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How hard is CNC Machining?

I've enjoyed this thread. Lots of interesting stories. Just to summarise what *I'm* hearing, for the OP, assuming they are still here:

  • These are machines that do exactly what you TELL them to do!! (However, that's not necessarily the same as what you WANT them to..:D)
  • Mistakes can be very costly, try and minimise them. Yet at the same time, NOT pushing the machines is a big cost.. Balance the two
  • Somewhat different skills are needed for operators vs programmers. I particularly agree that attention span is a problem for button pusher jobs. Some people are a lot better at doing repetitive things (without (much) error) than others.
  • However, it is also a special skill to perform the programming process (to a high level). Especially the guys with lots of experience can fixture and design cutting processes that are far cleverer than the rest of us... (there's a chap Benjamin, @frelux on instagram, who just puts a couple of flextures and a screw in a block of aluminium to hold a part, while everyone else is still messing around with mitee bite things. Amazing skills)
  • Metal wants to be cut at a certain "speed" (and angle). Broadly these speeds and angles are well understood and researched, but the tool we are using (on a mill) is round. So understanding the relationship between the diameter of the tool, it's RPM, and the size of the stepover, and how that affects the velocity of the tool tip (and it's angle) is rather non obvious for a new person.
  • Some materials are a lot more forgiving than others. You can feel like a hero munching aluminium, but it doesn't necessarily mean you have mastered the subtleties of the point above. Errors translate into tool life, and in turn into cost, etc

Did I miss anything?

However, I would also go out on a limb here and ponder where the line is between "grey beard" and novice... I'm old enough that I grew up having to source books to get knowledge and that was often expensive and difficult (I come from the IT world, and so chasing down obscure things and waiting for them to arrive to research topics was a staple). However, it's now much easier to get access to the basics! The internet exists and any fool can learn to take some basic tools and a couple of bits of metal (or wood) and make them come together in a pleasing form. There are even machines for very low cost that can take you a long way down this road

Now, I am that grey beard in an different industry (I'm really an IT guy... gulp), and it's definitely the case that my battle scars have taught me things that these "whipper snappers" don't yet even know what they are missing. However, the reality is that people can also turn out a lot of good stuff without all of that long tail of experience. I guess once one becomes that grey beard, they realise the amount of stuff they still don't know. However, it does feel like the engineer world still wants the young entrants to treat the old guys as deities, when that pattern has started to disappear from other disciplines? I guess the young guys (gals) have the benefit of a web search putting some xx% of the experience of the old guys at their fingertips, without needing to do the time?

I wonder if it's not unreasonable for a new entrant to consider a much more basic and superficial education/training before converting or starting a career in machining (distinct from engineering more generally)?

(Disclaimer: I am most certainly NOT a expert in machining...)
 








 
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