Late night at the shop made me rethink my whole approach to tool setup

Last Tuesday I was running a job in Denver and kept having to re-zero my machine because I rushed the initial setup. Three years ago I learned the hard way that spending 15 extra minutes checking your vice alignment can save you 3 hours of scrapped parts. Now I'm wondering if anyone else has a specific checklist they run through before their first cut of the day?

3 comments

3 Comments

michael66921d ago

Those 15 minutes on vice alignment saved my ass more times than I can count. My personal checklist starts with checking the drawbar torque with a wrench since that got me last month on a Haas VF-2 when the tool holder slipped mid-cycle. Do you do anything specific with your coolant levels before the first cut or just eyeball it until you see smoke?

ryan_shah3821d ago

Skip the coolant guesswork man... I keep a dipstick marked at 80% fill and top it off before every heavy job. Learned that one after a pump ran dry on a Friday and cost me a whole shift.

miles_burns21d ago

A buddy of mine runs an old Fadal and he used to just eyeball the coolant level. One time he was running a tough stainless job and the pump started sucking air halfway through. The insert chipped, then the whole tool let go. That 5 dollar endmill took out a brand new row of soft jaws and wrecked the part. Now he marks his tank with a paint pen and checks it before every cycle start.