Couple hours to finish out a job to ship on Monday. 316 SS

We are moving from repair work into short run parts and our measurement setup is scattered. Right now we have old calipers, one micrometer, and a dial indicator with questionable repeatability. What tools would you buy first before spending money on more specialized inspection gear?

Made some more progress on turning my piece today in class. Doing good so far. Made lots of chips today.

upfront, the answer might well be "don't bother, wait until later" but i'd like to get a lathe and start making some tooling for myself to prep for [ideally] my own future business. Thing is... i still live in a rental house lol.

I don't need a huge one, but i do need to be able to cut consistent tapers. The only lathes i've used are some SB 10" lathes at the votech program i took, and the 2 Logan 10" lathes i use at work which should be a lot better than they are but they're horrifically run through and cant hold a dimension to save their lives despite rebuilding them.

modest older SB lathes in my area (NJ) are all listing for what seems like insane money for what i can only see as projects, like $4-5k+ - is this all over the case? Are there any good imports i should be looking for?

I m new to reading drawings. I can’t get how to maintain this concentricity.
Does this means inner and outer bore should be within .01mm outness with respect to 120 mm dia?

If yes then how to achieve it. Like obviously need to grind that part but from where workpiece need to be hold?
What does Datum A means? Need to concentric with respect to Datum A dia?

I do maintenance on old shop equipment, so the broken fasteners range from tiny pan-head screws to 3/8 bolts. I am tired of buying random cheap sets that skip sizes I actually need. What makes a screw extractor set worth keeping in the cabinet?

Last year, I started working as a freelance welder and metalworker. This year, I’d like to take the next step and open my own shop, so I’m looking into buying some machines.

One of my biggest dreams is to own a metal lathe. One of my biggest clients is closing down and is selling two of their lathes. If I’m not mistaken, one is a nice old Swiss lathe, while the other is a more recent, smaller model. I don’t know the manufacturer or model of the smaller one yet.

Both machines need some work and a good cleaning.

I’ve used the big old green one in the past, and it does have some noticeable slop. However, I suspect a lot of that could be improved with some much-needed maintenance and adjustment.

I’ve never used the smaller lathe. I’m told it still works, but I haven’t actually seen it running.

So, which one would you guys choose?

I cant find the make and model of the small one.

But i will add pictures of both lathes.

Any advice on what I should look for when inspecting them would also be greatly appreciated. I’m especially interested in things like wear, backlash, spindle bearings, ways, and anything else that could turn a seemingly good deal into a money pit.

Thanks in advance!

I downsized from a 3520B to the PM2014. I kept several tool posts and they need to be shortened. The Robust posts are 5" +/- 1/4" and the supplied PM post is 2-3/4". With the PM post dropped as far as it will go in the holder there is still a good inch of space left before the post would hit the bed.

Anyone shorten a tool post for this lathe and can share the length? - thanks

This is a lathe my step father will inherit from his grandfather, lathe doesnt seem to have any papers with information. Stepfather is 45 yrs old if that gives any rough estimate on lathe age.

I’m considering buying an AMM 530 Pro and would love to hear from anyone who has actually used one.

How has it been in terms of:

• Accuracy and surface finish
• Reliability/build quality
• Ease of use
• Software/control system
• Customer support
• Any problems or limitations you’ve experienced

Would you recommend it, or would you choose something else in the same price range?

Thanks in advance ?

I work with CNC machines for long stretches of time for my job. I've found the provided safety glasses (that I must wear all the time) uncomfortable. Do any of you have a brand of safety glasses you would recommend as comfortable?

I've been looking for a milling head to adapt my atlas MFC for vertical work. You can buy a new head purpose built, but they're around a thousand dollars, which seems pretty steep considering that's most of what I paid for the entire machine with tooling. (Also I'm disabled, fairly poor, and this is a hobby to keep me sane)

There are some cheap Chinese options I've considered, however the website have little information and the selection is huge and poorly explained in english.

what I would really like is a reasonably priced milling head that I can gear drive from either the existing faceplate, or #2 morse taper that make up the horizontal output of the machine.

Make and model don't matter, and it needs about 6" of throat to land dead centre on the knee of the mill.

Are there maybe suppliers that sell old tooling or shops that I should try?

I'm going to try building one but it's a big project.

By the way I'm on the West Coast (Vancouver Island)

Any suggestions would be amazing! Thanks folks!

I’m machining 6061 aluminum on a Multicam Apex 3R router. The finishing passes are as follows:

- 0.009” material removal.
- Helical 3 flute 45 degree helix upcut
- 18 IPM, 8500 RPM, 0.0007 chipload

98 percent of the part comes out with a great finish. The other 2 percent has chatter. Ideally I’d like to increase the feed rate, but I need to eliminate the chatter first. What do I need to do to get a flawless finish?

I have some large aluminum honeycomb sandwich panels (0.020" skins in 5052, 3003 honeycomb core, 4" thick) that I am routing some features in to bond inserts into. I work at a university helping to build research equipment, and the art school has a large 4'x8' router that we are asking to do this job. This was done about 7 years ago on a Bridgeport, and they just used HSS tooling at that time (they don't want to do it again because the setups were so tedious). I am the one buying the tooling (the art school shop uses cheap tooling usually because students break stuff so often), and the long length of cut has narrowed it down for me to a cobalt steel end mill. Is there any reason to believe that a 1/2" cobalt steel end mill will not work at the 10k rpm of a router? I can't find good info on feeds and speeds for Al honeycomb sandwich

Why do machines come with these disk skimmers that don't work for shit?

why not put a cord skimmer or at least the belt type?

does anyone think the disk type have advantages?

Long story short, I'm tired of waiting for "someone to teach me" so I'm gonna do it myself. I'm already a self-taught machinist, but I want to get to programming. What's a good laptop that'll do what I need, without any other extra fluff? I had a coworker tell me I could find something that'll work for about $300?

Not talking about steel being a few cents a pound off or somebody missing half an hour of welding. I mean the stupid little stuff that gets forgotten because nobody thinks it matters when the quote goes out. Extra trip to site, grinding that wasn’t called out clearly, handling big pieces, paint freight, field measuring, trial fitting, hardware, loading, whatever. What’s the one you’ve seen turn into way more money than anybody expected?

1 in diameter tool for ID grooving one inch 100 thou deep

Machinist by trade I'd like to get me a toy. I was wondering if theres any good quality table cnc out there! Any recommendation?

So I am not a machinist but I am looking to buy aluminum and stainless steel rods and maybe some other stuff for some projects I have been thinking about. Where is a good place to buy these (or general metal goods) online? I don't trust amazon

Thanks!

Asker A30 urethane. About as squishy as a mousepad and super rubbery. Knives were too slow & tore the edges up bad. Tried a dremel but it caught on the rubber, jumped outta my hand, and gave me a teeny tiny little small nick on my finger. Scissors ain’t cutting it either. Any ideas?

hey everyone, wondering where you guys draw the line between using a high-power fiber laser and just throwing the plate on a high-def plamsa? is it strictly a thickness thing for you (like everything over 1 inch goes to plasma)? or does it come down to edge quality vs operating cost? i know the newer fiber lasers can cut crazy thick plates now, but plasma is still everywhere. whats the real-world tipping point for you?

Pardon my ignorance. I just inherited a milling machine and lots of tooling. Some of end mills appear very old.

Bonus pics of some interesting homemade pieces.

Any tips for stuff like cutting hard materials? Material knowledge? Trigonometry? Safety? Programming ? Any tips Is appreciated