The week from hell on a 5-axis job in Portland

Last month I had a job that started perfect then went straight into the dumpster. First day I ran a batch of aluminum parts, all tight tolerances, and they came out beautiful. Thought I was a hero. Then Wednesday the coolant pump died and I spent 4 hours swapping it while the owner paced behind me. Friday morning I found a .003 inch shift on a critical bore, had to scrap 12 parts worth around $800 each. The issue was a loose spindle collet I should have caught during warmup. By Saturday I had it dialed back in and finished the run clean. But that middle stretch made me question if I even knew what I was doing. How do you guys bounce back after a string of stupid failures like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

blake30226d ago

Whoa hold on there man... I gotta push back on this a little bit. You're talking about 12 parts at $800 each and a loose collet like it's some kind of career ending screw up. That's a bad week for sure but it's not the end of the world. You're acting like you forgot how to run a machine because of one oversight during warmup... come on. Every machinist I know has scrapped way more than that in a single shift and lived to tell about it. The real question is did you learn from it. Sounds like you did so that's what matters. Stop beating yourself up and just get back on the horse.

lee73326d ago

Preach. It's just metal.