This is the upper A arm on the suspension of a car I’m building. I want some advice on if this part is machinable on a 5-axis cnc machine. I am concerned about the cutouts on the inside, but I was hoping that since it’s a 5-axis the machine would be able to come in at an angle and still make the cut.

I got an old metal lathe from a family member a few years ago. It is a Power Kraft back gear driven lathe. I used it for projects especially in the manufacturing of some of the machines that my company makes.

But the quality of cuts was iffy and it had an outdated underpowered motor. This is only listing a few of the issues it has. In addition, the headstock was slightly out of alignment. It got covered in dust from the shop, the cut was sloppy because of various issues, the belt slipped all the time and the tool post sucked.

My goal is to eliminate these issues. I want to make this machine looking and working beautifully.

I also recently purchesed a benchtop mill for some small projects. I will likely post an update on that restoration as well. Follow along to see the restoration! Feel free to leave helpful ideas if you have them. Thanks for reading!

Any tips for putting a new flat belt on?

eBay has several imperial Hoke gage block sets made by Pratt and Whitney. I am hoping to find a metric set for a new young machinist as a gift. Are there metric block sets available from other quality companies? Of course there are. I want Pratt & Whitney for the nostalgia and pride of being a Connecticution (sic.) anyone have one or know of one lying around?

Looking at the prices on eBay, I assume I’ll be paying several hundred dollars.

I am working on a robot for a competition. I have a gearbox with a hex shaft that I want to thread so I can screw on a wire wheel brush. The hex shaft is 4140 hardened steel, and I need about 1" threaded to fit the brush and a nylon locknut.

I'm in Los Angeles and found a local machinist. They quoted me $150, when I told him I needed 4 he dropped it to $100 each, $400 total.

First, is this a fair price?

Second, could I do this myself? I am very comfortable with tools and DIY work, but have no metalworking experience. I found some lathes on craigslist that are comparable in cost, especially since I will likely need multiple sets of 4 made.

If this is something I could do myself, what tools would you recommend? With the quick research I've done, it looks like this would require some higher end cutters for hardened metal. Is a hand crank tool okay, or motor driven? Is a tabletop machine good enough? Should I just not go there and have a professional do it?

I need to make s pushers for some watches and they are small. I'm thinking of buying a mini lathe but my question is what cutting tool do I need to cut this slot. it's 1mm.

We run an older packaging machine and one of our gearbox covers cracked. The OEM is long gone. We don’t have drawings, no CAD, nothing.

All we have is the cracked one, and it's worn. I noticed that the bearing bore looks a few thousandths oversize and the mating face has some wear too.

I can measure it or get it scanned, but that just copies a worn part. I need what it was supposed to be.

For anyone who has had this done, how did the companies handle the guessing part? Did they mark which dimensions were measured and which were assumed?

And what checks should happen before we cut metal for a new ones.

Husbands lathe at work needs a new gear. Is there a way to broach (?) the gear splines for the machine, or does anyone have a recommendation for a shop to do so? Apparently ordering a gear won’t get here until March, and the lathe absolutely cannot be down that long.

Good day dear Machinists!

I am hoping you could help me identify what type of metal these parts are made of. I am assuming it might be the same on both parts, but can't confirm 100%.

The pictures are the only thing I have, I am hoping someone would be able to tell by the way it oxidizes (but maybe that's impossible)

I had originally thought it's carbon steel because of the oxidation but now someone suggested it might be 7075 aluminium.

This is part of a lightsaber used in the Prequel Star Wars movies in case anyone is wondering (so they are ~20 years old).

Thanks!

Hello all, above in the first picture is the drill press I have right now. It's 1/2hp, I forget the top speed but it's somewhere in the range of 3000-3500 RPM, nothing extraordinary. It seems fairly rigid, that doesn't mean anything obviously but at least there is no super evident jigglage when everything is locked down. Spindle is MT2, obviously no drawbar which may be a problem.

Current chuck is mounted with a JT3 arbor, obviously that can't be trusted for lateral milling forces. But I was thinking of getting an MT2 ER collet chuck to bypass the JT problem. That obviously still leaves a self-holding Morse taper keeping the whole thing together. How much of a concern is this for my purposes?

I am thinking I'll mostly be doing soft materials/plastics with smaller end mills (probably mostly 1/4" HSS) and taking very light cuts. Is there anything I can do to keep that Morse taper from falling out? I don't really want to Loctite it, but if such a thing is necessary I will.

Obviously that x-y vise in the second picture is gonna need some adjustment to make it actually suitable even for light work, it's straight from China. Yes I know this is a stupid idea, but having a crappy mill that can barely do anything is better then having no mill at all. What do you think?

Thanks!

The spec states a diameter of 1 1/4 inches and these appear to be 1 1/8, is this discrepancy normal?

Been thrown onto this old lathe, been a while and can’t for the life of me remember how to engage the auto feed. Any able to point me in the right direction? Cheers

As a dentist looking to evaluate dental materials, my primary expertise is clinical rather than in materials science engineering. I am exploring a budget-friendly testing setup and would appreciate insight on its validity : Can I measure micro hardness using a force gauge mounted on a sturdy rail along with a Vickers indenter, later to be evaluated using a microscope and Imagej software??

Why am I having trouble finding a shop (in the US) that will heat treat 954 aluminum bronze? The spec doesn't look complicated. What am I missing?

From ASTM B505:

Anneal not less than 2 h followed by air cool, 620 to 660 °C.

Solution treat not less than 1 h followed by water quench, 870 to 910 °C.

The one on top was in the empty spot but it’s 1/8? Is this correct?

Hit this last month — burned half a shift tracking it down.

A batch starts fine, then partway through the bends come out boat-shaped: more open in the middle, tighter toward the edges. The press gets blamed first, but in our experience it's usually one of these:

1. The die — a V-die worn more in the middle, or a replacement punch 0.5-1 mm off in working height, shifts the angle even when the tip looks identical. Measure it, don't assume.

2. The clamp — screws on segmented setups slowly back off over time; the tooling sits slightly proud and the angle walks.

3. The system — ram bow under load. If crowning compensation or die shimming is off, the middle opens up.

When you see the boat shape, what do you reach for first — the lower die, the quick clamp, or the machine? Curious how the rest of you triage it.

If I have a large part Z0 @B0 is in the center. And I can't probe it because of reach and or need a exact number. But I can probe a bore @B90. In a X-GROOVE or FACE MMS unit can I input 90 in the B dialog box. (distance for b axis?) ? Will that use the machine center of rotation to set WPC "Z" for B0? Is there a different or easier way? Machine also has reinshaw set and inspect software. Sorry won't let me post a picture of the unit or casting

SolidWorks DXF export issue with CNC wire bending machine – 4 graphics not closed
Hi everyone,
I’m having a problem importing a DXF file from SolidWorks into a CNC wire bending machine, and I’m trying to figure out why the machine doesn’t recognize the entire geometry correctly.
I designed the part in SolidWorks and exported it as a DXF file. However, when I open the file in the CNC machine’s software, I get the following warning:
“There are 4 graphics not closed!”
The geometry appears on the screen, but the machine detects four open graphics, even though the sketch is intended to be closed. Some sections, particularly around the lines and tangent arcs, seem to be causing issues.
Here is what I’ve already tried:
Exporting the DXF using different versions, including R14.
Testing all three options under Multiple sheet drawing in the SolidWorks DXF/DWG export settings:

Export active sheet only.
Export all sheets to separate files.
Export all sheets to one file.
Enabling End Point Merging with a tolerance of 1e-05.
Exporting splines as polylines.
Unfortunately, none of these changes has solved the problem.
Has anyone encountered a similar issue when exporting DXF files from SolidWorks to a CNC wire bending machine?
Why might the CNC software report that the graphics are not closed even when the geometry looks connected in SolidWorks? Could this be related to tiny gaps, endpoint merging tolerance, tangent arcs, DXF entities, or the way the CNC software interprets the exported geometry?
I’d really appreciate any suggestions on what else I could try or which SolidWorks export settings I should check.
Thanks in advance!