[Omegamachinist]

Hey guys and gals, My name is Steve, and I am fairly new to this industry. I graduated from machine tool technology (20 month course) and began working as a general machinist/CNC operator just over one year ago. Sadly, our programmer left us, but on the bright side, I have been given the opportunity to program. We are a pretty busy shop, but there are communication issues that cause the work to come in waves, with pretty tight deadlines. Just about everything we do is one off, so its more like a job shop environment than a production environment. the only problem is the managers expect production like flow through the shop. I retained all of my original duties, while taking on all of the mill programming. We only have one CNC mill, but I am getting very frustrated trying to juggle programming, operating the CNC, running the manual machines, and squaring up all the stock. Id love it if anyone had some tips that I could use to help me manage my time and be more productive. Im thinking about asking the managers if they could order the material .125 over in the thickness, so that I could just face it, contour the outside and do whatever milling, then just flip it over and face it off. If anyone has any kinds of tips I would be very appreciative. I work in a plastic extrusion die shop by the way.

Thanks,

Steve

[AARONT]

Ordering stock 1/8" oversize is the best way to go. Why square up stock before putting it in the CNC? Depending on the thickness of the part I give myself either at least .125" or .25" of stock. The jaw sides at least .01" and the ends about .125" total. This way you can slap in a piece of saw cut stock, face, profile cut, then put in whatever features you need. Squaring up stock to put in a mill is a waste of time unless you have issues with warping after scale removal.

My best advice for you since I did the same thing as you a few years ago, is learn as much as you can. Pay attention to everything going on and know why it's happening. Also, trust yourself . That will help you gain confidence. I am now part owner of the company I work for, and run the manufacturing portion of the company. You will learn most of the managers don't know squat. Very few people that know how to machine go into management and stay in management. Don't be afraid to question procedures that are done just because "thats how we've always done it". There is ALWAYS a better way to do something.