I used to run mist all the time cause I thought it was cleaner and cheaper. Finally switched to flood after a 12 hour job wrecked two end mills from heat buildup. Chip clearance is way better now, anyone else make the switch and notice a difference?
Bob the night shift guy pointed out I was holding it at an angle and not using the ratchet stop, took me from guessing to within 0.001 in one try, anyone else have those basic skills you never got taught in school?
I was running a job in 6061 aluminum on our Fadal at work and this old timer named Dave watched me for a minute then said I was leaving money on the table with my chip load. He showed me how to bump the feed up 30% and drop the rpm to 8000 and it cut cycle time by 45 seconds a part... Has anyone else had their routine completely wrecked by a suggestion from a guy who's been doing this since the 70s?
The owner told me he paid $18k for it used back in 2005 and it just keeps going, no complaints, has anyone else found an older machine that just refuses to die?
I've been running 1/2 inch end mills for most of my work because that's what the last guy used. Last week I had a part with some tight internal corners so I switched to a 1/4 inch. Not only did the corners come out clean, but the surface finish was way better. I barely had to touch it with sandpaper. Now I'm wondering if I should be using smaller tools for roughing too. Has anyone else noticed a big difference stepping down tool sizes?
Last Tuesday at a shop in Tulsa I was talking to a guy who's been running CNC since the 80s. He said he never pushes his machines past 70 percent of their rated capacity because he's seen too many crashes from guys chasing cycle time. I always thought you should run it as hard as it can go, but after hearing his stories about replacing spindles it made me wonder how many of us are running our machines too hot.
A guy I've seen at the shop for years watched me struggle with a rough finish on some aluminum parts. He didn't say anything at first just pointed at my collet nut. I had been chasing tool deflection for two days. Changed out the tool, same issue. Tightened the collet nut proper and boom all my chatter disappeared. Guess I was being lazy about cleaning the collet too. Has anyone else had a fix come from something that simple?
Spent all week scrapping aluminum parts because I was pushing feeds too hard trying to hit numbers, and after 12 scrapped pieces on Wednesday my shop foreman showed me how running at 80% speed actually gave me zero rejects and better surface finish, has anyone else found a happy medium with their cycle times like that?
Bought a 10-pack of 1/4 inch carbide end mills for $35 to save money. First piece wrecked on some 6061 aluminum and left a bad finish that the customer rejected. Has anyone else had luck with budget tooling on production work?
An old timer at a shop in Cincinnati told me to just eyeball my offsets instead of using a height setter. Figured I'd try it for a few parts and ended up crashing an endmill into a $900 fixture because I was off by 0.003. Has anyone else gotten bad quick tips from experienced guys that ended up costing more than it saved?
I was running a job on a 5-axis Haas last Tuesday and the toolpath went rogue, plunging straight into a stainless block at full feed somehow but the tool just bounced off and kept cutting like nothing happened. Has anyone else had a crash that ended up being way less disasterous than it looked?
Just spent my whole Saturday morning fighting with a part that kept coming out 0.015 oversized. Turned out the coolant line was dripping onto the face of my indicator, throwing off the reading by almost a full 0.020. Ever had a tiny drip cost you half a shift like that at the shop on Industrial Boulevard?
Was setting up a job on our Haas VF-2 last month and the print clearly showed the datum on the back side, so I flipped the vise. Foreman started yelling until I handed him the paper. Now he double checks everything before opening his mouth. Anybody else have prints that make zero sense until you flip the part?
I'm running a Tormach 1100 in my garage shop. Bought a 20 pack of no name carbide endmills off Amazon for like $35. Figured hey, they're carbide, how bad can they be. First one snapped 2 minutes into cutting 6061. Then the next one chipped on the second pass. By the time I got through 5 of them I had wasted almost 3 hours of runtime and had a ruined part from vibration chatter. The material alone cost me about $60. So I lost close to $100 and a whole afternoon. Meanwhile I coulda just bought one decent Garr or Helical for $15 and been done with it. Is the name brand markup really that bad when you factor in scrap and downtime? Or have you guys found some hidden gem brands that actually work for cheap?
I was running some 4140 steel at 3500 RPM on our Okuma at the shop in Dayton and this guy who's been there since the 80s said I was burning through tools. He said drop to 2200 RPM and bump the feed up 15%. I ignored him for three weeks until I blew through $80 in end mills in one afternoon. Finally tried his way and my tool life more than doubled. Anybody else have a stubborn moment like that?
I swear every other setup I take over has parts coming in undersized because someone just threw in a new insert without adjusting the wear offset. Just had a job yesterday where the dims were off by .003 and it took me 45 minutes to figure out why. How do you guys handle it when you see someone else's offsets are clearly not set right?
I was running a 6061 aluminum part on a Haas TM-1 last week and couldn't figure out why the finish looked like garbage. Checked my spindle load and it was barely 20 percent, so I bumped the feed from 20 IPM to 35 IPM on a 3/8 end mill. Night and day difference in surface finish, and I felt dumb for not trying it sooner. Has anyone else had a similar brain fart where you just assumed the old numbers were right?
I was running a 1/2 inch endmill in 6061 aluminum and getting that annoying chatter sound on the corners. After reading some old forums and trying different speeds, I just cranked the feed from 30 IPM to 38 IPM on a test part last Tuesday. The chip load changed just enough to dampen the vibration and the surface finish came out mirror smooth. Has anyone else had luck breaking out of the 'slow and safe' mindset and actually going faster?
I had this aluminum mold with a tricky curved surface and normally I run a 0.020 stepover on the finish pass. Tried 0.015 on a whim and the surface came out SO much cleaner I didn't need to hand polish it afterward. Saved me about 2 hours of manual work. Has anyone else found that dialing the stepover back pays off on complex shapes?
I spent about $200 on one of those fancy digital edge finders last month thinking it would speed up my setups. Turns out it’s finicky on our older machines and gives weird readings if the spindle isn’t dead perfect. My old mechanical edge finder that cost me $30 is way more reliable and I can bang it around without worrying. I’ve went back to it after wasting 3 hours fighting the digital one. Anyone else have a pricey tool that just didn’t work out for you?
I was running a job making these little aluminum brackets. First part came out and the hole was .003 off. So I spent the whole morning checking tool holders, re-zeroing the probe, even re-leveled the vise. Finally on my last sanity check I wiggle the vise itself and it moves a tiny bit. One of the bolts on the fixture plate was just barely snug. Tightened it down and everything ran perfect. Has anyone else had a problem that turned out to be something super dumb like that?
I was picking up some material from a little job shop off I-94 and decided to poke around their CNC area. Every single machine had these random piles of wrenches and collets just sitting on the control panels like it was a garage sale. One guy had his calipers balanced on the edge of the coolant trough and I swear I got nervous just looking at it. I get being in a hurry but it took me 10 minutes to find a 3/8 endmill because it was mixed in with some rusty parallels. The foreman just shrugged and said it's how they've always done it. Has anyone else walked into a place that made you twitch just from looking at the clutter?
My apprentice Jamie asked why I never leave notes in my G-code programs. I told him I just remember what each line does. Then he showed me his own files with little comments like 'rough pass at 6000 rpm, don't touch' and I realized he was right. Last Tuesday I had to re-read a 3-year-old program for a part we reran and it took me 45 minutes to figure out my own logic. Anyone else actually take time to document their code or am I just old school about this?
Was cutting a thick aluminum plate in St. Louis and kept getting chatter until I tried climb milling instead of conventional, and the finish was clean in one pass - has anyone else found certain materials just work better with climb milling?
I was grabbing some end mills from the supply room last Tuesday and heard two older machinists arguing about tool offset methods. One guy swore he changes his approach every shift to "keep the machine guessing" or something like that. Has anyone else run into this kind of thinking, or is it just me?