Machining.Blog® is a weekly blog focused on manufacturing career development. It features blog articles on the fundamentals of manufacturing for aspiring machinists. Our goal is to create an interest in manufacturing in the USA. Our writer Matthew Schowalter has worked in manufacturing for 24 years, and he covers the topics that matter to someone starting their career in manufacturing.
“The soft skills the machinist uses are the unseen tools in their box and can directly impact the success or failure of a dreamed after machining career.”
All in Machinist
Cardinal Manufacturing is a student-run business in the Eleva-Strum High School. In a student-run business the students are responsible for all aspects of the business. It is a custom job shop that makes machined parts for community members and people throughout the country. Check out this video on the program.
While spending much of my career working in the medical machining industry, it was an education into complex part machining. What is being done today in the machining industry is exceptional. Now a highly engineered part can be made compete in one setup in a machine that can turn, mill, drill, hob, broach, thread whirl, and gun drill parts. I have implemented lathes from 5-axis models up to 11-axis models. Here is a breakdown of what it might take to implement advanced lathes.
Nestled in Eleva-Strum High School, Cardinal Manufacturing is revolutionizing technical education through its student-run business model. As a beacon of excellence, Cardinal Manufacturing in Strum, Wisconsin empowers students to gain hands-on experience in manufacturing while running a real business. This innovative approach not only equips students with invaluable skills but also positions the program as a leader in the technical education world.
The community support of the technical education program at Eleva Strum High School is impressively large and there are several reasons why. The technical education program operates as a student-run business that fabricates and machines parts for customers. The business is called Cardinal Manufacturing. The money made by the business is used to buy raw materials, upgrade equipment, marketing, cover the operating costs, and to pay the student employees.
I recently had an opportunity to visit the technical education department at the Eleva-Strum high school. While I was in the shop, there was an eighth-grade class working on manual milling projects, sheet metal projects, welding projects, and brazing projects. These projects that they were making teach the students the fundamental principles of manufacturing. With this class, the students spend six days in each subject area, then they switch to another project. They learn the basics like how to read a tape measure, and how to use a dial caliper.
This book is an insight into how to start a student-run business in your school district. It offers a look inside Cardinal Manufacturing in the Eleva-Strum School District. It defines what a student-run business is and lists the benefits of a program like this. Check it out!
The workflow varies from shop to shop, but we will breakdown what it might take to process a CNC lathe part.
Spartan Manufacturing in the School District of Superior Wisconsin is on a mission to expose students to industry and the trades in their area, and to better represent all the post high school options available to students at Superior High School. They want to remove the stigma of a two-year technical degree or an apprenticeship program.
The machinist’s role is to setup advanced CNC machines and monitor the cutting conditions as the machine makes parts. As the machinist makes the parts, they inspect the parts with inspection tools and adjust the CNC parameters to achieve a conforming part that is within specifications.
There are many terms to know and understand in the machining industry. If you are just getting started in the industry, we have designed this list to better prepare you for the job.
So, you have finished your education, either in high school or post-secondary trade school or both, and you are ready to find that machine shop meant for you. Many people do not take compatibility into consideration when completing their job search, but they should.
When planning a CNC machining process there are many considerations and options to choose. From cutting tool selection to cutting parameters, the choices have a major effect on the end results. Here is what it might take to define a CNC toolpath:
How we are taught how to pronounce a measurement in mathematics class is different from how we pronounce a measurement in machine shop class. In the following chart, I will break down the decimal place pronunciation of 0.123456.
An endmill is a cutting tool that is typically used in a milling machine, or a mill/turn machine. They come in various diameters and lengths, to suit the needs of the user and the application. With that, they typically come in variations with 2-flutes, 3-flutes and 4 flutes. A 2-flute and 3-flute endmill is typically used in cutting aluminum. The 4-flute version is used in milling steel. The versions with 5 to 12 flutes are used in finish cutting steel.
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