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After high school I went to work at a machine shop as a draftsman, 4 yr apprenticeship.  As part of the apprenticeship I spent a little over 1 year working in the machine shop, got to run the common tools like drill press, bandsaw, but I also learned (basics) how to use a lathe and mill.  The coolest thing was I got to actually make some of the parts I drew.  95% of the jobs we got were from NASA, back in the 70s they had  a blank check and could just about spend as much as the pleased.  Never did learn how to weld, but I did learn how to solder when I went thru my 2nd apprenticeship at Norfolk Naval Shipyard.  Both jobs have been a big help in life/hobbies.

I have a mini-lathe (hardly ever use it now) and always wanted a mini-mill but never got one.  Now I don't really need one.

after i got out of the Airforce i took a metallurgy and welding course and took tig mig heliarc dc ac, welding all kinds of metal welding stainless brass bronze aluminum cast iron steel butt welds etc.

my favorite was dc reverse tig mig and especially gas welding oxygen acetylene .when yo do stick welding you have to stress relieve each gas weld or it will crack adjacent to the weld you made!ido welding for a living wouldn't want  to do welding for a living. but have seen to many welds fail because they were not stress relieved!

Alan Mancus

I had shop and drawing in highschool, that led me to an apprenticeship program at my career employer. I served a four year apprenticeship as a machinist, in doing so I realized that I didn't want to run production machinery the rest of my life. I was blessed to have the opportunity to be involved in a very intracate machine assembly area. I was one that loved working with my hands and that 47 years passed pretty fast. I do appreciate the time I spent learning the machines and how they work. I would like to own a milling machine but, I can't justify the expense, I can manage to get by with some light machining on my Shopsmith.

Ray

Acquiring some more 'advanced' skills is always beneficial in the model railroad hobby. I'm an electrical engineer by trade, my buddy is a mechanical engineer by trade. Our combined interests are mostly in pre and postwar trains. We've developed a local reputation of repairing the 'unreparable'. My buddy prides himself in bringing home the 'under the table' junkers from shows and getting them running. He's got lathes, mills, arbor presses, machine tools. I've got a lathe, arbor press, electronic test gear, ability to solder, diagnose electronics.  We've rebuilt motors, made bushings, bearings, rewired, refinished tinplate, and postwar, made standoffs, repaired E-units, etc. I like McCoy trains, and have made several replacement parts to keep ahead of the zinc pest. That's the part of the hobby we enjoy the most, fixing stuff. There are a lot of machine shop videos for all skill levels on YouTube. Even if you buy yourself one of those elcheapo Harbor freight lathes and drill presses to start playing with, your skill levels would improve dramatically.

Well, most of my skills are self taught. In college I studied Architecture. Which led me into building construction and it's skill sets: Carpentry, Plumbing, Electrical, Masonry, Design, Code Compliance. As a child and teen I was always intrigued with how things worked or were built (which got me into quite a bit of trouble. Picture disassembling an American Flyer engine down to unwinding the motor armature). Going forward I learned auto repair, got a lot more skilled at carpentry, learned how to work with metal and plastics. I've used every imaginable hand power tool (and own nearly all of them), own a drill press, bench saw, table saw, chop saw. I worked in graphics arts running a newspaper, as well as architectural CAD, so computer designing is second nature.

In short, I can diagnose just about any project and come up with a solution. It was all about going ahead and trying. I made mistakes, some costly, but gained huge confidence and knowledge to tackle just about anything I set my mind to.

I would like to get better at welding. Lathe work I'd leave to someone more adept.

We’ll fellas.......I took my Machinists class in 1973 - 1974......in High School.....then proceeded to take a 4 year Tool & Die Apprenticeship.......Turned out to be a fantastic career.....45 years.......retired at 62.....now pushing 66.......I owe everything to my Machine Shop Teacher.......he stuck with me thru my 2 years with him and actually made me turn out to be a A Okay Tool & Die Maker.....I never regret this profession.......👍👍

Rewarding post brings back many memories, when I graduated high school in the mid-60's, I considered either a machinist or tool and die maker career. Instead I chose mechanical engineering  and worked a variety of projects including designing machine parts. It was a rewarding experience to watch the machinist make these parts from a drawing, many of the machinists that I have worked with over my career were highly skilled professionals who took personal pride in their work, these individuals had to know the characteristics of different metals, heat treating, the use and calibration measuring tools such as micrometers, calipers , dial indicators, etc., how to setup and run a lathe, boring mill, horizontal and vertical milling machines.etc. Given our current job market, there is a shortage of machinists and tool and die makers, most technical high schools have closed, mechanical drawing(drafting) in not taught in many high schools and many shop classes have been discontinued.  

Hi Folks

I trained in mechanical engineering and spent ten years in the steel shipbuilding industry, where I designed everything needed to make a ship go, from anchor winches to propeller shafts and everything in between.  I thought I knew a lot about machining stuff from designing the parts but experience then showed me that I only knew what the part was supposed to look like - getting from metal blank to finished part was a whole 'nother ball game.  Okay, I was probably a bit better off than many, because I already understood limits and fits, tooling limitations, choices of materials and the issues involved with machining them, but my first attempts to machine stuff were abysmal failures and I had to go buy a bigger scrap bin for all the metal I was throwing away.  I learned the hard way about taking the time to properly dial-indicate a part for alignment on my long-suffering Sherline mill.  I learned the hard way that there is no such thing as a cheap drill bit, and using indexable ceramic cutting tips on my lathe for the first time was like climbing out of a Model T and climbing into a Shelby.

Everything you do has its own unique challenges, so you are constantly learning, correcting, refining.  I advise anyone wanting to try machining to start simple, read books, bug experienced machinists, ask questions on this forum.  Harold Hall is one author of many books on workshop subjects.  A statement of his made a big difference to the quality of my work; it went something along the lines of "It will often take more effort to build a fixture to hold the workpiece, than it will take to make the part itself".

Don't skimp on measuring tools either - my success/accuracy on my mill improved a lot when I bought an edge-finder tool - before that, I was constantly introducing little errors through shoddy set-up despite spending an awful lot of time on it.  Having been raised in a metric country, I found it impossible to do anything well on my 1960's-vintage lathe so I bought digital read-outs and bolted them on - quite apart from the metric aspect, being zero-resettable was a very useful feature in its own right, and so I bought another set of DRO's to bolt onto my mill!

A very important thing to remember is, you can't expect to get it right from the get-go, a lot comes down to experience and even very experienced machinists stuff things up now and then, so don't be afraid to dive in.

Hi Simon, that's a really difficult one to answer.  So much depends on what you are wanting to do, that you are probably best advised to decide on a project then seek information on that type of project.  Harold Hall has been kind enough to make a lot of his work available free: http://www.homews.co.uk/page463.html .  Unfortunately it is mostly laid out as projects rather than individual machining techniques, which sometimes makes it a bit hit-and-miss if you are trying to figure out how to perform a specific operation (although he has cross-referenced some common techniques), but I guess if you get stuck you can always come back to this forum for help.  Be warned, however, that the machining aspect can become a hobby in itself ;-)

I should add that I started out reading a lot of books at the library, reading through Mr Hall's website in great detail etc., but I learned the most by putting the books down and just doing it; of course, the books were kept handy for figuring out what I did wrong when I broke something - and I did that A LOT.  Safety glasses mandatory; my wife even threatened to buy me a T-shirt she spotted in a shop, that said 'Requires Adult Supervision'.  Several burned-out tungsten-carbide-tip lathe tools was how I learned the importance of packing the cutting edge up to exactly the same height as the centreline of the lathe chuck ;-)  It's not the carbide itself that fails, by the way, but the lower-melting-point brazing metal that is used to stick the carbide to its steel arm. As frustrating as it was to be wrecking tools, it nevertheless taught me about the importance of cutting-tip geometry, and I eventually graduated to grinding my own tungsten-carbide end-grooving tools, because one small enough for my pipsqueak of a lathe cannot be had for love nor money.

My first attempts at machining cast brass wheel centres to fit commercially-manufactured tyres started with cutting a blank disc to test how precise I could be - I couldn't afford to ruin any castings because the supplier was a grumpy old sod and I nearly had to promise him my first-born in order to get the castings!  Only once I was sure I could hit the mark reliably did I dare cutting the castings.  It will always be a case of incremental improvement, gradually extending abilities and making or purchasing tools to make jobs easier.  I will also happily admit to finding that some things are completely beyond my skills or the capacity of my machinery - or the amount of time I have available.  I'm quite proud of the steam loco driving wheels I fabricated, but I have since realised that I would die of old age before I completed a fraction of what I want to do.  I don't have any great desire to be able to say I made all my own wheels; I would much rather be building freight cars, so now I buy the superb driving wheels made by Slaters in the UK whenever I can find a match within an inch or so of the prototype size - self-quartering, screw assembly and they even include crankpins....worth every penny!

My suggestion to anyone wanting to get in to Machine Shop is to keep it real simple to start with.....it can be overwhelming to someone that does not already have an understanding of Metal working.......throughout my career I advanced to operating CNC Jig Grinders.....easily working with in .0002 of an inch.....or closer....Dead Nuts was the term for my type of work....I actually had one machine that you needed to program within .000000....yes that’s six places .....so if your trig was off the machine had accumulated error and true datum was gone in the first move.....X Y and Z coordinates....anyway.....precision grinding is NOT for just anyone.....it can be overwhelming, frustrating and at times just a pain in the ...But always remember “ Tool & Die Makers Do It With Precision” we are the master craftsmen of the world......Machinists are also INCLUDED.......along with the Fabricators......together we make a great tandem......Of course Design Engineers, Mechanical etc.......Least we forget about the Electricians.......we are all part of the total package.....the list goes on in life’s cycle......In the End we all need each other applying each God Given Talents into completing the final project.....👍👍

I never considered myself a machinist having known a few highly skilled professionals though I was once offered the job of running a machine shop at the school where I work. One thing that I became painfully aware of early on is you can work on a piece (only have manual machines, no CNC) for a few days and with one wrong turn of wheel turn that piece into scrap.

Its take a high degree of concentration and fore thought to sucessfully complete a project.

Pete

I was a Industrial Arts teacher for 28 years grades 7-12.  Loved it too!!!   Graduated from Millersville State College in Pa., had to take a wide gamut of classes, wood hot and cold metals, electronics, graphic arts, welding, construction, to earn my degree.  Fun times indeed and still use lots of these things that I have learned even into retirement, best decision I ever made was going into teaching.

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