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Unimaginative machinist needs ideas

matthew1201

Plastic
Joined
Aug 10, 2019
I'm looking for ideas of things to machine outside of work. I found this Makerspace near where I live and they have a machine shop with both manual/CNC mills and lathes. I joined and passed their tests to work in the shop. But now I'm sitting here and I can't think of a single thing to make. Is there some website of machining projects people have done in the past? I feel ridiculous being in a machine shop without a purpose. I guess I thought when I walked in the shop someone would hand me a drawing and material like they do at work.

I've thought about making 1x2x3 blocks, but they don't have the facilities to harden or grind the blocks to finish. I guess could make them out of pre-hardened 4340 or something like that and machine them as close as I can.
 
I remember as a kid my friends older brother made a really nice spinning top in his college machine shop class. Brass and stainless parts all fit perfectly.
Or a brass hammer head on a stainless or color case hardened handle.
 
Think of some tools you would like to make for yourself. Maybe to use at your day job. A tapping block or custom V blocks. I made my own Indicator holder for tramming in the Bridgeport years ago when I was in school. I still have it and use it, it's held up for 25 years or more. You could look at tool catalogs you might find something you could make better than what they sell. Especially if it's from China.
 
If you spend your day working in a machine shop, and have no reason to be in one at night, then I’d rather go do something else, rather than just make up a project to keep you in the shop.

On the other hand, lots of people in those maker spaces struggle to use a hammer, so you could probably be a lot of use as a mentor/advisor/ teacher


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Oh dude.. Where to start...

Think of something you want.. Or your significant other wants, or your kids want...
And then MAKE IT..

You know those 3D wooden puzzles, I've always wanted to make some out of aluminum..

Wood workers like making pens.. And furniture.. I've made aluminum coffee tables
(pics below).

Here some ideas for you..

alternator bracket to use a chevy alternator on your Datsun Z.
5340961901_c999ec29d2_z.jpg


Build a tractor.
7458291626_5b58e1322b_c.jpg


Stainless toilet flusher handle.
7978074954_cba8072e56_c.jpg


Scrabble tiles.
8409194250_07acb984e4_c.jpg


A walking jack. Its a gun thing, guy wanted one that was light enough to use with a .22.
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Here are the coffee tables I mentioned.
I just did the machine work, it was somebody else's idea, and they did all the
finishing and the glass and all that.. And that gold is real gold plating

5242664866_31ca1c5aa2_z.jpg


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5242062143_71bfb233d4_z.jpg


Rims for your RC car.
5125405782_e826cd0864_z.jpg


New motor mount for your RC plane.
5125377960_60cd62eba4_z.jpg
 
Those coffee tables are cool, I couldn’t place them until I read the engraving, but I knew they looked familiar!


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If your cnc has an engraving option then the sky is the limit.

Ask your wife about this option......just sayin'.
 
Look up raymond menendez el metal on YouTube. He has been mentioned several times here. Just yesterday he posted a new video on making a height gage. My favorite of his is a machinist level , even makes a wood box for it.
 
Every time you use something think,"how could I make this better".

OR, when doing something.. LITERALLY ANYTHING!!! think "what would make this easier"..

One thing I've always wanted to make, and not because *I* want it.. I don't care about this
in the slightest.. Some people get FREAKED out if the toilet paper is rolling off the
wrong way.. A one way bearing in a toilet paper holder so the toilet paper HAS to be
put in the right way.. Sell both OVER's and UNDER's... Depending on the household.
 
OR, when doing something.. LITERALLY ANYTHING!!! think "what would make this easier"..

One thing I've always wanted to make, and not because *I* want it.. I don't care about this
in the slightest.. Some people get FREAKED out if the toilet paper is rolling off the
wrong way.. A one way bearing in a toilet paper holder so the toilet paper HAS to be
put in the right way.. Sell both OVER's and UNDER's... Depending on the household.

Under is the only proper way for terlit paper to unwind...even though the vast majority go over.
 
Simple one cylinder steam engine, either slide valves or wobble action. Run it on compressed air. A sterling engine seems like fun to me. Up to someone has made a full running model of a v12 Rolls Royce engine. Then there is a full scale model of a steam engine that fires up and runs.
Bill D.

YouTube
 
Do not make 1-2-3 blocks or you own precision vise. That a waste of effort with no reward since you can buy them for little.
A set of tapping block for both English and metric are really easy and sort of a must have in the box.
Other is what do you like?
This may be coffee tables or car parts or who knows? People like to build steam engines, that never turned my crank.
As a machinist you can build anything so it to the outside world what whould be neat to say I built that.
RC stuff, gliders and kites, MC bikes, show cars, bicycles, skateboards, nano tech medical systems.
What does turn you on?
Most people have something they think really cool and will invest the lost time to doing it.

My grandfather made awesome coffee tables out of paint left on the Buick floor so you never know.
Bob
 
BobW- Them are some pretty nice tables. I could swear I've seen them tables in the "AZ MANUFACTURE" magazine I get every other month. I thought they were water jet cut though, were they? Did you do the engraving, drilling, and edges?
 
BobW- Them are some pretty nice tables. I could swear I've seen them tables in the "AZ MANUFACTURE" magazine I get every other month. I thought they were water jet cut though, were they? Did you do the engraving, drilling, and edges?

Its possible. I made those a decade ago.. And I know the guy was looking for a cheaper way to make them.
It was one prototype, and then 10 of them maybe a year later... In between he was looking for a cheaper way.
It was a pain in the ass, but fun.. It really wasn't a money maker, but it was fun, and covered costs.

He tried wood, but it was just too floppy. Machining them out of 28" square plate just wasn't the most
economical thing, especially when my biggest machine is 20" on the Y. I machined them from plate that
came in 28" square.

There was nothing cheap about those tables. He paid a pretty penny for the glass, I think it was an inch thick,
and then beveled, and the first one he had some stuff done around the edge so it looked like a record.

The feet were an interesting thing to make... Remember, this guys "thing" was designing coffee tables, and
other artsy things, and he was really good at it. If you go back up, you can see some of his other stuff
in the background. The one on the left is a jack, his name was Jack, that's a coffee table.. On the right in
the background, you can see a bit of it, I made him a motorcycle rim with the 45RPM adaptor. On the condition that
its a wall hanger (I don't need the liability).. I still have the hub here, it was never going on the road.

EVERY detail had to be 'just' right. He wanted a knurled foot on the the 3 legs, and adjustable.
A standard knurl was not aggressive enough. Ended up with a 2.25" lead,40 start(I think it was 40),
overlapping right and left hand threads...

23902643593_e534a2472c_c.jpg


Also made what I thought should have been coasters, but he used them as product samples.

5242664872_10a86a2b62_z.jpg



It was a fun little project. And its something that I NEVER EVER would have thought of.
Machining a coffee table.. Thats CRAZY!!!!!
 
I'm looking for ideas of things to machine outside of work. I found this Makerspace near where I live and they have a machine shop with both manual/CNC mills and lathes. I joined and passed their tests to work in the shop. But now I'm sitting here and I can't think of a single thing to make.

I've no klew what you "are"... but there is no such animal as an "unimaginative Machinist".

If they have no problems to be solved, they will create problems.

Absent that core mindset, no, you will not know what to do with your hands or tools.

With it, lack of energy, time, money, space, better machinery, better materials, blanket-sharers that interrupt yah for the odd shag or a meal, kids as need fed, wars to be fought..."more, please" are the only barriers.

Never any shortage of ideas.

Useful or not, sane or otherwise, but never in shortage.

:)
 








 
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