Adam, Stefan put up a link to your channel…. and I for one am grateful he did so. It is very generous of you to take the time to record your work in this manner. Congrats also on ‘surviving’ your (first) three years as a self-employed craftsman. Thanks again, Robert ( Australia)
Thanks so much for sharing. I don’t get to see many people on RU-vid doing this level of detail and precision so I really appreciate your videos. One minor note on the format: It’s nice to see the finished work in use. A short shot at the end that shows the block and pads holding a part would do the trick. Even for work that has an obvious use, it’s somehow more satisfying to see it on screen.
It is truly wonderful to see expert knowledge of precision surface grinding being shared. As most people in machinist community know, detailed information on this subject is extremely difficult to find. Many thanks for sharing a little of you experience.
I keep coming back to this video for inspiration. Love your channel! I've been in Wire EDM for about 2-3 years and only recently came to a shop where i was doing it full time. This inspires me to learn more and hone the craft, exceed expectations whenever possible. Grinding is something I have very little experience with, and these tips have definitely helped the few times I have needed to use it. Keep em coming Adam!
Fascinating attention to detail and very well explained as you go along. Thanks for taking the time to make these videos, and sharing your skills and experience.
I'm so grateful for the insight you're providing. The work you do is so beautiful, that even to a complete layman like myself, it's unmistakably brilliant in the way a fighter jet or turbine is. And it's clear that it's not just the requirements that you use that sort of detail for ... but in your shots and editing. Your calm and fastidious demeanor is greatly appreciated. Please continue creating functional works of art.
For anyone watching and thinking this is the life of a toolmaker, die maker or machinist, you would be horribly mistaken when compared with 99.99% of machine shops today. What this fellow is doing is akin to being a Swiss watch maker in a land of Chinese junk. Forty years ago, as a tool and die apprentice making carbide dies and press components for the can industry, we had the Schmidt vices, Kershner toolboxes and all the glorious high precision tools of the time. I was trained by the finest German and Irish tool and die makers a guy could ever ask for. By the age of 22 I could do precision work that guys twice my age were incapable of doing. I could setup and run any machine in a shop, including the first versions of CNC. Only one problem, CNC machines. The machines completely changed management's opinion on the needs of the company. Companies knew they still needed toolmakers and machinists, but our monetary value was destroyed. Unless a guy worked for a union or had long standing at a company, you were thrown around like a ragdoll and treated like nothing but a button pusher. I knew I had to move to CNC to keep up my edge on the competition, but after a while even that was not enough to demand a better wage. And what made things worse, it became ok for American companies to stab good employees in the back by farming work to Japan first, then China and Taiwan. Adam, all the power to you if you can earn a good living consistently finding this type of work, but in today's world maybe one in 10K machinists (there are fewer every day) will ever be exposed to this kind of work as well as working in almost clean room conditions. If you ever had to face the real-world machining of today, you would need medication to get through it. Maybe you have worked in places that treated you like crap and managers barking orders at you to go faster and produce more, but based on these videos, I'm not so sure. I've made thousands and thousands of almost any kind of part you could imagine, on almost every machine tool out there. From the smallest part you could hold in your hand, to ones 15 feet in diameter. From parts weighting ounces to one's weighting thousands of pounds. After a while you realize no one cares how much you know, they only want you make parts as fast as you can while still meeting the tolerances. I know of no father who is a machinist, that would encourage his son to follow in his footsteps. The only thing that matters is a company that pays well, offers good benefits, and is big enough to deal with the inedible of lost customers and or lack of work. P.S. I had to laugh when you pulled out your Knipex pliers just to remove a part off of the grinder. A bit of a German snob, but that's ok, there are mechanics who will spend $30K for a Snap-On work area. Happy machining.
You weren't lying in your first video when you said you are doing high precision work professionally! Impressive machinery and exemplary knowledge base!
Professional Instruments, now that's a name I've not heard in a long time (I worked there for 18yrs before moving on). That Loctite 438 trick works great, especially on thin parts that potato chip shaped. Another trick we used for squaring up parts was laying Sharpie like it was a liquid shim.
Just found your channel the other day. I do almost no hard milling nor precision grinding at my day job, so I am excited to see more of your content related to those topics such as a more in-depth look at hard milling tool paths & cutter choices, and more grinding setups & tips for holding flatness, etc.
Blown away. Adam, I know you do this stuff everyday but it's really wonderful for us to get a glimpse into this world of machining and grinding. Though I only have a manual grinder, I picked up a few things i'll watch for. And the paper towel technique makes a lot of sense. Thanks again Adam! Hilarious comment about your demag machine. LOL.
Thanks for that squeegee tip, if I ever get a surface grinder, I'll be sure to squeegee away from the wheel, don't want my hand messin with the dressin😉 . Stefan G was showing the vee block you sent him, awesome to see what work and thought goes in to making it👍
This is right at the intersection of interesting, informative, and enjoyable to watch. I was curious about the material and heat treatment as well, but found it your reply in another viewer's comment. Thanks for sharing!
I am (in the sense of being a machinist) without a doubt a slack-jawed freshman trying to comprehend a master's-level class, but even I found some useful tips to take away from this. Thank you for the education and also for the technically exemplary filmmaking. You might enjoy the videos made by Robin Renzetti and Tom at Ox Tools; they're two guys who work at this level of precision.
The title of this video doesnt do its content justice. I am glad i clicked anyway and learned so much information i didn't know before. Beatiful equipment and toolery i enjoy watching people who know and like what theyre doing.
Nice, looks good! Audio was just fine, I like that you narrated the entire thing as I'm usually working while listening and if you just have a silent film then I can't follow along without stopping what I'm doing to watch. Question, do you ever dress the wheel thinner, I can't remember the correct term buy you know dress .02" off the the wheel and leave a band only say 1/8 wide, to lower tool pressure for finishing to decrease deflection?
I would do that a lot with the jig grinders since the wheel shanks can be so bendy , on a surface grinder I have wheels of various widths down to .050 and some cases less, so I just use those
Between you, AvE, Fireball Tool and This old Tony I've learnt more than I ever expected to (or was ever able to before youtube)! : you have a new subscriber!
oh man not having dried coolant and corroded fittings looks really nice. You could do a long term update on working with oil over coolant. also where's the cardboard or printed face cover for the demag?
So glad you pointed out chamfering before grinding because of burs being rolled. I work with copper and order of operations is key to no handwork. I have to face, chamfer, face chamfer every edge a lot of people don’t think about that. When you have to make 1000 parts, you don’t wanna debur them all😂 especially copper threads if you don’t do this on both side of the hole you will have to hand chase every hole
Thanks for making this video! This is really helpful, up there with Stephan and Robin. Your work is really impressive! This is really useful to the home gamer trying to move to the next level. We don't get much content of this caliber.
I am also a machinist and also named Adam. RU-vid knows your target audience. I however am running a blown out '96 fadal VMC and a Churchill OSB surface grinder from god knows what year 😂, anything less than 5 tenths for me comes down to luck ahahaha. Great video.
Hi Adam. I just came over from Stephan G. channel watching him use your thin vice block on carbide bushings. I watched you make it last year and I’m totally blown away at the level of precision you work with. I’d love to make myself a copy of yours in my home shop and was wondering if you’d be able to share the plans? Cheers from Vancouver.
Really cool, I've actually got an old one of these from an old timer. So old he still put his ssn on it to ID it. I've been wondering what exactly its purpose was, other than just a fancy v block that is, thanks for explaining
Those thread mills usually have a 45° corner on the cutter, so you could use it to chamfer as well! I usually do the initial thread cut, then chamfer, and take one cut with the threadmill at the top to get rid of the burr that tends to form on the inside. They don't make more than a 0.1-0.2mm chamfer though.
please find more excuses to show off this was awesome to watch! ive been pretty interested to get into grinding any recommendations? like what size machine? used vs new? and some good people to learn from on youtube or books to read? thanks adam.
I remember using one of these with wire EDM, only the one we had also had a little precision hole a specific distance from the 'V.' If you knew the diameter of the part, and found the center of the hole, with a little math you could then calculate the distance from the center of that hole to the center of the part with great precision. Made it really easy to clean up the inside of a round part with the wire machine.
