The week my spindle ate a $600 endmill

Good day: made 200 perfect parts in 4 hours. Bad day: next morning, spindle crashed and ate a $600 indexable endmill. Turned out a chip got stuck under the clamp. You guys trust chip guards or just run coolant and hope?

3 comments

3 Comments

carter.gavin23d ago

Buddy of mine had a chip get wedged in his coolant nozzle, redirected the stream right into his bearing pack and cooked a $2,000 spindle in under a minute. I run chip guards now after hearing that story.

the_jordan22d ago

Same reason people skip wearing earplugs until they can't hear.

elliotm7023d ago

Chip guards are just common sense at this point. The whole "just run coolant and hope" thing is like driving without a seatbelt because you're a good driver. One lucky break and you're fine for years. Then one unlucky chip and you're out thousands. Seen this same pattern everywhere not just in machining. People skip the simple cheap fix because it's annoying or in the way. Then they pay ten times more later when the predictable thing happens. Guards are cheap insurance compared to what they protect.