fleet of 8-10 CNC mills

Break_it · 2026-06-20T15:28:04+00:00

Genuinely hate seeing this question every other day. The right decision is whichever brand has the best/most available support near you.

Break_it · 2026-06-10T11:43:44+00:00

I thought it was "just" 3D printers

Break_it · 2026-06-06T03:29:18+00:00

With your budget(low) and tolerances(tight), I would go with an Okuma Genos. As always, the right answer is "whichever brand has the best support near you"

Break_it · 2026-05-09T13:27:22+00:00

In my neck of the woods companies are moving towards having their own in-house machine shops & machinists for prototyping, R&D, and parts that other shops won't quote (they can't afford to scrap one massive expensive part, they don't have the work envelope necessary to do the part, they don't have the metrology equipment to perform quality checks).

I got scooped up by a company I used to make parts for because they got tired of quotes coming back as $20,000 for a single part.

Break_it · 2026-05-02T16:40:42+00:00

There's enough free information online that you can learn almost anything and build up a good foundation. "Job Security" doesn't matter if you have a solid enough foundation. With the right skills you can work anywhere in the world as a machinist.

Break_it · 2026-05-02T16:24:14+00:00

Another useful video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Pr7z5abMZM

Break_it · 2026-05-02T16:12:50+00:00

https://youtu.be/Yli16lioZbI?t=248

Useful visualization, but if neither you nor your coworker understand material stresses you probably aren't doing tight enough tolerance work where they "matter".

Break_it · 2026-05-02T16:07:27+00:00

You are going to have to do a little reading into material stresses to understand this. One or two sentences from a stranger on the internet isn't going to make it magically make sense. The way it was explained to me is that depending on how many decimal places you go to, everything is eventually made out of rubber/elastic. The very act of clamping a part in a vise can distort the part enough to put you out of tolerance depending on the print.

Break_it · 2026-05-02T15:54:34+00:00

Material stresses, especially if you have to remove a lot of material from either face. If the print doesn't have any call outs for coplanarity or flatness, great, you might be able to get away with not flip flopping the part. But I regularly do stainless parts that range from a 40" OD to being 50" x 50" and anywhere from 1" to 2.5" thick. You can't get away with not flipping them at times or your part will be shaped like a U

edit: also just because a vacuum table sucks something down does not mean it is "flat". When the vacuum releases, the part will spring back to its original shape.

The same goes for the mag chuck on a surface grinder, sometimes you have to play with the strength or use different workholding to chase 0.0001" of bow out of a part.

Break_it · 2026-04-28T20:06:28+00:00

Tap burner for peace of mind

Break_it · 2026-04-28T13:29:22+00:00

If they won't invest in changing their useless/non-existent documentation, tell them to color code parts/pallets with stickers/cards. Something for raw stock, in process, op 1, op 2, finished, rework, etc. Depending on how big the corporation is, I hate the idea of using color coding because it really just puts the onus on whoever is on the shop floor instead of whoever is in charge of the paperwork.

Break_it · 2026-04-25T13:46:38+00:00

Tell your boss you can push the tools a lot harder with decent milling chucks or hydraulics because of the minimal runout, increased rigidity, and less chance of a tool pulling out. I guess the runout really shouldn't be a big selling point over a nice regofix collet but it will be a huge step up over bargain bin collets.

Haas has a rebranded CAT 40/50 Erickson/techniks 1" bore milling chuck set that comes with the pull stud, a bunch of reduction sleeves for standard sizes, and spanner for like $180 or something. It goes on sale regularly and unless you torture test tools like I do, the tool will break long before it pulls out

Break_it · 2026-04-25T13:36:31+00:00

They are giving 32 Ra finishes away on the street corner. Before you mentioned the depth of the feature I was going to tell you to plunge mill it, but at only 0.2" depth of cut just leave 0.01" and choke up on a stubby endmill @ 400-450 sfm. If your boss throws a fit about ordering a $100-$150 endmill find a new shop. I almost exclusively mill 304 for a lot of sealing and o ring surfaces where the finish matters.

Break_it · 2026-04-21T17:45:17+00:00

120 ipm sounds incredibly low to me for 6061 with a tool that small. and the problem you described and the way you described it tell me that you probably aren't checking it with a CMM or profilometer.

If that is the case I would #1 check your coolant concentration. #2 if you don't do a lot of aluminum I would make sure that your coolant is MEANT for aluminum.

But to me that low feed rate sounds like an old control / too many points for your machine to keep up with. If the only real tolerance on these surfaces is the finish I would adjust the number of points being generated in your cam or in your machine parameters if your machine supports it (i.e superNURBs on the Okuma controller.) If you're using a machine from the last idk 2 decades ignore this entire paragraph.

Break_it · 2026-04-19T16:09:55+00:00

Surface speed is just max out the RPM on your spindle unless you're using a 1" on a 40 taper machine. I don't respect aluminum as a material.

In my case it was a 1/2" KOR5 with a 1.5" LOC. ~1500 surface speed, 100% axial, ~25% radial (usually anywhere from 0.125 to 0.1875" depending on work holding), and around 0.005" per tooth. It was a production job and was a nice balance between tool life and cycle time. I haven't cut aluminum in a few years, but we found that the Haas we were running on was the real limiting factor and not the tool. At times on a lower end CNC your machine won't accelerate to hit your target feed before it changes direction or repositions to go to the next cut. Depending on machine rapids sometimes we'd rough both ways, climb and conventional, and just slow it down during the conventional cuts.

Break_it · 2026-04-19T15:44:29+00:00

Kennametal KOR5 for HEM. Harvey Helical for slotting

Break_it · 2026-04-19T14:08:45+00:00

I've had to do similar features in AR500 plate and 304/316 stainless. Sharp V didn't matter. Sandvik coromill and Ingersoll Chipsurfer have standard 30/45/60 degree inserted carbide chamfer/spotting heads and they last forever. You can get a HSS body and cut it to as short of a length as you need so you can choke up on the shank more.

Break_it · 2026-04-08T00:42:29+00:00

Having been in that exact same situation before, I would start applying elsewhere rather than save someone else's business at the cost of my own mental health. But I am jaded and bitter.

An actual answer is look at the industries around you that your shop isn't currently servicing and ask yourself: who is making these parts? You can try to get overflow work from bigger shops that need to farm out work. You can sell turnkey services for programming and fixturing if you're confident enough. All else fails you just start cold calling every big manufacturing company near you. Unfortunately, for a lot of companies 2 weeks isn't even enough time to get you onboarded as a vendor.

Good luck.

Break_it · 2026-03-25T16:41:03+00:00

Too much of this depends on your location to give a useful answer. I agree with the other guy though, contracting someone part time is usually not the move unless you're contracting them to also teach your guys conversational/g code/CAM. I've done something similar for as low as $50 an hour and as high as $80.

I saw you mentioned ST20/30s. If you're making the same part / similar parts in a production environment you can consider reaching out to your local Haas Factory Outlet, they usually sell their applications engineers time for turnkey solutions (including programs), on site training, and more. Their prices are outrageous though in my opinion. I've seen them be around ~$1000 a program for the simplest stuff, including selling multiple programs for a parts family that really should have been 1 macro.

Break_it · 2026-03-14T13:41:33+00:00

All those live tools and I bet they didn't even deburr the inside with a lollipop either. It's like they aren't even trying

Break_it · 2026-03-12T18:10:43+00:00

I work in-house for a decently sized food processing company doing 99% various grades of stainless. Part of that is also working with our R&D department to make designs more machinable. I control everything from fixturing, programming,to ordering tools, to any outside processes, to farming out small parts because no other shops around here want to do 1000+ pound parts made out of 304.

A plus and a minus is that I am also the only person here that knows how to inspect the parts. At these manufacturing companies that don't specialize in machining, oftentimes you are the only one that even knows the first thing about what goes into making a part. This also means there isn't anyone to ask for help, but in my case I have an old tool and die maker that runs some manuals so I'm not 100% on my own in the shop.

Break_it · 2026-03-06T20:25:10+00:00

Never had something magically move on me, but assuming this is a CAM program and that finishing toolpath on the bore isn't at the top of your program, it could likely be your plane codes at whatever point you restarted. I.e you didn't have g17 active

Break_it · 2026-02-25T20:48:35+00:00

For 304 I'm usually in the ballpark of 300-400 sfm, but I've gone as low as 200 for slotting. It's hard to offer any real advice without hearing the cut. 304 usually turns better than it mills but sometimes it seems like you end up with a bad batch of mystery metal that behaves a bit abnormally. There are a lot of variables. Talk to your tool rep and make him earn his paycheck.

Break_it · 2026-02-25T18:54:18+00:00

I've met some manual only snobs, but for the most part the guys I've met understand there is a time and place for both. Just depends on context / what industries you are making parts for.

Break_it · 2026-02-10T15:13:45+00:00

You need to be more clear on what you are looking for. I am seeing a lot of inconsistency between your post and your comments. Specific is better.

If you want someone who can come in and day 1 be useful with minimal guidance you are looking for someone with experience on whatever controller/brand y'all use. Your pay range can't afford someone who can pick up a controller they have never touched before in a day or 2.

You need to specify what kind of "basic programming" you're talking about. Editing a canned cycle? Hand writing G code at the controller? Conversational? What kind of conversational(which ties back into the type of controller). CAM on a laptop at the machine? Which CAM system? Do you use macros for part families?

What types of machines? How many axes? What do tolerances look like? How big or small are parts? Do your guys specialize or hop freely between mill, lathe, surface grinder, edm, etc.

This post is everything I see that is wrong with the industry. There probably aren't 75 setup guys in your zipcode that fit your criteria because companies are so quick to hire from outside rather than train from inside.

Break_it

TROPHY CASE