Found out my machine runs 18 degrees hotter in the afternoon and the fix was stupid simple

Avery Martin · 2026-09-15T17:35:04.013891+00:00

I was fighting chatter on my Haas VF2 for about two weeks straight and could not figure it out. Morning parts came out great, dead nuts on tolerance. Afternoon parts were garbage, like .003 out on the same program, same tool, same stock. I finally grabbed an infrared thermometer out of my toolbox and started checking stuff. The spindle head was running 18 degrees hotter at 3pm than it was at 7am. Turned out the sun coming through the overhead door on the west side of the building was baking the whole machine. I hung a cheap welding curtain from Harbor Freight across that bay for about 40 bucks and the chatter went away. Nobody ever told me thermal growth was hitting me that hard. Has anyone else dealt with sun or heat messing with their tolerances, and how did you fix it?

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Found out my machine runs 18 degrees hotter in the afternoon and the fix was stupid simple | CNC Operators - Chatter Central