How hard is cnc mill and lathe machine operations?

[JFurst]

Guy offered me a job doing this type of work. Only issue is I've never done it. How hard are these machines to learn?

[grove rat]

is you are familiar with machinery in general it's not a hard concept to learn, but understand that while simple, they are VERY FUCKING DANGEROUS if you are not taking the correct safety measures

oh and stop wearing any kinds of jewelry watches live strong bracelets or anything else that can get snatched up

[Matt]

Is this job also paying $30 plus per hour?

[JFurst]

Is this job also paying $30 plus per hour?

No this one is only $24/ hour. Just trying to see if it's something I could get into Keith minimal knowledge. Doesn't sound like it's too terribly difficult to do.

[Matt]

It is if they have someone there to walk you along and train you.

[YALE]

Go for it.

[Mike]

PM Brooks (Turbostang) he can probably answer your questions.

[Frank]

What do you do now?

Sounds like a great opportunity for the right guy. Always good to learn a new skill.

[Grape]

bolting things on and off of the table and hitting the "go" button isn't hard. But if you are speaking of writing the code for the mills and lathes to operate from, then yes, it's a bit more involved.

[CRASH]

As long as you can read micrometers and calipers, you'll be fine. You need to know how to read and setup a dial indicator too.

My dad has been a tool and die maker for 30 years or so. He has a manual mill and lathe at the shop that he makes everything with but a cnc would be nice !

[turbostang]

whoa.

I don't doubt your talent, or knowledge - but, I have a very hard time believeing that someone would hire a complete noob for that kind of scratch (even a good friend wouldn't do that).

I, personally, wouldn't take that kind of responsibility as an employee. There are cutters that are 1000$ a piece, one decimal point off, one extra 0, or a + or - in the wrong spot and you'll plow that cutter through the part, table or fixture at 100-1000IPM...then you're out a table, part, cutter and the machine is out of tram - and in some cases, you have to hire a factory trained rep to come recalibrate the machine.

If you don't have a decent understanding of the cartesian coordinate system, fractions, decimals, G codes and M codes, I would respectfully bow out.

[JFurst]

What do you do now?

Sounds like a great opportunity for the right guy. Always good to learn a new skill.

Retail management

[grove rat]

Retail management

if you have never worked directly with machinery/using your hands with tools, i'd consider turbostang's idea of respectfully declining. you will be on a learning curve and if your employer thinks that curve is taking too long they can simply fire you and that is that


on the other hand you could pick up on it quickly and love it

[turbostang]

if you have never worked directly with machinery/using your hands with tools, i'd consider turbostang's idea of respectfully declining. you will be on a learning curve and if your employer thinks that curve is taking too long they can simply fire you and that is that


on the other hand you could pick up on it quickly and love it

yup.. and to further elaborate on what I was saying above - There's more to running a CNC than just pushing the green button. That only happens when there's a proofed out program that is clean. Programs are never clean from the start, or they rarely are.

Even then, if they are clean, you have to know tool setup (after they've handed you a program), work offsets etc... and THAT is where you can screw some shit up.

If you are leaving a secure job for this one, I'd think about it - I just don't know about someone hiring a green operator who has little experience...

[fastwhite99gt]

I had to deal with offsets and a dumbass boss that didn't want to listen when I was running a CNC CV axle grinding machine. I told him that each axle was different and I needed to measure so I didn't eat $100 bits up on every one I ground. He swore that if they measured the same from one point to the other then they couldn't be off. Well low and behold, the curve for the axle was always different and it took about $1000 worth of bits for him to listen to me. I wouldn't even want to think about programming one from scratch!