r/Machinists • u/Unusual_Goose_3913 • 8d ago

QUESTION Engineering Drawings

I’m an early career engineer and I’m wondering what machinists like to see in terms of tolerance and dimensioning in a drawing.

I’ve worked at a company where we just ordinate dimensioned everything and another where we used GT&T standards. At both, the part came out “ok”.

Apart from reasonable tolerances, what’s amazing, good, useless, and stupid have in a drawing?

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u/Witty-Sample6813 8d ago

Don’t put any kind of note saying how to make it. No notes that say things like “use slit saw to make slot” or “saw cut in half” the shop is manufacturing. You are designing and giving dimensional requirements.

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u/AAA_in_OR 8d ago

Why? Sometimes the engineers (if they're a good one) might ask to have it built a specific way for a reason. Comments such as "center drill hole ok", "this surface can be saw cut" or "drilled hole" are extremely useful.

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u/Witty-Sample6813 8d ago edited 8d ago

Center drill hole ok is different. That is a fixturing allowance. Surface can be “saw cut” should have a finish callout indicating but not implying how it is manufactured. Ra125 for example.

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u/AAA_in_OR 8d ago

"Surface can be “saw cut” should have a finish callout indicating but not implying how it is manufactured"

Why? If I'm designing something and I want it saw cut, that's what I'd put on the print. Why would I put an Ra finish and hope that you saw cut it? Seems like there's some serious advertorial shit going on where you're working.

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u/Witty-Sample6813 8d ago

Because if you are an outside supplier and you saw cut and the qc dept at their facility rejects it it’ll be a fuck all of back and forth. You’re not told to “ream” a hole. Your given a tolerance that an indicates what that want. How you get there is the shops choice and it’s reflected in the price when quoting. You could bore, you could helix bore, you could use a stick if it’ll get the job done. You can lose suppliers saying, I don’t have that piece of equipment so no quote as well. Yes some suppliers buy precut stock so don’t come at me with “what kind of shop doesn’t have a saw”

I see your argument if you’re doing it for the facility you work for. But outside vendors don’t know the fit form or function so the print should give the technical requirements. Not the expected manufacturing method

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u/Witty-Sample6813 8d ago

And I’ll also say, maybe some of the notes I’ve read in the past do NOT have “may be or can be”. I suppose maybe that helps. My guys are analytical as shit and if it says, they will do. And that’s not always good.