How many people know what a milling machine is?

[jayz53121]

Nobody usually knows what I am talking about if I talk CNC lathes or mills, sometimes someone will have some high school shop experience....

[capri01]

No one is interested in learning this anymore. Knowledge not shared is lost.

Web is a wonderful place to share your knowledge. If you want to share what you have, present it over the web. You will find out that there are so many skill seekers are around the world looking for right place to learn. If you already have a website post it.

[JOHN PARSONS]

The United States manufacturing base, is based in China.
The future of manufacturing in America is in China.
EVERYTHING IS MADE IN CHINA!!!!!
Japanese made goods were junk in the 1960s
That changed, China's junk rep will change too.
Dirtsheep lives in a bubble, he's never been out of town.

can't say that i blame them and I hope I'm doing good enough as a father so that my kids won't have to either . but many young people will be doing it out of love for tinkering or the fact they don't fit in a white collar world , and this is where i agree 100% with your statement that its best to try to help others along if they want to learn

as long as there are people who enjoy it then there will always be someone to teach it (properly). this trade will never die , it's only going to continue to evolve as it has from the start

technology
gotta love it

,

[dertsap]

The United States manufacturing base, is based in China.
The future of manufacturing in America is in China.
EVERYTHING IS MADE IN CHINA!!!!!
Japanese made goods were junk in the 1960s
That changed, China's junk rep will change too.
Dirtsheep lives in a bubble, he's never been out of town.

i have zero understanding as to why you would feel the need to be rude .
if you feel the need to attack me because i haven't given up and buried my head in the sand as you have then that is your problem . the world will simply pass you by ,

[JOHN PARSONS]

i have zero understanding as to why you would feel the need to be rude .
if you feel the need to attack me because i haven't given up and buried my head in the sand as you have then that is your problem . the world will simply pass you by ,

I work in Santa Clara, California (Silicon Valley)
I know first hand what China is doing to the manufacturing industry, you live where?

[MrWild]

I work in Santa Clara, California (Silicon Valley)
I know first hand what China is doing to the manufacturing industry, you live where?

I worked in Santa Clara too. Knowing the wages that need to be spent to support a factory worker in Santa Clara, it's a wonder it was able to support that base as late as the 80s. I live in Wisconsin. Things are very bad here also. Case tractors swallowed International Harvestor closed it's factories, then shuttered the Case foundry, transmission and assembly plants and now import the tractors they brand as "Case." We still have Case/IH "International head quarters" though. Walker Forge is gone. AMC is gone, and Chrysler shuttered the engine plant which was all that was left of AMC's auto plant. Jacobson lawn and power equipment is gone. These are just the big ones. Most of the little ones are gone now too.

I bought some tooling last Winter from a failing machine shop located in an industrial park in Milwaukee. Driving through the streets saw building after buildings closed and shuttered or with a few cars in parking lots meant for fifty. Wisconsin labor costs are or were 2/3 of Santa Clara's costs. About half of production has gone to Mexico. Some has gone to Canada, but only a small part. The rest is in Asia, but some of it, maybe 1/4 or a bit better has died.

What killed it? We did. The CEOs did, the workers did, the Board did, the government did, the people that demanded cheap and accepted junk did. All of us did. We were told we were going to change from a manufacturing base to a service based economy and no one asked how we were going to survive. There is an old story of two Laundry services in an old gold mining town. The gold had been tapped but they liked it where they were and decided they were going to stay. They came to terms that each would launder the other's clothes at $100 a shirt. They died millionaires.

That's what we've been sold and too many believed it would happen. All that's left are the bitter sweet tears of the Dragon.

By the way Dersap is Canadian. Don't poop on people you have no idea who they are or their stories. It makes you look like a whiner.

[JOHN PARSONS]

Look at the ads for machinist under manufacturing on Craigs list for the SF Bay area, I'm sure there are more jobs here than where you live.
Dertsheep has 3,000 posts=no life in Canada.

I worked in Santa Clara too. Knowing the wages that need to be spent to support a factory worker in Santa Clara, it's a wonder it was able to support that base as late as the 80s. I live in Wisconsin. Things are very bad here also. Case tractors swallowed International Harvestor closed it's factories, then shuttered the Case foundry, transmission and assembly plants and now import the tractors they brand as "Case." We still have Case/IH "International head quarters" though. Walker Forge is gone. AMC is gone, and Chrysler shuttered the engine plant which was all that was left of AMC's auto plant. Jacobson lawn and power equipment is gone. These are just the big ones. Most of the little ones are gone now too.

I bought some tooling last Winter from a failing machine shop located in an industrial park in Milwaukee. Driving through the streets saw building after buildings closed and shuttered or with a few cars in parking lots meant for fifty. Wisconsin labor costs are or were 2/3 of Santa Clara's costs. About half of production has gone to Mexico. Some has gone to Canada, but only a small part. The rest is in Asia, but some of it, maybe 1/4 or a bit better has died.

What killed it? We did. The CEOs did, the workers did, the Board did, the government did, the people that demanded cheap and accepted junk did. All of us did. We were told we were going to change from a manufacturing base to a service based economy and no one asked how we were going to survive. There is an old story of two Laundry services in an old gold mining town. The gold had been tapped but they liked it where they were and decided they were going to stay. They came to terms that each would launder the other's clothes at $100 a shirt. They died millionaires.

That's what we've been sold and too many believed it would happen. All that's left are the bitter sweet tears of the Dragon.

By the way Dersap is Canadian. Don't poop on people you have no idea who they are or their stories. It makes you look like a whiner.

[dertsap]

Look at the ads for machinist under manufacturing on Craigs list for the SF Bay area, I'm sure there are more jobs here than where you live.
Dertsheep has 3,000 posts=no life in Canada.

every so often I get an inbred clown like you that feels the need to attack me out of the blue and for no reason .
I can no longer bother myself by replying to idiots like you
yes i have 3000+ posts and that is because i enjoy sharing and receiving a wealth of knowledge about a trade that I am passionate about with people who I consider as friends even though I may never have the pleasure of meeting them face to face

why are you here ?


.

[Boots]

I was told once that a Miller was an insect that flies around a light bulb at night and gets eaten by bats.
Guess I'd better change my occupation so as I don't get eaten also.

[amontgom]

I told a girl that I made parts for airplanes, and she asked why they didn't just go buy them.

it sounds like the blond i had last week.. ( are you in Everett ,WA??)
maybe we know the same girl... i know that they are not all that dumb..


they seem to be getting more and more stupid as time goes by.. perhaps a product of the fast food age..or just dumbing down..

i saw a kid last week actually looking for the keypad to flip a switch.. ( really!!)

welcome to the age of negative progress..... "retro-progressive"?
that's the name we should call them.. it sounds more PC.. than village idiot.


for me however i still have my hydraulic duplicator machine. among my collection of other toys.. ( 4 heads . slap a part in one station and it makes cuts on 4 stations..
no real brains at all.. "and the monkey flips the switch.... "

i often get confused with a mad scientist or a terrorist.. but i do much more than a machinist anyway... but they seem to do it better anyway.. more practice i think..
( always a good thing to have a friendly machinist in your neighborhood...)

[amontgom]

sometimes it is better to let those idiots chatter and complain..
it shows their true nature.. and maybe we can peer into the root of their discontent.. discovering the source of their real problem..

dertsap, my friend, keep up the good work.. we can let them bang their heads on the brick walls for a while.. until they either come to their senses or go away..

i personally get a laugh out of reading some of the utter lunacy that is posted here ..

and some of the flames are quite humorous too...

there is no need to lower yourself .. let them stay in the mud and detritus.. we need something to step on in order to keep out feet clean and dry..



and remember that critics always target those that are better then themselves..

you have a lot of friends here .. and as you can see a lot of support...

no good deed goes unpunished.. but occasionally you can see the rewards....

every so often I get an inbred clown like you that feels the need to attack me out of the blue and for no reason .
I can no longer bother myself by replying to idiots like you
yes i have 3000+ posts and that is because i enjoy sharing and receiving a wealth of knowledge about a trade that I am passionate about with people who I consider as friends even though I may never have the pleasure of meeting them face to face

why are you here ?


.

[amontgom]

we do seem to share an addiction.. perhaps ..

fortunately there is a strong machinists union that has become very public in this area.. so people here tend to know a bit more about the milling machines..

when i started they were called rotary filing machines.. and this was improved over the years.. then some moron decided to pace an x/y table onto a drill press and
that got the whole ball started... another guy put the drill on its side .. that was a horizontal milling machine.. there were many improvements..
then the war brought the knee mill and god help us it was on.. in the 70's some home inventor adapted his manual mill to hydraulic control..
in the 80s hydraulic shifted to servo.. and life has gotten better and faster since...

but people have gotten dumber as we have gone along..... retro-progression...


i have been retrofitting large cnc machines for some time..
and have built a collection of monster servos too.. but they all seem to have tach encoders on their asses.. which is nice because the heavy current driver cards all seem do be tach based.. but for the newer controller programs spit out step and direction.. not so much differential (+/- 10vdc) ..
and motion cards are still overpriced...

and fewer still the cards are not so compatible with emc2 or for that matter mach3....

i am playing around with this method to demonstrate the possibility of swapping out the tach for an optical encoder ..
and using a monster motor with the newer software... this is not a new idea .. i'm just getting to it now... and proving a point .. that it can be done cheaply..

i know the people at leadshine /lead tech... ( wife is Chinese) and i am playing with a few of their designs..... so far they are only interested in motor up to nema 23 / nema 24 ..( as one of their techs calls them) ..
hitting in the industrial market puts them out of their comfort zone..
but if you fatten up the output mosfets and re-rate them ;these "toys" can play with the big boys...

the driver amplifier circuit is simple.. it is the newer interface that is the dicy thing..

when i first started my research into this . about 15 years ago .. the net was still in its infancy.. and there has been a lot of progress in the dissemination of related technical information.. the newer products have been documented .. but the older robust .. and somewhat arcane circuits have been left in the scrap heap... what a waste...

and being from the rust belt .. i know of about 500 machinists with empty pockets and older manual and cnc machines that are being routinely robbed ( edited for g rating) by the repair techs.. without so much as a kiss and a slap on the back of the head..

my thought is .. if we can adapt the older technology to work with the new software and do it cheaply and document the path .. then the broke machinists and home hobbyists can start to make newer products cheaply here .. and we can develop new products to sell to the world..

the Chinese are great copiers.. but rarely stretch their necks to actually design anything new.. this is a societal condition that is reinforced by the fact that those who think freely get punished there.. free thinkers are usually outcasts.. and that in Chinese culture is a bad thing...

great for us.. bad for them... it will save us in the long run..

there is a happy medium... and we will get there.. .
so much for my two cents..

my current major project is converting an old american eagle cnc mill.
it will go to a local medical research non profit...
it is based on a YCI..YCM-42 Supermax manual mill..
with an Anilam crusader -m cnc controller .. ( old not very functional piece of dung)
cannot do contours at all..

i am a few parts from having it done..

this,,among other projects that actually pay money..