Machining should be fun..

[junkaddict]

Ever since I got a lathe, and then a mill, my shop has been an absolute money pit. I was out there 6 hours making something today. I do enjoy a challenge.

[RB211]

It's either fun, extremely boring, or extremely frustrating. However, the end result is always amazing.

[754]

I used to think like Nickel when I first opened my shop...
then I discovered something ...production is boring.. but it can be good money without have to think much..
after that unless it was several days of the same it became Fun... that is.. as long as you were making rate.. once it got under..less fun.. but on contract when you bust your rate.. by like 30 or 50 ... then it became enjoyable.
and easier to get help, they needed less skill ..
and a lot of the time ..off hours .. you could even drink beer and get paid to work.... paid more than anyone would pay you..
and that US not a bad thing...

[Bented]

200 parts is not machining - it is manufacturing. That is why you are not having any fun. That is why I don't take any jobs with more than a dozen of the same part usually. Occasional exceptions for large structural jobs. Spent my whole life doing in-house plant repair and maint for manufacturing companies, no two jobs or parts are the same.

Actually this small number of parts is machining and will take 4-5 hours, 200,000 parts is manufacturing.

Normally I set this kind of work up on a machine then a younger guy will run it, we were out of young guys last Friday (-:
Must be the stress of Halloween.

[nickel-city-fab]

Go into machine work they said, it'll be fun they said.

This afternoon, 3/8-16 pentagonal head bolts that get a ,175" wide X .047" deep groove starting .220" from the bottom of the head.

Repeat 200 times (-:

200 parts is not machining - it is manufacturing. That is why you are not having any fun. That is why I don't take any jobs with more than a dozen of the same part usually. Occasional exceptions for large structural jobs. Spent my whole life doing in-house plant repair and maint for manufacturing companies, no two jobs or parts are the same.

[nickel-city-fab]

What uses a pentagon head ? Don't believe I have seen one.. not much choice of wrenches or sockets I bet..
likely fits in a pocket., ?

Both the water and the gas shutoff valves on my street use them. Installed sometime in the last 50 years, they have a small iron pipe in the yard with a cap held by a pentagon bolt. Remove that cap/bolt and use a special t-handled "key" wrench to shutoff utilities.

[Bented]

Camera mounted to the lathe carriage, it takes roughly 10 seconds to cut the groove and 30 seconds to change parts.
This is an extremely boring job (-:
https://bented.smugmug.com/My-First-Gallery/i-Kjp6Jvx/A

[J Tiers]

Hi,

It's going to take more than a vice grip to turn them hydrant screws. Firefighters use an adjustable wrench with almost 3' handle.

You've obviously never put a cheater pipe on a visegrip.......It works, but you need to push against the right part of it. Where there is a will, there is a way. Pump pliers, maybe, maybe not. Even the longest are not that long.

[reggie_obe]

What uses a pentagon head ? Don't believe I have seen one.. not much choice of wrenches or sockets I bet..
likely fits in a pocket., ?

Western Electric premises wiring cabinets, Network Interface cabinets, makes them somewhat tamper proof.

[dalee100]

Check the next fire hydrant you see. Most are pentagon head valves. Very few will have a wrench for one, that's likely the reason. (Not much good when folks have large pump pliers, or vise-grips.)

Hi,

It's going to take more than a vice grip to turn them hydrant screws. Firefighters use an adjustable wrench with almost 3' handle.

[Bented]

What uses a pentagon head ? Don't believe I have seen one.. not much choice of wrenches or sockets I bet..
likely fits in a pocket., ?

Tamper resistance.
https://www.mcmaster.com/security-ma...n-head-screws/

[J Tiers]

Check the next fire hydrant you see. Most are pentagon head valves. Very few will have a wrench for one, that's likely the reason. (Not much good when folks have large pump pliers, or vise-grips.)

[754]

What uses a pentagon head ? Don't believe I have seen one.. not much choice of wrenches or sockets I bet..
likely fits in a pocket., ?

[Bented]

Go into machine work they said, it'll be fun they said.

This afternoon, 3/8-16 pentagonal head bolts that get a ,175" wide X .047" deep groove starting .220" from the bottom of the head.
Made a spacer that stopped the head 1/2" from the collet, insert part and close collet.


Turn groove.

Repeat 200 times (-:

[J Tiers]

I do not do much manual machine work these days, 80% CNC for the last 10 years and this has been a very good thing indeed. It reduces the tedium of cranking handles and levers all day.

I can set up and program multiple machines making different parts and run them at the same time if the cycle times are long enough, you are mostly inspecting the parts as they finish, this is much more efficient and far more fun then running manual machines.

No just all that, but also the fact that the machine does not generally dope-off and do something wrong. So consistent good parts are the result. Management loves that. So do the customers that buy the products.