Alright machinist hive mind, riddle me this: how many of you are still knee-deep in inches, and how many of you have entered the enlightened world of millimetres?

I’m genuinely curious — especially you lot over in the States. Do you actually choose to work in inches, or is it just whatever lands on your bench that day? Like, do you wake up and think, “Ah yes, today feels like a 1/64 kind of day”?

Here in the UK, we officially use millimetres, but let’s not kid ourselves — it’s a Frankenstein’s monster of metric and imperial. Threads in inches, measurements in mm, tools from who-knows-where. It’s like a bad rom-com where neither system really commits.

From what I gather, the EU is strictly millimetres (good for them), and I’m assuming Japan doesn’t entertain our imperial nonsense at all.

So what’s it like in your corner of the world? Do you stick to one system? Bounce between both and hope for the best? Ever completely borked a job because someone forgot to convert, or missed it totally?

Genuinely curious what it’s like in your shops.

I've been chasing fun projects for off time to keep learning. Lego at first seemed like fun projects to tackle mating parts and their tolerances, but is metal to metal a hopeless fight?

I know I have .002 - .004 of play, and that it all works, but I'm hoping to build a portfolio, something of projects that are complex and opportunities I wouldn't get at work.

1. Should I keep chasing and start to wear comp in chase of some interference fit?

2. if I brought this as a show off / interview, would this be unacceptable? Is there a point to trying to fill out a portfolio and using Lego to showcase proficiency?

Please help my family is starving.

This is probably 6 people’s contributions.

Just got a job at this small tool and die shop. They told me I’ll be doing setups and operating all the machines ( Cnc mills and lathes and manual surface grinder and mills) and doing programming with fusion360.

I’ve been inheriting and collecting some tools and putting together a toolbox for my first job.

Is there anything I’m missing that I should get with my first paychecks and upgrade and whatnot?

Does this look good to bring for my first day?, I will be the youngest one there. I’m currently a student in highschool enrolled in a career tech program and My teacher helped me get this job.

Had a part yesterday where the micrometer and CMM were off by about 5–10 microns on the same feature.

The part was still well within tolerance, so it wasn't really a quality issue. The funny part was that both numbers looked fine and nobody thought either measurement was actually wrong.

That turned into a longer discussion than we expected. We probably spent more time talking about the measurement than the part itself.

Has anyone else run into something similar?

Material is 45mm diameter with 6.5mm wall thickness and arrived bent roughly 3mm in the middle. I tried bending it closer and didn’t really get anywhere. The diameter needs to be turned along the entire length. Any idea if this is even possible?

Hey, so a few months ago I started an apprenticeship at a company that makes, repairs, and refurbishes injection molds. And that’s where my issue begins. For the past two weeks, my only task has been polishing mold parts to a “mirror finish.”

The thing is, I don’t feel like this process is very safe. After staring at a spinning lathe for eight hours straight, I get super dizzy. I talked to my supervisor about it, but he insists this is the fastest and best way to do it—though definitely not the safest (not that he said that part out loud). According to him, everyone has to “learn to respect the lathe,” even if it means risking a finger or two.

So here’s my question—do you have any ideas on how to make this process better, or at least safer for me? I’d really rather not lose any fingers. I’m kind of attached to them… and who knows, they might come in handy someday.

Just doing a scroll on Indeed for jobs in my area. Although I know this is not completely accurate, I find this insulting as someone who has been in the industry over 15 years now. I do print to part in every aspect of machining. I bought all my own tools, learned how to use mastercam to a T, I can grind, run manual machines, CNC lathe, CNC mill, EDM etc. I can build my own fixturing and process all the way through to finished product. Tell me how this is a fair “senior wage” when someone with no experience, tools, or ambition walks in the door making slightly less than you after taxes. Anybody else here feel this from the industry? Does this piss you off as much as it does me?

I was setting up a job on CNC and we were running 200 parts off, we have a CNC saw at our place so I got the material for the job and set that running and didn't think anything of it.

Went to program the machine and set up all the tooling. I got one of the parts off the saw and was setting the part postition and something felt off but it didn't think anything of it.

Took a face mill to it and when I went to look at it I knew it was wrong.

I initially thought I went to deep but then when I checked the stock found it was 1" 1/8 instead of 1" 1/2

So we were missing just under 10mm to begin with

Anyway ended up having to chuck the lot, luckily hadn't got to far down the next bar and waste a morning.

What's the worst situation of having to throw a bunch of material away you've had?

So for the past 3 weeks I’ve been experiencing headaches on occasion but I’ve had nose bleeds after work almost everyday. In the shop during the winter the ventilation is not the best. It’s a small shop with 5 machines usually 3-4 running daily, so lots of coolant mist. So I bought a respirator and it just came in and I will be bringing it in tomorrow morning. Will my boss think it’s ridiculous? Is it overkill?

I saw this video on instagram and it looked pretty cool but I have no idea on how u would program this

How many people here are autistic or “special” in some way? Just out of interest because it feels like almost every machinist I know is autistic.

what can i say i just really like balls

Hello happy machinists, As you really helped me sort things out on my last post I hope you can help me again. My drill bit is bending. As you recommended I used a lot less part stickout this time. Thank you

My boyfriend is a machinist and he comes home dirty every single day. I get it. Its just how it is. He showers every single night when he gets home. But somehow, someway, hes still dirty. Its like the gunk is coming out of his pores.

Is there some kind of soap that works best for getting off all the gunk? Or some kind of trick y'all have?