VIDEO: HOW TO Ready Your Mill

JACOB SANCHEZ: It's 2002 and a small group of manufacturers got together to discuss industry best practices and challenges. A time where trade secrets, they were kept close to your chest. But they knew our industry was not going to survive with a mindset like that, especially when we're all facing a challenge like this across manufacturing: workforce development. If people can't be trained and this continues, our industry isn't going to survive.

But fast forward 10 years to right here in northeast Ohio. Those same dedicated manufacturers, those same machinists just meeting up, turned those meet ups into AWT, the Alliance for Working Together. And with the help of some strategic partners, the foundation was able to pursue a mission of creating STEM programs to promote the rewarding careers that are in this industry, in manufacturing, the lives we live.

And now I've been out of the game for a little bit. I'll admit it, it's been a year or two, but I'm not some old dog. It's never a bad idea to just go back to the basics, especially if it means helping others. And if I'm lucky and you're lucky, we're going to learn something together. In this special episode of How To, it's for the people that are just getting their start. It is for the newbies. But I want you to know that it's also for people that just need this refresher. It's time for all of us to learn together How To Ready Your Mill.

Teaching is always done better in pairs, and I've been feeling a little homesick on the set, so I thought it was time to get another Californian here to help me teach all of you. I'm talking about special guest Melissa Ramos from Hayward.

MELISSA RAMOS: What's up? Nice to meet you. Thanks for having me on the show.

JACOB SANCHEZ: Of course, she is the owner and operator of a machine shop in California, M95 Machining. She has two machines and I just want to say that it's a pleasure to have you here at AWT with my classroom of apprentices, our classroom for the day. And I'm really looking forward to producing something today.

MELISSA RAMOS: Well, thanks for having me, guys. A little bit about me. I started off in my dad's sheet metal shop and hanging out with him at the shop since I was about 12 and two years ago, I started M95 and making stuff that comes through the door, all kinds of things. And now I'm here with you guys.

JACOB SANCHEZ: How upset was your dad with the fact that he was like a fab guy and you said, You know what I want to put in here instead, CNCs.

MELISSA RAMOS: I mean, he loves it because we work together and I do all of the work for him, almost for free. But we we hang out every day. We have this great relationship. And I love being at the shop. I love being around him.

JACOB SANCHEZ: So let's say that you're working on a brand new, never before used mill that comes with all this oil from the factory, and you're going to want to get all of that off before you try to do any type of setup to get ready the mill. When you have a machine like this that's already been used, you're going to want to use coolant or an air gun to get all those chips off.

An extremely important thing that you need to take care of when you're doing anything in the shop at all is safety. You always have your safety once you step through those doors. That should be number one priority no matter what episode of How To you’re watching.

MELISSA RAMOS: Yeah, safety glasses. And if you got long hair like me, tie it up.

JACOB SANCHEZ: So now that we have those chips out of there, the next thing we need to do, because this is a used machine, is we snap out that vise. I'll get that going.

MELISSA RAMOS: Yeah. So meanwhile, Jacob's doing that, the reason why we want to take off the vise is because underneath the vise we could have coolant buildup up, we could have chips, and you guys know we can't have any chips on the table.

JACOB SANCHEZ: And next thing we're going to do, I'll pass you WD-40, and we're giving her a stone for doing the table. There's a rough side and a, we'll call it a finish side, to that stone. What we're going to be doing is some figure eight patterns with the stone, with the rough side. Thank you. On that table, all the surface that you think your vises are going to be contacting, figure eights.

We're drilling down on the WD-40 just because it's not the best practice to do this operation dry. And then once she does it on the rough side, she's going to flip it over to that finished side of the stone, do the same figure eights. We're going to do the exact same thing to this vise. And think of it the reason we're doing this is because we're trying to make this vise and that machine. Thank you. Sit on the same plane. We don't want any hills or valleys in this vise or that table. And the reason that's such a big deal to make sure there's no chips on either of these items is because the minute that you start stoning and there's a chip anywhere on there, it is now in this and you can be scratching up your entire vise. You can be scratching up your entire table with a chip in this stone. So it's really crucial to make sure there are none of those chips.

MELISSA RAMOS: And there is a little bit of coolant residue, it looks like, from the vise just sitting on the table for too long. But with the stone, we did our figure eights and we got all the high spots off of the table. And after that I like to take a rag, wipe it down. And then lastly, I like to take my hand just off the top of it in case it missed anything.

So now that I've stoned the bottom of my vise, I'm going to put it back into the machine.

JACOB SANCHEZ: Make sure not to slam it down on the table and also try to get it as centered as you can to start inside the table.

MELISSA RAMOS: Now that Jacob is going in there, I'm going to set this up and we're going to set the gauge on the non-moving back jaw and we're going to align it and make sure that everything is straight.

JACOB SANCHEZ: I think that's it. When it comes to a recap, all we did today to get this machine ready to mill was if it's a new machine, wipe off any of that oil. Next step is to get that vise out of there if it's a used machine and check again for any chips. Next step is if there's any of that gunk from the coolant, you wipe that down with some WD-40, get it out of there. Spray WD-40 on your table, spray WD-40 on your vise, figure eights with the rough side of your stone for both of them.

Flip it. Figure eights again. And then what do we go into once we get our vise back on the table?

MELISSA RAMOS: We tighten up the vise, but not too tight, enough for the mallet to be able to move it. And then we align it, make sure that everything is aligned and ready to go.

JACOB SANCHEZ: There's one final step, though, that once I'm ready to mill, there's something I'm going to want to see. What is it?

MELISSA RAMOS: Chips fly?

JACOB SANCHEZ: Chips flying. I like that. Now, this is a classroom environment and I want to open up to all of you apprentices that are here to learn and start their careers or help develop their careers in our industry.

What questions do you guys have? Yeah?

APPRENTICE: You mentioned getting chips on the stone, if you do hypothetically get a chip on stone, is there a procedure you have for getting it out before you start your machine again?

JACOB SANCHEZ: So is there a remedy to fixing a stone they use for your table or vise if you get a chip in there? Was the question.

It depends first on how big the chip is. I mean, if it's some real, real tiny thing on the corner of your stone, you can go into inspection with a one of their little needlenose pliers and you can try to get it out of there. But you also don't want to scratch like the rest of your stone. So it may be a point of just trying not to use that side. If it's a big chip, honestly a lot of companies, depending if you're like, if you're an aerospace, if you're in medical and you get a chip in one of these stones, you trash it, you get a new one. They're expensive. So it's not good to do. But depending on your budget, it's tough. Some shops can't afford that. So they try to do what they can to get stuff out.

MELISSA RAMOS: A stone can be up to $300 and that's a lot of money. I would highly recommend just making sure your table is super clean before you throw stone on there.

JACOB SANCHEZ: Yeah. So no real fix. There's just kind of workarounds or you just got to take it and get a new one. Again, thank you everybody here that's putting in the work to be that next generation. Hopefully, maybe a first generation machinist in your family. For our industry, you don't know what it means to everybody out there when you make the products they use every day.

And I want to thank you, Melissa, for being my partner in crime, the dynamic duo of Cali. That’s what they’re going to start calling us out in the industry.

MELISSA RAMOS: Thanks for having me. It was great.

JACOB SANCHEZ: For being a role model and then just helping teach this class and teach our audience How To Ready Your Mill.

Narrator: For more metalworking tips and industry best practices, stay tuned for the next How To episode and subscribe to the MSC Industrial Supply YouTube channel, a source of original manufacturing content Built to Make You Better.