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That old timer who taught me about tool wear
Guy named Frank at a shop in Dayton showed me how to read tool wear by sound alone. Said 'the machine tells you everything if you shut up and listen.' He caught a bad insert on a roughing pass just by the pitch change. Anyone else have a mentor who taught them something weird like that?
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gavin_hill278d ago
the weird part is that guy Frank probably learned that trick from some 19th century machinist who passed it down. i bet that skill is gonna be completely gone in 20 years once everyone just relies on vibration sensors and machine monitors. kinda makes you wonder what else we're losing that machines can't pick up on.
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ben_ross518d ago
Wait, could that be why some old machines just sound right to certain guys but no manual or sensor can explain why?
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lauras832d ago
Oh man, this totally reminds me of something my grandpa used to do with his old lathe. He had this weird trick where he'd flick the belt with his finger before starting it up, and he swore he could tell if the bearings were going bad just by the sound it made. I remember watching him do it one time and asking why he didn't just use the oil pressure gauge, and he just laughed and said "that gauge lies more than a politician." A few months later, the gauge was reading fine but the whole spindle seized up because of a hairline crack he couldn't hear anymore. It's wild to think about all the little habits and noises people used to just know, stuff that's probably getting lost because nobody writes it down.
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