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    Xometry Prices

    Xometry is bound to fail. The business model never made sense and high interest rates will show how absurd it always was. Below is some analysis: https://img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/cc91fda7-4669-4d1b-81ce-a0b8d77f25ab/downloads/Culper_XMTR_1-24-2023.pdf?ver=1674570959596
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    Loading programs from USB drive on Fanuc

    This is the kind of shit that makes me never want to buy a fanuc controlled machine. Hope you get it figured out. Thoughts and prayers.
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    Has anyone tried "Piece Work" to pay employees?

    I run this deal with a machinist that I work with for prototype work quantities up to 10pc. If any machinists are interested in this type of deal, send me a message. 100k-200k/yr is possible if you are skilled, maybe more if we're lucky.
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    What are smaller job shops doing for job routers/travelers?

    Below are some screen shots of the main menu and individual menus. I used purchase orders as an example. You fill in the fields and it gets you a printable PO. All of the POs are recorded. Later on, when the parts arrive you fill in a receiving inspection form and it auto-populates from your PO...
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    What are smaller job shops doing for job routers/travelers?

    Thanks for the offer, but I'm currently slowly working on an SQL version myself with some added features that access would never be able to do. I plan on giving it away for free when I'm done and having some paid option to make money. I will post here when I'm done, but it may be more than a...
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    Auction / Rigger / dealer horror stories ??

    Bidspotter shows the auctioneer what everyone's max bid is, so you should never use that feature. You will always reach your max bid if you do. I have had good luck at auctions when I went to them. The best deals were before online bids were a thing. I bought my first mill and lathe at an...
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    Struggle Finding New Employees.

    The situation with commercial is definitely different than residential. There is something going on with commercial, possibly market manipulation of some kind. There are lots of empty units and people want 400/sqft for bare warehouse space. There are units that's I've seen empty for 10+ years...
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    Struggle Finding New Employees.

    There is not enough housing and the shortage is real. In my area a big driver of the rent increases was that there were literally no units for rent. Whenever anything would hit the market, it would be flooded with application. Hundreds of applications for one two bedroom unit! There was nowhere...
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    Struggle Finding New Employees.

    I also left engineering to be a machinist, but not because I wanted to work with my hands. I left because as an engineer the pay was shit and the job was boring. I started my own shop to make competing products to the company I used to work for. I wanted to start a business and I figured I...
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    Newbie Machinist Seeking Advice

    In most jobs the cost of mistakes scales with the skill and pay of the employee. This is not the case for machining. For example, if you hire a construction laborer to dig a ditch and he screws up and digs it a foot to the left he just has to fill it in and dig it over again. In machining, the...
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    Struggle Finding New Employees.

    In my area it used to be 15-20 for an operator and 25-30 for a machinist/programmer about 3 years ago. The wage growth has been incredible and it's still not enough. Rents have more or less doubled since then as many have already pointed out. Why would anyone go into machining when there is so...
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    Struggle Finding New Employees.

    I hired a trainee once and that is not a mistake I will soon repeat. The least amount that a serious trainee will accept in my area is 25/hr. An experienced machinist is 40-50/hr. The trainee does not earn his keep for at least 6-12 months and is a drain on resources. I would go so far as to say...
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    5C collet sets by 1/256 increments

    I agree, but I didn't want to buy a thousand collets from hardinge at 80 bucks a pop. I get the idea of emergency collets and use them too, but having the right collet on hand is a nice convenience.
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    5C collet sets by 1/256 increments

    Does anyone sell cheap collet sets by .004" increments? It seems like most of the cheap sets only have 1/64 at best. This leaves 75% of sizes outside of the collapsible range of the set. I currently buy the other sizes from hardinge at 10x the price, but was wondering if there were any cheaper...
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    How do you interpret ASME Y14.5 2009 when it comes to chamfers, MMC, & Theoretical Sharp Points

    It's clearly not clear in the linked picture. If it showed another millimeter of the title block we would know for sure. For all we know, it could say INTERNAL CORNER RADII = 0.015 EXTERNAL .030" MAXIMUM (on the next line). The drawing looks clear to me. The end of the straight is the start of...
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    How do you interpret ASME Y14.5 2009 when it comes to chamfers, MMC, & Theoretical Sharp Points

    Sounds like you just made a mistake. Also, turning steps where there shouldn't be steps is a bad idea even if they're only one thou. It's not really an issue of the drawing standard. The two thou tolerance is on the location of the start of the chamfer and you're off by half a thou. From your...
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    What are smaller job shops doing for job routers/travelers?

    I have a pretty detailed Access database that handles all of those things as well as everything else for AS9100/ISO9001. Quotes are linked to customer POs to W/O to invoices/COCs/packing slips etc. and lets me spend the minimum possible time on paperwork. If you are interested, I can sell you a...
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    Using Xometry as a "free" quoting software?

    I have uploaded files to check their pricing. I only do this when the customer tells me they are quoting the part on xometry as well. I always bid higher than the instant quote, but that doesn't include tapped holes and tolerances anyway. Xometry's pricing is too low in my opinion. I have had...
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    Number of cutting edges on insert

    Glacern is a bullshit brand by the way. They sell the same chinese junk as everyone else, but more expensive.
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    Quick Change Carbide Drill Brand with Size Marking

    I use a lot of 1/8" shank "quick change" style carbide drills from MA Ford, but they are a pain to keep track of once they are out of their container because they have no markings to indicate their size. Does anyone know of a brand that makes this type of carbide drill that also marks the shank...

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