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All things machinist

Rmcpherson

Rmcpherson

Member
Joined
Apr 18, 2026
Location
fairfield
Moto(s)
2007 Aprilia tuono
2001 Klr650
1973 rd350
I work in a large part job shop programing and operating a large bridge mill. Thought it would be neat to have a thread going for other barf machinist who want and can share photos of their work, setups, custom tooling, and such. can be moto related machining or just general work. look forward to seeing what you guys have worked on!
 

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That's some awesome stuff you got going on over there! I've worked on the carrier system for the sonar system on one of the Coast Guard's discovery boats a few years ago. Not nearly as impressive as those rover wheels.
 
Rmcpherson said:
That's some awesome stuff you got going on over there! I've worked on the carrier system for the sonar system on one of the Coast Guard's discovery boats a few years ago. Not nearly as impressive as those rover wheels.
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Thanks man. Tapemation in Scotts Valley specialized in big parts. I haven't worked there in a loooong time but the experience was priceless. Im doing some more "pedestrian" stuff now in comparison.

Check out the "What have you made Lately" thread.

More than machining there but lots of smart crafty people round here. :thumbup

I know confidentiality can limit what gets shared but, I enjoy seeing other machinists work and problem solving skills when ya can.
 
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These days I make acrylic "Patterns" that go on to be used to create a mold that is used to mold parts for customers. My employer Design Octaves, does everything in house here in Santa Cruz. We machine the patterns, build the tools, mold the parts and paint/assemble it all right here still. it's way different than the aerospace and large part world I cam out of but I like it. the translucent part in the pattern, the molded part is fresh out of flash removal and being inspected before prep and paint.

Nice Ape btw, birds of a feather.... :laughing
 
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That's really awesome, I'd love to dabble in the mold-making world. haven't had any really plastic experience outside of personal 3d printing. A lot of what my shop does is structural, some aerospace, defense, occasionally when were sub contracted. and really anything else that comes in through the door. I'm gonna post a pic of one of the 10-ton heat exchangers I work on. They usually are a little under than about 16.7k lbs over the scale. Those are dry-machined stainless. However, I do a lot of aluminum and A36 steel. Just got to play with some magnesium recently, that was neat.

Mike95060 said:
Nice Ape btw, birds of a feather....
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Indeed! haha.
 

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Hell yeah! The big Mitsu gantry mill totally reminds me of Tapemation. At that workplace I was often spending 1/2 a shift to move, position, align, locate and verify a big assed weldament before spending an hour of so facing pads and poking holes :laughing That and watching to make sure face mill inserts didn't melt down in the middle of a long facing mill pass. Good times! I was working one night when a stainless burr sliced a lifting strap and sent a 5000lb high vacume chamber crashing to the floor. No injuries. (it would have killed someone if it landed on them.) Don't ever rush when your climbing around slippery parts or lifting heavy things. Your older self will thank you.

When your set up make 2,4,6 blocks look like 1,2,3 blocks, ya know your doing something that's not super common! :thumbup

I just spied an Anayak in the background!! Tapemation had one with a 20'* X axis travel.
 
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Haha sounds like my typical day! I'm often referred to as the safety whore in the shop. The last thing I need is to get hurt. When I first started here i was doing a lot of manual lathe work and dropped a pipe flange on my finger, fitting it to a pipe I was about to weld and broke it.
 
I worked in a small machine shop in Mountain View for ~9 years while going through college. I ended up one day using a drill as a lathe and decided I wanted my own shop. Well, that became my garage packed with a Factory Bridgeport CNC that I completely rebuilt. Chrome ways still nice and frosty. A couple small manual (10" and 12") engine lathes and mill, saws and drill press, little surface grinder, all the normal stuff...

Mostly what I make is more tooling, and then odd repairs on whatever, and ornamental fun stuff. I moved and cant take my shop with me until I build a real shop, which may be a while.

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Rmcpherson said:
Haha sounds like my typical day! I'm often referred to as the safety whore in the shop. The last thing I need is to get hurt. When I first started here i was doing a lot of manual lathe work and dropped a pipe flange on my finger, fitting it to a pipe I was about to weld and broke it.
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Ever stand over a 68" diameter VTL to polish an O ring groove wile it's running? Yeah, that was part of the procedure :laughing Don't fall in! Being a safety whore is petter than mobbing up blood.
 
Personally have not done the polishing myself, but often stood over one helping other coworkers sort out math and calculations for specific tooling! 72"
 

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Hells yeah! Our big VTL as an O-M. We had a giant G&L mill with a 5 pallet changer that you had to walk in to pick up offsets. The door to the enclosure was man sized for a reason. lol
 
My only experience with machining was making relatively simple stuff on the Hardinge lathe and Bridgeport mill in our shop. I never had any training.

I did, however, design many molded components for injection molding. I used Solidworks for that.
 
Fun stuff, thanks for sharing guys. This will keep my memories alive.
 
Today, while trying to use a piece of scrap* from the Press Tooling pile to make a mandrel for something else I made this custom carbide 4 flute nasal cavity cleaner.

Sometimes it's cheaper to buy a chunk of easy to machine bar stock

*No clue what it was in a previous life but a file skates across it and STILL skates across it after having removed quite a bit of the diameter. Soft nouguty center it has NOT
 

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auntiebling said:
Today, while trying to use a piece of scrap* from the Press Tooling pile to make a mandrel for something else I made this custom carbide 4 flute nasal cavity cleaner.

Sometimes it's cheaper to buy a chunk of easy to machine bar stock

*No clue what it was in a previous life but a file skates across it and STILL skates across it after having removed quite a bit of the diameter. Soft nouguty center it has NOT
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That's cute an all but, only a real pro can ruin an endmill WITHOUT breaking it... newb.

 
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