Hello, fist would like to say thank you to those on the forums. I'm excited to have a place to share ideas, problems, techniques, etc...
A short snippet on the reason for the thread and myself. So, I recently picked up a job at a new production shop in town. I have been out of machining for about 10 years now and had a manual/toolmaking focus when last in the trade. I had apprenticed under my father as a tool maker for 2.5 yrs and worked for a small company doing fabrication for 2 yrs after. I had been running my dads lathe since the age of 10 (23 yrs ago), dad insisted. Now, 10 years out of machining I am back to it.
I'm looking for any suggestions on reading material to refresh my memory on the manual machining and toolmaking aspects of the job. I am hoping shine in this area and push for the need of a toolroom in the shop. In hopes that I would run that. Right now the company is finding its bearings and is inexperienced 1 yr in production. I'm in at ground level along with 3 other machinists. 1 CNC Swiss lathe guy, 1 fab/manual guy, 1 do it all guy, and me the extoolmaker.
For now they have us all running swiss and our swiss man is training me up right now. The intent as I know is to have me do some fab work to get various machines and new jobs up and running and to do tool changes/ offset changes on the swiss lathes to keep the operators running. Also some set up too. But, seeing as they are getting a lot of their tooling from china and is always wrong I will be pushing to bring me back to toolmaking. Hopefully in a toolroom with precision tool lathe and the works. Right now we have a bridgeport with cracked casting and loose gibs. A not so great engine lathe (forgot make), no surface grinder, and the tools and fixtures are lacking to say the least.
I know I've dragged this on and do apologize. I run with things when I get excited. I just want some suggestions on books. A CNC book would be very beneficial aswell. Just want to polish up before I start diving into the tooling/fab work they will need. I'd like to show that I am capable and will be an asset to moving the company forward
A short snippet on the reason for the thread and myself. So, I recently picked up a job at a new production shop in town. I have been out of machining for about 10 years now and had a manual/toolmaking focus when last in the trade. I had apprenticed under my father as a tool maker for 2.5 yrs and worked for a small company doing fabrication for 2 yrs after. I had been running my dads lathe since the age of 10 (23 yrs ago), dad insisted. Now, 10 years out of machining I am back to it.
I'm looking for any suggestions on reading material to refresh my memory on the manual machining and toolmaking aspects of the job. I am hoping shine in this area and push for the need of a toolroom in the shop. In hopes that I would run that. Right now the company is finding its bearings and is inexperienced 1 yr in production. I'm in at ground level along with 3 other machinists. 1 CNC Swiss lathe guy, 1 fab/manual guy, 1 do it all guy, and me the extoolmaker.
For now they have us all running swiss and our swiss man is training me up right now. The intent as I know is to have me do some fab work to get various machines and new jobs up and running and to do tool changes/ offset changes on the swiss lathes to keep the operators running. Also some set up too. But, seeing as they are getting a lot of their tooling from china and is always wrong I will be pushing to bring me back to toolmaking. Hopefully in a toolroom with precision tool lathe and the works. Right now we have a bridgeport with cracked casting and loose gibs. A not so great engine lathe (forgot make), no surface grinder, and the tools and fixtures are lacking to say the least.
I know I've dragged this on and do apologize. I run with things when I get excited. I just want some suggestions on books. A CNC book would be very beneficial aswell. Just want to polish up before I start diving into the tooling/fab work they will need. I'd like to show that I am capable and will be an asset to moving the company forward
