Sunshine Coast Maker Space

22/05/2026

18/10/2024

I've recently made some time to start using Gridfinity to organise our mill tooling. Previously we used these black trays with lasercut pockets to stop collets rolling into each other. The Gridfinity trays can fit more parts in the same space, giving back about 25% of the drawer area. Its also much faster to find the size you need.

05/10/2024

We recently acquired this Schaublin lathe. They're very rare here in Australia. A local hobby machinist was downsizing and wanted to pass this on. He did a great job on the restoration. There's just a couple of mechanical issues to fix up, a new tooling package, and maybe some new collets. I've wanted a small lathe like this for some time so I jumped on the opportunity. This machine was originally imported by Email who apparently used it for machining armatures for instruments.

05/09/2024

15/06/2024

My kids think the best part of my job is all the dogs I get to meet. And the odd frog and snake.

02/02/2024

Ever have that feeling that you are just barely meeting expectations but later find out you far exceeded the competition? This challenging croquet ball mold was completed last week. Customer after pickup stated he'd tried many workshops locally and OS to complete the project, experiencing many rejections and a complete failure. He'd been advised this job was only possible in a 5 axis machine and after delivery was surprised we were able to complete it with only 4 axis.
The grooves were completed with a combination of rotary moves in the 4 axis, circular interpolation in the X/Y plane and 3D contouring. We used shrink fit dowel pins and had to reposition the part 3 times to complete the pattern. The final assembly used some very fancy expanding dowels so the mold can be serviced. We finished off with several hours of hand polishing and deburring under a magnifying lamp. Despite the multiple setups, the toolpath blends are excellent, and its a testament to the quality and accuracy of the SMEC machine.

29/01/2024

Completed this nice batch of aluminium brackets last week. The pocket was machined with a ball nose from the middle out, using 0.5mm stepovers. This was faster than using two different tools, and the finished parts is powder coated so the cusps will be hidden. Because the cutting force was low, we could increase the cutting data and total machining time for the pockets was under 2 minutes. We used softjaws for the second operation.

25/01/2024

Sometimes its easier to do a turning job in the mill. We modified this countersink tool so our customer could use it in a magnetic base drill. An 8mm 5 flute Evolute endmill gave a really nice finish. Machined softjaws made holding the tool easy. Our customer can now countersink different size holes without changing tools, and the inserts should give much better performance and tool life than the HSS tools he was using.

07/12/2023

Last week we completed a surface reaction test for an aviation customer on 2 different coolant options, S500CF and 5080. We machined these test artefacts from 7075 aluminium, as the customer has had problems with staining in the past. We share the same water supply so provided us with some sample coolant to test. Both these coolant options are certified for aerospace applications. The results were flawless after immersion and being left to dry for 24hrs with no apparent staining.

30/09/2023

The other day a tooling rep asked me if coolant really makes any difference. Here's a job we recently completed with 200 parts that needed a 3.0mm hole drilled through these 316 Stainless rods. We just used a good quality HSS drill, and you can see the surface finish on the hole, and the minimal exit burr on the back side. The example is after 150 parts, with no sharpening of the drill. One of the features I really like is the minimal residue that's left on the parts. I've found other coolants leave an oily film that needs to be washed off.