I'm a sloppy machinist

[brino]

I'm sure someone will say to quit while I'm ahead, but that's not gonna happen. This is my confession.

No don't quit, you need to do it more!
....then the mistake will become less and less.

-brino

 

[Shotgun]

One thing I learned a while back is to not be afraid to draw on your part. You don't have to get out the calipers to make the line exact, but a Sharpie mark indicating which side of the cut is scrap or slot-goes-here has saved my (metallic?) bacon countless times at this point.

 

[Ken from ontario]

No don't quit, you need to do it more!
....then the mistake will become less and less.

-brino

Whoever came up with " you don't make the same mistake twice" was clearly not a hobby machinist.

 

[drrags]

I put my flame suit on after I made this post, but it seems I didn't need it. I really enjoyed everyone's comments and take them to heart. This is an excellent group of people.

 

[Aukai]

Not that kind of crowd here

 

[erikmannie]

I usually have to go very slowly, and I will talk to myself (out loud) if I think it will help.

As long as you are working safely and showing improvement, I would say you are doing it right.

Being a hobbyist has a lot of benefits because you can set your own pace. Also, if you damage a tool or scrap a part, you don’t need to worry about getting fired or reprimanded. When I damage a tool, I say out loud, “Well, I can break my own stuff”.

 

[Larry$]

Today was one of those days! I setout to make a steel template for the molder knife grinder. I had a wood sample to go by. All I needed to do was copy it in reverse. I made a mistake by not doing a scale drawing. I put Dyekem on the metal and proceeded to make all sorts of scratches in it. A few in the right place. 4 layers of Dyekem latter ...... I went out in the garden and picked some strawberries. Maybe tomorrow.

 

[C-Bag]

I put my flame suit on after I made this post, but it seems I didn't need it. I really enjoyed everyone's comments and take them to heart. This is an excellent group of people.

One of the few places on the net its not dirty word to be a hobby machinist.

 

[mmcmdl]

I put my flame suit on after I made this post, but it seems I didn't need it. I really enjoyed everyone's comments and take them to heart. This is an excellent group of people.

Not that kind of crowd here

We laugh with you , not at you ..............................and I could keep everyone laughing for quite some time . As far as being sloppy ? LOL , no contest here .

 

[hman]

Remembering which way to turn the crank is NOT something that comes naturally. It sure didn't for me! As others have said, it's largely "muscle" memory. But as a physicist, you're probably familiar with the "right hand rule." So it might be valuable to "learn" which cranks follow the right-hand rule, and which don't. Since you have a DRO, you could do as a friend of mine has done, put a sticky label above each crank, indicating with a + and - what will happen to the DRO reading when the crank is turned each way.

Another handy thing that most machinists do on a mill is to lock the axis that's not supposed to move while cutting with "the other one." A trick I've learned to do is, when about to switching to moving the opposite axis, have your hand on the handwheel for the axis you're about to release, and put gentle pressure on it in the direction you'll need to turn it. That way, when you release the lock, you'll start moving it in the correct direction.

It's all the little things that take time to learn, that help you be successful when using machine tool.