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?

3 comments

3 Comments

logan52514d 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.

sean_green4414d agoMost Upvoted

My boss told me to step back and look at the whole roof, not just one shingle.

leewalker14d 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.