New Hire with Drawers Full of Cutting Tools..

Not my Circus, but I was wondering what other shop owners think of a new hire that has thousands of dollars of new carbide cutting tools in his toolbox?

Davis In SC said:

Not my Circus, but I was wondering what other shop owners think of a new hire that has thousands of dollars of new carbide cutting tools in his toolbox?

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I think when the next guy hires him he will have thousands of dollars worth of your cutting tools in his box.

At least one of the cameras needs to point at his tool box.

Over how many years......

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moonlight machine said:

I think when the next guy hires him he will have thousands of dollars worth of your cutting tools in his box.

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Not my hire, my shop is a one pony circus.. Just an observation on another shop...

Maybe he got fired on his last job when he didn't expect to and no one went through his tool box. I actually had a guy who worked under me at my last job working for the man who did the same. He hoarded new tools, especially the specials so others would have to make do with whatever they could get their hands on. He had no intention of stealing them, he just wanted to constantly play hero because he had all the good tools. He would stick a new drill in a job, run it for 8 hours then put a worn out unsaveable POS in the machine right before shift change, while all the new drills from the crib for the job were tucked away in his tool box. Of course he would constantly point out how he made more parts than the guy who followed him. Either way the guy you saw is either a thief or a manipulator and needs to be fired ASAP.

Do you shop owners still expect new hire machinist's to show up with their own measuring and hand tools?

Integrity issues.

eta

Unless the cutters are all chipped edge and snarfed, then the machinist is just frugal.

first long term place I worked at I cleaned my drawers out of everything that wasn't mine. drills end mills inserts. the last place I worked at I gave them the opportunity to go through my drawers and they asked that any new tooling be left at my bench when I left and any used tooling I could take. I wasn't planning on keeping any new in the package tooling but I had lots of end mills that had a lot of life in them. I had one drawer that housed all my taps, drills, end mills. I worked at a job shop and I typically ran on tooling everyone else wanted to throw away. Very rare that I pulled out a new coated end mill unless I had a tight tolerance run and we typically bought tooling specific for those jobs. the reasoning that they did not want the used tooling is they did not want someone to grab a tap or end mill and it go out of spec and they blame the tool. The skill level was not very high at that place.

If I seen a fellow co worker with drawers of "new in the package" tooling I would be leery to let anything out around him cause he sounds like a thief.

Either he was buying his own tools which makes him stupid or he was stealing them which makes him a thief.

Employees may buy their own mics and calipers and wrenches and stuff, but who in the hell is going to buy their own carbide cutting tools?

Sounds pretty much like the guy is a thief. Or, he worked at a numb-skull shop or factory that didn't have enough sense to keep up with it's expensive consumable tooling.

ToolCat Greg

I work in a small shop. An older guy we hired that came from a big plant, he worked in the toolroom and he came in with two big kennedy rolling boxes. One with every inspection tool you could get and the other filled with endmills, taps, drills, etc. A lot of the carbide he had was resharps at least. But he said they would get tooling in by the pallets to run production and a lot of it was leftovers that they could have in their boxes. And apparently could leave with it. Well they shutdown the tool room and laid them all off.

Having all brand new in your cutters though...that might be a red flag.

Lots of new inserts etc would certainly be a flag. As to level of concern, go in your accounting software and see what percentage of total costs small tooling is. I know what mine is and you would have to steal a lot of tools for it to be worth me worrying.

Generally, in their toolbox is annoying, but implies they are using them at work.

Home in their garage and on ebay is another thing

I've got probably a couple grand worth of tooling in my box at work. All bought and paid for by ME, or given to ME by tooling reps. Quite a few guys in here are like that actually. I used to, at one time (pre kids when I had free time) stay late and make things all the time. Our shop tooling was pretty limited at the time, so I started buying at auctions, kijiji, or ebay. I have since convinced my boss that investing in good tooling pays off, so we're actually pretty well stocked now.

I have my own things like dovetail cutters, tee slot cutters, corner rounding cutters, slitting saws etc..... I've got carbide part off tools that are mine, and I swap them out with the shop HSS blades whenever I run the manual lathe. I've got reamers, taps, counterbores, carbide drills, all kinds of things that I've bought with my own money because I either needed them for something I was doing, or came across them very cheap.

Taps in standard cap screw sizes, reamers, and drills I consider consumables (eventually) so the company pays for those, but I consider them "mine" as they live in my box, and are there when I need them. Everybody in here is supplied the same way. It's not productive to have guys running to a tool crib for a 6-32 tap everytime they need to tap a hole.

Ask the kid why he has what he has. Maybe there's a reason for it, like they were his retired fathers/uncles etc, maybe he's just a sticky finger clepto. Maybe he's one of the rare young kids that actually has an interest in this trade and is investing in himself by buying tools so he can do his job better, faster, cheaper.

I don't know about the rest of you, but after a while in this trade you sort of accumulate stuff. I'd be more wary of a guy who's been around a while who doesn't own anything.......

tooling in box

many places use vending machines or a tool crib which has supply delivery issues like ran out and nothing for many days
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1) many machinist have a emergency inventory to last what ever the normal delay in shipments this can mean boxes of inserts of coarse and some end mills of coarse, enough to last a day or 2
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2) common when a shop closes for management to let former workers take what ever they want as long as it it not power tools they might get hurt using later
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3) having taps is of coarse similar. no taps in tool crib or vending machines and tap being used is dull and squealing. most put emergency tap in and finish job rather than break dull one.
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4) you might ask why not keep in shop vidmar cabinet for everybody to use. cause some management wants no inventory, if nothing in vending machine or tool crib, stop job, switch pallet with parts and fixtures and do other job. but of coarse many jobs use same tooling. i had boss see shop drawer 1/2 full of various inserts. he thought it was a lot. everybody working in shop knew it was less than 24 hour supply. still boss wanted it gone.
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5) many keep emergency supply. some end mills look new but are often used the 60 minutes mandated and still look ok. sometimes hang on to them. why ? cause sometimes when resharpened they shorten end mill past the minimum length limit. so if told to change tool every 60 minutes you do it. if tool looks usable might hang on to it as if sent for resharpening and made too short its no longer allowed to use. rarely make the rules just following them
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6) ive worked in shops you could not order 1 end mill. they sent minimum 4 ea. they did not want to bother with paperwork for 1 ea order. so often had 3 or 4 of a commonly used size. not every shop has tool crib. literally your tool box was your own tool crib. some boss gets rid of tool crib employees. then each machinist has to order his own supplies. if in common shop drawer others use tooling up and dont reorder. i have seen many times
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i would not be prejudice and pre judge somebody. person might have good reasons. you got people complaining about not being able to find workers and then when you find them you look for stuff to fire them for.
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many a worker gets laid off cause shop closes cause of whole company problem. i have worked in shop that made a profit every year but whole company not doing good enough. when bankruptcy judge says close it down and sell everything, they lay everybody off. tooling often just goes in metal scrap lugger. only machines and building are sold
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you assume a lot that every shop has a tool crib. not every shop works that way

It might not be the case with this guy but not everyone is a thief.

I don't own a business and have piles of tools & tooling. Probably more than some of the guys that own businesses on PM and I didn't steal a pound from anyone. Good for me right? If that makes me stupid then so be it.

Around here, about 7-8yrs ago, you could buy skids of carbide & HSS endmills, drills & taps cheaper than scrap on every corner. I bought 2 (5) gallon buckets (1/4"-2") of HSS end mills for $45 a few months back. I have 30gal. tubs filled with drills because they were damn near free.

I know someone that cleaned out a shop and was allowed to keep anything he wanted, machines & tooling but it had to be empty in 30days. He kept enough to last 20yrs+ but it still killed him to take 1/2"-3" drills and unopened endmills to the scrap yard. He had no place store them and nobody wanted them.

I used to work across the street from a shop that had issues with cutting tools walking off. The owner's answer was to make machinists buy the end mills they needed and, as they wore them out, he would replace them. Sort of like having a core to turn in on a car part. Presumably when they left, they took with them whatever cutters they had to buy.

like i said not every shop has a tool crib with a paid tool crib person (at what $30,000 - $40,000 year salary that can buy a lot of tools)
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some shops you order your own supplies and keep in your tool box.
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many places lay people off the boss literally says takes what ever you want as when shop is closing it dont matter much all the small stuff going to the scrap lugger. actually some of it was in scrap lugger already and guys take some of it out of scrap lugger
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i have also seen cutting tools no longer that type needed and it was thrown out. some of special tooling went to machines that are long gone. or inserts went to facemills no longer that type used. shop went to different brand type on facemills with different inserts. literally have seen hundreds if not thousands of inserts thrown out as cutter they fit no longer used

Quick to crucify this guy... I have personally always made it a point to leave every shred of paper and loose nut in my box when I have left a place. Last job I filled two big boxes with all manner of stuff, loctite, nuts and bolts, grease gun etc. A few hundred dollars of stuff acquired over a few years isn't worth getting a reputation over. As you can see people almost always assume the worst of people.

I inherited tooling from two machine shops that closed. I had worked for the both Gentlemen and they were family friends of my Dad . More than Two large Kennedy boxes full.