I was reading an old trade journal and saw a number that made me stop

It was from a 2005 article about machining tolerances. It said the average shop back then was holding about +/- 0.005 inches as a standard. Now, I'm regularly holding +/- 0.0005 on some of our newer jobs. That's a tenfold improvement in twenty years, just on standard machines. I found it in a stack of magazines my old boss left in the break room. Makes you think about how much the tech and expectations have changed without us even noticing day to day. What's the tightest tolerance you guys are regularly hitting now on your mills?

3 comments

3 Comments

loganthompson8d ago

Remember when a thou was a big deal? We're holding half a thou all day on our older VMCs now, but the real shocker was seeing our new five-axis hit two tenths on some aerospace brackets. How did we even get here without it feeling like a big change? Makes you wonder what the floor standard will be in another ten years.

rowanellis8d agoMost Upvoted

Crazy how fast the tolerances creep up on you. We just got used to hitting those numbers because the machines got better bit by bit. Hard to even guess where it goes next.

elliotadams8d ago

Yeah, that creep Rowanellis talks about is so real.