What type of information should be in here?

[Shadowdog500]

Links to mr Pete videos!

Basic reference info that comes in handy for a beginner.

common beginner mistakes and how to avoid them.

What you need right away and what can wait until later.

Machine safety, aka, How not to get wrapped up in your work!

im still a beginner.

Open the the forum and see what happens!

chris

 

[blaser.306]

I will second anything from mr pete and I have also been watching some instructional video's from "that lazy machinist" he is / was a certified tool die maker and machining instructor here in Canada, Quebec to be exact. He shows basics and some more advanced as well in his series of short video's.

 

[Charles Spencer]

Maybe some help deciding which 'must have' tools and accessories are going to be useful to a beginner, which will be a waste of money and which ones might be really useful,

as often a pointer on how to get good results by thinking outside the box can save a lot of time and money.

That's an excellent idea. And it could be broken down by machine type. That is, drill press, band saw, lathe, etc.

Charles

 

[Marco Bernardini]

Could it be that we will be constantly asking that question? To me there is no clear threshold for who is a beginner and what is beginner material and information. What problem are we trying to fix by adding a beginners forum?

Since this is not a "closed" group, every day there are newcomers, and many of them are "beginners".
After all, we all are beginners into a field or another: a skilled turner could be a TIG welding newbie, or vice-versa.
Communication is never enough: in a book I wrote I made the example of a bucket of amoebas, almost 100 millions individuals every kg. This bucket is not as smart as a cockroach, even a dumb and skinny one, because separated cells don't communicate and don't interact.

BTW, another idea could be a "crash course" (pun intended) in workholding: how many videos with poor and unsafe workholding are on YouTube?
All the manuals tell pieces must be hold safely, but without to specify how they must be held.

 

[richl]

Lots of great suggestions. For me the things i find the most challenging is setting up a project and holding to my mill. Buying the right size vise for your mill is not the end all be all, and the web is not full of great ideas for this important procedure.

Rich

 

[Carlos SA]

I really like this idea. Something with photos of samples of the current project.

I was thinking more along the lines of drawings, along with photos of important steps and the end product. Then, steps for the beginner to follow that allows them to work through the project and develope good machining habits, such as oiling the working surfaces before use, disengage the clutch before resetting for the next cut, cleaning up after work is done, things that emphasis safe workshop practice.

These habits will be important later when more difficult projects are undertaken.

 

[Tozguy]

If I understand correctly, the idea of a beginner’s forum is to make life a bit easier for a newcomer to this forum who is looking for some basic instruction and help on getting started. As a beginner myself, I find that the HM forum is already very friendly to newcomers and already structured to make information easy to find (articles, videos, downloads, etc.)

There is a lot of stuff already on the internet. What helps me as a beginner is the following:
· Free downloads of text books on the basic operation of specific machines (lathes in my case).
· Instructional videos (Tubalcain, Mr Pete, Keith Fenner, etc)
· Machining forums

The problem is not that nothing is available on the net. Quite the contrary but there is a lot of ‘chaff mixed in with the grain’. To find the ‘good’ stuff I had to sift through a whole lot of miserable material. It would have been helpful to me to find a one stop forum where I could find a selection of the best rated books and videos for beginners. Material already filtered by experts would have saved me a lot of frustration. To this end my humble suggestion is to add a‘sticky’ to the NEW MEMBERS INTRODUCTION AND WELCOME forum where HM's offering of guidance to beginners (i.e. selected videos and downloads, mentors, etc.) would be presented on their arrival here.

Regarding the idea of posting questions in a forum separate from the main QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS FORUM would be a problem for me as a beginner. Not only is the term beginner very vague It implies that beginner questions are not worthy of the regular forum. Maybe I am missing something but why point beginners off to a different forum for their discussions if they are supposed to be welcome here?

With respect, Mike

 

[chuckorlando]

If you really want to help new guys you could do a bunch of stickies. Broke down in sections. Set up. measuring, blue print reading, project how to's, how to use such and such tools.

Another forum is just another forum. Any questions can be asked in existing forums. IMO we already got to many forums and it makes finding good search results a pain. Is it in tooling, member projects, machine specific, gen machining? Plus, alot of help simply wont look in such a forum to answer the questions.

 

[fatphatboy88]

I think an explanation of the different types of lathes, mills, shapers, surface grinders etc and their intended uses, strengths, and weaknesses would be helpful to a beginner. Definitely put all of Mr Pete's videos, they are worth their weight in gold to the beginner such as myself. Climb vs conventional milling, the different types of end mills, drill bits, and how different metals machine differently.

 

[dave2176]

I think it should be a resource location and not a Q&A area. Questions belong in the general machining forum. But how many times does "how do I knurl" need to be asked? If it the math was in there with a spreadsheet for some basic wheels and maybe setup pictures, you would have what you need for that subject.

Same would apply for other things. What are the strengths and weaknesses of the various collect systems? How do I hold a cylindrical piece to the mill table so the top face can be machined? And so on.

The OP should never post a question that he or she doesn't answer in the same post. Subsequent post in the same should address other methods to accomplish the same thing or clarify an important point.

I think projects of all types belong in the project forums.

Dave