Apprentice exercises.

[12bolts]

Jon,
Depending on your life experiances and background you may want to start with basic filing. Its not really as simple as it looks, try it and see. Or you may wish to skip that and start turning. I started with hand filing as a 15yo apprentice. 35 years later I could still use some improvement there........
But making hot chips fly is more fun and rewarding.

Cheers Phil

 

[ome]

Jon,
Depending on your life experiances and background you may want to start with basic filing. Its not really as simple as it looks, try it and see. Or you may wish to skip that and start turning. I started with hand filing as a 15yo apprentice. 35 years later I could still use some improvement there........
But making hot chips fly is more fun and rewarding.

Cheers Phil

Thanks, i have to forgo the repetitive motions on my wrists and thumbs,
but was hoping to learn thru a project involving my machines and measurement mastery.
Thanks,
Jon

 

[ScrapMetal]

Ome,

I was serious about the old SB "Machine Shop Projects" book. Here's a .pdf that describes the projects in the book - http://www.wewilliams.net/docs/1928 - South Bend Machine Shop .pdf

It's a place to start anyway.

-Ron

 

[Carlos SA]

Thanks Ron, I'm definitely going to be picking up a copy of that sometime!

 

[NoShopSkills]

I remember my high school metals shop class. A project was to cut out a wrench from 1/2" bar stock with a hacksaw and then file it to size. My father had a friend that balked at the project and offered to rough out the shape with a torch. I pressed on and did it like we were assigned. Next we made a brass tack hammer with a turned aluminum handle. To this day I hardly if ever draw a hacksaw blade backwards with and pressure. I am pretty good at filing to a profile when needed and I still love putting a high shine on just about anything metal. Somewhere along the way I lost or tossed the wrench, but 30+ years latter I still have that hammer. Wouldn't sell it for $100,000.

 

[ome]

Thanks for sharing those pics of an awesome and beautiful hammer.
Thank you for those projects ,
Jon
how thick is the handle and thickness of brass head.
Excellent looking knurl on the handle, had you practiced alot before putting the actual knurl on handlE?
Jon

 

[ray hampton]

Are you looking for blue prints of things to make? I can copy what we are doing as we do it. What machines do you have access to?

can you gather some simple blueprints together for me to work from ?

 

[HomeMetalMan]

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.

As one who had no hands on training as a metalworking machinist and then worked as an electrical engineer for the remainder of my time working to earn a living, I have had to learn my skills by a little reading and a lot of practice.

As you are asking for building exercises then you may find the projects on my website worth looking at as most not only include the drawings but suggestions for the methods for making them. In addition there are "how to" items that describe processes.

The place to start is the index for the metalworking section here http://www.homews.co.uk/page463.html

It does though run to six pages so there is quit a bit of searching needed to find items of use. Perhaps I should create a subsection for simpler projects. However, here is a short list for starters.

Centre finder for use on the lathe. http://www.homews.co.uk/page115.html

Miniature depth gauge. http://www.homews.co.uk/page116.html

Backstop for the lathe. http://www.homews.co.uk/page92.html

Toolmakers/Parallel Clamps. http://www.homews.co.uk/page260.html

And for a "How to" item.

Lathe Setup / Turning Parallel, etc. http://www.homews.co.uk/page309.html

As I see Carlos that you have a lathe with vertical slide for milling you may like to look at the pages related specifically to that way of working. They are listed under "Lathe only projects" on this section of the index. Some of these are relatively simple.

http://www.homews.co.uk/page465.html

Some of my books may also be of help and are also listed on the website.

Hope this is of help to you.

Harold Hall

 

[Bill C.]

Jon,
Depending on your life experiances and background you may want to start with basic filing. Its not really as simple as it looks, try it and see. Or you may wish to skip that and start turning. I started with hand filing as a 15yo apprentice. 35 years later I could still use some improvement there........
But making hot chips fly is more fun and rewarding.

Cheers Phil

Filing is a good place to start. The first project at my last job was forming form blocks out of aluminum. All of the tool makers were required to file radiuses and angles on these blocks. The blocks were used to bend aircraft aluminum parts using a hydropress. We used radius gages, machinist protractors and file cards to do the job.

 

[george wilson]

I disagree with "anyone can run a machine" MY WIFE CAN'T!!! She has many talents,but she has no mental facilities for keeping out of trouble with machines. I've learned that by trying to teach her to use mine. As soon as I leave,CHAOS!!!