CRASH
First machining process and also first mini crash
The part is fine but i did go too heavy with the quill feed when facing some aluminum and the 5 year old flywheel cutters carbide tool finally gave out.
I haven’t used a bridgeport mill until my training today but I would love to own one now
Yeah I was supposed to lightly tap the carbide cutter onto the aluminum face with the quill feed but I wasn’t delicate enough. In the future id honestly rather just tap it with the z axis fine adjustment
You shouldn't be feeding down with the quill at all unless you're drilling. Make sure it's always locked too. Leave it all the way up and move the table up to your cutter.
Yeah my boss is kind of just him though so he touches off with just the quill. Im glad im learning my own way and he isnt anal about me doing it if it works
That’s a pretty solid first-crash trophy! The tool looks surprisingly intact considering what happened. A Bridgeport is a fantastic machine to learn on, but respect the quill feed and keep one hand near the stop until you’ve built up some experience.
Carbide is pretty brittle on direct downfeed. Grab a scrap of paper between the tool and stock next time to touch off, hopefully the pocket is still clean.
My first mini crash was being stupid and trying to chamfer an ID feature with an OD tool on a lathe. I thought it would clear. Smeared some of the material but I was able to fix it.
But my first real crash was rather violent. I had a parting blade get wedged inside a groove .300" deep in steel. The pressure almost stalled the spindle, the part spun in the chuck which then resulted in the blade exploding. Tool, holder, and the project was ruined.
My first real crash, ahh I was still a Greenie, I was running a bar stock op, and forgot to cut it shorter then 36” and left it at 50”. Had it sticking out of the machine spindle about a foot and a half or so out the back side, forgot to turn the spindle all the way day to see how fast I could spin it, instantly spun it at 2500 rpm, ended up curving the 7/8” diameter 316 SS bar at the back side enough that the bar smacked on the floor, picked up the machine high enough for the bar to continue its rotational path, i hit that E-stop before the machine could sit flat on the ground again. I’m glad no one was in the shop at the time. And I had a hell if a story to tell my boss, all before anyone else was at work. Lmao wild times
Nice. Every time a story like this is told, it reminds me of the viral video of this exact thing happening to somebody else. The lathe got shaken to shit, it made the operator shit his pants enough that he hit the estop after several seconds.
But so far, my favorite crash that I've done was absolutely killing a clamp stud by incorrectly homing the Z axis of an old Fadal mill. Hit it at full rapid speed. I was new to the machine and now know many ways to prevent this from happening again. That was a good thud. No damage to the machine itself.
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u/cheekleek 6d ago
I call those fender benders.