learning CNC machining from books

[nagjames]

Hi All,


I've been thinking about a carreer change for a while. I used to be a
computer programmer but in the past 8 years I worked as a field service
engineer for telecommunications companies. Telecom is pretty much outsourced
to Asia and there are less and less opportunities. CNC machining interests me
very much and I deciced to learn it and open a machine shop. I picked up a few
MasterCam books along with a tutorial version of Mastercam and started to go through the examples.
This was good but I felt that I also have to understand G-code for
troubleshooting purposes. I'm learning it from Peter Smid's excellent book
(CNC Programming Handbook). The plan is to learn as much as I can without a
machine.
I also learn some Solidworks basics - I don't think this is crucial knowledge
but it's fun spending time with it.
The challenge is to get some handson machining skills. I'm planning to buy a
Haas Minimill and rent a small warehouse space and spend some time with it. I'd do
it full time for a few months. I've enough savings to buy the machine and
survive for 6 months. After that (or before) I may apply for a bank loan.
It would be logical to get a job in a machine shop first but I'm afraid I won't get near to any machine as a labourer. In other words I'd make
minimum wage with learning nothing. I've visited some machine shops here in
Vancouver,Canada and I think people are busy. Currently I'm still working for a
telecommunications firm. It's hard to make that first step.
I assume most of you had good maching skills when you opened your shop.
What do you think could I learn enough skills in 6 months with my minimill to
get started?

Thanks,
James

[ger21]

Originally Posted by nagjames The plan is to learn as much as I can without a machine.

Just my opinion, but the most important things to learn would be with the machine. With CNC, the machine will just do what you tell it. Without ever having used a machine, you have no reference. Books may get you in the ballpark, but aren't a replacement for real world experience.

[stupidog]

I'm afraid ger21 is right. You probably don't want to start with a CNC machine at all. You need to know the basics and it would be very tough to remember all the details without hands-on experience.
You could enroll in a machine shop night class to get a feel for the work and learn some fundamentals.

[phantomcow2]

are there any technical type schools around? Personally i would buy a hobbyist milling machine, manual. But a meaty one, like the industrial hobbies or the one from lathe masters.
I use a bridgeport often at school, i cant say my knowledge of how to operate a HF micro mill helps me great deal with the big boy mill .

[phantomcow2]

Oh, but theres a book we've got at school for masterCAM. Like "Lathe tutorials 9.1", its got a picture of a cnc lathe machining stuff and MASTERCAM written on it in techy type writing, i can get specifics tommorow. But thats a really good book

[nagjames]

Thanks for all the feedback I really appreciate it.
Gerry I totally agree with you. One cannot learn how to ride a bike from books :
)
But buying a minimill is a lot of money and investment. Therefore I try to learn
as much offline as I can. Once I have my machine I can focus on the handson skill and not on theory. Yes we have a technical school in Town but I feel it's not for me. I'd have to get credits for math or computer skills and it would take a year before I could touch a machine. Probably the best would be to get a job in
a machine shop for a while.
phantomcow2: I did some research on desktop mills like the Sherline and Taig and I'd really love to play with one. But I think I'd better spend that $2000 on a MasterCam upgrade. Lovely machines though. Were you referring to these MasterCam
books? http://www.emastercam.com/resources/ If not please let me know. I have
the Mill tutorial I agree these are good books.

[ger21]

Originally Posted by nagjames Probably the best would be to get a job in a machine shop for a while.

That's basically what I was trying to say.

[Caprirs]

As stated by the others, hands on is the only way to learn. Machining is a trade. I used to work for a CNC machine tool builder and traveled the country training dealers and customers. What I found was that teaching a machinist how to use a CNC takes a couple days or sometimes less. Someone who didn't know machining would require a week at least because they were not comfortable with the basics of the trade. The analogy would be learning to become an accountant by learning Excel.

CNC is knowledge is often heavily guarded knowledge and seen as some kind of job security by many. Thus, those "in the know" can be reluctant to teach others they work with due to some fear that the teacher becomes less valuable as more people learn. The reality is that once you know what you want the machine to do, learning the codes to make the machine move is easy. There's no witchcraft to it. Very simple and easy.

On the other hand, I do not believe that banishing novices to a dungeon of ancient manual machines for eons is correct either. A person needs to burn a couple bits and chase machining problems before learning how to chase machine issues. That just depends on your own learning curve.

[dertsap]

best thing too do is work in the field , there are a lot of shops locally (vancouver ) that are in need of operators , set up guys , programmers , stay away from bcit , from what ive seen come out of there over the years , waste of cash , best thing is hands on exp. without it you are destined for a lot of learning curves , books are good for reference only when it comes to cutting , there are far too many factors that that can throw theory in the toilet once the program , tools , fixturing , etc are in the machine , speeds and feeds depths of cuts can all be tweaked either way , listen to the cutter there are sweet sounds and there are some ugly you learn what sounds best , this comes with experience , anyone can take a drawing and create code but is it going to work , half the battle is the aproach , what tools what fixturing , which machine , most of us worked from the ground up , started in the deburring dept. it doesn t take long if your bright to work up in the right company , to learn what you need in six months is questionable , this is a forever learning trade where there are only so many truely good machinists

[dertsap]

hass make a nice toolroom mill that is cheap ( price of a car ) a guy i used to work with set one up in his car garage at home , and is doing production , one less expense to worry about if your starting out

[phil burman]

Originally Posted by nagjames I worked as a field service engineer for telecommunications companies. Telecom is pretty much outsourced to Asia and there are less and less opportunities.

Thats a neat trick. If they have found away to out-source field service work to Asia then a lot more of us are in big trouble.

Regards
Phil :drowning:

[HuFlungDung]

I would not take the approach of buying a new machine, playing with it and then hoping for work to come in. It takes several years to get going that way, and you need a job to survive with while you learn and acquire some customers.

If you are an entrepeneur with a product project in mind, that is a different ballgame. Then, you get to be designer, machinist, programmer and quality control all by yourself. That is how you learn tolerances, fixturing and customer satisfaction.

You can likely count on needing a lathe almost immediately as well as the mill.

Working in a job shop would be good experience, if someone will have you at the beginner level. Still, that kind of training can be haphazard as well, if there is no official training plan in place.

Ask yourself "Do I have a mechanical apptitude"? This has a lot to do with whether you can fix your own machinery, make good fixtures and safe setups as well as work safely on your own.