Machining metal parts

[5030]

As for proper education like 5030 said, I'm gonna give some pushback on that. Define proper. In my humble opinion, youtube and just time spent on the machine is proper enough to get going.

Guess it all depends on how much scrap, broken tooling and mishaps you want to make.. YT is nothing more than a conglomeration of people who, for the most part don't know what they are doing. Some do, most don't For me YT is strictly entertainment.

 

[GeneV]

Guess it all depends on how much scrap, broken tooling and mishaps you want to make.. YT is nothing more than a conglomeration of people who, for the most part don't know what they are doing. Some do, most don't For me YT is strictly entertainment.

Well let me put on my Caption Obvious cap, but you're a union tool & die guy, what's youtube gonna teach you lol?

Actually, YOU could teach on youtube, and you should if you got the knack for that sort of thing. I didn't start machining til around 2000, and I picked up lots of machining education on youtube, it helped me immensely. I don't remember all the guys I subscribed to back than, Tubalcain was one. And btw he's still around!: Mr. Pete 222

As far as how much scrap, broken tooling and mistakes to make, well that's all part of the experience, and in my opinion, not the the worst way to go at it. A smart man may avoid mistakes, but a wise man learns from them.

 

[5030]

Well let me put on my Caption Obvious cap, but you're a union tool & die guy, what's youtube gonna teach you lol?

Actually, YOU could teach on youtube, and you should if you got the knack for that sort of thing. I didn't start machining til around 2000, and I picked up lots of machining education on youtube, it helped me immensely. I don't remember all the guys I subscribed to back than, Tubalcain was one. And btw he's still around!: Mr. Pete 222

I'll pass.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

I've been machining since 1972 7th grade machine shop....and I hate to grind or sharpen tools. I avoid it like the plague if at all possible...

Give me a factory grind....or give me the day off. So I have the bare minimum of tool making/grinding experience. I make 95% of our parts on the CNC machines we have. And consider that I work in a prototype environment, where I usually make only 1 or 2 of anything.

Even with a good drill grinder, it's almost impossible to beat a factory grind....unless you have a factory worthy grinder. At one place, as the manufacturing engineer, I had a rule of thumb to throw any dull drill away 1/4" and lower, because it costs more to re-sharpen than to replace.

Most consumer grade (and some that cost thousands) drill sharpeners are pretty crappy IMO. Carry on.

 

[etpm]

I have been machining stuff, mostly metal, but also plastics, ceramics, wood, glass, and composites, et al. For over 40 years. I guess it's been 46 years. Somewhere along the way I became a machinist. And now I'm pretty good. And I have encouraged lots of folks to try their hand at machining. Many of them my customers. I encourage anyone here to do the same if they desire. Like any skill it must be acquired by doing and learning, osmosis doesn't really work. So just standing next to a machinist is not really gonna improve your skill. But getting a machine, some cutting tools, a file, and etc. is a first good step. A person needs to be careful watching YouTube because there is all sorts of bad advice to be found there. But there are all kinds of books available that teach basic machining techniques. One very good resource is the Workshop Practice Series series of books. These books are not heavy tomes and each one only covers a narrow range. Some are for rank beginners and some for fairly advanced machinists. The subjects are quite varied. These books can be checked out from some libraries but can also be found online from various sources. New and used. And used books are fine, the information they contain doesn't wear out no matter how many times it gets used. Another book, necessary if you are serious about machining and machines, is Machinery's Handbook. This IS a heavy tome, but it is jam packed with extremely useful information. This book is expensive but older editions are fine. And cheaper. Much of the information does not change and never will. My 28th edition has in it a bunch of stuff that is in my 5th edition from 1918. The 20th edition would be fine for anybody starting machining. So, if you want to machine stuff then do it! Break some tools, scrap some parts, then make some good stuff. Later you will look at some part you made and marvel a little bit that you made it and it worked. Don't be afraid. machining is fun and rewarding. And even beginners with little experience can and do make good parts. Sometimes the part saves the day, sometimes it just looks good, and sometimes impresses nobody but yourself. But still rewarding and fun.
Cheers,
Eric

 

[GeneV]

I've been machining since 1972 7th grade machine shop....and I hate to grind or sharpen tools. I avoid it like the plague if at all possible...

Give me a factory grind....or give me the day off. So I have the bare minimum of tool making/grinding experience. I make 95% of our parts on the CNC machines we have. And consider that I work in a prototype environment, where I usually make only 1 or 2 of anything.

Even with a good drill grinder, it's almost impossible to beat a factory grind....unless you have a factory worthy grinder. At one place, as the manufacturing engineer, I had a rule of thumb to throw any dull drill away 1/4" and lower, because it costs more to re-sharpen than to replace.

Most consumer grade (and some that cost thousands) drill sharpeners are pretty crappy IMO. Carry on.

I just got a drill doctor, $135. It sharpens up to 3/4", does a pretty good job of it. It also does a split point, but that feature kinda sucks, it under cuts the point so it's more chisel point than split point, especially on smaller bits. Still, for $135, I'm happy with it overall.

 

[wdchyd]

I hate regrinds too, but sometimes you just need to get the job done at the moment.
I have worn out two drill doctors, not sure but seems like the plastic housing wears and cuts the point wrong. Years ago I picked up a Sterling drill grinder and it works awesome above 1/2” to 2 1/2”.

 

[3Ts]

Those are impressive twist drills and I'm sure they are very expensive. But, what would they be used for? I thought that anything over 1" would be an annular cutter.

I've gotten to the point that re-sharpening tools has become important. I've been doing woodworking for many years and sharpening chisels and planer blades require frequent touchup. But, I agree, some things it's better to just replace the tool that to try sharpening it. I do have a drill doctor and it does better than I can do freehand, but like was mentioned, smaller sizes are just replaced.

 

[3Ts]

As for youtube - there are some videos where the person obviously knows more than I do so I'll see what they offer, but also compare it against others to see if it's really correct information. Then there are those that have no clue what they are talking about and trying to portray that they are an expert in the field, those people can be dangerous to others.

FYI, y'all have been very helpful, I don't have a mill yet but what I thought would be good has changed and need to ask the CFO for a bigger budget. I also had never heard of a coaxial indicator so I looked it up, what an amazing tool! And comments about the brands of mills has been helpful since I've never heard of most of them. I do subscribe to a machinist magazine so I'm gradually getting educated on all this. If anyone knows of a forum on machining that they think would be helpful please let me know.

 

[jthibodeau89]

I follow the Practical Machinist and The Hobby-Machinist forums.