That one job that ate up my whole shift and how I fixed it for next time
Last week, I got a rush order for some stainless steel flanges. The print called for a bunch of pockets and threads. I loaded the program and hit start, thinking it would be quick. Two hours in, I noticed the tool was chewing up the material because the feed rate was wrong. I had to stop, scrap the part, and start over. Now, I always do a dry run with the spindle off to catch those mistakes early. It adds maybe ten minutes upfront but saves hours of grief. Trust me, your future self will thank you.