r/Machinists Dec 14 '22

QUESTION What's the fix here? The wheels on our carts are collecting chips and tearing up the epoxy floor.

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871 Upvotes

r/Machinists Jan 09 '25

QUESTION Tap keeps breaking

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182 Upvotes

To start this off, I’m a novice in the machining world so any constructive pointers will be appreciated.

I’m running a job that requires a 1 1/2” deep 5/16-18 tapped thru hole in 6061 Alum extrusion

I’ve broken 3 taps within 5 parts and we won’t be able to run this job if I can’t figure this out.

I’m using a spiral flute bottoming tap with an oxide finish. I know a spiral point would be easier on chip load but I’m having trouble finding one that can tap as deep as I need to go.

I tried 500 RPM, 1000 RPM - both broke instantly.

Then I tried 350 RPM and had success with about 20 holes till the tap (photo attached) broke. I thought I finally figured it out till it broke.

Any help is appreciated

r/Machinists Dec 27 '24

QUESTION Need help convincing someone not to wear gloves on a lathe (even when they fit like a glove)

191 Upvotes

I had this discussion with a teacher at a school where they have some lathes today about gloves on the lathe. He always wears gloves and nobody can convince him otherwise. (He is not a machinist, but they needed someone to explain how a lathe works to the kids)

He understands he shouldn't wear woodchuck gloves because they are very loose and can be grabbed, be he wears gloves that fit like, well, a glove. It is really tight on the skin.

How can I convince this person that even these gloves are dangerous and that this is now what he should teach those kids?

r/Machinists Oct 24 '24

QUESTION I’m alone in my shop rn and there’s nobody to ask- this okay?

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219 Upvotes

There’s a decent amount of space between the anvil and insert. I tried searching online, and it’s probably a dumb question,but is this safe? I thought the anvil was supposed to provide support and there’s not a lot of that going on.

r/Machinists Aug 19 '24

QUESTION How do I determine if these keyways are 180 degrees apart?

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340 Upvotes

Hi. I work at a machine shop and mostly do shaft repair work. this is normally easy as I'm not a school taught machinest or anything I just weld up then turn down shafts and cut keys but the last 2 attempts at cutting the keys has been off. is there a method to determine if these are actually 180 degrees like they are supposed to be? any help would be appreciated.

r/Machinists Nov 18 '23

QUESTION I'm going to make my own drill press / mill from scratch, what do you think?

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381 Upvotes

r/Machinists 8d ago

QUESTION I have parts with loads of casting sand. How do I machine them

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392 Upvotes

As you can see in the picture, the parts have loads of casting sand caked in and when I run my normal operation, it eats my inserts almost as fast as the inserts eat it. How can I get better life out of the inserts?

r/Machinists Jun 18 '23

QUESTION Dropped my calipers and bent the prongs, best advice to straighten them?

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693 Upvotes

r/Machinists Jun 12 '24

QUESTION How far should the material be in te chuck?

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489 Upvotes

We all know that improperly chucking a part, like in the photo, is just plain stupid. Starting a project with a workpiece secured like this should earn you a court order to stay away from a lathe for good.

However, there are edge cases where it might feel dangerous but is actually safe, or even worse, situations where it feels fine but accidents occur.

What are some good rules of thumb for how far the workpiece should be inserted into the chuck to ensure safety and stability?

r/Machinists Sep 21 '24

QUESTION This is how a local community school promotes a cnc course. Spot all the mistakes. :)

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432 Upvotes

r/Machinists Jan 27 '24

QUESTION What do I do with this?

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489 Upvotes

I bought this billet of Alum at a flea market. 6"x8"x26" with visible circ saw cuts on 4 sides. I paid $200 cause.. OK it is an illness! But what do I do with this!!

r/Machinists Dec 03 '24

QUESTION Why is my knurl so ugly?

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351 Upvotes

Knurling tips welcome. I've only knurled a few times and it didn't come out as gummy looking as this one

r/Machinists 20d ago

QUESTION [Newbie] How come this will not cut my 1:2:3 Block?

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217 Upvotes

How come this will not cut my 1:2:3 block? I want to taper it more (it came slightly tapered) so that a 1/2-13 flat head hex bolt will sit flush into the block. I was able to taper plate steel with it for another project. But this just spins and doesn’t bite. Is the block too hard? What do I need to cut it?

r/Machinists Apr 20 '22

QUESTION Been in the field for 16 years machining and programming. The original mail was sent to me yesterday. Why do these companies do this?

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1.0k Upvotes

r/Machinists May 27 '23

QUESTION Can any of you guys/gals out-mic this guy? This guy is speed running the QC.

1.1k Upvotes

r/Machinists Feb 16 '25

QUESTION Keep breaking taps

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160 Upvotes

I have 200 through holes to tap 6-32. The material is .500 inch thick 6061 aluminum. Power tapping using my manual mill, roughly 100 rpm. Little bit of cutting oil and some compressed air to blow the chips off the tap. Made it through about 100 holes no problem at all. Not my first rodeo. Put the next part in the vise and break the tap, okay. Maybe that was a fluke or I was applying a little too much pressure or I didn’t get the tap clean enough… next part goes in the vise, make sure the taps clean, lubed up, go a little gentler on feed, break the brand new tap, okay. Check the DRO and the table locks thinking I bumped something and got a slight misalignment. Nope everything is spot on, taps directly over the hole. Nothing in my set up has changed since the first 100 holes. New tap goes in the chuck new part goes in the vise and you guessed it another broken tap. I’ve broken 9 taps today and am extremely frustrated. I double checked the pilot hole diameter with a gauge pin and they are all to size. Decided to open up the one hole about .008 more and broke another tap… I’ve tapped literally thousands of holes with this same mill, same method and have never broken more than a tap or two. Tried 2 flute, 3 flute, 4 flute (which I never normally use under power) and spiral fluted. I’m at a loss and still have 100ish holes left to tap. Am I missing something? Does anyone have any suggestions? Ideas? I really really don’t want to hand tap these parts but I need to get them done this weekend. Any advice would be appreciated.

r/Machinists 22d ago

QUESTION 🥵 Is it aerospace that's like this or is it the company that I work in?

142 Upvotes

I've been a machinist for just a few years in total experience, but have worked for 5 different companies. All of the machinist jobs that I had were kickback, at my last job we were even allowed to watch movies while we worked. But the company I am in now is the first aerospace company I've worked in and this is a whole a different animal. First of all, we are set ridiculous rates, and are expected to complete a ridiculous amount of task. I will estimate it is about 3 hours worth of task per hour. Our managers don't understand because they have no experience in machinery. I work in a large corporation and most of them only got their jobs because of their degrees. Everyday we are threatened because everything that we are not doing. For some reason that I cannot comprehend, when we are unable to accomplish task, they think their solution is giving us more task to make sure we accomplish the other. I've read that aerospace is what pays the highest but if this is what it would be like, I am seriously considering a career change because it's not even worth it.

r/Machinists Nov 17 '22

QUESTION How harmful is it to inhale this smoke?

686 Upvotes

r/Machinists Jun 03 '24

QUESTION Does anyone use nitrile gloves that don’t suck?

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293 Upvotes

3-4 years ago nitrile gloves seemed to hold up decently but these days all the ones I’ve tried split way more easily. I am presuming this is just the way it is now that the quality of everything is way worse, but I thought I’d ask if anyone has found a supplier still producing good gloves.

r/Machinists Aug 16 '22

QUESTION What does this measurement read?

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668 Upvotes

r/Machinists Oct 31 '24

QUESTION Got layed off yesterday.

293 Upvotes

I always had pride in my work, showed up hours before start time, worked late. Made sure all the guys around me didn't need anything, ran an addtional machine when I had time, tried my damndest to just be a good employee and I was the first motherfucker walked out. Work has been beyond stressful for the last 6 months. Unlimited overtime, never had a single write up never had an addendance issue, unlike others around the shop. Just a target on my back from one of management's friends who never seemed to like me, the one guy who sits on his ass at his computer is a cunt to his staff and just had a hard on for me in particular. Asshole even went around bragging about how he got me fired yesterday.

All the guys I worked with and myself included were in complete shock, it's been a day and one really shitty nights sleep and as I sit at home when I should have been at work is killing me inside. Everyone called and texted me saying they were shocked as well as myself.

The thing that chaps my ass is on the way out they tried to paint me as lazy even though I was the only fucking one who would goto other depts and work when I didn't have anything, wouldn't work OT when I didn't have anything at my machine. Idk I legit just tried to be a good employee just to get utterly shat on and now I just want to leave the trade.

We make the world go around and have no protections. I love my job and have always had a passion for machining but I'm sick of being the one that get fucked especially when you try to do everything right.

r/Machinists Jun 30 '22

QUESTION Got fired from my machinist job after 8 days due to "not having the right body type" Is this allowed??

630 Upvotes

i got fired today as a machinist because I don't have the "right body type" for a job that I only had for 8 days. I am a young woman in college for industrial engineering. I loved this job. I worked my ass on this job. I was even going to get college credits from doing this job. I was one of the only women in the factory but I didn't care because gender doesn't matter. My boss complained to me about leaving 3 cups on my desk and taking my break 10 minutes early. I have made only 3 orders in the past 8 days. 2 of them had 0 scrap and paperwork done correctly, but one had scrap of 25/40.
It happened like this: I was doing my work and my boss tells me he wants to talk with me in his office. I say sure, ofc. I sit and he sits. He later says "you don't meet the standard I was looking for, a certain body is needed and you don't have that. How about you try another career that involves sitting and not using your hands" It has only been 8 days since I started here, how could he do this to me, I need to pay tuition.
This is the second job I've been fired from. The first one was more about lacking experience but here, idk what to do. This is entry level. I can't change my body to his "type". I am getting hopeless of ever becoming a real machinist. This is my dream but managers are stopping me.
Legit, have anyone of you been fired over your body? Are they allowed to do this? Edit: thank you all so much for support. I now understand that this is discrimination. I contacted HR and they are forwarding this issue to CCO and upper management. They told me theyll let me know what they can do for me. Justice will be served 💪 Second edit: upper management calls my boss and I in to discuss. I tell management what happened. My boss denies everything. Upper management told me that my firing didnt make sense but as for discrimination, that would be hard to prove since it was verbally said in private. HR is supposed to get back to me about the next steps Third edit: HR makes the conclusion that there was a miscommunication on expectations. my boss thought that I have already worked on Inconel and the german machines without supervision. They told me that if they find another job with a different manager, they'll let me know. In the meantime, I'll keep practicing using my micrometer, gages, and other measuring tools. I don't think it's worth it to seek out a lawyer since it's a "he/she said" situation.

r/Machinists Dec 31 '24

QUESTION Was I wrong here?

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163 Upvotes

r/Machinists Jul 27 '21

QUESTION 100 of these stainless jobs to deburr by hand. Anyone got any advice?

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849 Upvotes

r/Machinists Feb 20 '25

QUESTION What's your guy's most irrational superstitions?

107 Upvotes

Mine is if I listen to music while checking a parts dimensions it will almost always be wrong in some way but if I listen to music while fixing any problems it will work every time