The one thing new operators always get wrong with tool offsets

I've been noticing a pattern on the night shift where newer guys keep messing up their tool length offsets by a few thou. They use the touch off tool but then don't account for the fact that the tool holder might have some debris on the taper. I had a job last week where a guy was chasing a 0.003 inch error on a critical bore and it took him an hour to realize his offset was off because he didn't clean the holder first. In my experience, just wiping the taper with a clean rag before setting the offset saves more headaches than anything else. I even saw one guy use a paper towel with coolant residue on it and that threw everything off by itself. Does anyone else have a simple step they always check that seems to get overlooked?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_keith11d agoMost Upvoted

Man, that's a good point about the coolant rag (hadn't even thought of that one). But tell me this - do you think it's more about the debris or that the new guys just don't have a feel for how much a few thou really is on the machine?

coleman.jade11d ago

My dad always said you can't teach feel, you just have to burn it in.