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Switched from manual scribing to a digital template tool on boiler baffle plates last month
I used to do all my baffle plate templates by hand with those old school metal scribes and paper patterns (which worked fine but took forever). After a 3 day outage at a plant in Gary, I picked up a cheap digital arm from a rigger buddy for $75. First time using it on a 14 plate bundle saved me about 2 hours of layout work. Has anyone else made the jump to digital layout tools for tight clearances, or is it just me seeing the time savings?
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the_faith20d ago
That $75 digital arm sounds like a steal but you really trust it on a 3 day outage with that kind of clearance? I've seen those things lose calibration from a bump or a drop of coffee and then your whole baffle layout is garbage.
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jesse_williams6220d ago
Oh man, that's exactly what I'm worried about too. But tell me this - when yours lost calibration, was it actually the arm itself drifting or was it more about the mounting bracket flexing over time? Because I keep seeing people blame the tool but half the time it's just cheap plastic adapters or loose set screws.
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benclark15d ago
I mean @jesse_williams62 has a point though, half the time it's the bracket not the arm.
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