newbee question

[Coomba]

Right now I'm in the process of buying my first mill. Therefore I have been reading and watching videos and just cramming so to say. Last night I watched a video, Tom's technique, and he was making a receiver for a Stevens rifle. He was doing this, I believe, using a CNC mill. How in 1886 did they manage to make such well duplicated receivers, or for that matter all those radius cut and so perfectly using a manual mill? Am I missing something? I do realize they were forged,cast but still needed machining.

 

[JimDawson]

Good question!

It is possible to do anything on a manual machine that you can do on a CNC, it just normally takes longer and may require more tooling. You can do a lot of work on a rotary table. Special fixtures and tooling help also. In a factory, many of those operations were performed on different machines with dedicated setups for different operations. Form milling cutters and other tools were common back in the day also. Certainly much of the accuracy and repeatability was dependent on the skill of the machinist, rather than the the skill of the programmer.

 

[Ebel440]

Things were milled that way right up until very recently with the advances with NC and Cnc machines. Very often each operation was done on a dedicated machine then on to the next one and so on. I would bet its still being done this way in a lot of places.

 

[Bill C.]

Right now I'm in the process of buying my first mill. Therefore I have been reading and watching videos and just cramming so to say. Last night I watched a video, Tom's technique, and he was making a receiver for a Stevens rifle. He was doing this, I believe, using a CNC mill. How in 1886 did they manage to make such well duplicated receivers, or for that matter all those radius cut and so perfectly using a manual mill? Am I missing something? I do realize they were forged,cast but still needed machining.

Skill and pride. I bought a old old tool-box from a retired machinist. I think it had a surface scribe, ruler, protractor and some files. And a lot of lathe bits. He told me his older cousin who also was a machinist told him back then they didn't have milling machines, for them to cut a key slot on a shaft, they would have to drill a series of shallow holes in a line then cut the remaining metal with a chisel and hammer. Then file the slot to fit the key. Also those oldtimers wore white short sleeve shirts and bowties. Beats how they keep them clean even with a shop apron.

 

[Mark in Indiana]

I cut my teeth on hand crankers. Meaning that there were no DROs, CNCs, etc. So from my point of view, the old school machines are an art form. I'm privileged to have learned about machining the old way! That's the life's advantage of growing up when cars were hot and music was cool.


Happy Trails!

 

[Coomba]

Everything now seems to be geared toward CNC where does one go to learn the old trade?