, what needed to be manually checked, and how to deburr. Slowly i got taught more and more. About three month ago I was the main guy on my machine for my shift that would be setting up tools, getting them into the machine, finding my correct fixture, picking up the locating faces as per the programmers specifications, running a first piece or proving out new programs. More recently first shift has been doing all of this for me due to having moved a guy from the lathes over to my machine to give him something to do due to his machine being down for repair. Im more following behind him and run out the job. Maybe start getting things ready if I have time.

Right now I'm at 26 an hour. Not bad money for only being in for 3 years starting at 19 an hour and still having a lot to learn. But not getting to do any of the set up or prove out is starting to get to me. We were suppose to have annual reviews last month but they got pushed to earliest is October if at all and raises by end of the year.

I had planned on bring up this point in my review and see if it be possible to get back on doing some of my own set ups and have the guys on first finish out the job. But honestly I'm not hopeful that the reviews will happen anytime soon if at all.

Im debating between starting to apply for new jobs and see if I can find something that more aligns with what I'm looking for and pays better. Or just holding out and seeing how much of a bump I get. I mean currently I'm the only other guy on my shift that has the capability to be tossed on any of our mill turns and be able to keep production limping along besides our shift lead/supivisor.

Bushings all scored but I’m not sure how to remove them, is there a special press for this that can be welded on?

Hi! Francis Lewis High School, Robotics program, CNC department here!

We're mounting a plate, and we always had a slight bulge (0.03in ish highest) for the past 3 years... any tips for remediation? (1100M Tormach CNC Mill)

Also I love this machine

(Edit) ok guys I’m out of school run, I’ll test the double sided tape idea on Monday and see if that’ll solve it. I hope the current one we have is adhesive enough, but if not, I’ll put in a request for that one tape the guy send an img with. I’ll update y’all soon on Monday(10/19) also I think it’s bowing?

Making this beaut today. Nice relaxing Friday! Hope everyone has a good day and weekend.

batch of heat sinks came out of gold anodize today. color looks pretty even to me but it's hard to tell on video.

for anyone who's done a lot of anodizing, what problems do you usually see on the fins and edges? what should i be paying attention to?

They created a night shift for our facility about 2 years ago, and ever since we technically haven’t had access to LOTO locks. When someone caught some overhead wires for a chain fall a year ago we realized not even our shift lead had the key to get in, I guess that never got around to it. Is only having a few people signed off normal for this stuff? We have about 30 technicians/inspectors split between two day shifts and a night.

I picked up three fully loaded Gerstners last weekend. 2/3 had reminders inside of why we work. 😆 This is not uncommon at all. I find lots of photos.. a few dirty poems.. the film was a first though.