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Old machinist at my shop showed me a trick for holding thin parts
Last month I was fighting with some .020" stainless shims that kept warping in the vise. An older guy named Frank who's been running mills since the 80s walked over and just watched for a minute. He said "you're crushing it, try stacking it between two pieces of scrap aluminum." That little trick saved me from scrapping a $200 batch of parts. Has anyone else got a go-to method for keeping thin material flat without a vacuum fixture?
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thomas.tyler1mo ago
Yeah, stacking between aluminum is a solid trick. But honestly, are you really stressing that hard over $200 worth of parts?
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julia_patel1mo ago
Exactly makes me cringe when people act like $200 isn't worth sweating over @thomas.tyler. For a small shop or someone just starting out that could be a whole day's profit after tooling costs. Plus its not just about the money its about the pride in doing the job right and not wasting material. Frank sounds like a legend for sharing that trick without making you feel dumb about it.
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