Question about speed vs precision that's been bugging me

Had a chat with my uncle last weekend who ran a manual machine shop for 30 years before retiring. He said something that really hit me. He told me I'm too focused on cycle times and that I'm missing the bigger picture. Said he once watched a guy crash a $50,000 spindle just trying to shave 2 seconds off a part. I always thought the faster I go, the more money I make. But now I'm wondering if that's really true for the kind of work I do. We run a lot of one-off prototypes here in Portland, not production runs. Has anyone else had to rethink how they balance speed against just not messing things up?

3 comments

3 Comments

johnson.eva9d ago

Your uncle's right. One crash wipes out a whole month of speed savings in about two seconds.

the_john9d ago

Nah, if you're that reckless you've got bigger problems than saving a few minutes on the road.

taylor_wells8d ago

I've seen a guy flip a part wrong on a Bridgeport and turn a 4-hour job into a 3-day disaster all because he was rushing to beat his own time. You can't put a price on walking away from a setup knowing everything's right.