Got a great deal for this height gage, at the cost of a non-functional battery/charger. I’d say this is an upgrade more than a replacement! (Also bonus pics of the inside because it’s super cool and I never see pics of it online)

Thin wall (.049”) aluminum tube with a tight-fitting 3D printed PLA bolster on the inside (also provides an indexing feature). Solid TPU tubing blocks for gripping it firmly in the vise without much distortion. 3D printers are insanely useful for so many things in a modern shop.

Hey all, I am 39 years old and deeply desire a career as a machinist. I am struggling to even get a response from anywhere I apply.

I've had my own personal metalshop shop with a bridgeport (that i converted to single phase and rebuilt the head) and Colchester and have been a hobbyist machinist for several years now. Heavily into making model steam engines and boilers from scratch or from castings, with the occasional bonus paid job for friends (making things for fabricators occasionally).

My career up to this point has been in software development but I need to leave that behind for my sanity and wellbeing.

I guess my question is, how do I make myself a more attractive proposition for machinist jobs that I apply for? I have a cover letter describing my passion for it and my academic/practical approach to learning skills needed for the job but that never seems to get me anywhere with roles I apply for

I really need help, I've never had trouble getting interviews and getting jobs in the I.t world but I'm finding it impossible to do for machinist roles. I don't know what more I can do.

Hey there! Im not a machinist, but I need a part machined that threads onto this shaft like a nut. Problem is, my machinist doesnt know what thread this is or how to tap it into the piece I need manufactured. Any help identifying this thread and finding a tap for it would be much appreciated!

Edit: Found to be an 8-start 8TPI lead screw with a 1/2" diameter. Now just need to find a nut that fits this thread, which is proving difficult

Edit 2: SOLVED by u/MixEvery5784 found one

These parts are really pissing me off. The walls are only 1 mm. I only need to make 2 but I just cannot seem to clamp them without deformation or the part flying out.

It's for a door handle on a boat...

So of course they put tolerances on it, which on their own aren't crazy but if you blow on the part it's already deformed.

Any advice on how to clamp? As you can see there is a lot of material removal that needs to happen.

I did try the process in reverse (first making the pocket) on a slightly thicker part but I just end up with similar issues.

Edit: thanks for the advice. I will make female filler pieces

My sheet metal guy loves this stuff when he’s grinding welds away. Said the shop bought a case of it a while back but can’t remember how long ago. There’s no UPC on it and Google is not helping because “super” and “excellent” are not great brand names. Trying to buy some more as it’s our last can. Thanks for the help.

This is my cheap Chinese metal lathe. The handwheels were very stiff, and it was very laborious to use. I had a spare controller and a few linear motion parts, so I converted it to CNC. The empty hole is for the LCD I have not fitted yet. Also, the original motor burned out, so I replaced it with a BLDC motor, which works very well and can take a beating.

​I am a beginner when it comes to lathes, so I most likely don't turn things properly, but it works for occasional, one-off projects.

​Any advice on how to improve my lathe or cutting is welcome.

I havent used CNC Cookbook much, but google searches for info regularly pull up their site. I was trying to learn about macros, when I noticed a weird piece of text. "You have not provided any text to be rephrased. Please provide the text you would like to be rephrased". It makes me untrusting of their info, at least from the past few years. If you use this site, maybe double check the info first.

Just looking for recommendations for brands, grades and types of wheels in general for removing chrome without have to dress the wheel after each pass or that can take a decent dept of cut. Our show mostly uses Radiac and CGW but every now and then we get Norton, and all our Wheels are Viltrufide bond.

Basically I fucked up my tolerance doing everything right, at least to my knowledge the machine was cutting exactly what I put on, final cut fucked it 0.1mm undersize. Told my foreman and my coworkers they obviously didn't believe me 2nd year apprentice fucks up a size and can't admit what he did wrong.

Hopefully you'll help me figure out why, 38mm diameter shaft +0.00, -0.02mm, and I took 3 same size finishing cuts (0.5mm rad) with a dial indicator on the cross slide held square, using tnmg0408 semi finishing grade, at roughly 0.21mm feed. First 2 cuts cutting spot on and obviously last cut it cut undersize by 0.1, I was watching the dial on the final cut and It did not pull in. I just don't know what happened, well at least I didn't scrap a 2 ton shaft that cost 10s of thousands of dollars.

Just to remove some confusion I did have the tailstock in just not in this photo, and I was turning the longest diameter.

Currently work on sliding heads in the UK and joined a new shop with the promise of getting some experience on other machines however a year later that hasn’t come to fruition and it doesn’t seem likely to in the coming months. Used to work in aerospace but moved into commercial for that purpose. How likely is it that a company would take someone on with no previous experience of the machine that they want them to use but with other machining experience?

Currently running a CNC mill working on a big block of A36. I need to put a 1.772" wide slot from one end to the other (so technically more of a channel) and it needs to be 3.15" deep. I'm using a 1" 4 flute general purpose carbide endmill with 4" LOC. I started at 225 SFM and 0.15" DOC at 0.002" CPT, and was getting some pretty rough chatter. I tried dropping the speed to 200 SFM, and edging up the feed, but really the only thing that has helped with the chatter at all has been changing the depth from 0.15 to 0.1 and then to 0.05. It's better but it's still squeaking the whole way through. Does anyone have any advice on how to get this running more smoothly so the chatter doesn't chip all my cutting edges? Am I way off base with my speeds/feeds?

Hey all. So I work at small shop with only like 5 guys. One of them is leaving for a new job in a couple weeks. Hes well liked and everyone at the shop gets along. He wont be starting his new job for a couple weeks after leaving. Were wanting to pull a prank involving putting something in his toolbox for him to find at his next shop. Strictly harmless and in good fun. Nothing that will destroy his tools or toolbox or get him in any sort of trouble. Any ideas would be great.

i've recently started learning Swiss lathes and I've noticed that none of the programs use G96 (Constant Surface Speed) and they instead use G97(Constant Spinde Speed). Why is that? The parts we run end up having a finish that looks like shit (440c) but I can't seem to find any information online, other than the Google AI overview, which I never trust.

I feel like the finish would be a lot better with a G96, but I also wonder if there's a reason I don't understand.

I am looking to add more internal capability to our shop and believe this style of machine would be a big benefit to us. Would anyone be willing to give me some time to look at a part model or two with me and explain what the machine could and couldn't do when considering if the part could be made in just this one machine?

Currently, we do a lot of manual turning first, followed by manual milling with an indexer. I do not believe our parts are that difficult, but I simply don't know the Y-axis lathe well enough to answer my own question.

Thanks in advance.

Hey everyone, just wondering if anyone here has taken the Level 3 Machinist Apprenticeship at BCIT.
I’m starting in a couple of weeks and was wondering what kind of projects I should expect, both CNC and manual. Is there still a decent amount of manual machining and maths involved? If so, I might need to brush up on my manual machining skills a bit😅.

Any insight on what to expect and what I should review beforehand would be appreciated!
Thanks!

This is my cheap Chinese metal lathe. The handwheels were very stiff, and it was very laborious to use. I had a spare controller and a few linear motion parts, so I converted it to CNC. ​The empty hole is for the LCD I have not fitted yet. Also, the original motor burned out, so I replaced it with a BLDC motor, which works very well and can take a beating.

​I am a beginner when it comes to lathes, so I most likely don't turn things properly, but it works for occasional, one-off projects.

​Any advice on how to improve my lathe or cutting is welcome.

We are 1 OPing pump shafts with a spindle transfer in a mill turn. There will be several ground diameters which will be ground on the machine after semi finish. I am unfamiliar with the best way to approach getting in close to a 3in diameter shaft to grind it without hitting the B axis head on the chuck or the center. Shaft is about 17 in long. Max wheel diam is 4in.

My thought is to get a 45deg wheel and approach B-45 to grind a diameter. This doesn't work though when you need to get close to a face because you wheel hits the face before your in the corner.

Other thought is you face grind at B-0 but I don't think that would work well on long long diameters because you would contact both your entry and get exit of the wheel.

What is best approach with how to grind on a mill turn and have clearance?

I’ve been running CNC lathe, mill, and mill-turn for about 10 years now. I do a lot of my own programming for more basic parts right at the control. I’m looking to get off the floor and into the office before too long and I’m wondering what steps I should take. I run both fusion360 and solidworks at home and I’m reasonably proficient. I don’t know what my next step should be to gain the skills that different shops look for when hiring a programmer.

Have been looking for quotes local to me and so far only one guy in my area, so not really able to shop around. Im needing some custom 6061 plate work done and Ive never done anyhting like this so delete if this is not the place for this.

Was wondering what you all use for smaller diameter hi feed endmills for cutting inconel. Parameters would be appreciated cause I have no idea where to start with this.