CNC: Making Your Manufacturing Facility Work For You

Advice For Beginners Developing Their Manual Machining Abilities

by Pamela Hill

Manual machining involves manipulating a workpiece with a hand tool, which provides real-time control over how fabrication occurs and also enables you to make adjustments on the fly. If you're getting involved in it as a beginner, you'll appreciate these developmental insights.

Make Sure Your Manual Tools Are Clean Before Getting Started 

Whether you plan on using a manual drill or saw to customize a workpiece in a particular way, you want to make sure these tools are clean before getting started. If they weren't and had material chips on them, that's going to affect the precision you're able to get when machining manually. 

You need to thoroughly inspect your manual machine tools regularly and perform thorough cleanings when you sport debris like chip buildup. You just need to follow each tool's manufacturer cleaning guidelines carefully to keep these tools in optimal shape for manual machining.

Adjust Any Rough Edges Left Over 

When you machine workpieces using manual methods, you may have rougher edges compared to if you used CNC software to carry out machining in an automated way. That's okay if you know how to identify these rough areas and make the appropriate adjustments before implementing the workpiece into an actual project.

A thorough inspection of each workpiece that's manually machined is a good start, but you need to follow up by using a grinder when rough spots are identified. As long as you have this instrument on the right speed setting, it's going to work away the rough edges without causing structural damage to your workpiece.

Have an Experienced Manual Machinist Shadow You

If you really want to develop your manual machining capabilities in a short period of time, one thing you can do is have an experienced manual machinist shadow you. Then you'll receive hands-on instruction, whether you're trying to cut away a particular part of a workpiece or drill a hole into the side.

This experienced machinist will show key details, such as where to place your hands on the manual machine, how to move it in a precise manner, and what to look out for when machining. Then you can take these skills with you forever going forward.

If you believe manual machining is the best way to customize a workpiece for a specific project, then take your time learning this craft. If you put in the necessary training/learning time, you'll get to a competent point where your workpieces are machined accurately each time.

For additional information, contact a manual machining service in your area.

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