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
My experience in machining? Well that would be, none. I spent 13 years in the Army as a mechanic and I did a fair bit of "soldier engineering" when replacement parts weren't available. I've done a minimal amount of welding and a bit of sheet metal work. I have purchased my first lathe (an old Atlas) but can't pick it up until the snow melts from in front of the basement door where it has been stored for decades. I am retired (thanks to the insurgents in Iraq) but I plan to return to school in the fall to study mechanical engineering. They don't come any greener than me but I am anxious to learn and am very grateful that there are so many knowledgeable folks willing to teach.
 
My dad was a woodshop teacher, so I learned woodworking from an early age. I took woodworking, auto shop and drafting classes in high school. Through many twists and turns, I eventually ended up working in theatre technical direction and scenic design, problem-solving any number of odd contraptions and rigging problems, and became adept in CAD, both architectural and mechanical.
I worked for a model shop for a while, doing CAD and graphics for interactive display mechanisms and other odd projects and learned a lot from the machinists in the shop.
i have worked as a film and television art director for the last 10 years, still problem-solving odd contraptions and rigging problems, but mostly overseeing and coordinating crews. I have started putting my own shop together and am exercising my inventor side since I don't do any building at work any more. I now have a tablesaw, bandsaw, compound sliding chop saw, mill, lathe, MIG welder and many other tools and fittings.
In the end I want to be able to create anything I dream up, whether furniture, mechanism, circuit, musical instrument…
I am just moving beyond the planning stage to build a CNC router table and I also intend to add CNC to my mill and lathe. I believe it is important to have a solid understanding of the tools and the forces at work before having a computer move a cutting tool, though.
Thank you to everyone who contributes to this site. I have already learned a great deal.
 
I stumbled into a factory job (needed work) in 1971, Kelsey Hayes, disc rotors. They offered a Tool & Die apprenticeship, I got first shot at it. By June 1975 I had my journeyman's card. I was led three of the years by Walt, a German who had literally "journeyed" for 8 years, 6 months at a time in many industries. Work at Kelsey involved keeping machines in concentricity and making repair parts. In '79 I began work at Ariel Corp, making natural gas compressors. Their tool room made tooling, jigs and fixtures. The largest crankcases they made (cast iron) ranged from 18" by 18" by two feet to 5' by 4' by 8 feet long, the largest cylinders exceeded 36" id. In the mid '80s we got into retrofitted CNC mills in the tool room, (they couldn't get them to work in production). I had computer experience so I got to learn M & G coding and these two machines, then teach the others in the shop how to use them. I retired from Ariel in 2000, have been wishing I had some machines since then.
A year ago, my eldest son gave me a reprieve. He bought the machinery to make balsa model airplane propellers, knowing I could figure out how the machinery worked. Besides the propeller machine came a small Ames turret lathe and a couple of Taig lathe/mills. Also a small group of band saws, drill presses and arbor presses. In an effort to expand our production, I've recently bought a 6 by 24 Clausing lathe (that turned out to be unused) and am lobbying for a PM20 type mill to convert to CNC. This is a great forum, I've picked up quite a few things in the month I've been here.

Tom
 
I started my machining back in 1968 as a helper in a grinding room back in Forestville, CT. Worked my way through many job shops through the years and became a machinist, a chief inspector for aircraft parts, a toolmaker, a special machine assembler, a special machine designer, back to a toolmaker. I have always been machining parts for motorcycles for both myself and friends. I prefer designing, milling, and grinding to lathe work but have no problem doing what I have to to get a job done.
The one thing I have learned through the years is this. You will always learn new things in machining. No matter how much you think you know there is still more to learn. I think I have forgotten a lot also as there are things I have learned that are not used every day.
 
I would classify myself as hobbyist. I got my first experience in metal working at a University Physics Dept. I am retired having worked as an engineer for most of my life. I am a self taught machinist and welder and and have engaged in both for almost fifty years. Most of the projects I engage in are utilitarian and I enjoy making improvements to existing machinery.
My machine compliment includes an old Craftsman lathe, Taiwanese mill/drill, 18" drill press, horizontal band saw, Tormach PCNC 770, Grizzly G0602, several Miller stick welders, two MIG welders, TIG torch, oxyacetylene torches, and blacksmithing forge and tools.
 
I don't know why this showed up under alerts, but as far as machining experience, I have been a tool & die maker and tool designer for 35 years but had to retire under disability due to multiple (10 ) shoulder surgeries and ended up not having a shoulder at all. After 6 prosthesis and 4 modifications, 3 cases of MRSA, it pretty well left me screwed. But when I retired I bought a new JET lathe 13x40 and bought a used Lagun Mill. Last year I bought a Bridgeport Series 1 CNC that I've been working on because I got screwed on it, but am getting it ironed out. It gets me out of the house into the garage. Hopefully this year I can add on to the garage so I have a little more room for y machinery plus gives me a place to park a couple of vehicles. When it comes to Designing or Machining, I prefer machining. I started life as a Tool Designer but hated sitting at a desk all day long. But to be able to take a chunk of material and find what is inside of it, is a feeling like no other. It has to be close to how an artist feels with a blank canvas and ends up with a beautiful picture. Any piece of metal has something hiding inside of it. It's just a matter of cutting away what is not needed to find out what it is. I love it!!!!
 
Have a home based machine shop for profit and pleasure. A real Company registered with all formal paperwork done.Started a formal apprenticeship but the economy fixed that. Building an EDM right now as time permits. Make and repair obsolete parts. Probably removed more broken bolts and taps than the average bear.
 
I became interested in machine work when I was in third grade. My dad was a farmer and our shop burned to the ground and a man from our church told dad, "My shop is your shop". The wonderful thing was Milo had a great shop. He had two lathes, a combo mill shaper, at least that is what I think it was, a forge and a head and hands that knew how to use them. I have wanted to be a machinist ever sense. I have been welding sense I was 11 and have worked as a welder a few times and just about anything else you can think of, Ed of all trades, but I am happiest when I work with metal. One job I loved was running a brake lathe at the auto parts store I worked at, I know it sounds boring but I did it for days at a time and loved it. My wife and I now take full time care of her autistic brother and I have a small shop in the back yard where I go to regain my sanity. I have an Atlas 618 lathe that I hope to have up and running soon and a small metal cutting bandsaw, and of course a few small welders. I also have a gas forge and am setting up a coal forge as soon as I figure out how to fit it into my little shop. Hope to add on in the near future. Thanks for all the wonderful help I have gotten here. Hope to soon be able to do more than ask questions.
 
I became interested in machine work when I was in third grade. My dad was a farmer and our shop burned to the ground and a man from our church told dad, "My shop is your shop". The wonderful thing was Milo had a great shop. He had two lathes, a combo mill shaper, at least that is what I think it was, a forge and a head and hands that knew how to use them. I have wanted to be a machinist ever sense. I have been welding sense I was 11 and have worked as a welder a few times and just about anything else you can think of, Ed of all trades, but I am happiest when I work with metal. One job I loved was running a brake lathe at the auto parts store I worked at, I know it sounds boring but I did it for days at a time and loved it. My wife and I now take full time care of her autistic brother and I have a small shop in the back yard where I go to regain my sanity. I have an Atlas 618 lathe that I hope to have up and running soon and a small metal cutting bandsaw, and of course a few small welders. I also have a gas forge and am setting up a coal forge as soon as I figure out how to fit it into my little shop. Hope to add on in the near future. Thanks for all the wonderful help I have gotten here. Hope to soon be able to do more than ask questions.


Always wanted to do a little machining as a hobby and I've had machinist and tool and die friends for many years. But work as an electrician and then my Contracting business got in the way most of the time. That and my many other hobbies that left little time for much else.
Now that I'm getting close to retirement in a couple years, I got a Smithy 1220 XL 3 in one machine a while back and made and sold enough parts for hot rod buddies to pay for it. However, in simple terms it is a bit crude and a pain to do precise work with so I'm stepping up to an older lathe. Just picked up a Sheldon lathe to do some work with to include gunsmith work to feed my gun looney habits. Still working the kinks out of the old girl but I think this old lathe and I are going to have some great times together. Hope to add a real mill to my other tools and be able to accomplish just about anything I want to.
With all the great help I've gotten already on this forum, I'm sure I'll be able to get to that point shortly and have something to keep my hands busy and me out of trouble for as long as I can foresee. My neighbor is 84 and he still putters around with his machine tools in his shop on a regular basis. And he is still adding more ..... my kind of guy......
 
I attended a pre-apprenticeship course for a year, then undertook technical training in workshop technology and such. Completed an apprenticeship as a scientific instrument maker. Worked on such as machine tool control, nucleonic gauging, gamma cameras, airfield radar, etc. had a stint as a precision horizontal boring, then moved into process control instrumentation, automation, that sort of thing. Later completed a B.Sc in Physics and several other degrees that aid understanding of engineering in a roundabout sort of way. The physics degree helped me a lot with advanced mathematics for engineering.
 
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