19
Met an old timer at a shop in Cleveland who taught me about speeds and feeds
I was running a Haas VF-2 at a job shop near Cleveland last spring. This guy in his 70s walked over, watched me for a minute, then said, "You're running that end mill way too slow." He showed me how he bumps up the RPM until the chips turn blue, then backs off just a hair. I tried it on a batch of 304 stainless and cut my cycle time by almost 40 percent. Has anyone else gotten a tip like that from a veteran operator that just clicked?
4 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In4 Comments
gray618d ago
Old guy at my shop taught me the same trick on a Bridgeport last year.
2
piper91218d ago
My uncle had a guy like that at a bearing plant in Toledo back in the 90s. He told me the same thing about grinding wheels - run them until they just start to glaze, then back off a couple hundred RPM. It's like old timers have this sixth sense for where metal wants to be pushed. I've noticed it in a bunch of trades too, not just machining. Plumbers who know exactly how much torque on a pipe joint without cracking it, welders who can read puddle behavior like a book. That 40 percent time cut is real, but the real gold is learning to trust your eyes and ears over some chart.
1
My buddy Dave works at a shop outside Cleveland and they had this old-timer named Jerry who could hear a bandsaw blade going dull before anyone else even noticed. One day Jerry walked over to a machine that was running and just tapped the guy on the shoulder and said "slow it down 50 RPM, that blade's about to start bouncing." Sure enough when they checked the part after, the finish was already starting to chip. Dave still talks about how Jerry never used a tachometer or a dial, just listened to the way the metal sang.
3