Question about tolerance stacking on prints - am I overthinking this?

Found out last week that a .005 tolerance on a part I drafted added up to almost .03 across six parts in assembly. Caught it because the machinist called me out. Now I'm wondering - do you guys chase every single tolerance or just let the shop figure it out on fit up? Seems like two camps on this.

3 comments

3 Comments

the_fiona2mo ago

Are you trusting your gut or running the math before it leaves your desk?

parkera221mo ago

Oh man, that reminds me of the time I tried to eyeball the angle on a picture frame hanger... ended up with a whole row of frames leaning different directions like a crooked smile. Spent the next hour with a level and a tape measure fixing it. Sometimes you just gotta go with the gut and then fix the mess later, you know?

margaret_gonzalez252mo ago

Oh man, my tolerance stack once turned a simple bracket into a wonky art piece.