Nomad starter tooling recommendations

I’ve lived through transitions from imperial to metric in two separate countries. It wasn’t particularly hard, and people and industry coped well enough.

(edit: I’m okay using both personally… not saying one is better than the other… but one is certainly an international standard, which was the original point being made)

I’ve been avoiding the imperial vs. metric discussion, since there is no winning (Imperial is the name system- inches, et al-, the particular one used in the US being `US customary’, which assigns the values to names).

I will only note that I am looking at three sets of Jo-blocks right now, all with different inches. Two are US, pre and post 1960 (about 2 millionths different-- 50nm per 25.4mm is a big issue in the field I started in), and one is significantly larger that I can’t identify, but the set is consistent with itself (made in Sweden Jo blocks, pre-WW-II, no idea which already-obsolete inch they were made to). Add to that there are STILL two different legal inches in the US, and there are cases where it is critical to specify which one.

There are advantages to a well-defined, reproducible unit.

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Obviously, this isn’t a discussion of a Shapeoko CNC product.

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Can we all agree the use of ‘mil’ in metric is just wrong? When the abbreviation is ‘mm’ surely it would be pronounced more like ‘mim’???

Here in Canada it is a mish mash of metric and imperial and it has been for decades. I CAD in metric and have imperial tooling. Yes it is as fun as it sounds.

On the plus side I actually have mechanical calipers that do both!

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I have the same caliper, but rarely use it. I have a wide variety of vernier with both, though. I also have a several mechanical micrometers that do both- Mitu combimikes- with one on the thimble, the other on the mechanical counter. I actually have both genders up to 50mm/2inch, due to lucky boot sale finds and all of the auto plants in the state closing over a 5 year period after 9/11. Honestly, more of a novelty than useful.

(I am in the US, NY/Philly metro) Most of the people I work with here either say it out -millimeters- or say `mimi’, like from Drew Carey show. These are people from three (four?) continents, most of whom travel a LOT. Think container ship industry (my non-teaching 50% of life). I suspect that a lot of the reason is lack of comfort in english.

EVERYTHING we do is metric, and watching some of my US-born coworkers try to deal with it is hilarious. When I am in the shop, I probably say an inch is about 25 millimetres a dozen times every day. Then again, one of the reasons I get paid is that I can deal with metric/SI without making it a thing

[for ref: I speak both systems fluently, and marine is the third industry class I have worked as an engineer where this has turned out to be a key thing that makes me valuable. None of which are the branch my 35 year old degrees are in. Mostly because I also speak machining and welding fairly fluently, and construction passably. To go all facebook woke, my preferred pronoun/system is he/him/SI/metric, but I answer to pretty much anything I can recognize]

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I think saying ‘mils’ is fine. mm is a written shorthand for the word millimetre, so shouldn’t influence how we say the word given it already sounds like “mils”. If it did, we should follow suit and use the written form of pounds (lbs) and try to pronounce them “elbs”. Or says “double-quotes” instead of inches… :slight_smile:

As a metrically-inclined person, ever since I started CNC I have found myself using an awkward system which goes something like this:

  • 1/4" and 1/8" are the sizes of those round thingies I use in my spindle. 6.35mm and 3.175mm sound like nice, round numbers to me now.
  • I manipulate the 0.001" (chipload) value all the time but my brain refuses to picture that as a dimension I can relate to.
  • For Stock to leave I use fractions of a mm because I can picture how much that is.
  • Feedrate values only sound familiar in inches per minute for some reason.
  • For long dimensions and dimensioning anything in Fusion I’ll use millimeters
  • whenever someone mentions any other value, I give up and launch the Windows calculator. I have divided or multiplied by 25.4 there so many times that if this was a physical calculator, the “2”, “5,”." and “4” keys would be completely worn out.
  • just mention 3/8" or 7/16" and I end up in a mental deadlock.

#AllUnitsAreBeautiful

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That is so familiar a thought process… mine’s almost identical. Perhaps we can form a new standard based on this thinking?

I agree all units are beautiful, too. Particularly wonderful, foamy pints! UK pints, that is, which are bigger than US pints (568ml vs 473ml).

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You’ve been spending too much time with Americans! I do all of those things in metric :slight_smile:

It does help that most of the stuff I see on YouTube has both sets of units (thanks @wmoy!).

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Back on topic - a warning: don’t use double-sided tape with coated endmills. I just made this mistake and the coating was gone after a single job.

Odd.

What coating and what type of tape? How did the coating get lost? (during the machining? post-job cleanup? flaking off? peeling? Wearing off?)

I have never had this problem, so I would guess that it is very dependent on the particulars.

The double-sided tape provided by Carbide 3D with the Nomad, that they suggest you use as part of the starter wrench project.

When the machine cut though the bottom of the stock, bits of the tape’s adhesive got stuck to the endmill, which then caused chips to get stuck to the tape. Those chips then basically ground away the ZrN endmill coating exposing the carbide underneath.

That is odd. I can’t say I have ever had that happen.

I have destroyed coated tools many ways. That’s why they are called consumables. The goal is to get the most life you can from them, but sometimes things happen. The worst is a brand new tool and an incorrect tool path or zero. That always leaves me hearing both the cartoon angel and devil on my shoulders calling me ‘dumba**’. Fortunately, it doesn’t happen often with care.

I’m very much trying to focus on the absurdity of that comment, and not be insulted.

It’s just some teasing, I hold no ill-will towards Americans. Wouldn’t make much sense to be on a forum full of them if I did.

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Problem is - there is already a ‘mil’ defined - a mil is 1/1000 of an inch. So a conversation where ‘You need to take off a couple mils’ can cause the Mars orbiter to crash. Having engineering teams in both the US and any metric country has its moments…

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Ahh, interesting… I’ve only heard 1/1000th of an inch called a “thou”…

“any other metric country” sounds like it’s possible for it not to be metric… which is technically true, but the only other non-metric countries are Myanmar or Liberia… all other 192 countries are metric.

Since we’re talking technicality, that’s technically true as well. The UK still uses stone and miles for example.

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Revised the original order since everything was out of stock. Worked out for me, free shipping too!

Harvey Tool 31899 0.1000" Diameter x 1/8" Shank x 1/2" LOC x 2-1/2" OAL 3FL Uncoated Carbide Square End Mill 25116420 1 $23.90 USD $23.90 USD

Harvey Tool 34062 1/16" Diameter x 0.5000" LOC x 1/8" Shank x 2-1/2" OAL Uncoated Carbide Miniature Ball Deburring End Mill 25112893 1 $31.30 USD $31.30 USD

Harvey Tool 835962 1/16" Diameter x 0.1860" LOC x 1/8" Shank x 1-1/2" OAL Uncoated Carbide Miniature Ball Deburring End Mill 25114467 1 $21.00 USD $21.00 USD

Harvey Tool 836362 1/16" Diameter x 1/8" Shank x LOC x 1-1/2" OAL 3FL Uncoated Carbide Square End Mill 25118813 1 $14.60 USD $14.60 USD

Harvey Tool 836408 1/8" Diameter x 1/8" Shank x 3/8" LOC x 1-1/2" OAL 3FL Uncoated Carbide Square End Mill 25118831 1 $14.20 USD $14.20 USD

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