Apprentice exercises.

Sorry, lost my cool for a second. My apologies Carlos. Thank You Phil.

"Billy G"
 
My apprentice exercise was rather old school my first day my boss gave me a 4 inch block of steel and one hacksaw blade to cut through it. I guess it was so I would respect what machines do for you.. Ray
 
My apprentice exercise was rather old school my first day my boss gave me a 4 inch block of steel and one hacksaw blade to cut through it. I guess it was so I would respect what machines do for you.. Ray

AND??

Were you able to make it through the whole 4 inches?
 
I actually was agreeing with you sir. Theres so much more to a machinist then a piece of paper or running a machine. I'm sure in them 40yr you have seen examples of all I mentioned. Sorry if it came out in any other way
I didn't disagree with you Chuck. I just added to your statement. I will add no more as my 40 years as a paper machinist is worthless. I have a cutter grinder to build. Have fun.

"Billy G"
 
Well I do not think you will find anyone in the first group here. I say that because as far as I can tell we are all home machinists, so we haveto do are own set up work. (yes I know many of you are also profecional machinist) Me As much as I would like to make itto the third group it probably won't happen do to my late start, lake of formal trainingand so on. But that does not mean I do not shoot hard for THE number. I once made a fixture for my black bull ban saw that alowed me to cut a 4" long cut on two parts to within 5-7 thous. Now that was not to brag that was just to add to the poit that you really have to want to do something to be good at it. I have a 4 year apprenticship behind me but not in machining, In Ironworking.
 
I enjoy machine dabbling so I'll likely always be a despicable dabbler, standing in awe of you professional machinists
 
Thanks for the responses guys but if you'd like to discuss what makes a machinist a machinist please make another thread. This thread is for skill building exercises.


Just bringing this thread back on track,


Carlos, If you want to start where I did my first project was learning to file a round bar square. And when we had done that they let us put the square bar in a lathe and turn it round again. We then made a small tapered punch from the rod we had turned. progressing from there we made a small hammer, some parallel clamps, and the big project for our 1st year, a surface gauge.
It will depend on whether you want to go back to the start or not. A good machinist needs to know how to fit things by hand as well as how, and when, to "machine"
If you want to start machining then make some simple tools and accessories to use for the machines you have.
Machinist' jack
Centre punch
Parallel clamp
Carriage stop
Mill table stop.

Cheers Phil

- - - Updated - - -

Carlos,
What machine/s do you have, or access to? And do you have a particular interest area? That will give us some idea of what may be a good project to start with.

Cheers Phil

Hi Phil,

I have my own lathe, a Myford super 7. I have a universal vertical slide for it, a Myford dividing attachment, 3 and 4 jaw chucks, faceplates, steadies, centers, boring bars, drills, threading tools and a couple other things. My goal is to be able to make my own machines of various purpose, so accuracy and quality is important. I also have to be as resourceful as possible, I don't have a lot of money while I am studying. I might have access to metal casting facilities soon, which I'll use to make surface plates and angle plates so I can start marking out properly. I'll have to learn how to scrape when I make the plates.

I'm very interested in extending the capabilities of my lathe, I really enjoy making tooling. I like the idea of being able to make anything.

Thank you for the exercises, I'll definitely try them out but I might only have time next year, Christmas is busy!

Regards,
Carlos.
 
Hi guys,
if it is not to late to start i would love the correct order of projects.
Thanks,
Jon
 
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