Craftman's Cribsheet Number 68: Ten Important Things to Know Before Working as a CNC Machinist

• The machinist is a bag of water, and the tools and workpieces are harder and sharper.
• The machine’s power is measured in horsepower, and the machinist won’t win a tug of war.
• f= mv^2/r. If it touches the machinist, it’s really going to hurt when the surface feet per minute is in the hundreds.
• It is better to ask questions than to destroy a couple hundred thousand dollars’ worth of equipment.
• We were all beginners once, so don’t try to fake it.
• The best way to become permanently injured is to try to use fingers or hands to slow down or stop a rotating spindle.
• The second best way is to try to clear bird’s nest chips with bare hands.
• Shops don’t really sell the parts that machinists make. They sell the time of the machine. When machinists make bad parts, that time is lost and unrecoverable.
• Maintaining material and lot identification is second in importance only to keeping co-workers safe.
• When it comes to the application of the parts being made, human safety is critical. The machinist’s very best will be good enough.

All Craftsman’s Cribsheets are available for viewing and download at short.productionmachining.com/cribsheets.