What Type of Machining Experience and Interest Do We Have On This Site?

What Types of Machining Interest and Experience Do We Have on This Site? (Select as many as apply.)

  • Hobby use for general fabrication & repair

    Votes: 288 84.5%
  • Business Shop owner

    Votes: 37 10.9%
  • Professional Machinist

    Votes: 59 17.3%
  • Tool ownership ie Lathe & mill

    Votes: 262 76.8%
  • Level of experience: Experienced

    Votes: 86 25.2%
  • Level of experience: Newbie

    Votes: 104 30.5%
  • Level of experience: Moderate

    Votes: 138 40.5%
  • CNC experience

    Votes: 64 18.8%
  • Formal education from a tech school

    Votes: 86 25.2%
  • Formal training in Machining

    Votes: 74 21.7%
  • Other: Specify Below

    Votes: 47 13.8%

  • Total voters
    341
I first came into contact with a lathe in 1972 , aboard a US Navy destroyer ... then nothing until I got a job in an R&D lab at a rocket motor plant in Utah . I got to make all sorts of weird oddball stuff , under the tutelage of some of the best Ordnance engineers , M.E.'s , and E.E.'s in the western hemisphere . Some of my work is still in orbit ... and a lot of the comsats rely on work we did in that R&D lab to get to geosynch orbits .
After moving to Tennessee , I had no machines available , until that fateful day I walked into the pawn shop looking for a belt sander . There it sat , an old Monkey Wards PowrKraft - and soon after , it was residing in my shed . Since then , it's been joined by an RF45 clone , 110v wire feed welder , tombstone welder , multiple band saws , OA equipment , and all kinds of mechanic's tooling . I've never had any formal training in machining , just OJT and what I've picked up from places like this .
My skills include cabinet making , carpentry , every skill needed to build a house or rebuild a car/motorcycle/lawn mower engine , manual transmissions , and most things mechanical . I've also built a small foundry setup , which has been used to cast parts for my machines - like many of the pieces for my homemade taper attachment . I also make parts for my motorcycles , repair my own cars , and try really hard to keep my wife from building a hunnydoo list . That last item is the hardest ...
 
Spent time in vocational courses in high school and then did some college updates in the 90's. No certifications or anything of that nature - just how to use different types of machines, cut, weld, form sheet metal, etc.

I now have most of the machines I want and they are in pretty good shape. I am working on tooling at this point and have projects backed up but this is a hobby so I'm taking my time :)

Daniel
 
Would a general member profile ID help for new members and lurkers? I mean a thread based on general member polling for what type of interest and level of experience is on-line.

ie:
Hobby use for general fabrication & repair
Business Shop owner
Professional Machinist
Level of experience
Level of formal training
Level of formal education from a tech school
CNC experience
Tool ownership ie Lathe & mill

I started my career in metal working after finishing high school, late 1960's. The last year of high school, I think, one semester was wood shop and the other was machine shop. Our machine shop had a pair of shapers and drill presses. Several 6" lathes, I think South Bend. These lathes were old enough that to change the feeds we had to change the gear train on the left end of the machine.


I got a job in a local shop soon after graduation. They taught me how to setup and use Bridge Port knee milling machines. I bought most of my tools and gages while there. When I got laid off from there my family suggested I try collage. I have a two degree from Purdue University in drafting design. I needed experience to get a job in the drafting field. After several years away from my tools I was accepted to General Electric's apprenticeship program in Louisville, Ky. They had a drafting and a die making programs. Everyone started out working in the machine shop. We did small lot production making and repairing hand tools used for appliance production. They taught us how use surface grinders. After about two years they closed their drafting program. Given a choice of being laid off or transferring to the tool and die program I choose to work. I was laid off when they closed their program with nine months to go in a four year program. I have worked in several shops since. One shop taught me how to setup and operate turret lathes. The last company I worked for was doing aircraft tooling in St.Louis, Mo., back in 1990's.


Every time I was laid off I returned home. Due to illness I am currently not working.
 
Lets see, i have mostly experience with wood, i took a wood shop class in high school, taught me precision with measuring, drafting, and to respect machinery. Over the years i have done pretty much everything from janitor to welders helper. My dad being a plumber and tin basher gave me opportunities to play with brakes, and spot welders making duct work. but i never went that way and have spent the past 20 years working as a utility tech installing new water and sewer lines and repairing the old stuff in the ground. i have been operating water treatment plants for the past 10 years. i started with an old plant held together with spit and chewing gum, moved to a brand new RO plant learning operating process on computers (SCADA) and now i am in an older Conventional Lime Soda softening plant. also high maintenance and lots of mechanical repairing. I have been playing with gunsmithing the entire time. This past year i went back to school took a 10 month course on firearm maintenance and repair, finished it in 3, and opened a small smithing shop in my yard. i started very small and have doing things the old way all the time files, chisels, hand saws, elbow grease, and imagination. Once i move into my new shop that i just purchased with the proceeds of my shop, i will be moving a little further into the modern world with the addition of a lathe and a mill, then once again will be teaching myself the basics of machining.
 
I am a metal fabricator trade. Mostly steel but a fair amount of brass, bronze, aluminum, and stainles find their way across my bench as well. As far as machineing goes I,ve run both bridgeports and lathes here and there, and I've guese I've pulled it off well enough, that they let me keep doing it. For the most part I am a self taught hobby machinist. I've been making chips since I was old enough to to have a job, and buy my first lathe. A home made unimat like thing I got at the local flee market. I must have been about 16 years old when I got that. I once owned an Ann Arbor I think six inch lathe sold by Sears. That a freind gave me to make brass shells for antique black powder cartridge rifles. We'll say it got the done and thats about it. Though it was the first machine I had that could make threads. Like a lot of other hobbyest I do it when I have time or the need or a freind or neighbor has the need. Now that I have more time to devote to this. My machines have been getting better and I been spending more time on learning how to on this. Both you tube and forums like this one have been instramental in moving me forward. I make many parts for what ever I (or the guy dowm the road) need at that time, sometimes it take a couple of trys, but I think I get a good job done in the end.

Rick
 
I am a Machinist/Tool and die Maker by trade.
I have been making chips out perfectly good material for 39 years.
I went through a apprenticeship program for 4 years. Then worked as a tool and die maker.
When on strike at the union shop. I found a fill in job at a production job shop making parts for the union shop.
Then the economy (Reagan's belt tightining) cut back on goverment spending and my union job at a defense contractor's work cut back also. Ah the 80's. Glad to see them gone.
Then I worked for a short time making progressive dies for a automaker sheet stock in one side of the die set and rims coming out of the other side only long enough to finish the dies. That was a interesting job.
Then I moved into the 21st century working at a medical supplier running a Bridgeport CNC with punch tape teletype and paper tape reader, Buck Rodgers would have been envious. Woo hoo paper tape and G and M codes. Enough to have dreams about them at night.
Finally moving on to Injection mold building using a Hurco bed mill and tool changer(this was the cat's meow).
10,000 rpm spindle and gun drilling 24 inch long cooling plates,WOW way cool operation to setup and run.
Then I moved on from 12 hour work days some time's 7 days a week to my current job at a large company working for the enginnering division as a Model maker/ R&D fixture maker using cad to program the cnc equipment as well as the plasma cam cutting table.
This has been the most fulfilling job so far. Taking an idea on a drawing or scribbled on a napkin at lunch by a enginner into a working part or project.
It has been a long journey and a one that has been fun, challaging and one in which I could constantly be creative in setups and part making.
So that's what I have been doing! How about you? If I can answer questions or offer advise I will be glad to.
ems8hh (ed)
 
my knowledge of machining is at different levels--no training except an imaginable use of what my machines can do to help me in making or repairing items. I have an older retired machinist friend that has a 1930 Packard, and another old friend that can do almost anything(he works on old phonos,old clocks an he also built a car that broke the world speed records in the early 60s with Fireball Roberts the driver) he is working on an old stutz bearcat now.---these type of friends are just fun to be around because they have and complete a lot of dreams. after reading your posts there are a lot of good eager people just like I like to be around. I have lathes-mills-shapers--sanders-grinders and many machines in my shop Dave
 
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I bought my first lathe (a South Bend) at the age of 13.

I still have it, no regrets and I never looked back.

I started Tool Maker apprentiseship but became a degreed Mechanical Engineer first.

My home shop saved my butt several times over the years, developing solutions for work.
 
I welded my first go cart when I was 12 after putting a Wankel engine in it my dad cut it up, I thought 60 mph was ok without roll cage he did not, go figure, since then it is a pastime I have always done I do not have a degree but I have a very good knack at teaching myself I just get the info around and read and train myself so I guess that makes me a self made machinist :)


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
 
Well, my jobs in the past were basically electronic based, as I worked as an Engineer doing fire alarm system design and R&D. I later got bored and went out on my own, but swung more into sprinkler work (like the physical aspect). As for my shop I have to say everything I know is self taght from books, a machinist buddy, and recently forums like this. I am pretty good at welding (especially large stuff, as stick is my preference) but after getting the lathe 5 years ago (sat there mostly unused for most of that time), the spring time last year I got back into playing with it. I am now fully hooked and have been doing as much learning and "practicing" as I can. Always wanted a mill, so decided to make one, which turned ok good, but still working on rev #2).

Love forums like this where people of all skill levels (pro to newb, like me) can gather and share ideas, tips and general discussion. Think Im going to like it here
 
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