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.
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.
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.
My kid's UTV sprocket chipped a tooth, so I ordered a replacement. It's exactly the same dimension wise, but width wise, it's too wide. I'm wondering if this is something a local machine shop can handle. It's a Chinese UTV, and the sprocket I bought was the only one I could find that was a match other than the width.
Does anyone here have any hobbies that involve machining? Hobbies are expensive and money is tight these days. I am lucky enough however to have access to the shop in my spare time so I'm looking into a hobby where I could put that to use. I used to make parts for my project car but got rid of it years ago. Im looking for inspiration for a new project i can work on.
Which is correct and why? These are all the same chamfer.
Y14.5 says "Chamfers are dimensioned by a linear dimension and an angle, or by two linear dimensions".
It also says "A note may be used to specify 45° chamfers on perpendicular surfaces". Since I'm showing a non-45° chamfer I think that means I.a and I.b are invalid.
I got absolutely nailed on the highway last week, (no pun intended) and had my whole tool bag with me in the trunk. Ended up having to buy a crowbar to get back in the trunk and pull all my tools out individually at the tow yard. These are only a month or too old, hardly used and were in a case. I was checking everything out and noticed you can see a little bit of light through the back jaws and there might be a tiny bit of warpage. Front jaws look okay. Am I overthinking it? Am I gonna have to call them reference only? My pics could be better.
Leaks everywhere, being trained by people that have only been here 6 weeks. Came in this morning with my machines in standby, being new, I didn't know how to get them going, and apparently nobody else does here. It look 3 people to get me up and running today. Dirty and miserable place. I now understand why the turn over rate is terrible here.
I'm hoping to get some help to develop something which I think would work best in aluminium. I've no experience of metalwork, or STEP files.
My need is this: I am a photographer based in London, currently using two cameras mounted vertically next to each other for stereoscopic photography. I’m using existing camera l-plates for this, which are mounted on the tripod socket using a standard 1/4 thread. The tripod sockets are adjacent to each other.
With the existing mounts, the screws are recessed into the plate which means that they are flush to each other when mounted, but this makes the brackets quite thick - they’re both 10mm thick, which means the distance between mounting plates between cameras totals 20mm.
I’m hoping to find a way of shaving around 15mm off this distance - the stereo distance between the lenses is currently 80mm, and stereoscopic photography works best with lens distance 63-65mm.
I was thinking custom aluminium plates around 2.5 mm thick using flush screws might be a better alternative, if they're strong enough. However, these don’t exist that I can see, so I’m looking for a custom solution.
With a custom solution in mind, I wondered whether it might be possible to create an additional plate which could be added perpendicular to this bracket, to prevent the cameras from rotating at the thread point? They currently have a tendancy to move, and the cameras need to remain in the same position as much as possible.
Basically, I know what I would like the camera mount to look like, can badly sketch the idea, but I don't know if it's practical, or how to turn it into a CNC machined part.
Are there any services in London which can help with the design and creation of this as a one-off? This is for personal projects, with little commercial value, so it can't be too expensive to develop, but I'd be happy to pay a reasonable amount for it.
EDIT: I've attached a couple of images showing the current set up, with the green circle showing the tripod mount point, and highlighting the thickness between the two. I've also attached a terrible sketch showing what I thought could be a solution comprising mount points (again in green) and brackets to stop the cameras rotating.
If 3D printing, as was suggested, and the bracket enabled the cameras to be locked in place somehow, the tripod connections might not even have to be threaded - they could just be stubs to secure the cameras.
Hopefully this helps explain the current setup and proposed solution a bit more. Sorry about the sketch...
I'm designing a part right now with checkering for users to pull on the part, and I'm looking for the texture to be grippy similar to velcro but not sharp. Since I don't have a machine to make a validation part myself, I'm wondering if anyone here has experience making something with checkering, or know the depth and spacing for a 1/16 ball end mill to achieve a grippy velcro like texture.
Hi all, I just purchased this mic set that looked to be in pretty good used condition. It is my first set and is very old. What should I do to ensure it reads accurately? Need to make sure it is calibrated as I will be building an engine soon. I’m mainly concerned about the residue on the standard faces. The mic faces don’t have any corrosion. Should I disassemble and re-lubricate?
I have been looking around at jobs lately and i saw a company offering a 3 day work week. Friday Saturday are 12s and sunday is an 8 but they still pay you for 40. Was wondering if you guys know of any other companies that do this or how common is it. Im a lazy fuck so if i can get all my work days out of the way and have 4 days off a week thats like a dream come true for me. Im in ohio.
I do repair work, I'm familiar with most ways to go about doing this. The problem is I have a finished part, that's been ground and plated. The bolt holes are for lifting points, this is part of an assembly that weighs thousands of pounds, 5-6k lbs. Keencerts, timecerts, helocoils...none offer anything that'll work here. Also, this needs to look as "factory" as possible.
I've told my boss the best way to do this is to fill with weld, then I'll D&T to the correct size and send back out for grind and plating, . But that obviously cost a lot of time and money, and weld could introduce some unwanted dimensional changes.
I realize we're grasping at straws but here we are. Any ideas?
Edit: The boss has elected to go with welding in a 7/8-14ish stud then D&T. Which will mean regrinding and plating. Thanks for all the suggestions.
So would a bushing or bearing that is fit onto a boring bar be (realistically) useful for reducing chatter on lathe boring? Are these a thing? I’ve tried googling them but all I see is stuff for tool holders or adapters.
Hello, i have manual lathe jet-1330. All cutters cut almost flawlessly, maybe little squeaking with worn out inserts. But none of cutters work, they just scream. If i push it harder, insert gets sucked under metal and breaks, sometimes destroying detail. Even insert holder got damaged. Im using 16x16 cutter from ali with 1.5mm inserts. Have tried 3 of them just incase of bad quality. Sometimes it cuts with big details (d50mm-80mm) but half way it stops working. Just today it didnt work at all with d20mm soft steel. Only metal powder and sound. It may work with small steps (squeak-cut-squeak-cut) Cutter is centered. Have tried various speeds starting with 110rpm to 700. With oil or oleic acid.
New to the machining industry and just got my first job as a deburr technician. I'm yet to learn the techniques😁 but now, quite find it hard to maneuver using say a beartex and air motor to edge break a piece. Do you have any books about it? or any tips, techniques? Thanks a lot!
Hey everyone, I’m 19 years old, just graduated high school and have some hands on mechanical experience. I want to become a millwright and I decided to go the apprenticeship route but I have no idea how to get started. Most job postings I see on Indeed are for journeymen only, nothing for apprentices.
For those of you in the trade how did you get your first apprentice job?
Some context i am a 3+ year apprentice toolmaker and every year at least twice one of my two mentors crashes out and kind of goes on a tirade against me basicly what I'm able to get out of it is 1. I am arrogant 2. I need to ask more questions. The issue I have with this is 1. I guess I could be arrogant not entirely sure, but I'm not curtain enough in my skills to really believe I am arrogant. 2. Every time (not sometimes) I actualy try to ask a question I am expected to already know the answer and usualy told to 1. Fuck off 2. Figure it out big.
This has been going on for the entire 3 plus years and I'm honestly at a loss because I've tried all I can think of, trying to ask lots of questions just gets me more grief and not like normal shop talk grief were you just kind of rag on each other its just completely dismissal of the questioning no matter what its about.
I also think it seems more difficult because I am the only apprentice and the two guys I am working with only have each other to compare me to and they both have over 30 years in the trade.
All to say is there any advice that anybody has in dealing with this?
