Fastxr...

Thanks... the reason I spent the $$$ on the new machines is because my home machine shop turned into a day job. Oh… and... your parts went out today.

Dustin...

Nope... no training as a machinist. I learned as I needed. I do have a few buddies that are in the trade who have shown me a few of their "Tips-n-Tricks" and that has helped. But, it's not that hard with modern equipment. Most cutting tool manufacturers (the endmills, the sharp thing that is actually cutting) will tell you how fast you can feed their tools, and you start to get a feel for it as you run parts. I guess I need to add, that the old timer's in the industry were VERY SKILLED!! to operate a manual machine, and produce a good part is not easy. Or, even on the older CNC or NC machines... it took skill to make them make a good part. But now... I have a digital probe that can find my part, and measure it to a few microns. The probe is actually more precise than the machine could ever be. I also have a digital tool setter. I can tell the CNC control to "Touch off" all my tools. It will do it automatically, and when it’s done... it knows what all my tools are. (takes a few minutes) In the old days... you would manually have to set every tool, and could take 30 minutes or more. Then, if you screwed up... you would make bad parts. Last thing... I'm not making parts for aerospace either. If I have a few thousandths tolerance... I'm fine for the stuff I'm making.

So, really... I'm not that good... I just have good machines, and computers do all the work. The industry now has gone from being a “Machinist” (skilled trade) to an operator. (button pusher) The real skill is in the engineering, and the CNC program writing. And having a background in Physics, and Chemistry helps there. Not to mention, I like to get my hands dirty, and work on my stuff.