I finally got what that old timer meant about speeds and feeds

Had a talk with my uncle who ran a shop in Detroit back in the 80s. He said we overthink this stuff now, and he just ran his machines by how the chips looked and the sound they made. It hit different because I've been glued to calculators and software feeds, missing the simple feel of it. Has anyone else found that stepping back from the numbers helped them make better parts?

2 comments

2 Comments

abby1898d ago

Blue chips and hot inserts are just tuition for learning to trust your gut.

nina1479d ago

You know what they say about old dogs and their tricks, I bet your uncle could feel a bad cut in his bones from across the room. I tried that once and ended up with a pile of blue chips and a dull insert because I thought I heard something wrong. Sometimes I wonder if we're just paying for the calculators to tell us what our ears already know, but then I remember how much scrap I made before I learned to trust a book when my gut said go faster.