Can we talk about the time I had to pick between a 4 inch face mill and a 2 inch at 2am in Toledo?
So there I was on the night shift in Toledo, a rush job on 4140 steel and the tool crib was locked, so it was either the 4 inch face mill with a busted insert or the 2 inch shell mill that looked brand new. I went with the 2 inch since a missing insert on 4140 sounded like a bad time, and I had to run like 11 passes instead of 3 but at least nothing blew up on me. The foreman came by at 5am and just stared at the pile of chips and asked if I was cutting a whole block of steel or building a snowman. Honestly my arms were dead from cranking the table back and forth all night. What would you guys have done, eat the insert risk or run the extra passes like I did?
A busted insert on 4140 at 2am isn't a risk, it's a promise, because that steel will work harden the second the cutter starts rubbing instead of cutting and then you're standing there with a dead tool and no way to fix it. Running 11 passes with a fresh 2 inch shell mill was the right call, the only thing you spent was time and elbow grease and those are both free at 2am. The foreman joke aside, a snowman beats a scrapped part and a locked tool crib any night.