I think I was born a lathe man
When learning machining, turning parts on a lathe seemed so graceful and intuitive[1] whereas milling seemed much more cold and, well, machine like.
But after that initial time, I’ve had much more opportunity to mill than to lathe and so I’ve become very comfortable on the mill, to the point where I can do many things automatically. Today for the first time in a couple years, I used the lathe again. It was like coming back to a town you used to call home, that same very familiar feeling.
[Update: note added]
[1] Its overall intuitiveness didn’t stop me from confusing the r and z axes on three hours sleep once or twice.
April 10th, 2008 at 10:24 pm
I remember when ‘lathe man’ turned a brass flywheel into a bracelet!
;-)
April 11th, 2008 at 6:14 am
Right you are, Leo (though I’m not sure it would have fit over my hand). I’ll add the note that I originally thought about adding.
April 11th, 2008 at 6:25 am
I thank you for that excuse to read about lathes and CNC on wikipedia. It has been very informative.
April 11th, 2008 at 11:16 am
It’s alright, I (possibly) may have once crashed a van-sized Mazak turning machine valued ~$200k! Remember, never turn the machine’s speed up to 90% of its top speed when you haven’t been using it for more than a couple of weeks.
http://www.addymachinery.com/new/mazak/nct/quick.html
April 16th, 2008 at 3:27 pm
And please tell me, why only three hours sleep?
April 16th, 2008 at 6:52 pm
It was college. Standard operating procedure in those days….