Am I the only one who thinks constant tool offsets are a waste of time?

I see a lot of guys in here adjusting offsets after every single part. For the last 6 months at my shop in Tulsa, I stopped doing that and just let the machine run its cycle unless dimensions drift by more than .002. My scrap rate actually went down from 3% to under 1% because I'm not messing with the process mid-run. Has anyone else tried just leaving the numbers alone and seeing what happens?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_sandra29d ago

Tulsa huh? I mean, .002 is a pretty loose window depending on what you're running. I've seen guys get way too twitchy with offsets for sure, but a whole six months without touching them? Seems like you'd need some seriously forgiving tolerances for that to work every time.

fiona_young29d ago

My shop saw scrap jump 4% when we tried that last year.

wesley_martin1d ago

Yeah that's rough. A 4% jump in scrap is no joke, especially when you're trying to dial things in. Makes you wonder what the real sweet spot is with those tolerances, huh?