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TIL my old way of setting up for a long run was costing me hours | CNC Operators - Rigidtalk

TIL my old way of setting up for a long run was costing me hours

For years, I'd manually edge find and zero each part on our old VMC, one at a time. Last month, a guy from the next shift showed me how to use the machine's coordinate rotation and just set a single program zero for the whole fixture plate. I tried it on a batch of 50 aluminum brackets, and it cut my setup time from about 45 minutes down to maybe 15. Has anyone else found a simple trick that saved a ton of time on repetitive jobs?

3 comments

3 Comments

rowan_wilson406mo ago

Man, that coordinate rotation trick is a game changer. We had a job running the same four parts on a tombstone, and I was doing each one by hand. An old timer finally told me to just pick up the center of the tombstone face and use G68. Now I just load the parts, clamp them down, and hit go. It felt stupid once I saw how easy it was after all that wasted time.

the_ivan6mo ago

That G68 trick is a perfect example of why asking questions is so important. I probably ran a hundred tombstone jobs the hard way before I saw someone else use rotation. The manuals don't really teach you the practical stuff. It's those little bits of shop knowledge that save you hours of setup and prove-out time. You just have to hope someone is willing to share it.

derek785mo ago

Absolutely, @the_ivan is right about the manuals missing the good stuff. I had the same headache with a four-sided fixture, programming each side like it was a whole new job. Then a guy showed me how to set the rotation point and just repeat the program. Felt like I'd been taking the long way to work for years when there was a straight road the whole time. That kind of tip is pure gold, and you only get it if someone's feeling generous.