Run another cycle as everyone leaves

[superbeau]

The shop I recently joined leaves all machines setup, with raw material in the vices, and then shuts them down for the night when everyone leaves at end of shift. This way when we come in the next morning, each operator presses cycle-start, and that's how the day begins. I'm used to everyone pressing cycle-start and then leaving for the night, getting one last set of parts with the lights off, which will be waiting when we come in the next morning.

What does your shop do when it's time to clock out?

A) shut 'em down

B) let 'em run

 

[Orange Vise]

Almost every machine we have is running at the end of the day. A few of them are still running the following morning.

 

[EmGo]

What does your shop do when it's time to clock out?

B.

And the advantage to that is, while cleaning up, changing blanks, measuring the last part, preparing for the day, the spindle and slides can be warming up. I wouldn't like to come in and hit go on a cold machine.

 

[JPScrew]

I shut em down since I don't have magazine bar feeds on my swiss machines. Otherwise I'd let those bad boys run on proven reliable setups.

 

[Scruffy887]

Shut them down. They would all alarm out when the compressor shuts off and I don't need to waste energy/wear and tear running my compressor to do nothing for 18 hours a day.

 

[BT Fabrication]

my parts run like 5 minutes, so without automation it doesn't matter.

 

[Doug]

First visit to what became my go-to for wire EDM, about 2 PM on a weekday...

The receptionist sent me out to the shop to talk about a job. The overhead lights were dim and at least 4 machines were running with lights from their screens illuminating the area, but only a guy pushing a broom. I said to the broom guy it must be break time, huh? Nope, he says. Turns out he was the owner. Apparently, he ran the shop pretty much by himself. He had a sales rep to drum up business.

Sometimes the machines ran 24 hours. He had a way in case of a problem the machines would notify him at home so he could make a decision to come in to correct the problem.

That was my idea of an ideal shop. He must have had a tremendous cash investment in equipment. I never did think to ask him how he got into the business.

 

[Sam I]

Depends what your insurance policy says I suppose. Mine states lights out machining is a no-no so personally I set up for the next shift at the end of the day.

 

[Doug]

Thinking about it, I recall two shops who left their machines on overnight. Not running parts just left the controls turned on. One of the shop's machines were old Hurco's. Not sure why they left them on...... maybe afraid once turned off they wouldn't turn back on?

 

[gustafson]

Yeah, chips on the parts, dying coolant on parts, machines left on, compressor left on, possible errors or tool breakage stopping a machine, power interruptions
Probably not a winner for me.

If you had a part with a long cycle time with a short load time it would save time sure

 

[gustafson]

Thinking about it, I recall two shops who left their machines on overnight. Not running parts just left the controls turned on. One of the shop's machines were old Hurco's. Not sure why they left them on...... maybe afraid once turned off they wouldn't turn back on?

There is an argument to be made that it might be easier on the electronics to leave the machine on, screen dimmed, emo'ed and I do that when I am running jobs on my old machine day after day.
Heidenhains 'rules' for installing their control are that any flashing error should kill the power to the drives.
WHen I had my Wells, one day I am sitting in the office and hear
WEEEEEEEEE BANG
Output transistor on the X drive died short

 

[Trevor360]

If the cycle time is longer than 30 minutes or so I will absolutely leave the machine running when I leave. When I design fixtures I try to increase part density, not just to get the cycle times longer for operators, but to get a longer “end of day” run as well. If the cycle time is only a few minutes leaving everything on is likely not worth it. I have a few parts that have a long enough cycle time to be running long into the next day....

 

[SteveEx30]

Load the changers on the EDMs with as many electrodes as possible.... thats why we have em right?!

Also have programs ready for the morning to get them running asap and enjoy your morning coffee.....

 

[EmGo]

Thinking about it, I recall two shops who left their machines on overnight. Not running parts just left the controls turned on. One of the shop's machines were old Hurco's. Not sure why they left them on...... maybe afraid once turned off they wouldn't turn back on?

Yes. Most common failure mode for older electronics is when you turn them on. I've had a few machines that came from big places with huge warning stickers across the control cabinets, "DO NOT SHUT OFF"

 

[604Pook]

I shut machines off. My past life of being an electrician, reminds me the bad stuff that happens with power spikes and other weird things. But we do have a very old robot welder though at the family business, that never gets shut off. Scared it won't come back on.

 

[broke]

We typically have staggered shifts to accommodate schedules so it's not uncommon to have one person go around and blow off the work of others before they leave. The machines don't get shut off unless we are working on them.

I typically run the horizontal overnight and have been running a vertical for 8 hours overnight on complex plate work. For my copper long run lead times I have started putting calculated dwell times in to start in the middle of the night so I don't have coolant staining.

I am cutting Al and copper with broken tool detection.

 

[Milland]

Here in the land of snow and wind, we get enough power blips that a process can't be reliably run lights out.

And that's in Summer, in Winter all bets are off!

 

[superbeau]

Thanks for the advice, everybody! Much appreciated!

 

[DDoug]

Nothing says "We don't need you" like asking your employees to leave while the machine is still running....

 

[Nmbmxer]

Here in the land of snow and wind, we get enough power blips that a process can't be reliably run lights out.

And that's in Summer, in Winter all bets are off!

How is a power blip in the middle of the night different that one at 10am? The times I've had a power blip the control shut off, some times broke the tool as it coasted to a stop, then it rebooted and sat there.