u/chobbes

Shopmate distracted me while I was swapping a tool and I forgot to put my G54 from touch off height back to the part zero. Thankfully no spindle or collet indexer damage, just a kabloozied part and tool.

I’ve got nine of these 304 stainless plates (.25” thick) that I’ve had roughed out via laser. Those square-corner (.020” radius actually) internal pockets have about .08” extra material to remove. The tolerances are not wild (-.000/+.005”).

I quoted and won the job based off me machining these, as they didn’t want a laser finish on these internal pockets. However, if I can find someone who can wire EDM these in a stack (2.25”) for like $1000 or so, that would save me a massive amount of machine time.

My plan is to machine the outsides of them and put pin holes in them so the whole stack can go together precisely, then ship it off to a wire EDM shop, then get it back and do the last few little operations.

Anyone interested? Or anyone with wire EDM experience care to educate me on why this is infeasible or would be way more expensive than I think? Thanks.

Thin wall (.049”) aluminum tube with a tight-fitting 3D printed PLA bolster on the inside (also provides an indexing feature). Solid TPU tubing blocks for gripping it firmly in the vise without much distortion. 3D printers are insanely useful for so many things in a modern shop.

Accidentally ran this M5 x .8 tap as an M5 x .5 tap due to a brain fart and as it formed the threads it ripped them outta the hole. 6061 so not a tough task.

Had a shaft with a damaged bearing journal and keyslot that needed built up and machined back down. My lathe has a through bore of 2” max and the shaft was 2.375”, so what to do?

Grabbed a steady rest from my home lathe, chucked the shaft up in a rotary weld positioner, and got to scheming. Clamped a bench vise onto a scrap part and clamped that in a Kurt vise. Indicated aluminum extrusion and table fixtures to align the travel of the vise with the axis of the shaft. Put a table clamp behind the vise to drive it forward.

Runout of the shaft near the end was only a couple thou with this setup and the ultimate precision did not need to be wild (giant cardboard factory, everything they bring me is riddled with millwright marks). Took many hours. I just barely overshot the final pass the first time I got there so I had to build it back up and do it again. Made some small mistakes in how I set up the kinematics but fixed them by the end.

Final part got a keyslot put in it sticking out the side of my Hurco VMC. And measured .9999”. Bearing and drive pulley fit extremely nicely by the end. Started the job at about 4:30 PM and delivered it about 5:30 AM.

Dremel with a diamond wheel in a 3D printed holder in a lathe tool holder. 3D printed vacuum cowl to suck up the dust. PPE for me. Parted them off a few thou oversize and then used sandpaper on a precision ground block to knock off the last carbon fiber burrs and bring them to size. Very annoying job.

Eclipse 1 - 3 tries - April 10 2026 Eclipse 2 - 17 tries - April 13 Eclipse 3 - 10 tries - April 14 Eclipse 4 - 10 tries - April 17 Eclipse 5 - 3 tries - April 19 Eclipse 6 - 2 tries - April 19 Eclipse 7 - 20 tries - April 27 Eclipse 8 - 112 tries - Aug 8

My first Eclipse 8 and one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in a video game. Playing on PS5. Of course I was essentially carried by Spare Drone Parts. Even had a Seed of Life I never had to use.

Mag drill in a Kurt vise clamped to my fixture table to cross drill a broken stub end and replacement end so I can pin them together to fix this roller for a local company. Run-on sentence provided free of charge.

I made this as I had to do some turning work on some long bars, but it made insertion and removal so much nicer. The bar neatly sailed through the chuck opening, instead of being a circus game to try and maneuver it past the chuck jaws.

I know I’m late to the game on this, but it’s another positive vote. Every modern machine shop should have a modern 3D printer on hand. They’re simply too good.

I need to make 50 spacers that are .75” long out of this .035” wall carbon fiber tube. I would like to set up my lathe (cover the ways, vacuum ready to rip) and essentially part them off to size with no/minimal further processing. There are no tight tolerances but I think they all need to be the same length.

Am I likely to achieve good results with a carbide parting tool? My other idea was to put a thin kerf cutoff wheel on my toolpost grinder and part them off that way. I do not want to use HSS that I have to regularly sharpen. Thoughts?

Turned a shaft collar into a hex index and it didn’t quite clear the hardware as anticipated. Still works though!

This $30 belt clip fan has been a cheap and easy godsend. You can find them on Amazon or eBay or wherever. Clips to your belt and your shirt clips over it and it blows air up your back. Huge help in the heat. Lasts for 5-6+ hours or forever if you put a battery bank in your pocket and connect it.

I hooked a clip onto it to help hold my shirt over it as it’ll slip off.

40” x 16” 12-gauge corten steel backed with thin mirror stainless I welded in. Engraving of names done with a standard 90-degree chamfer tool.

Yes, most of it should have been done with a laser or waterjet but I didn’t have the design until it was too late for those. Got er dun did with what I had.

Idk maybe I’m doing some stupid shit at the limits of the machine travel?? Did u ever think about that????

2” diameter steel shaft from a big blower fan in an HVAC system. Ran for many hours/days after complete bearing failure to the point of eating into the steel as seen here. Unsure of HP of motor or RPM, but a good starting guess would be 10-20 HP and 1000 RPM.

Just letting you know that you can violate all manner of machinist norms if it results in good parts (though be careful if it’s not your shop or tools). This mic was in a junk drawer kept far away from my main ones so there’s no chance it gets used for anything critical in the future.

Looked at the toolpath overview from the wrong angle and missed the one path that dipped below the face. Brain farted.

These are drawer slides that each get two .250” holes to accept PEM studs. For Productivity’s tool vending machines.

.250” carbide drill and a lot of hustling.