Re: OT: need advice from machinists

Posted by Paul in Mich on September 10, 2005 at 20:03:55 from (64.12.117.7):

In Reply to: OT: need advice from machinists posted by Midwest redneck on September 10, 2005 at 15:50:54:

Redneck, having been a machinist for over 30 years, I have a couple of thoughts on what I personally would do if I were starting a small job shop. First of all any machine shop worth having would have a Bridgeport series I knee mill, with D.R.O and a good Kurt vise on a swivel base. I"d have a Clausing Colchester lathe with 3 and 4 jaw chuck along with a collett system. Then a good floor model drill press for detailing and deburring. If you are planning on doing prototype work or fixturing, try to finid an older C.N.C. mill, preferably with conversational programming. I did a ton of work on a Hurco KMB 1 and while those are really old machines now, they are extreemly fast from print to part. Once you are in business a while, you can always upgrade as capital permits. There are certainly other C.N.C."s out there, and they are almost a must if you are going to do fixturing, since they will hold tenths, which is almost imperative in todays production world. A surface grinder is nice to have, and good for grinding flat surfaces, and grinding tooling. A good carbide tool grinder is, while not imperative, certainly useful. A man once told me that a successful machine shop will start out with a minimum investment, then you go out and get the work to justify bigger and faster machines. It is general knowledge that you can"t afford to simply go out and buy a $100,000.00 machine. The work has to be there so that a machine can pay for itself. Getting work is not that hard since many companies do not want to be bothered with runs of less than 100 pieces, despite what they say about small lot size manufacturing. That in turn makes jigs and fixtures even more relevant. Good luck. Keep us informed as to how you progress.

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