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?

Lost another Starrett to a hammer...

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...

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!

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.

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.

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?

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?

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

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

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.

I'm a new apprentice in an aerospace shop and I made my first part on a manual machine today it's just a cube made with 6061 aluminum. Measured at 0.975. Off from true cube by 0.001". Planning on making a few more until I get more comfortable.

So I was going to remove my 3 jaw and mount an er32 chuck for a while. Just asked AI (my very cautious sidekick) what it thought about that idea. Sidekick told me it is a bad idea and that I'll lose concentricity because this is a unit not to be separated. Got a suggestion to buy a new backplate and thread it (38x2.5 yay!) on my lathe. Both this 3 jaw and the collet chuck are k72, they should be interchangeable. I really don't understand the issue my cautious sidekick has with this. Am I under-estimating the level of precision?

Obviously someone has manhandled this backplate when removing it. I used a improvised strap wrench (some strap and a vicegrip) and it came of smooth, no violence needed. But this handling leads me to believe previous owner might have run a collet chuck or a 4 jaw on this plate. Plate is much older than the chuck btw.

I just joined a small contract machine shop last month as an apprentice. The shop owner asked me to just be around with different people doing quoting, cam programming, operators etc to understand the processes. While everyone is super helpful, one thing I find a bit annoying is nothing seems to be written or documented properly anywhere. I make notes to write down what my mentors do in each step but sometimes I feel its a bit inefficient..why cant atleast the major steps of the workflows be stored somewhere so that a new guy like me can just go through it and follow through. It saves both mine and my mentors precious time in explaining things over and over everytime a new guy like me shows up

I know not everything can be written down..but it seems to be a bit wasteful to not have these written down. I mean there are some old dusty random printed stuff somewhere but nobody seems to use or update them

Is this the case everywhere or just at my place? How is it handled in your workplace? Or am I being too naive hehe

Had to remove a sheered off M2 X 5mm stainless screw from a UHV manifold that holds 3 ion guns. Had to keep everything super clean and oil free without hitting the female threads. Left hand drills are the shit. It will either back out or you will drill it out.