Best source of info for new machinist?

What would folks recommend as their preferred best sources of information for someone who was just getting started out with machining (Milling and Lathe operations) who wanted to become proficient as a machinist, but who don't have regular or ready access to an instructor?

I'm very efficient as Self Teaching, and know using this method I'm going to make mistakes that are going to most likely lead to Learning Thing$ the Hard Way(tm) (I've already most likely ruined a brand new HSS 3/4" endmill due to too experimentation which resulted in finding WAY too high of an RPM which put a gouge in it, Doh!) but one way or another... I intend to learn how to become a decent machinist. I've got a 1969 variable speed 1.5HP Bridgeport, a 1943 Monarch CK Lathe, and a Jet 9x20 Lathe. The Monarh isn't presently running, and I'm in the process of restoring it using the Jet 9x20 and Bridgeport to manufacture parts (as well as casting ala Gingery green sand aluminum and a propane powered foundry).

I've picked up a few books, with the general idea that the older, the better. I've got a 1941 copy of Audels Machists as well as a few other select texts, but not quite what I think I need which is more something akin to an instructional book to get someone up to speed on being a journeyman Machinist. I've heard about and purchase (yet not yet received) about the old Henry Ford "Shop Theory" text, which I'm hopeful will get me going more in the right direction there.

I've also tried to found some videos like the Darrell Holland "Professional Machine Shop" series, as well as the MIT Machine Shop Skills... and skulked about YouTube and found some interesting folks (MrPete222 / Tubalcain) who have some excellent series sharing their info. These have been tremendously helpful, tho I'm sure there is still tons more out there that I'm missing out on.

This hunting around at random almost guarantees however that I'll only find something by chance, and if there is something I Really Must Find I won't know about it unless I'm told... so, if YOU had to do it all over again, or if YOU had some nugget of knowledge you felt invaluable for a n0ob to study and learn from, what would that be?

Lastly, what sort of Project would make a good one (or ones) for making sure I HAVE to learn all this stuff and put it to use? One would think this is the sort of thing I'd have learned in High School, in a shop class, but by the time I got there shop class had been for the most part dismantled by the fear mongers, and while we did have some of the equipment still, it sat, collecting dust, unplugged, and verbotten for us to go anywhere near... so now, I have to ask strangers on the internet to be my shop teacher.

It might be worth the drive every once in a while to hang out with these guys.

HMSC Home Page

Steve.

South Bend's "How to Run a Lathe"

Thanks for writing in paragraphs. Some who frequent forums never heard of them and construct long winded giant blobs of text all run together.

Machinery's Handbook - any edition. A great source of need to know or refer to.

Since I am old and was brought up when it was the norm, I suggest every newbie acquire the few simple pieces of equipment and teach himself to grind high speed steel lathe tools so they actually cut. HTRAL, referenced in a post above, touches on this. Its amazing how people that are trying to learn come on this forum and want to use carbide before they ever have the least inkling of why a cutting tool works.

John Oder

Das_Wookie said:

...recommend as their preferred best sources of information for someone who was just getting started out with machining...who wanted to become proficient as a machinist, but who don't have regular or ready access to an instructor?

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Just because I used the following method, I am not insinuating it is the "correct" way.

First, abandon your assumption you don't have "ready access to an instructor."

I would sincerely recommend you follow MilGunsmith's advice and purchase HTRAL. Buy two and keep one by your bed an take the other one with you.

Second, you touched on D Holland's Machine Shop course. Did you purchase this or just watch the free snipits on YouTube? Have you taken the time (3 to 5 hours) to do the written test (over 100 questions) on application and theory?

Did you perform the practical test portion (me? I took about 4 hours+) and machine (lathe) the two round steel bars to the design blueprints attached with the course? Did you machine (vertical mill) the aluminum block (Me? It took me a trip to the local metal shop to purchase another aluminum block because I botched the first one. This exercise took me about 5+ hours to do correctly) per design?

It is all part of the course, do the written and practical, mail it in and get their feedback...this is all included in the price of the course.

Additionally, you are provided a Machinist Handbook, a quite invaluable reference to be used extensively in your learning and practical process of machining.

Das_Wookie said:

if YOU had to do it all over again, or if YOU had some nugget of knowledge you felt invaluable for a n0ob to study and learn from, what would that be?

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It is quite obvious I am deeply impressed with Mr Holland's course, the videography (close ups, etc), his articulate instruction and humor.

I recall each DVD was about 1.5+ hours in length...there were about 8 to 10 DVDs in the set covering almost every method imaginable for lathe and mill operation as well as grinding tool bits, calculating feeds/speeds, etc., for different applications and metals, boring , threading (internal & external), facing, on and on and on.

Being right down IH35 from you, I feel your pain and thirst for learning especially in a not-so-popular area for machining/machinists.

Das_Wookie said:

Lastly, what sort of Project would make a good one (or ones) for making sure I HAVE to learn all this stuff and put it to use?

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Coming full circle again, if you buy Holland's Machine Shop course, watch each one (I refer back to them often for reference and confirmation) of the DVDs and perform the practical projects they have included in the course and you would have 20-30 hours + of personal, at your convenience, shop instruction. I could not afford the local college's introduction to machining as it was sipping a little bit at each class and would require a rigid attendance to get everything out of it. I found that particular avenue too expensive and time consuming.

With the DVD Machine Shop course you do/go at your own pace and review or backup whenever you desire. The course belongs to you and you go to school whenever you take the time to sit and watch.

Do the math...about $1000 for the course. Subtract $100 for the books. This leaves $900...divide this by 25 hours (very conservative estimate) is about $36/hour. What a bargain!

Good luck!

Wally

P.S. There is a plethora of very precise advice from the great majority of the people on this fascinating forum. I have asked questions beginning at the hysterically stupid all the way to basically stupid/funny and I have NEVER had anyone bark or snap at me or my lack of knowledge and they busted their fingertips conveying proper methods to approach a given task or application.

P.S (again) Sorry for being sooooo verbose. This forum and these people have given me volumes of their time and expertise and this is the first time found an opportunity to return the favor.

One veteran on this sight once said, "knowledge not shared is knowledge wasted." What more can one say?

Some good bedside books are : Machine Shop Practice, Machining Fundamentals and Southbends How to run a lathe.

All are related to manual machines, HSS, etc.

Re sharing knowledge, nothing more disgusting than some old crock who attempts to guard all his acquired knowledge.

Somebody got a dictionary? What the hell is "verbose"?
Wheres Ox when you need him?
Have Fun
You're in the right place
i_r_machinist

i_r_machinist said:

Somebody got a dictionary? What the hell is "verbose"?
Wheres Ox when you need him?

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LOL... I doubt Ox knows...best I can tell he speaks "Rural Coolspeak"... kind of like a rapper on a farm

I was wonering if anyone would catch that.
i_r_

I would also add Guy Lataurd's "Machinists Bedside Reader" all three volumes.

i_r_machinist said:

Somebody got a dictionary? What the hell is "verbose"?

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The word "verbose" is the short-winded way of saying "long-winded."

-DU-

Anymouse said:

...... I have asked questions beginning at the hysterically stupid all the way to basically stupid/funny and I have NEVER had anyone bark or snap at me or my lack of knowledge and they busted their fingertips conveying proper methods to approach a given task or application.

Click to expand...

The cavernous halls of the internet are echoing, as I write this, with the pounding keystrokes of crusty curmudgeons writing

"Notes to Self":
1) Lift Game....

Das_Wookie said:

What would folks recommend as their preferred best sources of information for someone who was just getting started out with machining (Milling and Lathe operations) who wanted to become proficient as a machinist, but who don't have regular or ready access to an instructor?

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This forum is by far your best source for instruction if you don't have access to an in person instructor. This place is like a machinist oracle. You just ask how to make something and a bunch of machinists will tell you. (within reason) A dude in a recent thread went and made the part in question just to show it could be done with ease. Could do it in his sleep.

Between all the machinists on this site, someone will have a decent answer to almost any reasonable question.

You'll get better answers to harder questions than you will if you ask about amateur/home shop type of machining. "Dremel powered endmill is melting in acrylic, HELP" "You could get ridiculed for that sort of thing. Or wanting to retrofit your 1906 South Bend lathe with a MACH3 CNC kit.

Info source

Machinery's Handbook any edition would be fine. Check the used book store. You will have fun machining.

http://www.metalwebnews.org/ftp/advanced-machine-work.pdf

and use "How to run a lathe" as sanitary paper.


I kept an old copy of that rag (How to run a lathe) in my tool box at work as a joke. Its a truly useless tome


Edited to add: The link is only part of the book "Advanced Machine Work" the full hardcover version can be purchased from lindsay publications and is worth every penny.

There's a useful series of videos called

"Machining skills for prototype development" available for free download. It's aimed at MIT students, so it's fairly entry level.

Don't remember the URL, but it's made by MIT, fronted by Eric Vaaler, so I guess it should come up in a Google or youTube search

Das_Wookie said:

.... what sort of Project would make a good one (or ones) for making sure I HAVE to learn all this stuff and put it to use?

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Well.... making parts to make a Monarch lathe work again would have to be about as good a project as you could have selected.

You learn a lot about good engineering design at the metaphorical feet of some of the best who've walked the earth, the dimensional accuracy of what you make is highly consequential (and if you get it wrong you find out in meaningful ways - and if your inputs are your own castings, so much the better...)

Once you've got the Monarch running, tooling it up will keep you turning and milling until your mill's worn out or you want a better one, and so it goes.

A life spent machining (manual machining, that is) has a satisfying self-sufficiency.

Nothing has to come in, nothing has to go out
(oh, yeah, except if you want to generate some spondulicks!)

hickstick_10 said:

http://www.metalwebnews.org/ftp/advanced-machine-work.pdf

and use "How to run a lathe" as sanitary paper.


I kept an old copy of that rag (How to run a lathe) in my tool box at work as a joke. Its a truly useless tome


Edited to add: The link is only part of the book "Advanced Machine Work" the full hardcover version can be purchased from lindsay publications and is worth every penny.

Click to expand...

The full 1915 (and out of copyright) text is available online via OpenLibrary at: Text-book of advanced machine work. (Open Library)

I love the OpenLibrary project, especially for these old gems of books which are rare, hard to fine, but still quite full of practical and terrific knowledge.

I have mixed feelings about HTRAL. I think it made good reading back when I had NO clue about making chips on a lathe at all.