No ****. It would be a long time before I would run a machine like that.
I'm going to be an operarter for life.
CK5
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Some BAD ASS machining of a helmet out of a solid block of aluminum
- Thread starter rdn2blazer
- Start date
I'm going to be an operarter for life.
Agreed, although if you get in the right areas there is plenty of consistent money to be made. Maybe not in the straight ol' run of the mill CNC stuff since everyone is headed or is already there but in specialized fields you can make a great living. I work at a machine shop that specializes in Agriculture related stuff and obviously we'll never do bling bling parts like that helmet but the work just keeps coming and the guys above me make over $40 an hour which I think is pretty dang good.
Again, I completely agree. I can't even tell you how many times "machinists" have brought stuff into our shop to have work done.... and 99% of the time it's simple crap but they're CNC guys and don't know how to do much besides click a mouse, load programs, hit cycle/start and watch it read code. Again though, this is just in my experiences around here, I'm sure there's some bad ass conventional/cnc combo guys out there.
One time I had an interview at a machine shop to run a big 6+ axis cnc mill. It was about a 80" X 60" table. I saw the parts and they were big wing spars, bad ass pieces. I would have been responcible to setup and run complex parts and some programming, mainly modifying programs to improove part production if necessary which I know how to do. They had a full time programmer who was NOT a machinist, just a computer geek. They offered me 15 bucks an hour! I was like 15 bucks an hour!?!? I said to the guy, you have got to be focking kidding me! I said "thanks but no thanks, for what you need you better be willing to pay a hell of alot more then that, I make more then that already" and walked out.
As I said, machinists do not make what they should considering their skill set.
Here is a thread I posted a while ago, check out the pics in it of a bad ass part too.
http://coloradok5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=169687&highlight=machined+work+art
http://coloradok5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=169687&highlight=machined+work+art
Hey, speaking of bitchin' machined stuff, whatever happened with that yoke you were machining??
Never finished it. Still have it, still want to finish it. I didn't have access to machines when I changed jobs. Now I do. On the back burner waaaaaay back burner. Someday though. Good memory!!
hunter29078
1/2 ton status
That is pretty descent in SC for just starting a job, I reckon it depends on which part of the US your in. You half to remember many guys that have been in the same place forever will have 1 year worth of experience over and over. I worked as a machinist as well went from conventional mills (verticles and horizontals), lathes, grinders, to cnc's. Did programing as well. Always thought it was a cool job. Use to make the reamers for engine blocks, tools for gun companies, help design and make specialized tooling for mercury when that started one of their newer outboard lines. Around here machinist get paid pretty well, but many jobs get outsourced now and plants keep shuting down. Leaves a lot of guys without jobs and can't get paid near what they are worth. Have you ever set-up and done any spherical milling on a conventional machine? Pretty cool stuff.
x3! That spindle came awfuly close to the bottom of the helmet doing some of the interior details.
We've had some crashes at work that actually moved the CNC machine a couple inches across the floor. That was cheap.
No, not really. I have done a job that required me to compound angle the head to drill a 8 hole bolt circle hole pattern and drill holes on a machined face on an angle and had to hold pretty tight true posistion. So the face of the shaft that required the bolt circle was angled, and I had to kick the head in both axis to a spicific calculated angle. for each hole, all 8 holes at different angles, if that makes sence. I had to use an endmill to create a flat to start the spot drill, then drill undersize, bore with a small end mill still under the finished hole size, then ream to size. All 8 holes intersected a thru the shaft center hole. So if I went to deep and hit the center hole sides It was scrap. I first did a replica piece I machined out of aluminum to proof my method out, then machined the 6 Phenolic parts. Didn't scrap one piece.
x3! That spindle came awfuly close to the bottom of the helmet doing some of the interior details.
Yeah it did! I saw that too.
hunter29078
1/2 ton status
Sounds pretty neat nice to do it right the first time. I have scraped tons of stuff during the day. I have had to hold .0003 tolerances with conventional equipment. We made and used burnishing tools which are pretty cool. Had ones called cx which made the finish in the spoke wheels, like on the cadillac. I had to drill something similiar, the turn it down to get the surfaces of the holes exposed, then put them in a EDM machine to cut the angles so that the rollers would stay in. Those EDM are something as well.
