[hinshelwood]

All,

Wanted to get your thoughts on training graduate students on the use of a CNC lathe and mill for use in a lab course. The current problem is every semester (4 months) a group of graduate students is assigned to a lab course in which they are required to guide students through machining a part. Most of the graduate students are foreign and have never used a manual mill or lathe let alone a CNC machine and there is usually a limited time to train them, one week before labs start while classes are going on. The current training system involves a senior grad student walking the group of new TA's through the machines operation and the CAM software. Most of the time the training is not extended to each new TA cutting there own part under supervision due to time constraints. Furthermore, only two of the existing TA's have been trained by me personally the remainder of the new TA's have been trained by a senior grad student. The primary issue with this system is the number of crashes we are seeing with the machines (usually 1-2 per semester), secondary issues include not being able to explain to students why certain settings or parameters are required and hunting for the correct buttons on the controller. I have written the operator manual for the CNC lathe we use to be fairly cookbook since students design the tool path around the same CAD file every lab however someone usually omits a step, inputs a incorrect parameter, or tries something outside the scope of the manual causing a crash. We have considered a video as a means of supplementing the training but I am not sure how well this will work. Maybe there should be two TA's per lab to limit screw ups but I don't think scheduling would permit this. Finally the machines are a Hardinge Talent 6/45 lathe with a fanuc controller and a Haas TM1. General thoughts and advice are appreciated.

[NIC 77]

every semester (4 months) a group of graduate students is assigned to a lab course in which they are required to guide students through machining a part.

there is usually a limited time to train them, one week before labs start while classes are going on. The current training system involves a senior grad student walking the group of new TA's through the machines operation and the CAM software. Most of the time the training is not extended to each new TA cutting there own part under supervision due to time constraints.

So you are asking for advice on how to train a group of people not only to be able to program and operate a CNC mill and lathe in one week (part time even) without access to all of them even being able to try making a part on their own even once.....and you want them to be proficient enough to be able to teach others how to do it in a university setting that people are paying good money to attend?

Cut it from the curriculum. If it's not important enough to get proper attention then it shouldn't be there. Make a different lab relevant to their field of study understanding that they will most likely never touch a CNC machine after they graduate.

This school obviously has too much money for machines and doesn't care about wasting people's time.

Alternatively if you want them to be exposed to CNC machining, do a mandatory lecture where you give a demo on machining some parts and leave it there.

Not trying to give you a bad day, this is just my honest 2 cents.

[hinshelwood]

I don't think my boss would go for cutting the lab from the curriculum. It is here to stay. We actually don't have a lot much money for machines the Hardinge was basically free from another professor on a research grant. A better question would be what is the minimum time (lecture or cutting time) require to make someone minimally proficient in CNC work?

Do not worry about giving me a bad day. I'll have a bad day when I get an email from a TA saying "something happened" or "does the hardinge use hydralic liquid"

[cncbuilt]

It’s obvious something for the school to be able to say they offer even though it’s accomplishing little to nothing. What cam? Are you actually trying to make a part? Teach them how to drill a set of holes on a manual drill press then let them do the same in a piece of wood on the mill. Only cut wood and or foam.


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[hinshelwood]

We use mastercam 2017. On the Haas we have them cut out an emblem in Delron so it is fairly forgiving except when a z offset is not set correctly. On the Hardinge we cut a 1" shaft out of 6061 aluminum with three reduced diameter steps and a 3/4x10 threaded section. There is another sophomore/junior lab in which students make parts out of pvc sheet using a drill press and machine 1018 on a manual mill/lathe. The senior lab uses the CNC machines.