Was dead set against tool presetters until I crashed a brand new $400 end mill

Had a .750 carbide end mill snap last Tuesday on a job for a medical parts run. Cost me $400 and 3 hours of rework because I bumped Z by accident during a tool change. Old timer named Dave down the aisle showed me his Haimer presetter and I watched him set a tool in under 30 seconds dead nuts on. Took me like 15 minutes to get comfortable with it but now I'm kicking myself for all the wasted scrap over the years. Anyone else cave and switch after a costly mistake like this?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_amy7h ago

I mean yeah that sucks but a $400 mistake is just part of the learning curve honestly. Ive been running manual mills for 15 years with just an edge finder and a prayer and I still hold .001. Seems like youre fixing a one time oops with a $1000 solution when you could just slow down and pay attention.

lee.cole6h ago

Flip that around on you. A $400 mistake every time you get distracted or tired adds up way faster than a $1000 fix that prevents it. You've been running manuals for 15 years, cool, but not everyone has that muscle memory or the patience to babysit every single cut. An edge finder and prayer works great until your back hurts, you're rushing a side job, or a new guy takes a turn. The DRO pays for itself in scrap savings and time saved on setups, plus it catches errors before they happen. Slowing down doesn't fix the fact that manual machining is inherently risky for small shops where one bad part blows the whole job. Sometimes the smart move is spending money to take human error out of the equation, not pretending you'll never mess up.