A job in Tacoma made me rethink how I set up my work offsets

I was running a big batch of parts for a shop up there, and their lead guy, Frank, watched me touch off my tools. He said, 'You know, you're losing about 0.002 every time you do that by hand on the edge finder.' He showed me his method using a 1-2-3 block and a tenths indicator to set the X and Y from a known corner. I've been doing it his way ever since. Anyone else have a better trick for getting those offsets dead on?

2 comments

2 Comments

hall.viola8d ago

Frank only loses two thou on an edge finder? He must have the steadiest hands in the state. Mine wanders more than that on a good day. The 1-2-3 block is a good fix, but I'd still check it with an indicator sweep. You can't trust anything that doesn't involve watching a needle move.

spencerw729d ago

Actually, that 1-2-3 block trick is solid for most jobs. You can get even tighter by using a coaxial indicator on the spindle if your machine has the time for it. Honestly, it just comes down to how much time you can spend on setup versus the part tolerance.