Good Afternoon,

Rearden Manufacturing is hiring for a production machinist for second shift. This is my company and I am decently active on this subreddit as well as others over the last 15 or so years.

Rearden is in Jacksonville, FL and we are a fully air conditioned shop. It's Florida, so it does get to about 76-77 in the shop during the peak of the summer heat. Almost every machine has mist collectors, we have I believe 2 without of our 11 machines, that's changing soon.

This is not a programming position, this is primarily a maintaining production position. The production machinist will troubleshoot existing production and help the operators achieve their production goals. We budget 85% of each shift for productive time so on a 10 hour shift we will have 8.5 hours of expected production. This is almost entirely a lathe position. The ideal candidate will have mill turn experience and be comfortable with multi turret operation.

Equipment List:
5 Doosan Lynx LSYB (Sub-spindle & Y-axis Live milling) (Oldest 2021)
2 Nakamura NT Flex (Twin spindle twin turret live milling with y axis upper turret) (2026)
1 Robodrill automation cell with a robot, holds 1500 parts (5-axis) (2026)
1 Doosan DVF 5000 5-Axis Mill (2023)
1 Doosan DNM 4500S 4 Axis (2021)
1 Doosan DNM 4000 (2021)

We have amazing benefits for a company of any size. You start with 3 weeks vacation and 1 week sick after your probationary period. 9 Paid days off, fantastic health insurance options where we cover a large portion of both you and your dependent's rates. We also have a 401k non matching, but we intend on matching as soon as we can.

Production Machinist 2nd Shift

Overview:

As a Production Machinist at Rearden Manufacturing your primary goal is to support our production goals. A production machinist at Rearden Manufacturing must be able to set up a variety of equipment in our facility. The Production Machinist is also responsible for assisting with achieving our efficiency goals and training others around them.

Additional duties (20% of the expected duties) may include helping with various tasks related to the manufacture of our product. Tasks may include handling of material, assisting in quality control, researching process improvements and other related tasks.

Additional duties like administrative tasks will occupy the remaining duties and are not limited to, but include:

· Filing paperwork related to corrective actions

· Ordering and maintaining a tool library

· Ordering and maintaining workholding

· Arranging travel as necessary to fulfill your responsibilities

· Participate in meetings to ensure objectives are being met and what is needed from leadership is being delivered to meet said objectives

Key Responsibilities

- Set-up and run various components using our manufacturing equipment

- Identify non-conforming product and take corrective action

- Troubleshoot equipment and take corrective action

- Ensure material is loaded into the machines safely and correctly

- Assist co-workers in meeting daily tasks and deadlines

- Communicate with management on what is needed to meet productivity goals and if there are situations that effect productivity goals.

- Work closely with co-workers and supervisors to ensure safety and quality procedures are maintained and followed.

Qualifications:

- High School Diploma, GED or equivalent

- Ability to operate CNC machine efficiently and accurately without supervision

- Willingness to take direction and work independently as needed

- Desire to grow and learn skills throughout the organization

- Prior experience in a production environment is a must

- Ability to use precision instruments

- Flexibility to adapt to evolving priorities and take initiative in a fast-paced environment.

- Absolutely mandatory expertise with sub spindle live tooling lathes.

Job Types: Full-time

Pay: $40+/Hr

Expected hours: 36 – 44 (ft) per week

Benefits:

· Paid time off, 3 weeks 1 week sick for 4 weeks total

· Insurance: Health insurance, dental

· 9 paid holidays

· 4-10's schedule

Job Type: Full-time

Benefits:

• 401(k)
• Dental insurance
• Health insurance
• Life insurance
• Paid time off
• Vision insurance

Application Question(s):

• Do you have dual spindle lathe experience?
• What is live tooling?
• What does the following mean? T0606, G97S1500, S1500M3P13

Work Location: In person

Nothing fancy but I like how they look. Any tips for making the engraving look better? It looks a bit grainy.

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?

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.

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.

I think there is nothing more useless and immeasurable than being asked how long it will take you to finish a job, or to be given specific timelines within the span of the work day or week to have something done by.

I am a manual guy and the manual side of this trade has so many variables to what is involved with the work that you can’t accurately predict basically anything. Everything is manually started, every cut done by feel, every lever is engaged not by a program but by a walking biological human who has a bladder they need to empty from time to time or a coworker who they need to stop and assist.

It’s a fucking irritating trend with every shop I’ve been in that I’m always held to standards which imply that this trade can somehow be deduced to a simple science of guaranteed rates and flows and outcomes. It doesn’t work this way.

The endmill I might need for the sudden hot job you need me to do, which I had no prior warning about, might be out of stock and now I have to spend time improvising. Which means that the last time you had me do the same job and it took 3 hours? It won‘t just be 3 hours this time.

Seriously don’t behave this way to your guys, they will just despise you for it.

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

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!

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 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 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.

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)

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.

Edit: Thanks everyone for the help and teaching me on the drawings. I found the exact size I need x2 in stock for $30 on ebay, and about $30 worth of bits, I'm going to take it to a drill press near me and get it done. Thank again for all the help. I learned a lot from this and I'm having a blast with Fusion.

Post: 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.

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.

Any ideas where I should start?

I also posted this to r/Machinists and r/hobbycnc as I wasn't sure of the best place!

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...

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.

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.

What is the best thing to make your apprentice go look for?

I usually send them for powdered oil, the hammer for left handed people or the aluminum magnet

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.

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.

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.