Higgins909
Aluminum
- Joined
- Nov 19, 2018
...First 2 paragraphs are more of a rant on my problems at work, but offer insight... Acutally probably the whole thing... I wanted to know how long a setup can take but I ended up ranting while trying to explain why things take me so long. A simple setup that I think should take me 20-30 minutes takes hours. Time quotas really bother me, because I feel like their made up, unrealistic numbers.
I think I'm supposed to be an operator/machinist in training for a while now... Maybe not... I haven't been taught much on how to program the machine at all, it feels like. It doesn't help we run the same parts and the parts run forever. Guy has like 20 years and back when he was trying to teach me to program, he was just whipping out out numbers from his head, while I need to figure out how to even process it and a calculator to do the math. Being told that it doesn't require any math. (some variation of that) I've done maybe 2 very simple programs and he did about 3 essentially for me. Shop runs simple parts, that can be programmed at machine. I've been questioning my future long before I was supposedly going to be the new mill guy. (Working my way up from temp position, been 4 years and 1+month now)
Like they wanted this part up and running right away, but there was no program, but I wasn't told that until after I was trying to program it myself for a while already. So then I go get the guy who's been teaching me to do it, because he's way faster. One setup I was loading it up and looking into the program and went up front to ask how much I can edit the program, because it needed some serious work. (was missing a bunch of processes) Then he programs it for me, but it's not right as there is the usual miscommunication I get with people. So there I am trying to fix it and he's maybe back to the machine 1-2 more times to get that straightened out... Reusing cut jaws that are not flat and hammering the heck out of those fighting to get them as flat as possible...
Generally setups are just load the program, tooling, vise, jaws, offsets... Think I listed everything. Parts are simple, but I can spend 2~ hrs doing this. Clock in on the job, look at the print, find program, or find tools first. The order I do thing in is a bit of a mess. Tooling is always a disaster, running around shop looking for the holder, then tool, then collet, then insets... It's usually drills and finding a collet that fits, but has been other things. Which drill looks the best, because they're all beat to heck. What type of collet can I find that will fit this and then where is a holder for this type of collet. Oh, this drill has 0.010" runout? rinse and repeat... We run endmills with 0.002" TIR but have seen way worse. Once I get tooling sorted, I get a vice if it's not already on, indicate it in, run around looking for the precut jaws, find out they're not cut straight, so indicate to the jaws, make sure they're flat. Which jaw is the front or back? Who knows.
Set offsets, which are done wrong half the time, either something with Z and how it was programmed or I set my part stops wrong. Then the fun of trying to work everything in. Something that I haven't mentioned yet is that I'm probably one of the only people in shop that tries to do any kind of preventative maintenance. A master machinist quit a long time ago and it's been guy after guy (now my shot I guess) A machine will be woken up and used once every once in a while (this particular one has been sitting over a year) then left to literally rust covered in chips. We have some Blazer coolant and other than topping up the machines and not using too much because it's expensive, we don't give it any care, so it's all nasty and oily. I'm one of the only people that I can assume is "wasting time" doing such tasks. So our machines, tools, vise, jaws are covered in crap and other people don't clean it and just slap that together. I'll take some scotchbright and wd-40 because that's what we got and scrub the scum off stuff before assembling. Dig out chips of the soft jaws. Vise isn't sitting flat because the table is beat.
Been working on these parts for the last 2+ weeks 800qty. Haven't had enough time to myself to scratch my ass. I got 2 ops setup on the lathe. 1st op needed intervention every 30seconds and ran about 1m 20s, 2nd op was 30 sec total run time, but had to debur. Was a coolant off, run lathe with door open type of job, small parts, leaning on the machine at the ready. Got it on the mill, program has the wrong numbers, I'll just compensate with a Y offset. I complained about the tool dulling and deflecting more and making more burs. Had a super high feed for that size of tool and DOC. Fast run time as well. Now I get to debur and it's taking forever. Some are easy, some are extra tedious. I get to sit at a desk with my face an inch away from a magnifying glass and debur them with a hobby knife. While co-workers are jokingly asking me about being done. I'm doing about 100 a day, which is over the quota, but all other ops smoked the quota. My back has been hurting since the first lathe op.
Deep breaths,
Higgins909
I think I'm supposed to be an operator/machinist in training for a while now... Maybe not... I haven't been taught much on how to program the machine at all, it feels like. It doesn't help we run the same parts and the parts run forever. Guy has like 20 years and back when he was trying to teach me to program, he was just whipping out out numbers from his head, while I need to figure out how to even process it and a calculator to do the math. Being told that it doesn't require any math. (some variation of that) I've done maybe 2 very simple programs and he did about 3 essentially for me. Shop runs simple parts, that can be programmed at machine. I've been questioning my future long before I was supposedly going to be the new mill guy. (Working my way up from temp position, been 4 years and 1+month now)
Like they wanted this part up and running right away, but there was no program, but I wasn't told that until after I was trying to program it myself for a while already. So then I go get the guy who's been teaching me to do it, because he's way faster. One setup I was loading it up and looking into the program and went up front to ask how much I can edit the program, because it needed some serious work. (was missing a bunch of processes) Then he programs it for me, but it's not right as there is the usual miscommunication I get with people. So there I am trying to fix it and he's maybe back to the machine 1-2 more times to get that straightened out... Reusing cut jaws that are not flat and hammering the heck out of those fighting to get them as flat as possible...
Generally setups are just load the program, tooling, vise, jaws, offsets... Think I listed everything. Parts are simple, but I can spend 2~ hrs doing this. Clock in on the job, look at the print, find program, or find tools first. The order I do thing in is a bit of a mess. Tooling is always a disaster, running around shop looking for the holder, then tool, then collet, then insets... It's usually drills and finding a collet that fits, but has been other things. Which drill looks the best, because they're all beat to heck. What type of collet can I find that will fit this and then where is a holder for this type of collet. Oh, this drill has 0.010" runout? rinse and repeat... We run endmills with 0.002" TIR but have seen way worse. Once I get tooling sorted, I get a vice if it's not already on, indicate it in, run around looking for the precut jaws, find out they're not cut straight, so indicate to the jaws, make sure they're flat. Which jaw is the front or back? Who knows.
Set offsets, which are done wrong half the time, either something with Z and how it was programmed or I set my part stops wrong. Then the fun of trying to work everything in. Something that I haven't mentioned yet is that I'm probably one of the only people in shop that tries to do any kind of preventative maintenance. A master machinist quit a long time ago and it's been guy after guy (now my shot I guess) A machine will be woken up and used once every once in a while (this particular one has been sitting over a year) then left to literally rust covered in chips. We have some Blazer coolant and other than topping up the machines and not using too much because it's expensive, we don't give it any care, so it's all nasty and oily. I'm one of the only people that I can assume is "wasting time" doing such tasks. So our machines, tools, vise, jaws are covered in crap and other people don't clean it and just slap that together. I'll take some scotchbright and wd-40 because that's what we got and scrub the scum off stuff before assembling. Dig out chips of the soft jaws. Vise isn't sitting flat because the table is beat.
Been working on these parts for the last 2+ weeks 800qty. Haven't had enough time to myself to scratch my ass. I got 2 ops setup on the lathe. 1st op needed intervention every 30seconds and ran about 1m 20s, 2nd op was 30 sec total run time, but had to debur. Was a coolant off, run lathe with door open type of job, small parts, leaning on the machine at the ready. Got it on the mill, program has the wrong numbers, I'll just compensate with a Y offset. I complained about the tool dulling and deflecting more and making more burs. Had a super high feed for that size of tool and DOC. Fast run time as well. Now I get to debur and it's taking forever. Some are easy, some are extra tedious. I get to sit at a desk with my face an inch away from a magnifying glass and debur them with a hobby knife. While co-workers are jokingly asking me about being done. I'm doing about 100 a day, which is over the quota, but all other ops smoked the quota. My back has been hurting since the first lathe op.
Deep breaths,
Higgins909