Worth? Operates, could use a cleaning. Not too many apprentice marks.

Salesman here. Specifically, CNC Machine Tool Salesman. Yeah yeah yeah, I know. Trust me, I wish there was a different title but there isn’t.

As a bit of a background- I currently work for one of the larger distributors in the states. I love the industry and love working with both the people and the companies that make our way of life possible.

I’m posting because I want both your broad opinions on making buying decisions along with your opinion on a specific scenario. I’m really just trying to learn and feel like I might get some good answers here (and some outright gems sprinkled in… I’m looking at the manual machinists here!!)

Also, I’m fully aware that not everyone in this sub has purchasing power or the ability to make a buying decision. Regardless, I think your opinion has value and I’d be interested in hearing what you think.

First hypothetical: You’ve decided it’s time to buy another machine. What are the criteria you’d base your purchase off of? How important is brand name to you? Where I work, we focus 70% of both our employment and the brands we rep on an ability to service the product. We currently maintain a 4/1 ratio of service techs to salesman.

I’ve found that certain customers couldn’t care less about that and instead focus more on total price. Any thoughts on that? Really would love to hear everyone’s opinions on this.

Second Hypothetical: You currently have two machines, a mill and lathe, from a well known brand, with an owner that has a penchant for Formula 1. The opportunity for some good work pops up and you decide it’s time to step up the level of your equipment.

You reach out to the local distributors to include Mazak, Okuma, DN Solutions, Hyundai, etc… for quotes on a 10” chuck, live-tool, Y-Axis lathe. All but one of the distributors quotes exactly what you asked for. One decides to quote you an 18” chuck lathe with live-tooling and Y-Axis. 2X the size of your original inquiry.

You’ve now narrowed it down to two choices. Choice A comes in at $200,000 with an extended warranty and 2-X free PM’s. It’s also the exact machine you reached out for (10” chuck lathe). Said machine is supported by a distributor with 25+ years of experience and a service team where 70% of the techs have worked for the company for 8+ years.

Choice B comes in at $260,000. This distributor agreed to comp the chip conveyor and the high pressure coolant pump. However, this machine is 2x the size you originally requested and is more money. You do get the option for 0% down with 3-months no payment if you buy. Said machine is supported by a distributor with only one year of experience and techs that have been employed for under a year. One caveat, you learn the people running the company have prior experience working for another distributor for 10 years.

All programming is done offline so control type is not important in your decision making.

I pose these scenarios solely to better myself and help improve my chances of both selling and understanding the needs of our customers. I appreciate any feedback I get.

I'm a new apprentice in an aerospace shop and I made my first part on a manual machine today it's just a cube made with 6061 aluminum. Measured at 0.975. Off from true cube by 0.001". Planning on making a few more until I get more comfortable.

hello all now that my fathers estate has been settled I am actively back to looking for work.

i have not spent my whole life as a machinist but am finding that it was where I truly did my best work and had the most career advancement and success.

in the combined 5 1/2 years I did spend in machine shops I spent :

- 2 years at a shop running CnC Mazak mills, and some Haas. including 4th and 5th axis work. Tooling, setups and small program adjustments on haas, mazak is its own deal.

- 2 1/2 years at another location running Haas, Doosan, Nakamura and other brand CnC Lathes. I have done Sub Spindle and Live tooling work and setups as well.

- My first year and spare time at other shops was spent as a saw guy, materials guy, deburring, honing, sand blasting, grinding, hand tapping and all the other fun stuff we do as machinists.

I have not had as much experience welding, programming or in CAD design but I truly am looking for a career to pickup where I left off with opportunity to grow.

Outside of machining I was an airplane mechanic and a carpenter. I am a builder, fixer, creator and really want to be back to work so badly.

Surely there’s a shop somewhere in the USA offering relocation assistance that needs someone like me, right?

I have some plastic parts that we modify .

1st opp turn a chamfered step down into existing bore with a 3" manual chuck held in the main chuck takes about 25 seconds to lad and machine.

Opp 2 swap to manual mill drill 6 angled holes around circumference takes around a minute.

My question is :

Would you complete opp1 on all parts then swap to Opp2 .

Or load lathe , do opp 2 whilst opp1 is running.

I feel like option 1 runs better , but in theory option 2 should be faster

Edit: Completely messed up what I was trying to say anytime I say SFM I basically meant Constant surface speed. It’s been a long day

I understand the difference between SFM and RPM, that’s not what I need explained. I was taught by old school guys who make perfect parts using straight RPM, and I’ve never had an issue. One of the guys a little older than me but still young ONLY uses SFM and thinks it’s the Messiah. I’m making 3–4” titanium pucks with .001” flatness and parallelism callouts. My flatness measures around .0008”, but QC says it’s worse and parallelism is .002”. My boss (Who isn’t a machinist by trade) is convinced it’s because I’m using RPM instead of SFM. QC says the part looks slightly dished, so I think chuck pressure might be warping it after removing .200” from the back. I cut the jaws and use a dead blow to seat the part flat. Is SFM really the issue or is it more likely clamping pressure and material releasing stress? I always thought SFM was more about tool life and consistent cutting conditions than holding tight tolerances on medium (Medium for me I don’t do much bigger than that) sized part. I feel like I have better control over my program when I use RPM and that’s just what I was taught. Would loved to hear y’alls opinions I’ll take any constructive criticism!

I picked up three fully loaded Gerstners last weekend. 2/3 had reminders inside of why we work. 😆 This is not uncommon at all. I find lots of photos.. a few dirty poems.. the film was a first though.

While using my Hydraulic press I screwed up some of the opening to this hole. I tried to slowly scape it off but my threads are still screwed up and the bolt isn't going on. What does someone do in this situation?

They created a night shift for our facility about 2 years ago, and ever since we technically haven’t had access to LOTO locks. When someone caught some overhead wires for a chain fall a year ago we realized not even our shift lead had the key to get in, I guess that never got around to it. Is only having a few people signed off normal for this stuff? We have about 30 technicians/inspectors split between two day shifts and a night.

Hello everyone,

I'm from Bangladesh and I'm trying to find a legitimate CNC Operator or CNC Machinist job in Europe with employer-sponsored work authorisation.

My background:

• CNC machine operation, setup and basic troubleshooting
• G-code and M-code knowledge
• Mastercam X5 and exposure to SolidWorks
• Engineering drawing interpretation and precision measurement
• TTC/NSDA vocational training
• Experience working in a local workshop

I'm particularly interested in Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, Czechia and Germany, but I'm open to other European countries.

I have a valid Bangladeshi passport and am looking for a genuine employer who can legally recruit a non-EU applicant.

I'd appreciate honest answers from CNC workers, recruiters or people who have personally moved from outside the EU:

1. Have you seen a factory hire a CNC operator directly from Bangladesh or another non-EU country?
2. Which European countries and employers are realistically willing to arrange work permits for CNC operators?
3. Is workshop experience plus vocational certification sufficient, or is a formal mechanical qualification usually necessary?
4. Which job websites or direct-employer recruitment routes have actually worked for you?
5. What salary, accommodation and recruitment fees should an applicant realistically expect?

I'm looking for genuine experience, not recruitment agencies asking for money or unverified job offers. Thank you for any advice.

Imagine ball milling over a cylinder. You want lowest speed/lowest feed at 9 o clock, then fastest speed/feed at 12, then back to lowest. I suppose it hasn't happened because the solution for industry is just to run these parts in a 5 axis and maintain the tool angle but there sure are a lot of 3 axis parts that it would be great to have this feature on...

Idk wifey said I should post it somewhere lol. Basically had to grind the arbors down from 3.500” to 2.9998” because it was too big for our lathe…. Ended up making it close to perfect (no CNC)
First picture is the finished… the rest are just random throughout

Just wondering if anyone has input to achieve better results, I’ve got this part chucked up on the OD. Boring to 5.5” id and the best taper I’m able to achieve is .0025” over 21 inches tip to butt. Am I just being a hard ass trying to achieve sub .002” taper and chasing a ghost or is that plausible? The print doesn’t call for it to be exact or even closer than what it is, but I prefer to use jobs with more open tolerances to get better at harder tasks. Boring bar is 3” diameter. Material is 316ss. I think the metal is slightly warped because of the welding the pipe fittings on so I have slight out of round on the id and od towards the ends. I’m the only machinist where I work so slow and steady is the name of the game. I don’t want to reenact the Russian lathe incident…

robots and AI might take my job someday but they can not take my irresponsible use of comic sans

Today I received my replacement bearings for my small lathe spindle. Supposedly a DB pair of 7208 B P5 bearings. Were packaged in a single box and even in a single sealed bag, but they look visually different on the outer race. Is that normal? On the first photo they're in the DB arrangement.

Hey guys. I know I could probably google this but I wanna hear from you guys in this subreddit. I’m a rookie machinist with about a year and a half under my belt, run a big vertical lathe with a 9 foot table inside, I feel like I’ve came a long way in the shop since I’ve started. The thirst for knowledge doesn’t stop. Lol. But recently our shop just got a brand new mill in, and they had a small crew guys come in and set it up and work on it, and I’m thinking? That’s gotta be a good paying job right??? I mentioned my experience because I’m super curious how a person even gets into that field of expertise (of setting up machines) Do people usually work as machinists for a long time before hand? How does the opportunity even come up naturally? And is there like a school for setting up machines? Will my boss get a quest marker above his head after 10 years of experience? Genuinely curious, because it’s something I might look into and strive towards. Thanks in advance for any and all responses!

Does anyone know of an industrial robot vacuum that can deal with grinding dust, grime, and occasional chips?

I'm certain that a consumer level rumba would die within a week in a machine shop, but there has to be an industrial level robot vacuum. Right?

I don't expect it to clean a pile of chips

But at least to help a little with day-to-day cleaning.

I mainly do precision tool and die work so cleanliness is pretty important.

Edit: apparently it's spelled roomba

The customer experienced an overload on the C-axis, which triggered an alarm. When they rotated the spindle manually, it was stuck and barely moved. Conclusion: the bearing is broken. 😞

Seen a few posts about these and thought id give it a go, im almost exclusively CNC so was a nice little challenge to make manually.
304 stainless and brass.

Being a keen amateur creator of swarf and profanity in the workshop I recently picked up a couple of good but old chucks at an autojumble. Both have some surface rust, one has clearly been used to hold something that's been spray painted - but the price was far too good to pass up.

I'm going to strip and clean them, but I'd also like to clean up the faces back to being something you can true a part against.

My best guess at a plan so far is mount a dremel in the toolpost and give them a tickle with a grinding stone.

Does that sound sensible or is there something better I can do to bring them back without taking too much off the face?

What is the best way to de bur this cross hole.
The hole is 10mm so hard to get my scraper in there?
The material is 316 stainless steel and I cannot mark on scratch the finish around the holes

I have a very strange problem I'm getting with my syntec 4 axis controller. I made a program with all correct wcs orientation. When I run the program I set the correct parameters for machine wcs. When I run the program the machine reaches extreme depth reaching the negative limit. I checked the program correctly . I tried machining for a 20mm stock. When the program runs i notice that what z depth I set the Machine reaches for a z depth 0 i never set, which is way past the z depth 0 i set, it reaches just close to the table and throws this error.

The software I used was fusion 360 and it failed

I made a duplicate program but it generated through the artcam's post process and it worked fine?

What problem am I facing I mean ? I don't understand this can anybody explain

The post processor I used was fusion library's generic syntec post for milling.

I learnt something about syntec's proprietary function for 4 axis but I'm making 3 axis toolpaths, it should not crash that way ?