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Appreciation post: An old timer in a Tulsa shop changed how I see tool offsets
He watched me reset a tool after a crash for the third time that morning and just said, 'Kid, you're chasing the number, not the part.' That one line made me start checking my actual finish instead of just hitting the green button. Anyone else have a simple piece of advice that stuck with them for years?
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logan5255mo ago
That's a solid piece of advice. My old foreman used to say a similar thing about chasing tenths on a part that only needed to hold a half inch. You can waste a whole shift getting a dimension perfect on the print when the part just needs to fit in a hole. It's easy to get lost in the machine and forget what you're actually making.
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sean_green445mo ago
My boss told me to step back and look at the whole roof, not just one shingle.
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phoenix_bailey3mo ago
Hold on, isn't that "chasing tenths" thing usually about machining, not roofing? I mean I get the point about not overcomplicating things, but a tenth of an inch in machining is way different than a shingle. In the kitchen we say "don't polish a potato" meaning don't waste time making something look perfect when it's just gonna get chopped up anyway. It's the same idea, just different tools.
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leewalker5mo ago
Yeah, "chasing tenths on a part that only needed to hold a half inch" is exactly it. I used to get so focused on the machine being perfect, I'd forget the part just had to work. That old timer's advice would have saved me a lot of time.
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