First mill project

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cvz6977

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So, my 15 year old son wants to learn a bit about some of my machines and what they do. He had off school for presidents day and came out to my little shop and asked if I could show him how to work the mill. Of course the first thin I showed him was how to clean it =) Once he did a fair enough job, I showed him some basics and then prceeded to give him a little project. I had a vblock laying around that had no clamp so I had him take some measurements while I got a piece of stock set up for him. After several hours one tool change and a couple minutes with a hand tap, the results are in...a quite usable clamp although he did miss one dimension by quite a bit I'm still proud of his over all effort. He worked slow and safe and made a piece of metal into something useful, so I thought I would share it.

clamp 1.jpg clamp 2.jpg clamp 3.jpg clamp 4.jpg
 
Congratulations to your son on a successful first project! Though if he gets bit by the bug, you may have to arm-wrestle him for machine time!
 
Kudos to you AND your son. With a young man's imagination and an old hand's experience, you can do great things.

Tom
 
Unfortunately a lot of high schools are not teaching these
subjects any more.:angry: He is lucky to have a dad to show him how.
Nice job!!!!!!! :)) Snugrat
 
A first project can have a life-long effect.

Although it wasn't a mill project, and it wasn't "mine", this thread reminded of a project in shop class in high school in the early 70's.

I missed a day when the instructor demonstrated spinning on the lathe, so he gave me some individual instruction the next day.

The project was a funnel made from aluminum. I was amazed at how quickly and easily a piece of aluminum flat stock could become a thing of such practicality.

He ended up fabricating the entire thing, as I think he was "on a roll" and enjoying himself, but he gave me the grade!

I still use that funnel frequently after 40 years, and still get a grin every time I see it!
 
Nice job on the clamp by you and your son! Has to be more fun than a video game, computer, or texting. (We hope):))
 
Snugrat said:
Unfortunately a lot of high schools are not teaching these
subjects any more.:angry: He is lucky to have a dad to show him how.
Nice job!!!!!!! :)) Snugrat
Click to expand...

You are so correct on this back in the 60's and 70's they dumped a lot of money into such courses and you where required to take some. Just in case your career path did not turn out you would have something to fall back on great idea but now all they teach is phy's Ed. Ray
 
Thanks for all of the pssitive feedback. It was definately a good experience. Next stop will be the lathe although we haven't decided what the project will be yet.
 
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