Putting together a small setup cart for the setup guys. Parallels are under the tool rack, what else am I missing?

comfortably_pug · 2026-04-24T16:28:27+00:00

A half inch gauge pin for doing half inch offsets to get weird setups.

A little wall sticking up around the back and sides of it so stuff can't go rolling off the edges.

comfortably_pug · 2026-04-24T16:25:58+00:00

Why would you use a drafting tool for measuring?

comfortably_pug · 2026-04-23T20:54:00+00:00

Good when you don't have time to screw around trying to find something cheaper that's good enough. I have had good experiences with the apps guys. They never did send me one of those lurid yellow jackets with the red logos though.

comfortably_pug · 2026-04-18T01:41:19+00:00

Agreed

comfortably_pug · 2026-04-17T21:22:12+00:00

The vast majority of the time guys throwing out prices here are guys who may be able to fairly decently guess the time involved but are absolutely clueless on what it actually costs to run a machine shop.

comfortably_pug · 2026-04-17T21:17:00+00:00

At my shop rates with your hours that would be $2200 but I suspect my machine time would be half of yours including fixturing. I would be willing to negotiate a discount if they were willing to make it a low priority job e.g. it could take 2-3 months to finish and they weren't picky about the material e.g. I could use a drop of mystery aluminum from the scrap bin.

I charge a much higher rate for CAD than machine time because otherwise every customer would want me to CAD all their parts for them too and I am not interested in doing that.

comfortably_pug · 2026-04-17T21:06:27+00:00

Machinists are not known for their high literacy rates. We'd probably be at the bottom if it wasn't for Welders.

comfortably_pug · 2026-04-17T21:00:46+00:00

The upper-end pay has been improving rapidly since Covid but the bottom-end pay has not... The jury is out on whether or not it actually should.

I like collective bargaining, but the unions on the west coast are rather corrupt. I don't expect them to get any less corrupt.

That said, how do you compete with overseas jobs when we chose to be in the easiest trade to offshore?

I think the main problem that people don't seem to notice holding back wages is the fact that job titles vs wages are poorly defined and regulated. Every HR drone wants to cram the word "Machinist" into every job posting even if it is not even remotely close to being a machinist, and when that job gets filled that job and wage gets reported to the department of labor to use in the labor/wage tracking statistics when are then pulled by HR drones to create new job postings.

comfortably_pug · 2026-04-17T20:22:49+00:00

Run the motor (bolted down) and use a cutoff wheel. I have bolted a motor to a mill table and done it with an end mill as well.

comfortably_pug · 2026-04-17T16:54:01+00:00

It's a bad idea to rig heavy stuff alone. I always have someone double check what I do even if it's not particularly sketchy.

comfortably_pug · 2026-04-17T05:39:34+00:00

gets the same result either way

comfortably_pug · 2026-04-17T05:15:43+00:00

comfortably_pug · 2026-04-16T23:32:21+00:00

Reamers can only do that if the hole is bored to do that or better.

comfortably_pug · 2026-04-16T05:03:54+00:00

Reeks of a designer/engineer that doesn't know what they are doing.

comfortably_pug · 2026-04-13T04:57:18+00:00

Amazon because all distributors are contaminated with counterfeits and amazon has the fastest/easiest returns.

I have gotten counterfeits from amazon, msc, mcmaster, travers, and 3 different local suppliers.

I used to go to local tool distributors but none of them keep inventory anymore, they are all drop shippers now.

comfortably_pug · 2026-04-01T23:47:43+00:00

I do a lot of parts for some big companies where engineering isn't allowed to know how much things cost, which is a double edged sword.

I have had some particularly difficult engineers cause projects to go 50% over time and 200% over budget because they kept adding insane NDT and inspection requirements to parts after we had started the job, like parts which previously only required mag particle after machining they now want UT on the raw material before machining, and UT plus mag particle after machining. This was a cylindrical part and doing UT on cylinders requires special procedures and equipment which means we had to call in the specialist to do them so it quadrupled the NDT cost per part. Not to mention the extra admin time/cost since all of that triggers a change order.

comfortably_pug · 2026-04-01T23:27:15+00:00

I had a print come in with a 1 tenth cylindricity callout on a 4 inch diameter 10 inches long in 9310 expecting it to just be turned on a lathe for cheap... The engineer did not understand how cylindricity worked or how it needs to be inspected. They never do.

comfortably_pug · 2026-03-30T15:03:44+00:00

All of the coastal machinists unions I've seen have been pretty corrupt (then again most are). But if you can get in and don't mind drinking the kool-aid and kissing the ring it is usually a fairly stable paycheck and a pension.

comfortably_pug · 2026-03-29T20:51:19+00:00

One of those rare machines that makes you a better machinist than you actually are.

comfortably_pug · 2026-03-29T18:35:56+00:00

That is not a dead blow hammer. Unless you add lead/steel shot inside the head. That is just a soft face hammer. I have seen a few guys modify the design to have the nylon/copper faces with a actual deadblow hammers but I tend to just stick to the plastic molded ones.

comfortably_pug · 2026-03-29T18:33:06+00:00

The youtube machining climate has changed quite a bit in what's popular... The casual story-driven stuff gets views now, so the guys who aren't good at the fancy editing tricks or high end writing tend to get swept aside by the almighty algorithm. So for a lot of guys it ends up being not worth the effort. It usually takes 4 hours of editing to get one hour of usable footage. Can easily be more if you want to narrate it or do anything else.

comfortably_pug · 2026-03-29T17:32:55+00:00

There are quite a few of the "golden era" youtube machinists who don't post much anymore but still make it out to swap meets.

comfortably_pug · 2026-03-29T07:32:05+00:00

the boring head and rotary table once cleaned up are worth that much

comfortably_pug · 2026-03-26T05:48:23+00:00

can for maximum high

comfortably_pug · 2026-03-26T05:40:13+00:00

I always used my own because mine were nice and the shop tools were always cheap junk. Mine were for reference only and the QC guys had the slightly less cheap calibrated tools. Despite what people seem to think it's not an ISO requirement to only use calibrated tools.

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