I'm taking machining/casting classes

[crazydrummerdude]

Week 1: January 21, 2011:

The lecture professor teaches my lab class; which I can't decide if it's beneficial or not. So far, it seems like the guy is stuck in the 80's/90's. I can't tell you how many times he's talked about punch tape, and how "machines these days are starting to take floppy disks!" We've already had one lecture about punch tape, and he didn't even cover all the punch tape material he's going to.

In the lab, he showed us the Cincinatti mill (which he said we're probably not going to use) and brought us around back to show us the floppy drive and the serial port for a printer!



We were on the Bridgeport that I showed a couple posts ago. He wanted to get us familiar with the controls, and in the process of the machine being "on," it threw up 3 separate errors and had to be reset 3 times. He showed us the paper trick for getting the mill close to the workpiece. But, his method for subtracting out the thickness of the paper was to remove 0.0001". I thought I heard him wrong, so I watched; 0.0001". If paper was 0.0001" thick, it'd crumble when we tried to write on it.

We're going to have 3 graded milling projects (outside of lab ) and 3 lathe projects, I believe. Most of this will be intuitive programming on the machine(s), but at some point we are going to use EasyCAM.

I wonder what the lab on the other side of the building with the brand new CNC's is for..

It might sound like I'm being a little bitch.... so maybe I am.

....

Maybe I should throw in some pics from my glassblowing class. I made some paperweights today!

[crazydrummerdude]

Week 2: January 28, 2011:

Well,ladies and gentlemen, we are dealing with a real turd here. The Bridgeport crashed probably ten times today, and sprang a leak.

We were programming a cutter path block by block. What you see here is what the previous lab cut. We were going to cut the same thing on the other half of the block.



..but, like I said, the machine crashed probably ten times. Sometimes, we could reset and solve it. A couple times, we had to turn it off and back on. When it finally threw up an error and sprang a leak...



...we had to call in a technician from the department to come jiggle some wires.

We machined the piece, and it only made us ten minutes late. A 0.5" endmill and a drill bit in a wax block.. we're doing tool changes via "beer-fed meat servos."

This time, for our group projects, I picked a guy I know I can trust... I've known him for years, actually. Hallelujah!

We're already three weeks into my last semester. Wow.

[Donkey Hotey]

So does that control only display one line at a time on an LED display? Two lines? Or does it have an actual video screen with 10-15 lines? What about tool offsets? Reset it each time you change the tool?

No matter what, it's all good experience. Be sure to write down the exact model of the mill and type of control. It's good to put on a resume. Some clown screening resumes in an HR department will be looking for the word 'Bridgeport' or 'Heidenhain' and will skip right over yours if it ain't there. It also never hurts for future bragging rights with some old fart like Dagwood.

[crazydrummerdude]

Originally Posted by Donkey Hotey

So does that control only display one line at a time on an LED display? Two lines? Or does it have an actual video screen with 10-15 lines? What about tool offsets? Reset it each time you change the tool?

Not only one line at a time, but one "word" at a time. G00. Oh, no.. it crashes when you hit G00. G0, it is!

N1.

G0.

X1.

T1.

F4

Ugh!

Tool offsets? You have to set those all individually before executing the program, then change the tool mid-program. Hi-tech stuff, let me tell ya!

I asked the professor why he doesn't use a decimal for the feed rate, but he just changed the subject. He's been hitting on an "axis priority" pretty hard. It simultaneously makes sense and doesn't at the same time.

No matter what, it's all good experience. Be sure to write down the exact model of the mill and type of control. It's good to put on a resume. Some clown screening resumes in an HR department will be looking for the word 'Bridgeport' or 'Heidenhain' and will skip right over yours if it ain't there. It also never hurts for future bragging rights with some old fart like Dagwood.

I'm enjoying it, for sure. I am not being the know-it-all or anything... I don't know very much. I am here to learn. I think it's a Bridgeport R2E3. I think. Actually, I just got a voicemail from a company "looking over [my] resume and wondering about [my] career plans." (My casting class professor gave them my resume. They've got plants in the UK and Australia and here and there..) There's a certain "motorsports" company on the west coast I wouldn't mind working for, too.. We'll see how it all ends up after graduation!

[jeep44]

Originally Posted by crazydrummerdude

Member 1 = me.
Member 2 = complaining guy who showed up twice.
Member 3 = meowing guy who showed up most of the time, but was mentally elsewhere.
Member 4 = guy who showed up once.

I don't know how they fared. I don't even know how I did. I hope I got an A. I hope they were "rewarded" for their work, too.. but it's none of my business.



What do you teach?

When I did my Apprenticeship, you missed class 3 times, and you had to repeat it (with no pay this time). The school was very strict about roll call and attendance. I'm rather suprised at the students at your place.

[crazydrummerdude]

Originally Posted by jeep44

When I did my Apprenticeship, you missed class 3 times, and you had to repeat it (with no pay this time). The school was very strict about roll call and attendance. I'm rather suprised at the students at your place.

(Yeah, there were 16 weeks of lab, and one guy showed up once and the other guy twice. There were 32 lectures and the latter guy also only showed up twice. What a winner!)

I am rather surprised at the lack of discipline in general.

I saw the meowing guy the other day. He just stared at me. I don't know if he was mad because he got a bad grade (hopefully) or if he was just lost in some meow-fest in his head. I genuinely hope the other lying loser failed. He shouldn't be rewarded for selfish, piss-poor behavior. If I ever see him again, I don't know what we'd have to say to each other.

Changing the subject slightly; There's a guy at school here who sneaks around and spray paints the buildings and gets where he's not supposed to. Once, he fell out of a drop ceiling right in front of the school cops. He was busted, but not punished. Another time, he physically broke into (by smashing out the window) a storage closet and started stealing trash bags full of chemicals. He was caught. He still attends classes here (just saw him yesterday) and still lives in the dorms, I believe. Shouldn't people like that either be kicked out or in jail?

[CamoGreg]

Most of those old B'ports used a Boss8i controller. Never have seen that vintage with any other controller type.
Greco box to feed data to these controllers via floppy were new and trick in the early '80s.
I still use the paper trick. Cigarette cellophane is .001 and most notebook paper is .003

Things have sped up considerably since that era. The basics remain the same.
These days, knowing your programming software is more important than code.
But that basic is still necessary.

I hope you enjoy the trade. I have for over 30 years. I sometimes question it's future at times.
But it certainly has been good to me.

[crazydrummerdude]

Week 2: February 4, 2011

We did more manual programming, block by block. The Bridgeport only crashed 4 times. Next week, we will have a programming assignment; a contour and 3 drilled holes.

I am afraid this semesters updates to this thread won't be as exciting as last.. if we need fire and danger, I might have to start taking pics of the glass blowing.

[Infracaninophile]

Originally Posted by crazydrummerdude

Week 2: February 4, 2011

We did more manual programming, block by block. The Bridgeport only crashed 4 times. Next week, we will have a programming assignment; a contour and 3 drilled holes.

I am afraid this semesters updates to this thread won't be as exciting as last.. if we need fire and danger, I might have to start taking pics of the glass blowing.

Crazy:

As a favor to us, if things get too boring, can you not just make some crap up to keep us in suspense? You've done an excellent job to date and I may have to stop reading if this gets too normal.

T.

[crazydrummerdude]

Well, this thread is about my materials minor. Maybe my minor in math would excite you. (I try to get a lot of mileage out of this picture...)



Should I post about my minor in explosives?



Should I post about my time on the trap and skeet team?



Should I post about my senior design project?

[Lornce]

Fly this...




Past this...




And blow up what's left....

[TheOtherBart]

Originally Posted by crazydrummerdude

Should I post about my senior design project?

This is cool! My senior project was a clean-sheet design and build of two radio controlled aircraft, one glider and one tow plane. We tested them inside the big field house where the football team usually practiced. To get close to the required glide duration the glider ended up with a 6' plus wingspan. I remember that entire project very fondly.

[crazydrummerdude]

Originally Posted by TheOtherBart

This is cool! My senior project was a clean-sheet design and build of two radio controlled aircraft, one glider and one tow plane. We tested them inside the big field house where the football team usually practiced. To get close to the required glide duration the glider ended up with a 6' plus wingspan. I remember that entire project very fondly.

This is an autonomous bomber.. "clean-sheet" design, too. We're starting construction, and we'll be flying it within a couple months.

I couldn't imagine flying a 6'+ wide plane indoors.

This was my sophomore design plane (NOT "clean-sheet" more like "here are the f'ing instructions.. build it remotely close and you'll pass"):



Look at it go:

[EvilGenius]

Originally Posted by Lornce

Fly this...




Past this...




And blow up what's left....

Nooooooooononononono.

Take this.




Wrap it in this.



And fly it past this.

[Zebedee]

Yeah well, if the boring gets boring you can always keep us entertained with things that fly, explode or kills other stuff.

How you decide to combine the above, I leave in your capable hands ...



John