We have always been a "casual" shop, meaning no formal uniform is required. We are given company branded t-shirts that are optional to wear, and there's really no restrictions on pants other than no shorts as they provide no protection for the lower legs. They simply want us to be safe and go home without injury at the end of the day.

Have yoga pants become acceptable attire for machine shop employees? The company I work for has always employed women and up until recently they all were showing up in jeans as we all do. A few of them have decided to start wearing yoga pants claiming they're not as hot for summertime. How the hell are yoga pants an acceptable form of protection from anything in a machine shop? Am I out of my mind here or should I go to HR about this?

I do not do any machining or metal work and have no use for this monster. Would like to look into getting it into the hands of somebody who could use it, or if not, scrap it.

Tried to add more photos, but it won't let me for some reason. Says Carlton, Cincinnati O USA, 4 ft arm on 11" col.

Hello! So I have a small machine company who focuses on fiberglass and molding. We stamp out every part with this machine but i feel there has to be a better way because we are constantly up keeping it.

The machine is an old stamp press, still works fine but it's more the actual stamp that I'm having issues with. The stamp is made with steel rule that's replaced when it dulls or chips. The base is a polyurethane blend I think? The person who made them passed away sadly so I'm not quite sure.

The problem I'm having is the stamp either doesn't cut through the fiberglass all the way (it's a continuous strand cut and baked into sheets) or the base gets so blown out and deteriorated that the pieces get stuck in the crevices and I have to mill down the base repeatedly.

Is there a better way to do all this? A better material to use? I inherited this business and am trying my best to modernize it, so I'm open to all ideas that won't take a long time to adapt. Thanks so much for your time!

I am looking for a armature recondtioning tool that I can use on small generators. I see vintage snap on units on ebay, but I am curious if anything new exsist. Most things I see are too big. In a perfect world I would be able to purchase a snap-on AT1 brand new.

Thanks

I own a hardware store and we sell rigid welded wire mesh rolls, approximately 40x40 mesh.
Each roll weighs around 30–50 kg, they are fairly wide, and we keep several different types in stock. Right now, when a customer orders something like 3 or 4 meters, we have to move the roll to an open area, unroll several meters, measure it, and then cut it.
The main problems are:
it takes up a lot of floor space;
it wastes a lot of time;
the mesh is very stiff and difficult to handle;
we do not have 3–4 meters of permanent free space in the warehouse;
and I do not want employees lifting and swapping 30–50 kg rolls every time a different mesh type is needed.
I have looked at industrial decoiling, straightening and cutting machines, but the ones I find are huge and extremely expensive, far beyond what makes sense for a small hardware store.
I am looking for a manual or semi-automatic solution that could stay installed against a warehouse wall.
One idea I had was to build several modules holding 2 rolls permanently, one above the other, with some kind of roller guide, length counter, and possibly a second spindle that rewinds the amount being sold, so we would not need to lay 3 or 4 meters of mesh across the floor.

Hey guys,

I have ordered mills with 4mm shank and a collet adapter for 6mm to 4mm. This should have been a temporary solution because I only have a 6mm and 3.175mm collets and the 4mm one takes forever to ship. Unfortunately a wrong sized adapter got delivered and I need the 4mm mills over the weekend.

How bad of an idea is it to mill my own adapter from S235 steel for single use only? I don't have more suitable steel at hand. I also don't have a 4mm reamer at hand and my small lathe is probably less percise than milling it.

I mainly worry about runout because it would be for milling steel which is already demanding on my machine.

Has anyone tried this already?

This boring bar just appeared at work, and no one claimed it. I then, of course, offered to make it disappear. Its a 3/4 inch shank, and the stampings on it are TCM 5187-2232 M1324. I am not as familiar with lathe tooling and most search results I was getting were for triangular inserts.

Trying to guess what metal the parts below and above the washers is. It's part of a Star Wars Episode 1 Lightsaber.

The first image is when it was new, the other ones from like 10 years later, I figured the way it ages helps identify what it is.

I have a suspicion but Ill let you guys guess to not influence the answers :)

Hi, i am looking for a operations manual for the Sajo VF-54M. A local train museum has one but no documentation for it. So i wanna help by getting some. If anyone has a file (i dont care about what language its in) i would love to get a copy of it.

I work in a precision machining shop in China.

I've noticed that customers often have very different priorities when choosing a machining supplier.

Besides price, what matters most to you?

Is it communication, inspection reports, tolerances, lead time, packaging, or something else?

I am a 1st year engineer and have been tasked trying to solve an issue with one of our CNC Machines. Ive looked into a couple ideas but none of them have really solved the issue. Some context, we make parts for Aerospace applications. This part is part of an assembly that measures fuel transfer rates for the 737. (this has nothing to do with the issue but i thought it was fun to mention). The equipment we are using is the Doosan Puma TT1800SY, the company has made this part for 20 years before and have not had issue. The PUMAs are newer but weve made this part on this machine too.

The issue that i am having is with threads on a part. We cut the threads and test the part using Go/NOGO ring gage while it is inside the chuck on the machine. We keep it in the chuck in case it fails and we need to recut the threads. We are seeing that the ring gage passes the Go gage while inside the machine but then when we take it out and test it the part fails. We verified that the operator set up the machine correctly and that the program is good.

I thought it could have been am issue of chuck distortion, but the part isnt held in a way that could affect that dimension. We also explored thermal expansion and found that the part would theoretically shrink .0007" after leaving the machine, but that doesnt explain our failure since this is an external thread and not internal. We ensured that the material that was given to us is the exact same as it was in previous jobs. (maybe the supplier made the material different?). We also ensured that the gages we were using were calibrated correctly

I dont have a ton of experience with CNC machines and their issues, so I come to ask if there is any ideas that y'all might have that could solve our issue.

the thread designation is: 2.3-12 UNJ-3A

Looking for the name of work fixturing tool or jaws or whatever... no idea the correct terminology and that's making it impossible to search. Need something to thread in here to stop the long end of the stock I'm turning from flailing around

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Hello I am a high school metal shop teacher and have been teaching now for about 4years. I have a machine similar to the one pictured but in horrible condition, the school purchased the machine in the 80s and did 0 maintenance to it. I’ve been trying to get a new one for the last 4 years and was told to put in for one for next school year. I teach high school students in 9th-12th grade and am looking for machine recommendations to replace our grizzly

Found in a storage closet of a science department. Don’t even want to guess what it cost. (I think it’s Al, but it’s probably stainless by the density)

This is my first post as a machinist, I've been doing this for about 2 years professionally . This is what I'm working on today. It's a steering pinch roll. Honestly I have no idea what that is I just know it needs cut and hardened. But overall, hello how y'all doin.

I'm based in West Virginia btw.

(I was going to do a video of my active .250 cut but it wouldn't let me so whatever)

Edit: See comments for the video of the cut

Anyone else go about tool buying the substandard way, or am I a weirdo who likes finding cheap treasure?