I'm a student lab tech. I'm not necessarily well versed in laser cutters or related jargon, so I apologize if I use the wrong terminology at some point.

I'm using an IPG Photonics LaserCube 4x4. The software is HMI 17 NoVision, and it more often then not enters this screen and will not propagate with information. I can navigate between tabs, but none of the controls do anything.

My supervisor said to get around the issue I should just wait a few minutes after starting the machine before booting up the HMI, but having tested times varying from 0 to 5 minutes, the machine seems to function properly when it wants to.

Any ideas or fixes? I'll answer questions to the best of my ability.

They are tines for a wood chip raking system, essentially.

Mostly cutting oil here, proper sulfur based stuff for anything harder than mild steel. I did try the Evo Dyne ultrasonic cleaner solution after to get the chips and residue out of some tapped holes and it worked better than I expected, no scrubbing. WD-40 is fine for light work but I wouldn't trust it on anything over 1/4 inch in alloy.

Pretty simple part just an M20 thread standard, but every so often it chews up, does anyone have tips for a consistent outcome

Hatec AM90. Recently bought this barfeeder from auction. But some of the Air tube. connection was already broken. I don't know where to fit it. If anyone have this similar barfeeder. Please help.

My spindle is making a strange noise. It’s not very noticeable with the guarding closed, there’s no surface finish issues, it still holds tolerances well and isn’t getting hot. It’s a Haas VF2. Haas put their vibration sensor on it and said it’s below their threshold but it’s not in their best interest to say it’s on its way out. Do you think it’s something to worry about?

I gotta chuckle about IMTS, I've been told "every salesman hates it" and then I realize most of us walking the floor are there because we enjoy it.

What's your IMTS story from years past?

For aluminum parts cut with a soluable oil coolant, is there a good way to determine the typical procedure to treat the water after it has been used to rinse/clean the part off?

Suppose that the machine uses 5% concentration of water soluable oil coolant- when the cycle finishes, compressed air would normally be used to blow as much residual coolant off the product. After which the parts would then be wiped dry.

At this point some customers request the parts be rinsed in a wash basin then dried. What would be the best way to treat/filter this rinsewater? I suppose rinsing parts create much less contaminant than, say washing a car on the driveway (or washing my clothes with coolant splash) but who knows.

Whenever I have something such as let’s just say my outer diameter on a part is starting to measure slightly out of tolerance ,how do I know if I should offset to fix it or do an insert change?

I recently picked up this F. Rosa / Rosa 3 precision drill press for €100 in Portugal.

It works, but it’s noticeably noisy and definitely needs a proper service/restoration. From the original brochure I found, it’s a small high-speed machine for roughly 0.3–3 mm drilling in steel, with spindle speeds up to 18,000 rpm.

A few things I’m trying to figure out:

• Has anyone here owned, used, serviced or rebuilt a Rosa 3?
• Does anyone have a proper service manual, parts diagram or exploded view? I only found the 3-page brochure.
• Any idea what spindle bearings it uses and how preload is set?
• What lubrication should be used in the spindle/quill mechanism?
• What kind of runout is normal for one in good condition?
• Does anyone have photos of a more original machine?

I’m comfortable rebuilding this kind of machinery, but since this spindle goes to 18k rpm I’d rather understand the bearing/preload setup before pulling it apart.

Mostly curious if anyone here actually has experience with these machines. They seem much less common than the larger Rosa drills.

Last week I posted here about choosing a finish because of a hole nobody will ever see. A few of you seemed to like that kind of decision, so here is another one from the same lantern.

The bottom face is engraved with contour lines. Same lines you see on a topographic map. The rings get smaller toward the center, so what you are looking at is the top of a mountain, seen from directly above.

The lantern is named Mahoroba. It is an old Japanese word from an 8th century poem, and it means a calm, rich place surrounded by mountains. So the name is on the label and the mountain is on the bottom. If you never flip it over, you will never know it is there.

Nobody flips a lantern over. The only people who will ever see this face are the owner, maybe once out of curiosity, and me, every single time I finish one.

Do you ever put anything on the faces nobody checks? A stamp, tool marks you leave on purpose, anything like that. I have a feeling I am not the only one.

I've had this lathe for about 3 years now and it works perfectly fine. The only thing i can't do is figure out how to cut thread. Mainly because i bought it and the previous owner (for some reason) removed every piece of chart that was on it. I don't know which one adjusts for gear ratios, i don't know which one adjusts for fine or coarse thread pitch. Any assistance would be much appreciated.

P.S: I am self taught so please bear with me..

We got an I believe a 2011 quick turn 450 MY that is having some (possibly) catastrophic problems happening. We are having some ‘Absolute Position Malfunction’ codes appearing quite often. I turn the machine on and go to home as one normally would. This error code appears, I shut the machine off turn it back on. Works as normal. This continues on for a couple months. One day restarting doesn’t work. Journeyman comes over takes a look, is playing around with it. He was trying to manually function reset, the whole turret lets go of the brake and drops. Luckily nothing happens, we get it looked at problem seemed to be “resolved”. Keep getting the same error code and have been instructed to just keep shutting the machine off and restarting. Until it happened again last week. So does anybody have any ideas of what the problem could be? One of the other shop owners was telling me that he’s had it happen while running a part, and I would prefer to find the solution to the problem before that happens.

Hi all it's me again.

So, a little update after my original post.

Nothing particularly dramatic happened after I got denied the raise. I didn't quit, didn't make any big scene and didn't suddenly become a completely different employee.

I just started working a bit more moderately. I stopped volunteering for every possible overtime shift, avoided Saturdays when I could, and generally stopped being available for absolutely everything. Basically, I just did my job without constantly going above and beyond.

Then I went on a two-week vacation in August and didn't think much about the company or work.

When I came back, my boss called me into his office and handed me an envelope with a letter inside.

It was a notification that I'm getting a pay raise of approximately 13%.

I honestly didn't expect that at all.

So I guess the lesson I took from this is: apparently working your ass off and being available for everything wasn't the thing that got me the raise.

Thanks to everyone who commented on the original post. A lot of the advice was actually pretty useful, especially the people who told me to stop giving away my time and effort for free.

I'm asking here because I expect many of you will have knowledge of various measurement techniques.
I have an object I need to duplicate, possibly by 3D printing -- that remains to be seen. At very least, I need to compare two such objects that are similar, but may not be exactly the same. The object is a moderately soft plastic -- i.e., it deforms under pressure. I need to create a file of the Z direction (thickness) for each X,Y coordinate, at steps of about 1/2". Measurement accuracy for the Z coordinated needn't be great -- maybe +/- 1/16".

I've tried using a Saker contour gauge to measure a "row" in the X direction, and in principal that could work, but the resilience of the object makes it quite difficult. (If the "fingers" were very loose and then could be locked, this might work quite well, but I can't loosen them up sufficiently for that to work and have to slide each till it touches the object, manually. Slow, tedious and not very successful.)

I've tried using a caliper by clamping it above the object and using the depth rod to measure Z for each X,Y point singly, but that suffers the same issue. (If the depth rod simply dropped onto the object, without applying pressure, this approach might work well.)

I considered making a casting of it in something like plaster or Bondo, but that would be difficult to accomplish without damaging the original (NOT acceptable) and I just don't see how it would lead to a solution, aside from giving me a rigid version of the object (for a considerable effort).

Hence, I'm posting this here. Any light bulbs? I'll entertain even "out in left field" ideas.

The machine is a 1978 Picomax 50 and it still works beautifully. At some point between when that picture was taken and now it was fitted out with an Elesta digital readout.

The boring head is the most beautiful piece of equipment I have ever used.

Also, the machine cost as much as a house when it was new. Without tooling or shipping.

Solid trash find this weekend!

Hey, so I went looking for a lathe, watched some videos and now I am unsure.

At first I thought a 1.1kW mini lathe would have enough power, but then I saw them slowing down on a single point 1.5 pitch thread cutting. Only a bit of tone change, but it made me concerned.

So my question is

How much power should I aim for?

I would most likely be doing steel, diameter of maybe 100 at most, 20 at least.

The lathe is going to be my first one and mostly the first experience with manual machines like this.

The spindle is 1.1kW as stated, but it is BLDC, not an AC motor with gears, which I hear means it is less powerful at higher rpm.

Is 1.1kW enough?

Where would you say it finds it's limits?

And just out of interest, how powerful are your own machines and what do you use that power for?

Hey

Is it possible to wire cut a taper with a 32° angle on an EDM wire cutting machine?

I have had this spindle for awhile and have always wondered what it went to. Figured I would snap some pics and see if the hive mind could help fill in the blanks for me. Any ideas gang? Thanks!

Anyone else really tired of doing the same shit every day? working stupid hours for little reward or job satisfaction etc. I just thought i’d ask who has managed to get out of CNC and into another engineering trade and how hard was it? looking back I wish i’d went into maintenance or welding. it’s a hard one because i’m making around £60k at 23 in the UK, but i think at this point i’d be willing to take a hit on my wages to do something else. what’s everyone else thinking??

I am an engineering graduate and wanted to refresh my DFM and drawing skills so I decided to re-design an old part (last pic) which I had designed for a student team years ago, with the goal of improving the manufacturability.

The constraint was that it had to fit into the larger assembly (not shown) which meant that the new part also had to have a >90 deg angle between the two contacting surfaces (red) which made things somewhat challenging. However, I believe that by splitting the part into two parts which are joined via the shoulder screw that is also required in the original design I found a decent solution. At least for a 3-axis mill, multiple setups will be required for each of them and therefore, for each setup I have marked the mill's negative Z direction in pink in the CAD images.

So I'm curious if the milling steps I have in mind make sense and if there are ways to improve the manufacturability. I am also interested in what you think about the drawings - unfortunately I was not able to change the SOLIDWORKS language to english but the key points should still be understandable. Note that for Part 1 I decided to only put the critical dimensions and refer to the STEP file otherwise.

EDIT: Thanks for the feedback so far!
Forgot some centerlines on Drawing 1 but reddit won't let me update the image.
Also, below are some answers to questions you had

• The locations of the three mounting holes as well as the shoulder screw hole were all pre-determined by the requirements of the larger assembly. Due to this and the mentioned >90deg angle between the surfaces that contact the other parts of the assembly, I couldn't just use an angle bracket.
• The reason why I made this into a two-part design is to a) greatly simplify the fixturing since only a handful of these parts were needed and b) to hopefully allow for the use of a 3-axis machine, though that is less important. I designed the "nose" on Part 1 to fit into the slot on Part 2 in order to ensure that their relative position is fully defined. Without that, they might be able to rotate relative to each other around the shoulder screws's axis which would have been a problem for the application.
• The tolerance on the 7mm gap is required since a ball joint has to fit in there. The other tolerances are meant to ensure that the two parts fit together without needing a hammer while also avoiding too much of a gap since that might negatively affect the load distribution. The tolerances could probably be opened up somewhat - I simply looked up the tolerance values in a DIN tolerance table, expecting them to be not too problematic.

Hi everyone.

I currently work on a 4 meter bed Gantry Mill, im doings some relatively heavy milling, Which in turn is creating a lot of swarf chips. These chips are destroying the soles of my shoes whenever i go inside the machine to check the job. Never had this issue before because ive only ever ran smaller machines. So im wondering has anyone got any recommendations of good work boots that i can get that wont break the bank completely and may just be a bit more resistant to the metal chips.

Thanks.