Given your talents and interests, do you prefer to mill things or turn things?

Yes, one needs to do both (amongst other things) to be a complete machinist but I'm just wondering which you prefer.

For me, it's the lathe.  I think this is because manual lathes are infinitely more fun to operate.  Feeds on all axis, the HP to really peel a chip, and high versatility.

What's your choice?

Lathe is more relaxing, mill is more engaging.

I'll take a mill. Then I can make a lathe. The converse is much harder to pull off.

Mill but I am still very basic.

My machinists love to use lathes.

Lathe for manual work.  Mill for CNC.

Mostly because I don't own a CNC lathe.

No, I dont think you'll be making lead screws without a lathe.

I bought a CHEAP 1990 Mazak QT15n and it's kind of jaw-dropping to watch.  The rapids are ~1100ipm, tool changes are fast, the control is ridiculously easy to learn and it's wicked accurate.  After warm-up it'll dance around a 3-4 tenths variance on a diameter.  

In order: CNC mill, CNC lathe, manual lathe, manual mill.   A manual mill is just so much harder to use and slower than a CNC one. Manual lathe is quick and dirty when something simple need doing.

They are much easier to pull off if you untie the laces, first.

Converse "Lathe" Chuck Taylors

I think I also prefer lathe work but love both.

I did ELS on both my lathes and it made them so much more enjoyable for me. I still go manual at times but I am debating full CNC on at least one.
Yes, you can (not that I would lol). 4th axis. CNC is best but manual works with it connected.

I prefer millwork, but I have done a ton of both as well as precision grinding of all kinds.

It's possible in theory, especially short sections, but what a bodge it would be.

I owned the mill first.  Its what I have more experience with.  And somehow squares and right angles click easier in my head.  

The lathe is probably more flexible overall, but you really have to get creative to do some operations.  Plus just look at it.  Spinning the workpiece while holding the drill stationary?  That ain't right.  We're all taught from birth that the workpiece stays stationary and the drill is what spins.

I have a small CNC.  I prefer manual machines.  My day job is clicking on computers all day long.  If I want to cut something out of a block of metal in my free time, i dont want to have to open up a computer and draw a model or sketch.  I want to clamp a part in the machine and make chips.

I save the CNC for when there's a complex part or a picture that would be a pain in the butt on a manual machine.

I agree. I am very impressed with an aussie guy I follow on youtube that made one for his press.

Now there's a weakness of mine.  A grinder-hand I am not.

I need more tooling for my surface grinder.

Kinda got bogged down looking for wheel arbors.

Sopko is the go-to, I think, but they are proud of them.

Indeed.  I'd kinda like to find more of the one arbor I've got already though.

been a machinist for 46 years. soo,

With a lathe you can make every tool in your shop. Including your milling machine.


Much more difficult to do that with a mill. Making round things on a mill sucks.


I prefer running a mill but now that I have a decent lathe, 1947 Hardinge HLV, I'm starting to enjoy running a lathe.

My dream lathe. I put the compound and slide off one on my mini lathe lol. I am sorta larping.  

Most of my time is spent on manual lathe work.  However, I really enjoy doing complicated stuff on the manual mill.  CNC stuff does not interest me much which is why I like working where I do. Most of the machines are older than I am, and I'm 62.

Lathe chips are more satisfying to make IMO.

5 Axis CNC mill for me

Mill, all the way.

I know how to use a lathe.  I've made plenty of parts on a lathe.  The lathe can be operated safely, and I know that.  But it still scares me.  I don't like getting any tools close to the jaws of the chuck.  I've heard too many stories about chuck keys being left in the chuck and going flying, to say nothing of clothing pulling people into a spinning part.  It can be fun to make parts, but the word "relaxing" just doesn't fit my experience working a lathe, CNC or manual.  

The wire wheel is the only other tool in the metal shop I just don't like using.  It just looks like it's about to come apart and throw metal wires everywhere like a porcupine that swallowed a grenade.  Of course they do occasionally throw a wire, I can deal with that, but it just feels like a warning shot across the bow.  If you touch a glove for even just a microsecond, it rips the top layer right off the leather.  Imagine what would happen if you passed out and fell into it?  It'd peel the skin right off of you on the way to the floor.  I mean, sometimes it's the right tool for the job, and it works, so you use it.  But I'm always on high alert anytime I use one whether a stationary tool or mounted in a portable grinder.  

Mill, sure.  It's just an oversized drill press with lots of options.  You CAN loose control of it, but that rarely happens.  If you crash a tool, maybe you get fired and your sense of self worth suffers, but you should go home will all your body parts intact.  I can relax a little bit more and enjoy making chips on the mill.  The chips are usually smaller and less reminiscent of a mile long shaving razor like you get from a lathe.  Given the choice, I'll take a mill project.

I'll complicate the mix, most of my machining time of late is on my Mori-Seiki turning center with live tooling. With that combo I'm turning and milling, it's a real time saver for many parts. I'm about to set up a job where I use the milling head to mill threads instead of single pointing them, the threads are in a blind bore in Alloy 20 stainless steel that makes stringy shavings. Milling the threads solved my chip management problems.

This German ELS transformed my almost useless lathe from the 40's into a do-almost-anything machine. It is a ton of fun to run too. I wish it had Imperial settings but doing some math by 25.4 is not too terrible lol. I have threaded many things with great success on it and it did not come with a lead screw. Has ball screws now, however.

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It's a majestic machine for sure. A field of mine completely restored it and I did the electrical. I'm still sad the old selenium rectifiers were bad. It's an old 400v 3ph British machine. My controls are still 200v but I run it on 240 3ph. Only new tech in it is 2 diode rectifiers for the carriage feed motor, 180v DC motor.

What taper?  I picked up a bunch a while back, most don't fit my Harig.  

Be happy to send them to ya if they fit.

What flavor?  

I program two DMG Mori DMU75s and a DMU95 with Heidenhain controllers. Love em.

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Standard taper (3.0" TPF, 1.0" large end, 1.25" ID wheel), left hand.

This is my current arbor adapter, which has nifty dovetail balance weights and hole spacing is larger than the standard Sopko pin wrench.
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The adapter has no markings on it of any sort.  Anyone recognize who made these?

Fuck yes.  I was hoping for a serious machine you did NOT disappoint.

Mastercam, NX....some other shit I've never heard of?!?!
It'll be a few days before I get back to the shop but I'll take a peek.

Solidcam and Fusion 360 which will probably surprise some people. Solidcam has major issues with their post and dealing with them has been a huge headache. Fusion's posts are shockingly quite good which is crazy since they put them online for free and other companies charge $5-10K each.

We're looking at buying something new in the next month or two and I'm trying to push management toward NX or Hypermill since we are carving out our niche in aerospace, but they are balking at the price tag and it's looking like we're going to get stuck with mastercam.

As I posted in another thread, I'd really like a seat of SolidCam.

Ya, I'd not have guessed F360, but solid free post is a huge deal.

Nice machines. The DMG Mori salesman just stopped in this morning to see if I need to spend some money this year. I've been considering a 5 axis for a while but now I'm thinking more about retirement.

The DMU75 is honestly one of the most versatile machines on the market. It has large travels with very little interference when tilting, and the 20K rpm speedmaster spindle is simply amazing with something like 40hp. Our shop got a killer deal on the first one ($325K) because it was a showroom model...they're significantly more than that now though.

I don't deal with CNC or CAM but F360 in any flavor is a pile of shit. Maybe their CAM side is the only thing that works decent? The CAD (3D and 2D sucks, especially 2D for prints) and assemblies sucks. I've struggled with it for months. Takes many times longer to do the same.thing, especially if 2D prints are required, than anything else I've tried. I've given up on it crashing, removing custom threads on every update every dammed month, and all sorts of other unnecessary bullshit and have gone back to the old paid for SW2019 machine. At least I can make machining prints and assemblies in a reasonable amount of time without having to find ways around broken or missing features. Almost like they are a finished product and not one you pay to be a crash test dummy for. Between that and no control over proprietary information I'm surprised my employer went full stupid and bought into the game.

I use Solid Edge at home. SE and SW are both Parasolid kernel.

You are definitely missing the biggest benefit of the program if you're not using the CAM suite.  Being able to toggle seamlessly between CAM and the model to tweak dims or paths and only hit refresh on the setup is its shining point.

For $500/yr, it's pretty damn good and has made me a lot of side money.

I am in the learning phase and using the free side. Is the main upside to the subscription speed?

I've not used the trial version in years so I'm not sure what you do or don't have available.  As for speed, no I don't recall that being limited.  What did help me was getting an SSD out in my workstation for primary tasks.

It's a jack of all trades and master of none. Sounds like one of the lesser used parts is the only decent one. Might be decent for $500/yr for that tool (minus all the cloud garbage) but it sure isn't worth it for the rest. In the few months we've had it work we've wasted enough time trying to make it work properly to have paid for a couple years of the over priced solidworks and not have to risk someone else having the keys to my proprietary designs.

The whole refresh thing pisses me off coming from CAD suites that auto update the models in assemblies and drawings. That and no hotkey for the home view. Coworker had to write a script for that.

I have a circuit board I have to design soon. I usually use KiCAD. With my experiences with Fusion so far I don't think I'm even going to bother to try using Fusion for that.

I do all my chip making manually both at home and at work. I don't work in a production role but as a design and support role so I don't do anything more than a few parts at a time. CAM isn't something I consider.

You just told us that you don't do CNC or need CAM and now you're here to tell us about how that's the lesser used part?

Meanwhile, in the same thread, a dude running late model big dollar DMU's likes F360.

Do you understand that capability gap?  Like, at all?

In the years I've been dealing with machine shops I have had exactly zero use that fusion garbage. All use solidworks or a Parasolid based software in my dealings.

I wouldn't send them parts anyways as autodesk doesn't follow any security standards for file storage as best we have been able to get out of them. They rant and rave about this place and this place uses them and completely disregard informing the customer on what standards are used for data security. We have yet to get an answer past "we store you data".

It's great if one little part of a cludged together piece of software works for you. Lots of folks use illustrator too to make their parts. Hell, some still use pencil and paper. Doesn't mean it's the best. There is a reason it is cheap and I've got a binder I'm filling up with these reasons. As I don't use CAM (but do use almost every other part of it) I can say it's garbage. In many areas free software is better.

I'll stick with Parasolid based softwares. They actually work.

Wish you understood the capability gap. Too many folks such as yourself, only focus on a little tiny part of something. In your case it's the CAM plugin. Open your eyes past that to what the rest of industry finds important. I can't send you a CAM file if I need you make something and I can't use a CAM file in my shops. That part is useless to me and to my employer. The heart of parametric modelling software is what is important and fusion doesn't do that well. It's very much beta status in many ways beyond just functionality. I'm getting tired of it crashing or freezing as well. All sorts of weird issues from being unable to import a DXF (it flat out refused to bring in an DXF from anything I have access to including SW19) to the shoddy code making parts of it display on one desktop and the rest on another. Pain in the ass to work when I have the browser tree in the middle of my screen and I'm trying to check email or check specs on something I need to incorporate into a design.

I'm happy for you the CAM part seems to work. The rest of it is garbage. They seem to be focusing on CAM and leaving everyone else out to dry. Great for those that only need that. Useless for those that need the rest of it. Too many things mashed into a single software. It really is poor at most of what it offers. The price reflects that. I can make every part you can with CNC, just takes a little longer. Not capabilities gap there. Do some research and see what folks made with manual machines back in the day. My manual machine with mill in 3axis by it's self with zero electronics and without me. It's pretty slick. Only needs me to fixture things but I prefer to spin handles.

I'll stick with real software that works and saves my proprietary designs onsite under my control and allows me to do my job efficiently.

I get that you don't like F360 and I was kind of with you until you said the bold part- it is objectively false.  You can't threadmill, tweak a tool's diameter, readily follow a spline or.....take a nap while while the machine works.

But I can.  

Edit- but it doesn't matter.  This is a hobby to me and a career to you.  We have much different expectations/requirements and see its usefulness differently.

Show me on the doll where fusion 360 touched you.

You seem to really have a beef with them, like personally. Yeah they're not the best. I don't disagree. They do some things great and some things poorly, but at the end of the day it's the Indian not the arrow that gets shit done. I make parts that are worth $10-15K each on a regular basis with F360 and that includes parametrically modeled fixture assemblies.

FWIW, I use solid works at home.

My only job in machining was in a tool and die shop of a forge spinning dies for 4,000 and 6,000 ton forging presses. It was dirty and fun! Lol!

At home my mill is much better than my lathe but I'm equally comfortable on either type of machine.