Rant: A shop in Detroit made me rethink how I set up my work offsets

I was helping out at a buddy's place there last winter, and saw his lead guy use the part edge to set his G54 instead of the vise jaw. He said it saved him 15 minutes on every fixture change. I tried it, but I worry about losing that solid jaw reference. Which way do you guys trust more for a big run?

4 comments

4 Comments

riverh492mo ago

Man, that's a smart move. I get the worry about losing the jaw, but if you think about it, the part edge is the only thing that really matters for the cut. Like, say you're running a hundred of the same bracket. You pop a new blank in, touch off the front corner, and you're set. The vise could shift a tiny bit over time, but the part is always in the same spot relative to your tool. It cuts out all that fussing with indicators on the fixture itself.

wade2502mo ago

Ever try that trick with a dowel pin in the soft jaw? It works great until someone bumps the handle and you're chasing tenths all afternoon.

bettym112mo ago

Just don't let the new guy near it.

the_olivia1mo ago

Buddy of mine (@bettym11 knows him too, he's the one who crashed the forklift last year) tried this exact trick with a tombstone fixture on a horizontal mill. Worked like a charm for about three runs until the coolant hose got pinched between the soft jaw and the part, shifted the whole setup by maybe two thou. He didn't catch it until the finish pass, scraped a whole batch of aerospace brackets. So yeah, it's a solid method until some little thing like a hose or a chip gets in the way. Just gotta watch those small details or you're chasing tenths anyway.

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