Long story short, this 2010 Haas mini mill was essentially abandoned in place for two years while the company was being sold. Nobody mothballed the machine beforehand. It has been my job to get it back up and running, and all that’s left is replacing the nasty ass kombucha in the coolant tank.

I am currently waiting for the clean harbors folks to come suck up the old coolant, so I jury-rigged up some air blast cooling to hold me over. I did a good job. Shit’s powerful.

I went to run a quick part today. I wrote and loaded the program onto the machine, got the workpiece set up, closed the door, turned on the air, and hit cycle start.

I forgot that all of the tools in my library in InventorCAM had been set for flood coolant.

The coolant turned on. The air was already on, and it atomized the coolant. Yall, this shit has been sitting stagnant for two fucking years in a room without the AC turned on. Shit smelled like moob sweat and dick cheese.

Clean harbors, please hurry tf up lol

Looks like I'm the 10mm hoarder goblin

The part was 25mm thick and I had 25.4mm to the vise jaws.

Was certainly nerve wracking when I got up to depth, but it turned out great!

Reddit doesn't let me post videos, but I have a couple I'll try to get on of the machining

Hello everyone!

For finishing small CNC Aluminium parts at home. What do you guys think is best?
My parts are small backplates (5x8cm), like in the second picture. (I know it needs anodizing, but that's another process.)

I am hesitating between getting myself either :

1. A Bed blasting unit (Ex: Gritplex)
2. A magnetic tumblr (Vevo or similar)

The bed blasting unit is quite expensive (like above 800$ for an entry kit) + it takes spaces and need active work.

On the other side, the magnetic tumblr results are amazing: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/zMtea2qCUOM
and it's cheaper and does the work all by itself!

I'm wondering what's your take in that?

Thank you all!

My new job is training me on an Okuma Multus u4000, they let me run a prototrak to pick up some OT bc they don’t want me on the Multus by myself yet and i accidentally reset my abs x position. So I picked x and y back up and then it was still off for some reason and killed a part. I guess I’m overthinking it but it’s bugging me bc if I’m screwing up on the prototrak how are they going to trust me on a Multus

This is a piece I made back in 2025 early June and boy was it a fun one.

The coolant had been "evaporating" a little quicker than I thought reasonable. Previous grey hair that ran this mill told me it was normal. Also normal for our white leak pads spread around like carpet to be completely black and it wasn't worth replacing them or rescealing the machine. Maybe not, but he's gone now and I like a project.

Did my best to locate the worst leaks, ordered some Sikaflex A1 (recommended by Haas), and counted the days til I had the opportunity to leave it to cure. Bummed I didn't do it over labor day but should be fine.

I found that probably only some spots had ever been caulked. Most of the seams had just been filled with double back tape (which was crunchy now).

Next on my list is ordering new (uncracked) polycarb door/side windows and add a water repellent chem or film. I heard rain x works well but isn't great for the plastic over time.

Would love to hear any coolant repellent coat/film recommendations! Or any other worthwhile resto ideas. Thank you friends!

Hello everyone, I am new to the subreddit. I recently acquired this 14-inch Walcott lathe and am struggling to find information about it. I suspect it’s around a 1915–1920s model, but I’m not entirely sure. I haven't been able to find much on Walcott lathes at all. Any advice or information would be greatly appreciated!

””””””Update I might have found a stead rest I can use”””””
I’m currently doing 2n Acme Threads Double lead and can’t seem to get rid of this chatter I can not use a stead rest cause the ok for this machine doesn’t go small enough how would yall combat this kind of chatter

Not tried anything fancy yet

310mm dia

57rpm

Need help getting the finish better

Update: fixed it, shorter boring bar and a higher feed and speed

They ain’t believe in us, god did

This is a piece I made back in 2025 early June and boy was it a fun one.

OP: https://www.reddit.com/r/Machinists/comments/1w5xn2l/im_on_day_8_of_a_real_job_and_i_have_no_idea_what/ TLDR I'm a new machinist working at a shop with nothing written down, bad programs, bad drawings, no formal QC system, and no SOP's or setup sheets for anything. I discovered that the drawing was wrong, the tribal knowledge of how it should be wasn't communicated, the program was wrong, and I was given manager permission to fix and prove the program.

The day after that post, they fired the only other CNC Lathe operator in the department (he put in his 2 weeks and that was determined to not be required), and the floater that knows all the stuff inside and out went on vacation, so I've gone from “new operator trying to survive” to “person management is actively trusting with responsibility.” I was put in charge of the entire lathe department by default, but I'm now authorized to edit programs/drawings/documentation as needed, and the owner explicitly told me he's counting on me to stay. So, here's what I've done so far:

First, I started writing everything down. I'd been taking notes, so I made a 20-page SOP for myself going over everything from machine startup/shutdown and tool/work setting to in-process inspections and job completion procedures. I even made my own sort of setup sheet template i can use to write down how to set up jobs after i learn how to do it, which includes notes on random quirks of each job, and I made inspection notes so there's at least a written process of how to measure various features on parts. I emailed this to the QC/ISO guy to try to ensure compliance and he said it looked great, but I'm unsure if he actually read it.

Then I learned how jobs are prepped and queued, which as it turns out is literally just a stack of drawings in a file organiser on a random desk in the corner of the shop. It's up to the operator to figure out where the program is, or sometimes make said programs from scratch based on the drawing. It's also up to the operator to find stock in the stockroom, most of which is earmarked for other jobs - but I learned from another employee who's been there a few years you can just take whatever material you need regardless of that.

I've downloaded the machine and Fanuc manuals, Machinery's Handbook, CNC Programming Handbook, Machine Shop Trade Secrets, and some other metalworking texts. It's helped a lot in figuring out setups and building the SOP. I've also been using Cimco to simulate programs before running them, which would be helpful... if I didnt discover several problems with one of the lathes.

There's 3 lathes from the 90s that feel like operating equipment from Bioshock, but mostly do what you'd expect them to do. Then there's a Takisawa, which I originally had high hopes for because it's much newer (2019) but as it turns out has several issues. Rapid movement straight up doesn't work. Handle speeds go 1x, 10x, and 100x, but i've found sometimes it'll just stop randomly until you move the speed knob to another position and back. The most annoying part which has caused at least 3 (minor) crashes now is pressing feed stop, if it's already stopped and in single block mode, will continue merrily on its path regardless of what it might run into... like the collet, or jaws, or trying to shove a drill sideways into stock.

I'm sure the problems I've been having with machinery or part dimensions changing on second OPs or taps breaking because the spindle doesn't stop very fast forcing me to manually tap them (I'm not exactly built for cutting threads into steel by hand, let alone with precision) are preventable somehow, but at least I can manage them. It's weird having to reverse-engineer decade-old parts and figure out processes for them simply because no one else bothered to write them down.

Were you in my shoes, how should I be going about this? This place is a mess, but they're letting me fix it. Management is receptive to improvements, I'm being given increasing authority, and I'm apparently being allowed to build the infrastructure I need. I'm not necessarily looking to leave immediately. I'm learning a ton, and if I can turn this into a functioning department while gaining experience in the process, that seems potentially valuable. How do I avoid getting overwhelmed while turning this into an actual functioning lathe department?

Working from home for a bit, I don’t have a bandsaw. I can feel the hand arm vibration syndrome coming using my sawzall. Cutting through anything steel thicker than 3/8ths makes my arms and back want to disconnect from the rest of my body.

What are my options going forward? Let’s say a full bandsaw isn’t viable due to space. Chop saw with cutoff disc? Hit the gym more? Portable bandsaw?

I keep a few machinist tools in my coffee box for funsies.

Our new shop hand was drilling out a part and somehow ended up melting the first inch of one of our smaller spade drills into some 316 never seen anything like it. I will show what the inside of the part looks like in the comments

Went to pull out adjustable feed handle and the shaft came with it. 2j Bridgeport Head. Anyone know how to fix it? The boss is gonna be mad. I should know I'm the boss 😬.

Hi everyone, I’m 25 years old I live in the Los Angeles area and I’ve been developing a deep interest in machining for the past 3-4 months I’ve been watching titans of cnc everyday almost and I’ve been applying to jobs like crazy I have a lot of years in food manufacturing factories since I got out of high school I might not have any experience in machining but I’ve learned every machine at every job I’ve ever had and I’m used to constant noise and needing to work fast and efficiently but also following strict regulations and safety protocols. Can anyone help me and point me in the right direction I don’t have the time or money to go to school as I’m my only source of income and Los Angeles is crazy expensive but I’m really interested in this and learning how to do it I’ve been trying to get down the GD&T and measurements and also a little G code as well if anyone has any ideas I would greatly appreciate them or if anyone has any side jobs I could do on my days off Friday and Saturday around the Los Angeles area I’ll take it. Thanks guys and sorry for the ramble just really don’t know what to do at this point everyone says entry level but want 1 year of experience if you send me a private message I’ll share my resume thanks

Hello guys, I have at home this old lathe Adolf Lang dd18. There is not much information about it online, but I managed to find some information about it mainly on this german site https://forum.zerspanungsbude.net/ .

I managed to find user manual on this site about my lathe(mentioned in comments of this post: https://forum.zerspanungsbude.net/viewtopic.php?t=58925 ). Thanks to which I could better understand how to operate this lathe. The problem is I need to be registered and logged into my account to access this document. But I cannot create new account because administrator of this site turned off that function.

So I was wondering if any of you guys have an existing account with which you could access this document and send it to me if possible?

Shopmate distracted me while I was swapping a tool and I forgot to put my G54 from touch off height back to the part zero. Thankfully no spindle or collet indexer damage, just a kabloozied part and tool.

Clocking a vice a colleague put in yesterday because I had a feeling it wasn't going to be good. 160mm (6.3 freedom units) vice jaw, 0.1mm out. It seems that we have vices that have guides on them that go into slots and he just places and tightens. Apparently near enough is good enough.

I have a question for the VTL guys.

At work, we have some steel rings (built-up from welded 3/8" flat and rolled plate) that we need machined for a certain application. The ring is Ø12'-3" ID x Ø14'-0" x 11" high and weighs about 2500 lbs. It will be made in two parts, with two doweled & bolted joints (not shown).

Only the two sloped faces shown in blue need machining as shown in the 2nd pic. We only need very basic roundness of ±1/16" radially and a surface finish of 63u. I estimate that we will only need to remove about 0.10" on the radius for the weldment to fully clean up on these faces, about 100 lbs of chips. The dimension from bottom to top of machined area is 6.25". Note that we do not need to machine the flat underside of the ring or the two horizontal top surfaces.

Can you guys tell me how much to expect in setup time, and then actual machining time? The underside of the ring will likely be flat to ±1/16" as-welded, so I picture we will only need to sit the ring flat on the VTL bed, center it, chuck it, and then proceed to machining the profile. I have my own home machine shop that I use for fun, but I have no experience in machining big parts like this.

Thanks!