Who does Fabrication/Machining for a living ?
 

Im proud to say my day job is a CNC Machinist for a great company in CT, Just wondering how many of us do fabrication or machining for a living and what sort of equipment do you operate?

I run Swiss style sliding headstock CNC lathes, super fast super high precision. my tolerance's are usually +/- .00025 . Most of what i run are 8 axis. We machine alot of 2024,303,416,15-5ph and MP35N

this is like what i run (demo)

Used to be a tool and die maker, now the sales manager for a good sized plastic injection molding and CNC machining shop. Been here 18 years now.

I work as a machinist for R&D at NASA Goddard our shop is small no CNC equipment its all old school by hand. We do mostly small stuff and one off development pieces. We have two manual causing 14" lathes and a standard size bridgeport.

I used to. Cnc and manual gear cutting mostly. Also ran a cnc mill and giant drill press. I'm drunk and can't remember the name. Picked up lathe and programming skills along the way.

Look up allied systems inc, I made all the gears for their whiches.

Having done tool and die work part time, coupled with chassis work full time for a while, never again. I'll stick with engineering for the time being. Tool and die was too monotonous for me (a lot of bulk orders for surgical companies), and I will NEVER run or work in a fab shop again. Too many asshole customers that want everything done/changed for free.

Try running production on swiss machines, super monotonous. My lots range from 2000-25000 pcs. but i make from 250-5000 pcs a day. The setups are what fun. But its a great company so i will deal with it.

I do.
I work in a machine shop with 3 CnC machines, a devlieg, CnC lathe, other assorted machines bridgeport, grinders, ect. and a fabricating shop in the back where i work.

I sometimes operate the CnC's, but it's boring as hell.
Our newest.
Attachment 185559

I've posted some of the BS i've made in here. But this is where i work.
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It is what i would consider a "clean" shop. We do a lot of high end stuff for the army, automotive, and medical field.

I used to work in a machine shop, first as a an operator, and then as a setup guy. Pretty great stuff, they had all sorts of machines, including a 9 axis cnc lathe. The stuff made there was crazy, from missile parts to government secret stuff hid behind a screen labeled some acronym. We even made parts for jetlev, yeah that water powered jet pack, I have one of the pressure nozzles here in my collection of scrap parts. Unfortunately I hated being a worker ant employees in the eyes of the multi million dollar company decimal engineering. I also worked at Pettit racing for a while, doing lots of work on rx7s, and making all of the products that were sold, ie, charge tubing, welding and finishing intercoolers, machining his Greddy replica elbows, battery trays, blah blah. Lots of random stuff. But again, being an employee was just that. I'm a lot more happy now just doing as many custom fab jobs as I can handle. It's easier, more profitable, and allows me the creative design freedom you usually can't have working for someone.

^ You're living my overall goal. Being "just the worker" is already getting old. Having ideas in my head and knowing how i'm going to go about something only to have my boss shoot it down and come up with a completely bogus way of doing things is annoying. But i'm young, and i'll stick it out for as long as i can tolerate. Doing custom work, repair work, having my own business is my goal.

I agree, but at the same time I truly enjoy my job stability, the goal with a big company is to make your self as close as possible to indispensable. I like not having to worry about medical benefits , and we have insane profit sharing and retirement. Not to mention great pay and sick time.

I always wanted my own business, but I decided I like steady income and stable healthcare over creativity and freedom. I have access to great resources to do my projects "G-jobs " so I'm content with being a worker bee

Here's what I used to do, although these guy's feeds and speeds are pathetic.

That gear hobbing is pretty neat, why were you not making us 6spd straight cut gear sets !

Our biggest winch could (and did) pull a freight car up a cliff, they weren't high speed gear boxes taking racing abuse. I understand you're partially joking (I think), but I actually discussed this with my boss. We made up to a quality 6 or 8 I think, he said auto transmission gears should be one or two steps better than what we could do. I mentioned Quaife had gear sets for $3.5k or whatever the price is and he said that was a very reasonable price.

Quality Gear Manufacturing Standards - ISO 9001, AGMA Standards - American Gear, Inc.

Haha thank you. It's not quite in full effect yet, but I'm not starving either. I wouldn't let your age stop you, you could get a head start. I'm 21, and I know a few successful business people under 25 doing fabrication. One of them is. 23, and is about to take on a contract For the company that Just bought out mosler. I forget their name. Doing all of the exhaust and headers. thinking about just working for him if he'll pay me well. I know he'll give me design freedom, as ive worked with him before. Really, its about what you bring to the table, and your attention to detail. People will always respond to that, especially with the combined ability to show them why it's better than the competition.

I just need to be given a chance. I know it sounds petty, but on a daily basis i'm told how exactly to do so many things down to the very last minute detail. It's exhausting.
Even if 80% of the work is reading off a print.
I'm 22, but every day i think about it more and more. I need to just start off doing small side jobs for people and take it from there.

Pretty much this. Even if you don't go that way permanently you get the freedom/fun factor and side cash. If it blows up, no biggie. If it takes off you can decide based on true options instead of hopes and dreams.

Pipe welder here. Here're some samples of my work.

Attachment 239647
Attachment 239648

Made these at work.

Attachment 185185

That's 1.5" material. They didn't tell me what turbo was being strapped to it. But it's clearly an outlet flange (silly design for wastegate flapper relief IMO). Not even sure if a pipe is welded or just bolted on to it. I do know it's for a turbo diesel.

Not my design. Just thought you guys would enjoy the look.

Im doing fab work full time now.

Just moved into an industrial unit 5 weeks ago, its a pretty good size, about 1600^2 feet.

Started off doing odd jobs for friends, now my average customer comes from around 2 hours away.

Im not raking it in I still dont have a hoist-trying to find a 240v one is difficult- but I have plenty of work to pay the bills and thats good enough for me at this stage, and work is only getting busier.

I figure if you are passionate about what you do, dont take the piss, and ALWAYS make sure the customer is satisfied you will always be able to pay your bills working for yourself, in any industry.

Dann

PS: not sure if the US has that saying, but not taking the piss is "To take the piss is an expression meaning to mock, tease, ridicule or scoff. Take the Mickey etc variations"
So in other words, do a good honest job with no BS.

Congrats Dann. Nice to see you are doing so well!

Best of luck. One day you might have a customer 3 hours away .. by Jumbo jet :)