Caught my lead operator eyeballing feeds and speeds on a $12,000 part last Tuesday

I've been running a Haas VF-2 for about 3 years now and always just used the recommended speeds from the tooling catalog. Last week I was making a stainless steel bracket for a medical device order and my finish was coming out awful. My lead operator walked over, looked at my setup sheet, and told me I was running 40% too slow on the surface feet. He showed me how to calculate SFM based on tool engagement instead of just using the box numbers. Who else has been running parts based on old habits instead of actually doing the math for each job?

2 comments

2 Comments

hill.barbara8d ago

Oh, that hits close to home for sure.

robertb308d ago

Gotta push back on this one honestly. Sometimes when people say something "hits close to home" they're really just looking for an excuse to stay stuck in their feelings instead of actually dealing with the problem. I've seen it happen way too many times where folks use that as a crutch to avoid making changes. If it hits close to home maybe that's a sign to actually look at what's going on and fix it rather than just nodding along. The whole point of hearing hard truths is to grow from them, not just sit around feeling validated about how tough things are.