Starter Projects for a Novice?

[Minesgeek]

Hello All,

I'm fairly new to the machining realm, and I'd like to find a few projects to take me from having wet feet to 6ft under water (preferably in small steps ). I'm a senior engineering student @ the Colorado School of Mines, and have taken one machining course. I was hoping for suggestions and/or plans for projects to help me gain some experience. Here are my resources:

Taig (just now cnc) mill
South Bend 10k lathe
Access to the school's shop with larger machines and more tooling.

Any advice or comments would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

P.S.
I originally posted this in the General Metal Working Machines forum by mistake, sorry for the double post.

[bradodarb]

I am new to the metal side of machining, and after acquiring a knee mill I started out with just trying to make a perfect cube. It was good to see the tolerances of my machine and gain experience of proper feeds and speeds. I know it sounds painfully simple but I think it was a good start. Start by mastering simple operations that you can combine later into more complex parts. Being a mining engineer, maybe you should try some scaled down machinery from your industry or prototyping a new machine. I guess that would depend whether you are leaning on more the mech side or the process side of your engineering. Making upgraded parts for your machines is always satisfying too, good luck.

[JH-Q]

Here might be an useful project for mill use. How about making adjustable stopper for workpieces? As for single pieces this doesn't help, it significally reduces time and work to set up multiple parts for machining.

I just finished mine some minutes ago, i have drawings included here. Note: i have forgotten some dimensions, luckily they are not so critical so you can decide them yourself. I also made quite a bit changes during the making of mine so it is NOT exactly the same as in drawings. This one is really solid one, when i clamp it to the table it stays just where i want it and doesn't move at all.

[Minesgeek]

Thanks!

Looks useful, I've been thinking of a project where I need to make several identical parts, that would really help!

-Nick

[tmt_92021]

try making a 1-2-3 block.

[Minesgeek]

Originally Posted by bradodarb Being a mining engineer, maybe you should try some scaled down machinery from your industry or prototyping a new machine. I guess that would depend whether you are leaning on more the mech side or the process side of your engineering. Making upgraded parts for your machines is always satisfying too, good luck.

Although the name is misleading... the Colorado School of Mines is an engineering school, not solely a mining school. Not to hassle you about it (because the name is misleading - It also sounds a lot like the school of Mimes when you talk to people) just for your information. I'm actually an Engineering Physics student, and will be going to the graduate school next year to get my M.S. in Mechanical Engineering.