Most workshops train the person who was there the day the machine arrived. Two years later that person has moved on, the machine has been to three sites, and nobody has been told anything.
Why training does not stick, and what does
Operators rotate on shift handovers. Machines get loaned between crews and sites. Agency workers arrive for a fortnight. There is no realistic moment at which everyone who will touch that machine is in the same room.
So put the instructions on the machine. A laminated card cable-tied to the case survives handovers in a way a toolbox talk does not.
The card
Before you switch on
- Is the steel clean, flat and at least 10 mm thick under the magnet? Wire-brush scale, rust and paint off first – they all cost you hold.
- On thin plate, clamp a thick steel backing piece underneath to complete the magnetic circuit.
- Is the safety chain or strap on? Always, on anything not flat and horizontal.
- Is the pilot pin in, and straight?
- Is there coolant in the bottle, and does it flow?
Speed
Bigger cutter, slower speed. As a rough guide for high-speed steel in structural steel: a 12 mm cutter wants around 700 rpm, a 22 mm around 400, a 32 mm around 270, a 50 mm around 175.
Carbide runs faster. Stainless runs much slower – roughly a third of these figures on plain HSS.
Always start at the low end and work up.
Feed
- Steady and constant, all the way through the cut.
- Do not lean on it to speed it up. That is what kills cutters and, after them, motors.
- Do not let it spin without biting either – on stainless that work-hardens the steel and finishes the cutter.
- Ease off slightly as the cutter breaks through.
Coolant
- Every hole. Not most holes.
- Check it is actually reaching the teeth, not just leaving the bottle.
Stop immediately if
- You smell burning or see smoke
- The machine sounds different under load, or slows and does not recover
- The magnet shifts, at all
- The slug will not eject and swarf is packing the flutes
- You see sparking you have not seen before
Do not keep running it to see if it clears. Report it and tag the machine.
At the end of the shift
- Cutter out, pilot pin back in the cutter, both back in the box
- Wipe the magnet face – swarf on it is the next person’s problem
- Coil the cable rather than wrapping it tight around the handle
- If anything was odd today, write it on the card. The next person cannot ask you.
Two things that make it work
Put it on the machine, not in a folder. A card in the office is a card nobody reads.
Leave a blank line for notes. The most useful thing on any of these cards, six months in, is a handwritten line from an operator saying what this particular machine does when it is unhappy.
We will send you the card
Tell us which machines you run and the cutter sizes you use, and we will send a printable version with your speeds filled in.
Email info@neweratools.com or call +65 6241 0908.