TIL my swing arm gauge was off by a full inch

I was dredging on the Mississippi near Baton Rouge last month and kept coming up short on my cut. Turned out my swing arm indicator had slipped during a cable swap and I was reading a foot deeper than actual. Has anyone else had a calibration failure that made you look like a total rookie?

3 comments

3 Comments

eva90824d ago

Yeah daily checks are supposed to catch that (but who actually does them when you're running behind).

nelson.nancy24d ago

Aren't swing arm gauges supposed to be checked daily before you start cutting?

valw3624d ago

Daily checks are one of those things that sound good on paper but fall apart fast when you're trying to hit a deadline. I learned the hard way that those gauges drift over time, especially if the machine gets bumped or the arm gets knocked around during a job. What I do now is keep a sticky note on the control panel with the last check date, that way I can see at a glance if I'm overdue. A quick calibration before the first cut saves me from scrapping material an hour into the run. It's a pain but less of a pain than redoing a whole batch.