I am a certified button pusher, and boy, I f*cked up tonight :/

We’ve all been there. Advice and support from the machining community below…

Top comments include:

• “Stuff like this sucks, but I’m pretty sure every single machinist has made a bone headed mistake a time or 50. Stuff like this is how you learn what to (or not to) do in the future 😆”

• “this one guy at my job just fucks around til he finds out He just tries something out and whoops there goes the work piece, well gotta feed it a little less next time. For some reason he is both the most efficient but also the one to break the most stuff 😂”

• “Can’t tell you how many times shit like this happened to me when I was first learning. Among others too lol. I still make mistakes now just fewer and way less costly but take the advice from the senior guys. Ask questions. You’ll go far. The fact you realized this and asked says enough bub. Keep at it.”

• “I’m not trying to be difficult, & I support having to find ur way through situations to get things done, but changing a plc for a machining error is not something a novice operator (not programmer) should be advised to do unsupervised. Move on to the next detail or text someone for help FROM work & bite the bullet instead of compounding the mistake by trying to "fix" it without 100% certainty! lol or risk getting fired if something goes really wrong & he crashes”

• “If you just started in November I highly recommend you don’t touch the parameters on your machine and let maintenance deal with it!”

• “If you want to bail out of a threading cycle part way through, just hit reset when you're physically clear, jog tool to a convenient position and start the cycle again”

• “Depending on what generation control your Mazak has, they have the ability to a interrupted jog cycle allowing you to jog the machine away while the cycle is still active. Based on what you are saying I assume you were still in process. Threading cycles on Mazaks do NOT allow you to feed hold until the pass is complete, so if you were somehow stopping it during its pass before it finished, it is likely it tried to return to its position. In these situations, single block and the spindle override is your best friend. Once you realize your mistake, hit single block and allow it to go to the end of the pass of next block of code. Once it is there, turn the rapid down to 5% or what ever the smallest increment is. Then, turn your spindle override down to 10% or 0%. Once the tool is clear of the work piece, feed hold and then reset”

• “The man who never made a mistake.. Never made anything…”

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Hot Take

Top comments include:

• “I agree! Just slow sf/m, plenty of coolant, but cutting oil is much better. Will smoke up the shop a bit, but goes much quicker. I use a shop VAC next to my cutting, with a wet down old sock rubber banned to the exhaust, and 99% of all smoke eradicated!....try it.”

• “I prefer annular drills but they Work too”

  • “Annular drills are better, but bit more costly in this size.”

• “If you get the carbide tipped ones, they work amazing. I use them to punch holes into brake pad material.”

• “I’ve used them a lot for steel. Goes right thru if you run it slow.”

• “I used to be one of those who turned their noses up at hole saws. I saw them as for wood or plastic. However, in the past few years I have changed my view and have used them for jobs similar to the one illustrated.”

• “I’ve used hole saws often to cut a blank disc out of plate material. Just hang partial teeth over the edge to clear out chips as it grinds steadily through. Modified hole saws have bailed me out of many situations over my career.”

• “I mean, if it saves you time doing the job, why not?

  Drilling is the single most efficient way to remove material, and not all jobs need to be spade drilled and milled out, a hole saw is a great way to plow a bunch of material out of relatively thin materials (2 inches or thinner is what I would aim for most of the time, they don't always do so well in the cut for too long on harder stuff, but you do what you gotta do).

  A proper machinist will use what they have to do what needs doing, even if it means turning something you have INTO a tool or fixture to do said job, a proper tool is never off limits as long as it works for the job.”

• “Used a carbide toothed hole saw as a sparky but then wondered how well it would do as a face mill. Touched up the teeth on my tool cutter grinder and wow, mirror finish in 4140. $2 from aliexpress and a little after care turned into my go-to facemill.”

Impressive Picture of the Day

Top comments include:

• Why would this ever be needed? I’m sure you have to spin that at like 250k and feed at .0000000000000000001 😆

• “I remember Japan claimed to have the smallest drill .It was sent to Rolls Royce and they drilled a hole in it and sent it back”

• “Wow, that's small. I once swaged 0.010" hypodermic tubing down on 0.001" tungsten wire for an injector project in a research lab, if you dropped the wire don't even bother trying to find it, you won't be able to see it on the floor!!”

• “What goes in the damn hole? A piece of a hair split in 12 pieces? Good lawd!”

• “Many blow moulds have venting holes drilled where air traps in blowing.The material was normally Stavax ,a tool steel.We would normally do it by hand.About 2 mm deep to meet a larger hole to exhaust easier.”

• “Used to use an .008" drill for the fuel injector nozzles on the Gardner diesel engines.”

• “From experience, you must get the feeds and speeds from the tool salesman. One shot, straight in and straight out no pecking. Don't hold back on the feed at the beggining of the hole, let it go full speed or it will break. I drilled a small plate with hundreds of these holes and it worked flawlessly. I would use a shrink fit tool. Collets run out and will break the tool. Be extra carefull when picking up your depth if you do that manually.”

• “Yeah, i own a few of these and broken plenty. There are tricks to make them less likely to break. The surface where you intend to use it, make it as true as possible. Use something that evaporates quickly as lube, like alcohol in a spray bottle. It whicks the heat fast. High RPM, and SLOW SLOW feed. Super slow.

  If you can dent the surface with a steel sowing pin and clear the dent of anything even better. Good luck.”

• “Use highest possible rpm, and minuscule feed rate.”

  Join the Conversation Here

Funny Post of the Day 🤣🤣🤣

Machinists with questions or advice 🤔

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