Hey folks, pardon the rookie question. We need to build a few hundred of these per year, so I thought I'd tool up, and wanted to figure out how to do this "cheaply".

Parameters. Stainless steel rods, with one end sharpened to a point, and the other end deburred. Typically 30cm long with no real tolerance issues, and no real parameters on the point other than "if you hit it with a hammer, you should be able to drive them into the earth." Typically made of 3/8" or 1/2" stainless.

My main problem is: stainless is fucking hard and destroys my bench grinder when grinding tips onto it. Is there a better grinder I could be using? Or perhaps I should be cutting these on a small lathe?

Also, when I buy stainless stock, I usually have the metal wholesaler cut them to length for us, but they charge quite a bit. The stainless destroys my bandsaw blades, so perhaps there is a better option? Is there a mitre saw blade that is rated for stainless? Or should I also be using a parting tool on a lathe here?

Thoughts are appreciated. Such a simple thing, but stainless so...

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The company didn't pay the mortgage for over a year, and our nearly new lathe got very rusty.

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Pretty nifty. Using several clamps, I could see this working just fine for short run aluminum jobs.

You can really see the difference few inches in

If it's stupid but it works it ain't stupid

So for the last month-ish Ive been working at my new job as an injection mold operator, which has been rather interesting. I first thought of injection molding as a basic concept of hot plastic gets shot into a mold and gets ejected. But there is so much more that goes into injection molding. There is back-pressure 5 heating zones a TCU which helps the plastic cool in the mold before it is ejected. Then the eject pins extension length and speed. There is probably a lot more as-well but that's just to name a few. There is so many variables into running a injection molding machine, luckily the company i currently work for is teaching me everything and im trying to learn as much as i can (which is slightly overwhelming).The only real annoyance is the plastic smells quite a bit and i read all the MSDS's i can. Something i learned that was a neat tidbit is that plastics like Acetal and TPV, and many other co-polymers is they have alot of nasty stuff in them, and the nasty stuff is only released if it gets above the recommended plastic temperature which is rather important to keep it with a safe range.

On a side note the last place i worked, i liked the people but hated the job and lots of people said the equivalent of "same shit different pot" aka the job you had is going to be alot of the same even if you move. And there mostly right, instead of carbide and kobalt its plastic. The only big diffrence is this place is full time and actually doesn't bully you for wearing PPE, as-well the people there are also rather nice just like the old place.

also any other injection molding operators in the community, and if so do you like the job? as-well as any experiences with it.

also huge thanks to everybody in the thread for helping out and getting me to this point!

its an enco and i cant find much info on it is most likely not more than 2 horse. i dont plan to do any crazy pocketing and REALLY WANT A MILL to match the sexy tractor lathe and use it for hobby projects.

whada u think machinists? i cant imagine it going for more than $500 as its not a knee mill

I thought this group might be able to appreciate this part. I ordered 5 from PCBWay. They are 1/4" mild steel. For just over $30USD each I got them in 16 days. But I have SO MANY questions about their process.

I wanted to share my incredulity with group that might also have their minds blown with this.

jig i made for easy gripping for turning the bottom side in the background.

Just make it from the stock out back.

Private equity is the instant death of any company's quality or professional values. Starrett is dead.

I've wondered for a while, there are lots of things that attract people to machining, and with that come areas. My previous instructor would say (in no offense) but in this class we are not doing wood working, we are doing precision machining ". he also dabbled in leather working in his free time. So it raises the question "do people that do machining mostly do purely metal working or other tasks including wood or leather just as much?"

https://strawpoll.com/1MnwO2Av5n7

so i went to a booth with this older man selling all kinds of stuff, Cameras, glassware and all kind of knick nacks. I then found this beauty under some washers and bolts. It's a brown and Sharpe No.38 and looks pretty good for how old it is. i also got the lot for $15 and I can't complain.

There was also 2 mics which were no name and one that is very hard to read but says "Central man. Co Auburn MI certified accuracy" on the black tag

I also found a mic operation manual

also, there's just something so neat about old school graphics

I got a Lufkin manual as well, sadly there was no Lufkin.

Here are the pages if anyone wants to read it.

So I bought a small box of tap wrenches, and it had a dollar general dial caliper in it, as well as this. The guy had no idea what idea it is, and neither do i, he seemed to think it had to do something with machining

The "roller has 2 textures and 3 different sized wheels that thread on.

Crossposted from memes@sopuli.xyz

The bigger the better, and the parts just keep getting bigger. 10” major diameter, 4350 heat-treat, ~40Rc. This bitch is tough, but that’s that shit I like. Blurry 6” scale for reference on my tool post.