"I learned machining by..."

[irishwoodsman]

welder by trade, i always worked with cars as a hobby and did the normal tinkering. I watched my uncle run a lathe turning big truck hubs and what ever needed machining and i was the welder in the shop, well i got a 46 gmc ton and a half one summer and cut it down to a standard wheel base and then put a bigger gmc 270 engine in it that came out of a amphibious duck but the 4 speed trans went out,had no money to buy steel bearings but i had a supply of brass bushings some i mounted on a bolt and put in the drill press and turned on and use corse sand paper to turn to same size as the steel bearings then some i had to drill out to make bigger to fit my transmission's needs. when my uncle found out what i did and found out it worked he started showing me little things on the lathe, but did not get into the lathe untill a year ago. save a 11 inch sheldon from the scrap yard, with a little cleaning a bronze bushing here and there it turning metal again 1946 model

 

[JB Enterprise]

Working in a machine shop in highschool, 16 years old first job 8 dollars an hour under the table doing 40 hour weeks big money for someone with no bills, learned the basics. A few years worked for an old school tool and die maker learned alot from him and now I am the only person that works on his guns or is allowed in his tool box.
Funny enough I did not want to have my own equipment I had access to a full tool and die shop but about 3 years ago I started to learn the bag pipes and had a wild hare to turn my own set, bought equipment got in a fight with another piper decided to work on guns instead, more lucritive I think.

Justin Bowerman
JB Enterprise
07 FFL IN CEN CA

 

[tommied]

Trial and error. Web sites. Youtube came along later and has mostly beginner stuff.
Mostly the machine shop in the town I work in. Their machinist is a retired fellow who ran shops for 40+ years.
I use to repair motorcycles and 4 wheelers and he needed his rebuilt, we hit it off good and have been friends ever since.
He is a great mentor. tommie

 

[llarson]

I took all the shop, drafting, and math [this is important too] classes I could in high school, then 2 yrs. of trade school. Joined the Army, went through their machinist school, and was asked to teach; lasted for about 10 months before a year doing machine work in an aviation outfit in Viet Nam. Then I did an apprenticeship, got my card, and have been at it since, both at work and home. All this started in 1961 and I have no regrets doing it, been a good living, and a huge learning experience.

 

[jworman]

I've got a long way to go before I can say I 'learned' machining. When I was a teenager in the Navy, the path from the boiler room to the berthing compartment whet through the ships machine shop. Sometimes it took me a looong time to go from one place to the other. I would stop and watch and ask questions.

Later I took a class at New Mexico State University that hit briefly on many different skills. We got to weld a little, we did some sand casting with aluminum, got to run a mill as well as a shaper. Of course, there was a bit of Lathe work in there too. All in all, a great class.

A few years later I worked part time as a gun smith in a little shop. Later I got married and moved to the next town over. One day I got a call from the gunsmith asking if I wanted to buy his 'little' lathe. It was a 10" Atlas with quick change. My eyes rolled back in my head before I said YES!. Then I had to come up with the cash.

I used that lathe for 38 years. I look at Craig's list occasionally, about once a month. While going through the tools section, I saw and add for a Closing Lathe. "What is that?" I asked myself, so I clicked on it. It turned out to be the 'big' lathe from the gunshop. It is a Clausing 6301. My poor little trailer was pretty overloaded when I brought it home. I would have worried a lot if I knew how much it weighed. (1450 lbs with the sheet metal stand - mine has a heavy wooden stand)



The gunsmith sold it to my ex-roommate and recently he lost a bout with cancer. I bought the Atlas Clausing from his wife, and sold the 10" to a friend of mine. He is having a absolute ball with the machine.

 

[Weldfab]

Hands on and school of hard knocks. Luckly I still have all my diggets I am more into learning something as I need it. Never had the patience to learn something I wasn't going to put into practice right away. Sure wish I would have tho! Guess it gives me something to do in my later years. I have a lot of friends who always come to me when either they break or need something made. Usually figure out something for them which keeps them happy and me busy.

 

[flutedchamber]

My father and brother were both tool and die makers. My mother was a machinist during WWII. I guess you could say it was in my blood. I started working at my neighbors shop when I was 7 years old. It's him that I have to thank for the skills that I have today.

 

[pdentrem]

Started by putting a piece of steel in an old Southbend (12 or bigger lathe) I can not remember the size. It was owned by a friends mother in law. I then bought an Atlas 10F24 and continued to learn and made many mistakes. This was before Internet. I bought a school text and read that front to back many times and this reduced the number of mistakes.
Now I am paid to do this, but still learning.

 

[gotogojo]

Started by putting a piece of steel in an old Southbend (12 or bigger lathe) I can not remember the size. It was owned by a friends mother in law. I then bought an Atlas 10F24 and continued to learn and made many mistakes. This was before Internet. I bought a school text and read that front to back many times and this reduced the number of mistakes.
Now I am paid to do this, but still learning.

in about 1947 my grandfather had stuabaker car had a bad journl on a rod bearing and no $$ to fix it so he pulled all the pistons but the bad one oiled the main bearing kept just 2 installed pit emery cloth in the cap of the bad one with the bad rod no power like 120 ele. so he put a briggs s. engine on the pully in front bout 2 days later no mikes I think he had a calper smoked the crank with a miner carbide lite poured abearing out of babbit the old car ran for about 7 yr then got it hit big time we do what we have to gotogojo

 

[wrmiller]

Years of part-time mentoring under a pistolsmith friend of mine. Got good enough to be offered a job over the phone with a top 10 pistolsmith in the middle of fly-over country, and was offered the gunsmithing part of my friend's business when he decided to go full-on machine shop, but I already had a well-paying career as an engineer. Thought really hard about both of them though...

So I'm not a machinist (far from it), but I do like to tinker and am able to make things with some of their tools.