Resources for machine shop videos or industrial design builds?

I know this seems obvious, but have you checked YouTube? I’m currently renovating a union hall with no prior experience, and I’ve been learning as I go mostly through how-to YouTube videos on everything from grouting to drywall. I know a professional carpenter, and he watches YouTube videos on the trade.

Honestly, the best way is to just get out there with someone like me, a CNC machinist who winds up dealing with the decisions engineers make, to show you in an interactive manner. Personally, I’ve only known two types of mechanical engineers; those with machining experience and those that ask the impossible because they only know what books tell them about machining as opposed to what is actually possible.

Regarding “tricks of the trade”, those are rarely taught in books; again, there is no substitute for experience. Sure, the formula may say that cutting Inconel 718 is best at 80–120 SFPM, but spinning a 1¼” Seco cutter with ½” round inserts can get you at least double that if you are willing to halve Depth of Cut, and the geometry of the inserts is such that taking 2 passes at triple the Feed Rate is not only a 50% increase in in^3/min removed, but also dramatically reduces wear on the inserts while also allowing you to flip the things 8 times instead of 4, thus cutting your consumables costs by a factor about 12 while cutting time by at least 30%.

But you’d never know that sort of thing from watching videos or reading as there are SO many of them that it’s not reasonable to try learning things that we machinists do without barely thinking just based on our own experience.

One-offs and prototypes are often done with liberal use of M00 as well as a bit of tweaking in the offsets in order to try leaving the part in Maximum Material Condition and adjusting our way out. After all, if you have a tolerance of ±0.002 and you’re not entirely sure that your 1” end mill is actually 1.0000”, it’s better to play it safe by lying in the offsets and telling the machine that the cutter is 1.005” and going back for a second pass than to scrap the part.

I agree with @jerv, 100%. Get inside a shop, and look out.

If you find a good machinist, you’ll learn more in a week than you would in a year of videos.

In my 20 years of manufacturing experience, there are “two types of engineers; those with experience and those that ask the impossible because they only know what books tell them.”