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Talked to a retired machinist at a garage sale and he flipped my whole view on speeds and feeds
I was buying an old drill press from this guy named Carl in Wichita for $80 and we got to talking about running CNC. He told me I was way too scared to push my spindle and that I should listen to the machine, not the manual. He said most guys run their tools too slow and waste time because they're following outdated numbers from 20 years ago. Has anyone else had a random conversation with an old timer that made you try something totally different on the job?
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linda1141mo ago
Twenty year old numbers" - that's wild, it's not like metal changes that much.
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lee8471mo ago
Hang on, are you saying the price of steel or scrap hasnt changed in 20 years? Ive seen it swing big time just in the last few years alone. Go find me a current scrap yard price list for drill presses and tell me theyre the SAME as 2004. I bet the weight versus scrap value argument is WAY different now with all the electronics and plastic in them too.
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$80 for a drill press? That's insane, half the scrap yards around here would charge double that for the weight alone.
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