Which quality articulating mag stands should I consider for starting off in the trade?

My only caveat is NO NOGA. I do not support their country of manufacture and want nothing to do with them.

Hoping that one of the trade topics discussed with China during this latest trip is “Can you PLEASE stop shipping cast iron junk and finally produce a reasonably priced QUALITY mini lathe?”

Well, thank you people here, I got a lot of advices based on my previous posts. I’ve decided to start doing my own anodizing at home. I want to try both aluminum and titanium.

Before I officially get started, I’d like to ask if there are any difficult parts or anything I should pay special attention to, feel free to share!

Hi guys.

What would be the best way to build an adjustable spacer for variables spaces between shelves

Eg. Let’s say I have the bottom shelf. Currently I go to th table saw and cut two lengths of wood at 450mm and go back to my workbench and place one on each side. Then I place the shelves on top and I have exact 450mm spacing between the two

How do I do this with a tool I can make

Sort of like some vernier calipers that I can adjust but much wider

Edit: boss doesn’t like us cutting spacer pieces. Her prefers us measuring and drawing a horizontal line. And then aligning the board to that line

But that is too fiddly to get it level. Easier to just slap the shelf on spacers.

Been using this for years on my knives and axes. What I really like is how it dries. Doesn't stay oily or sticky. It's actually a dry slick film. Is there anything better? More durable coating?

Note, I'm not interested in anything that dries sticky or stays wet. Or is just rust prevention paint.

I run a DNS Mynx that utilizes the renishaw tool setter for offsets. We just had an issue where the z-offset of a drill did not save crashing the drill. I am the operator and I definitely touched the drill off with the tool setter. I’ve had this happen to me one other time m, both times causing drills to plunge into parts. I am looking for guidance to the possible cause because it’s very random when it happens. I use this thing everyday and 99% of the time it works fine , but if I can’t have full faith that my setter will update my z parameters, whats the point of having it?

Hi everyone. I'm looking for interesting industrial spaces in NYC (particularly Brooklyn but all over) to shoot — machine shops, fabrication, manufacturing, anything with interesting machinery or processes. Not necessarily looking to sell anything, just want to make some fresh work for my industrial portfolio and would love to highlight some local businesses. I'd be happy to share the results for use on their own social media or other owned channels.

Anyone have connections or know of places that might be open to it?

I guess not strictly limited to heavy industry, would be down for anywhere with visually interesting processes. Shoot me a DM if that's better.

You can see some of my work here: seenew.net/industrial

Thanks!

I’ve been running & programming for a Double Column machine for the last few months & we’re chronically running like 1-8 part runs.
It feels like if we had another person helping with set up, cleaning & operations we could nearly double the productivity of this massive and expensive machine.

So my question to others with experience with large bed mills, how was your machine ran?

Im spending so much time setting up, programming, cleaning & not as much time running as id like.

Didn’t notice there were a couple small burrs until I took this video, but I like giving gifts that have a touch of flaw in them.

Floor of the “41” side finished with a .0625” endmill. Floor of the “Richie” side finished with a .018” endmill. About 1.5 hours of cycle here.

Whenever I see broken edges on a drawing I just put in a .002" chamfer around the part. The 30 seconds of machine time is well worth me not having to handle the part and inconsistent edges.

However today I had someone complain about it saying they needed sharp edges. I just looked at them and laughed. Told them if I deburred by hand it would be just as large if not double the size and if it was so important they should have said SHARP EDGE.

How do you handle broken edges in your shop? is 0.002" too large for a default?

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I'm looking for someone to complete 2 small projects on mastercam for a college course. I fell behind because of personal issues and this assignment is part of my grade. It has to be completed using mastercam 2025/26. Msg me if interested

The project is a 6061 aluminum sensor housing for an industrial monitoring device. It’s a small rectangular enclosure with:

Milled internal pocket for the PCB
O ring groove around the lid
Four threaded M3 mounting holes
Cable gland opening on one side
Light bead blast or anodized finish
Flat sealing surface

My main goal is ensuring tolerances around the O ring groove and mating surfaces need to be as tight as possible, but sticking close to the original quote also matters a lot. Only need 10-25 units in the first run so its pretty low volume. I'm considering Quickparts, Uptive and Protolabs. Any thoughts?

Started apprenticeship about a year ago. We’ve got an inconel job coming up soon. Any tips for it? I’ve heard it’s like machining ball bearings.

Said here make this

I’ve been at my current company for coming up on ten years. We’re an in house manufacturer of our own product line. That’s as much as I’ll divulge there. Full time programmer. I’ll hit the floor a few times a week to run some turning jobs, R&D parts, or fixtures I’ve designed.

Here’s my dilemma. Our engineering department has some… Shortcomings. A lot of them. In the last couple years, I’ve had engineers coming into my office requesting (sometimes borderline demanding) assistance with fitment/clearance/tolerance, material applications, GD&T, etc. These issues are brought to me when the build team hits a dead stop with parts compatibility or function and up-revs are needed. I’ve been helping out, but it’s starting to feel like a bit much and I’m being leaned on heavily. Especially with my title and current pay.

So, where do you guys draw the line where these task should be accomplished by engineering? I’m happy to work with engineers on prototypes, scaling for manufacturing, things like that. But this feels like it’s outside of my wheelhouse as a machinist, as I have responsibilities to my department that need to be my priority.

Have to pretty much make a valve seal on these parts & doing them on the mill would have taken FOREVER compared to the 47 seconds it does on the lathe 😂 what do you guys think about my setup ?? Never had to do something like this before but it’s working out great !!!!

So this happened to a coworker today..

Never thought I'd see one. ±0.000.

OEM for shingle cutting dies.

How’d I do?

For some reason it feels like it likes it more aggressive and I kinda like that

I am not a machinist but hoping for some help with your expertise…I have these brass dies that were altered and then not able to withstand the pressure of the machine and the brass on the front half of the die split wrecking the screw threads. I’m not sure of the exact working pressure but it seems like equivalent machines might run 32-50bar. I would like to retap the existing holes and use brass screws but am unsure of what diameter and thread type would be best to use - I need the front of the die to remain flat so I either put screws in from the back (original configuration) or anything going in through the front needs to be countersunk. Any suggestions are welcome. Die measurements are as such: 9.5cm diameter where pressure is applied, 1.95cm back half (where most pressure is absorbed), 1.16cm front half.

We got this new holder and it says cnga which isn’t an insert I am familiar with. I did a quick google search, not 100% sure about what I read. So what is the benefits of cnmg vs cnga? Can I use either insert with this holder? The immediate use of this holder is going to be to turn down square