Bad Luck??? (long post)

[Brad Morris]

Hey All.

I'm fairly new to CNC and machining in general. Until 15 months ago I had never been in a machine shop. One day last year I just decided to take an introductory CNC class at our local community college. One thing led to another and today I am working 2nd shift running a Mori Horizontal mill making parts for one of the largest earth moving equipment manufacturers in the world. I do most of my own basic (proven) setups, tweak programs as needed and make any moves needed to keep the part in tolerance.

The biggest problems I seem to have are not catching some foundry scrap issues until after I run the part, and I'm kind of slow at deburring. I also have come to loath chatter. If I so much as see even a hint of it (even if the finish is supposed to be 250mu) my blood boils and I will stop everything until I get it resolved (or my super says to just run it).

Overall I am finally starting to enjoy the job. I still need to hone my geometric tolerancing print reading skills but they are coming along.

Now to the bad luck portion of my post. Twice in the last month (on two different machines) I have gotten ATC Motor Overload alerts when the tool changer when to swap out the tools. The first time it happened, I was told it wasn't my fault, the ATC shaft was just worn out and it bound up. That macine was down for almost 2 weeks. Well the exact same thing happened on another Machine Friday night. All I did was push the cycle start button and when the machine went to change tools, the arm came to a stop and I got the overload alert. We tried to reset the machine with no luck. I guess I'll find out Monday if it's the same issue. I hope it's not something I'm doing.

Anyway, I just wanted to kind of introduce myself and I figured this was a good way to do it.

Take care,
Brad

[gubertrious]

well it sound like at least you dont have to fix your own machines. I work in a small shop ( around 5 guys) when something breaks we have to fix it ourselves.