Steel_Ninja

I'm thinking we need a Machining section. I am a 15 year journeyman machinist. Right now most of my work is mixed. CNC/manual. There is no arguing what method is better. No human being on this planet can match the repeatability or accuracy of CNC, and the only room for human error is in programming. At the same time, if you are running short runs or piece work then manual is far faster. It all depends on the work you are doing.

We use both, and I am the only machinist at our shop. G code, m code, and conversational are the standards but are slowly moving their way out of high end machine shops and finding their way into home garages. Having a section for machinist would be nice.

otis

so far the biggest hole I have drilled is 2 31/32

XJwonders

My biggest hole is 4 inch, to punch out a hole in a round rod before boring it to 8 inch wide

Barrelmaker

Anybody have an idea to figure out the curve (fender to door gap) of the front fenders? Trying to figure out out so i can cut some skins for tube fenders.

otis

That's a good sized hole.
Biggest hole I've bored is somewhere around 15" about 10" deep.

XJwonders

U using a lathe or a HBM?

otis

that was on an old Hitachi seiki vmc with a fanuc 11m.

jcwclm

Got a new job. Running Mori 5 axis mills. But might get a chance to run some 9 axis mazak lathes. Sweeeet

otis

9 axis x,y,z,a,b,c,i,j,k?
do you like a Mazak controll? I have ran one.....it has live tooling and a sub spindle. the handoff between spindles is cool....and fast.

jcwclm

Haven't really messed with it yet. I ran a 4 axis mazak mill for electrodes. It was older. Controls weren't the greatest I thought. But it was a good machine.

thewhiteknight02

Ive been in a job shop for about three years. We do prototypes to very short run. Making parts for automation and robotics companies. We have a couple Hass VMCs, Fanuc Vmc, lathe, 2 axis bridgeports, Omax waterjet, surface grinder, etc. Small shop of just 4 guys. I've made parts that are least than 1/4 inch to pieces that don't fit on our machines at one time like that plate towards the bottom. I had a couple pics on my phone to show people that may be interesting. We do a lot of tight tolerance pieces, often the pieces have many tolerances. We run Surfcam 7 and have Mastercam but don't use it. We have a Pc with the software connected to each machine which is very nice, we handle the parts from the print to the finishing each time. It is the only shop I have worked in. I am in the metro Milwaukee area and there are a lot of job opportunities around here. Shops and big companies are always hiring. I'd like to learn edm like the previous posts, something new to me but I'm a quick learner.

M30

Uplandbirdguy

I have been a tool and cutter grinder for about 35 yrs. Loved every minute of it. I was the lead tool grinder for Beretta USA and made all the prototype tooling for the Beretta Neos Pistol and some other pistols that made the jump from paper to full production. I was also a gage grinder for Beretta. I held tolerances down to 2-3 Microns. Grinding gang sets of cutters to make the slides for the Military 92. I still work for them. I always admired a machinists and what they could do. It is too bad but when I was in school and that was quite a few yrs ago they had machinists classes but alot have gotten away from it. I dont know if any of you remember but engineering would send down black paper tapes to load the program into the CNC machines and they would pray that there wouldnt be a crease or cut in the paper when loading in the program. one thing you want to remember ...be proud of your job and what you do

Barrelmaker

My school in Michigan still had good classes for machining, didn't do it right out of school, after 5 years of roofing i am glad to be back in a shop.

Jeepjunky

This is what we specialize in round here, dry sump oil pumps for racing!

Barrelmaker

Retro fit in your Jeep yet?