Machinist School - manufacture your own wax

Click HERE >>>> diy-machinable-wax-for-your-lathe-or-mill

Add #2 or #4 bags to paraffin ........ makes a tougher wax that doesn't gum so bad!

Machinist School - McDonald's Knife Revisitd

 

To locate the end of an endmill, some folks use a hardened block of metal (perhaps damaging the endmill). Touching off on the plastic knife is much safer. After that, you can check with a feeler gage. 

Machinist School - Definitions re: Dial Indicator

Click HERE>>>>>

To see a guy use words to talk about shaft alignment .... He uses careful speech to make correct statements. This is from Cassandra.

Machinist School- the McDonald Knife Revisited

 

Place the McDonald Knife between the toolbit and the work ...... it should stick straight up. In the picture, the toolbit is too high, the knife leans slightly to the right. 

Machinist School - Lathe Center Alignment Knife

 

By placing the McDonalds knife between the headstock center and the tailstock, you can see if the centers are in alignment ...... and which way they need to be adjusted. The plastic knife will keep the points from smashing into one another ...... saving damage to the points.

Machinist School - The McDonald Knife

 

 

The  McDonald plastic knife has numerous uses around the Machine Shop.

There will be new information soon about what might be done with the knife.



Machinist School - Popcorn Manufacturing & Distribution

The school supports "Free Popcorn on Friday" by providing popcorn & supplies, a popcorn machine, and a distribution area from 9:00 to 10:30 on Fridays. The problem is that nobody wanted to make the popcorn and even fewer liked to clean the machine and distribution area.

The machine shop class accepted responsibility for the "Free Popcorn on Friday" manufacturing, distribution and janitorial endeavor.

The class buys soda at WalMart and sells it at a profit of 25 cents per can. Selling about 20 cans each Friday, the class makes about five dollars a week. (The money is used to attend state and federal skills competitions.)

In addition, the machine shop students get to meet all of the NTI popcorn eaters!

Machinist School - New Mill Repair

New milling machines typically do not have 5/8 slots .... they are not straight and measure about .636, neither metric or American. The slots that do exist are cut short so that a shaft cannot extend past the table end.

Glen Hendricks came up with a solution:
1. mill straight slots to a common size
2. Cut bevels at the top of the slots to accept shafts

Above, you can see the 45 degree milling tool that Glen designed and built. (You can see the slots that he cut as well.)

Now a shaft can be clamped to the table without having the problem of the end of the table being in the way! Yay Glen!

Machinist School says: See EdgeFactor Videos

There are some really interesting "motivate the machinist" videos at EdgeFactor.
It is some kind of group that is hooked up with the Society of Manufacturing Engineers and TOOLINGU .......... it is worth the watch. (use Internet Explorer instead of Mozilla Firefox if you have trouble with the videos)

Click Here >>>>> for EdgeFactor

Making prosthetic devices, drilling workers out of mines, etc.

:-)

Machinist School ...... chip formation

Here's a highly magnified video of high speed steel cutting metal!


Click Here to watch the chip being formed>>>>

Machinist School - Change Gears

 

 

Some lathes require changing gears instead of using a quick-change gearbox.

To determine the Feed per Revolution of the Spindle, simply multiply the gear ratios and the screw pitch.



Machinist School - Mr Reese's, King of Magnets

Mister Reese's, King of Magnets ...... except they spell it "Hysteresis". It looks like hysterical but it is pronounced "Hister Reece's".

Hysteresis is a science word that means measurable delayed-effect.

Like, if you put a Reese's peanut butter cup in your mouth, it takes about 2 seconds before you realize how good it is. Then you smile. The hysteresis is 2 seconds.

With magnets, when the magnet moves past a coil, it takes the coil a little time to realize .... "Zoom! There went a magnet!"

Machinist School makes Surgical Equipment

Johnny Gutierrez makes Surgical Equipment Holders. Straight bars of metal are drilled at the ends, then bent to an accurate size.  Layout with Layout Dye comes first.

well ....... the layout dye come first, right after making the plans!

Good Job Johnny. "Johnny's Surgical Equipment Shop"

Machinist School - Modern Tool Room

 

This is the tool room since it has be cleaned and painted.

It has new aluminum counter tops from 1/8 aluminum /diamond-pattern floor plate.

 

 

 

This is from further back in the shop, lookig in.

When there are no windows, just put up blinds with pictures-of-windows behind the blinds.

Add plants and room fresheners to make it more like a bathroom or doctor's office.

Machinist School - Monster Clay.... another Nate says

If you like sculpting, making molds, or creating strange faces .... here's a new stuff    .... Monster Clay.
Click >>>>>>>>>>>>>> Here >>>>>> for Monster Clay

a "sulfur free oil based elastic clay"


I found this stuff recently am am really impressed by it's usefulness for sculpting. If you heat it it liquefies, freezing hardens it, it is flammable but it doesn't leave the waxy residue on hands when working with it.

From,
n8 r0x                     

Machinist School ..... according to Nate

Screenshot of a simulation of my first 4 axis program, it's nearly ready to go out on the floor for production. We're still waiting on a custom carbide key-cutter. I programmed some profiling passes with a 1/64" ball nose end mill, which turned out to be pretty cool. It has as little as .0005" step-over in some places :D This software is great, dry runs are becoming a thing of the past.

Yay Nate!   ..... and Shawn says: Hey I found a chemical etching pen sold by enco I thought u might like it leaves back markings on a lot of different metals for like $12. The enco model # is 308-0495 if u wanna look into it


Woo-Hoo!

Machinist School - Graduate Nate Langford says:

This is what we're making at work right now. It's the slide for a Wilson .45 pistol; we're doing the standard size and compact. There's a lot of operations involved, but that just makes it more interesting .
We're just making the slides and frames for the standard size and the compact version of the .45 and 9mm 1911. I'm not sure which long slides you're talking about. After seeing what kind of tolerances we keep on these parts, I can see why they're expensive. Our wire EDM machine is cutting out the profiles for the firing selectors on AR-15's. Fun stuff :D http://wilsoncombat.com/new/handgun-classic.asp

Machinist School - The Duck and the Owl

Here it is at last, the duck and the owl here at the Machinist School.
We make owls with the MakerBot.
Just remember:
If people spent more time thinking about ducks,
They'd spend less time thinking about other things.
                         - Rod's Duck Farm motto

Machinist School - Radial Arm Drill

This is a good picture of a Radial Arm Drill. Perhaps you notice the duck in the lower right corner of the picture ..... it has a red bill. Some people just call it a squirt bottle. Whatever it is, you get an idea of size. The top of the machine says "American Hole Wizard".
Radial Arm Drill Presses use polar instead of cartesian coordinates. Some people say they aare cool machines ..... because they are polar?

Machinist School - Dovetail Attachment

Here's a nice type of double jointed attachment for an undicator with dovetail connections.
The Moore company made this particular style. There's a scew that goes through the center hole to tighten the indicator to the dovetail.

Machinist School - Here's a Large Mill

Here you see Angle Plates bolted to the floor and Cassandra rides the head of the Giddings mill. You can work on some very large parts with this machine. Strangely enough, you can achieve very high accuracy because you can run a dial indicator along a 10 foot edge. A thousandth of an inch over 10 feet is only a ten-thousandth per foot or about 8 millionth's per inch!

Machinist School - Dave Renfro: Table made from a sheet of plywood

At the Dave Mows Grass blog, alumni brother Dave posts the above picture (Yay!!!)  with no plans (grrrrrr!).

But .............. the internet saves the day!!!

Here's a link to some plans using 3/4" plywood:

Click Here >>>>How to make a Picnic Table Plans



Machinist School - Otis The Owl Mascot



Cassidy Wooten provided the colored view of the NTI Mascot.

The moon and the stars are included. So if you want the owl and the moon and the stars, THIS is the picture! Three cheers for Hooters!

Hoot, Hoot, Hoot!

Machinist School - Pay

The Big Money in machining is in over-time. That's what helps your pay check. To earn lots of dollars takes lots of hours. There-in lies the question, "Do you want to machine for lots of hours?"

At $7.50 an hour, you're talking about $15,000 a year for your first 40 hours.
After 40 hours, there is over-time at $11.25 an hour. Therefore, the second 40 hours pays $22,500 a year.

So if you work 80 hours a week at a base pay of $7.50, you'll make $37,500 a year. That's a lot of dollars!

Machinist School - Hand Sanitizer

A GREAT CUTTING FLUID
Hand sanitizer is a similar price to cutting oil.
It sticks to the part, it sticks to the cutter.
Because it evaporates so fast, it is a nice coolant.

Because it contains ethyl alcohol, the MSDS sheet is fairly surprising.
(Get it on your hand = OK ...... get it on your arm = wash it off immediately)

BUT .... if it accidentally got on the part, maybe it would be OK?

Keep it on your mill and sanitize you hands!!!!

Machinist School - Wizards

The Latest Machine Shop Wizards of the World:

Jonathan - Precision Machining, 1st Place
Shawn - CNC Milling, 2nd Place
Alex - CNC Lathe, 3rd place

The SkillsUSA Competitions for the State of Arkansas were based in Hot Springs, Arkansas on April 10, 2012. Congratulations Guys!!!

Machinist School - Here at Hooters

We have a new mascot .... the owl is reported to be named "Otis".
Just remember, Hooters RULE .......... with a 25 foot Lufkin tape measure!

Machinist School - Speed Calculator

The Lovejoy Tool Company has the GREATEST slide rule Speed & Feed Calculator!
Click the link .... that's a link to all sorts of machining info.

Click here  >>>>>>>>>     Speed Calculator

Machinist School - Gun Drilling

Here's a place to see about gun drilling:

Click Here  >>>>All About Gun Drilling

Gun drills can be used to make guns but mostly they are for making very accurate deep holes. A hole starts to be "deep" when the depth exceeds the diameter. A 1/2" hole that is 1" deep ..... that's a deep hole. Gun drills will make the 1/2" hole 12" (or more) deep.

Machinist School - Giant Hook

This is a Giant Hook ...... like a hook for a very large crane  at the Metro Machine Shop in Tulsa. The face plate on the lathe is about 4 feet in diameter. Cassandra Dunk has been doing quite a variety of machining and some occasional photo taking.