How many people know what a milling machine is?

[Geof]

.....looking at a JCB- I was so lost in thought as to how you would make one from scratch.....

You don't need to look at something that big. How are hearing aid batteries made, come to think of it how are hearing aids made? Big things I can visualize making but teeny tiny things sometimes puzzle me.

[christinandavid]

So which is more incredible? Nanotechnology manufactured by our modern technomages or the megalithic structures created in ancient times before the invention of the wheel?

DP

[The Blight]

It's kind of the same when you ask someone if they have a hobby. Not sports, and not something to just pass time. Having a hobby that involves milling machines, and you are in it is probably less then 0.01% of the population.

Whenever I ask someone how they got the education they have (mostly highly educated people), they all tell me "it sounded OK" or "they make a lot of money". Kind of sad.

I'm a precision mechanic, and there is almost no one who knows what that is. I got my teacher to show me hand scraping, and other cool stuff that most people (not even machinists) know what is. I feel sad at knowing about the amount of information and skills that have been lost over time.

About girls and mechanics. My girlfriend knows a lot about machine tools, and she helps me quite a bit with projects (suggestions mostly, but she will also help out if I need an extra hand). I bet that there are just as few girls that will do that, as there are girls that know what a milling machine is. One of the new apprentices where I work is a girl, and shes fairly good. So I guess there is hope

One last funny thing. Before I started on my education as a machinist, I made spudguns and air rifles, and I had the need for something to cut plastic. Out from this I drew a XY table in a 3D program made for making maps for games, and was planning on using a drill press as the spindle. I had no idea there was something called a milling machine, and so I had just planned on using drill bits for cutting (I know it would not have worked, but the theory was at least partly right). Never got around to it (luckily) before moving to Denmark to take the machinist education. I knew what a lathe was though.

Just noticed one more funny thing while reading some of the posts in this topic. This forum is one of few places on the net, where most people use punctuation, and correct spelling.

[Rohan2008]

About girls and mechanics. My girlfriend knows a lot about machine tools, and she helps me quite a bit with projects (suggestions mostly, but she will also help out if I need an extra hand). I bet that there are just as few girls that will do that, as there are girls that know what a milling machine is. One of the new apprentices where I work is a girl, and shes fairly good. So I guess there is hope

I suppose we have more hope on the way:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/l...ow/6432117.cms

I think it is we who think that girls don't like mechanics when they "pretend" not to get attracted to guys who are good with tools & gadgets

[Sikspens]

Anyone ever considered this very principal difference between the two - in lathes the tool is stationary while the work is spinning, in a mill the work is held stationary while the tool is spinning.

Not very earth-shattering, but still, makes one contemplate doesn't it?

[M60Flipper]

Yeah, considering the two milling seems more logical to me, the cutter should move, instead of the material. Maybe that's why I detest turning as much as I do.

[ImanCarrot]

Also, you can use a Mil as a lathe by clamping the part in the spindle and the tool to the bed, but you can't use a lathe as a mill- well not on mine anyways.

[M60Flipper]

Also, you can use a Mil as a lathe by clamping the part in the spindle and the tool to the bed, but you can't use a lathe as a mill- well not on mine anyways.

This is true. That reminds me of how this one coworker in the lathe dept. would always wander over to me in the mill dept. and go on and on about lathes with live tooling. He would rave about it to no end like it was some kind of miracle. I got him to shut the hell up by saying "What so special about that? In the mill the tooling is always 'live'!"

[Sikspens]

Actually Imancarrot, you can mill on a lathe quite easily. You would normally need an attachment which is like an angle plate with a cross slide hanging on the vertical face. This angle plate is bolted on where your compound slide usually mounts. You clamp the cutter in the lathe chuck, and move the clamped work forwards and back, up and down, and left-right with the lathe's saddle wheels. Kind of horizontal milling, I guess.

Wish I had a photo - a picture's worth a thousand words!

[Khalid]

Actually Imancarrot, you can mill on a lathe quite easily. You would normally need an attachment which is like an angle plate with a cross slide hanging on the vertical face. This angle plate is bolted on where your compound slide usually mounts. You clamp the cutter in the lathe chuck, and move the clamped work forwards and back, up and down, and left-right with the lathe's saddle wheels. Kind of horizontal milling, I guess.

Wish I had a photo - a picture's worth a thousand words!

Actually, we are using Milling attachments on our Lathe but it not fulfill all the milling requirements

[Geof]

Here you are, lotsa pictures.

http://www.shopwiki.com/lathe+milling+attachment