Let's see some machine work

[mklotz70]

.....sad isn't exactly what I was feeling! lol :)

[gearboxx70]

I'm inspired!! Just spent the last 3 days reading every word of this thread in bits and pieces. I even ignored our dinner guest last night to read a couple pages! I'm picking up a wood lathe this weekend for $100. Not quite the cool stuff all the metal work on here is, but it'll have to do for now. I've never used a lathe before, so I figure I should cut my teeth on stuff I know. I'm a journeyman carpenter, so wood is a good starting place. Then on to plastics...

 

mklotz70... I keep seeing your comments throughout the thread about how you don't rate yourself as a machinist. BULLS**T!! You do some awesome work on your manual equipment, in your home shop. And you do it all by just figuring it out! That's a skill that can't be taught in any school. That's just plain talent!

 

datrod... $125K mill? That's just cool stuff! I have tool envy, if you know what I mean (wink, wink, nudge, nudge)! Get your mind out of the gutter! I'm still talking about your mill!!

 

Without listing every name on this thread... All cool stuff, and plenty of talent! I'm just inspired!

[mklotz70]

LOL!  Thanks.   I can cut a piece of wood too, but I don't call myself a carpenter. :)   We've got a handful of people at work that call themselves electronic technicians and get paid like them, but they can barely read a meter or schematic.  Someone once said that I'm making chips, therefore I'm a machinist.  I guess that's true in a broad sense, but I like to make the distinction for those real machinists on here that I look to for inspiration and advice.

 

I grew up working with wood....spent some time on a wood lathe.  I love how it takes shape quickly..........and the smell of a wood shop.....mmmmmm....awesome!!!!

 

Oh....there's place in town here that imports and cuts exotic woods......they sell off 50 gallon drums of remnants cheap.  I've picked up a couple of my parents and they made some some awesome pen/pencil sets from some of it.  I mention it so that you might be able to find something like that in your neck of the woods.   

[dr.feltersnatch]

crappy cell pics but you get the point. i run a makino a61 nx cell system currently has 2 machines third will be installed late summer.

it has 48 pallets and 316 tools per machine. we run an average of 14000 rpm and 600 ipm

here are some parts i was making yesterday.

 

this part takes about 3 minutes, but we run 40 per load so the cycle time is a little over 2 hours

here is a whole pallet of them

these parts we run 80 at a time with a cycle time of 59 minutes, its a simple part

when i run some bigger more complicated parts i wil take pics of those.

i tried to take a video but once the machine starts you cannot see anything due to the high pressure coolant, this is the closest video i could find in

the 30 seconds i looked. its a 51 not 61 but pretty close

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DehW94gLRKM

and here is a video showing the cell system

[mklotz70]

Sweet!!!  I can watch that stuff longer than I can porn!! :)

[gearboxx70]

Mike... I've got plenty of wood scraps around here. I've been making small Tiki heads from old garden tool handles and such. datrod has seen this first hand... He has one I made. But that's only partly what the lathe is for. I want to get into some acrylics, and will need an easy way to shape and sand/polish them.

 

I build trade show exhibit booths for a living right now. Here's a couple pics...

This one is still missing a few parts and the 3 huge flat screen TVs that mount in various places. Its about 20 feet tall

This one is missing a couple pieces too, but has much cooler lighting effects!

[mklotz70]

Sweet! That's a pretty unique job!!

[72240z]

Looks good.

Where I used to work as a maint mech I had to repair the trade show shit when it would come back. What a major PITA that was, those things take a serious beating. 

[gearboxx70]

Yeah, its cool stuff. I get work with all kinds of materials, woods, plastics, metals, LEDs, etc. I had to make another one of those plexiglass blades like the ones in the bottom 2 oics yesterday (the ones lit with blue LEDs). The plex comes frosted on one side so it carries the light better, and the edges get sanded down to 220 grit to match the frost on the back. I'm just getting into working with LEDs and plex, and can't wait til I get to do more of it. I've got some cool ideas that I need to try out when I can talk my boss out of some "spare" LEDs and materials.

 

Yes, the booths come back pretty beat up. I think its a big game with the union set up guys in the exhibit halls. they like to see just how bad they can tear stuff up and get away with it. So we fix it all and send it back out to the next show. Most of our booths only go out about once a year, so we have plenty of time to get them back into shape before they go out again.

[]2eDeYe]

Here is a bit of machine work I farmed out. I got some steering arms for my axle swap and needed the flats extended and another tapered hole drilled and reamed. Dropped the arms of with my new machinist friend.

 

 

Well I failed to mention that the hole should be centered in the arm and the hole ended up not having enough edge margin. He said he was sorry for screwing them up and would I like him to remake them in titanium. I said "Hell yeah!"

 

This shot was checking to make sure the holes were in the correct place. You can see the off hole on the old arms. 

 

Here are the finished arms, he had to get a 26.5 degree cutter made for the large tapered holes.

 

 

Bling, bling. :D

 

[mklotz70]

Can't see much, but it's actually one of my parts being made :)

 

[mklotz70]

Not sure if drilling is machining, but it's on the mill.....at least part of it :)

 

[lostforawhile]

I love this thread, I've built nearly every custom part on my car,  I'll post a few threads, this first one, I found an antenna I really liked on a swiss cheese old Z car, most people wouldnt go to this much trouble to save an antenna, but I'm nuts http://www.3geez.com/forum/appearance/77864-adding-old-school-antenna-2.html

[lostforawhile]

here's one of my shift knobs I made for someone, I'm not making these right now as they are a complete pain in the ass to make, it's three pieces, the knob, the poured lead weight, and the end cap with the threads.  http://www.3geez.com/forum/accord-pics-videos/75887-just-few-pictures-shift-knob-im-working-someone-here-2.html

[mklotz70]

Made some more belt grinder parts, but it was more about the lathe and machining, so I'm putting it here.

 

[mklotz70]

[mklotz70]

More simple stuff.

 

[mklotz70]

 

[datrod]

Mike

You should move to Vegas.. You could be the blue glove man group.

[mklotz70]

.....in a seedy dive bar on the wrong side of the tracks?  LOL   :)  

[]2eDeYe]

Mike

You should move to Vegas.. You could be the blue glove man group.

 

He needs to move up here, he can work at my place. :)

[ariascarlos1990]

Does this count? I run a CNC (Kinetic 4000) my machine does plasma cutting, flame cutting, automatic tool changing drill, mill, tap, bevel, and counter bore. There's probably more I'm forgetting.

 

btw that plate is 1" thick and 120"x660"

 

 

 

 

[mklotz70]

He needs to move up here, he can work at my place. :)

 

I sure wish your place wasn't in the Seattle area :(

 

 

Does this count? I run a CNC (Kinetic 4000) my machine does plasma cutting, flame cutting, automatic tool changing drill, mill, tap, bevel, and counter bore. There's probably more I'm forgetting.

 

btw that plate is 1" thick and 120"x660"

 

Awesome!  That friggin' thing is huge!

 

[]2eDeYe]

I sure wish your place wasn't in the Seattle area :(

 

 

 

Awesome!  That friggin' thing is huge!

 

 

 

It's not so bad :lol:

 

 

 

 

 

That's a huge bitch! :rofl:

[lostforawhile]

can anyone of you guys change a drawing into a cad program? I was going to make a Possum Werks plate for the side of my oil cooler and we have a heck of a laser cut place up here in Berlin,if I could take them the program and some scrap they can cut it