This isn't so much a question, more or less a commentary on a recent situation I came across, and I figure we could use a little banter amongst ourselves.
I came across a semi-local company who just acquired a citizen lathe, looking for help with a "turn key" set up, described as a very simple part with an od thread, a bore, and a few crossholes that "shouldnt take an experienced swiss machinist more than an hour to set up", a job that could lead to more complex and interesting parts.
So I think great, and I message the company despite the fact the ad is over a month old and I am sure someone has already filled the position. I get an email with an attached drawing, and this is where the fun begins. We're talking a 2.5" part, two sections of M12 thread, one 1.7" long and the other .5" at each end of the part. There is a section between threads with 6 to 8 .12" crossholes into a bore through a .04" wall thickness. They call out the entire I'D to be bored, which is a little over .35" 1" deep, and then .236" for the rest of the length, to a bottom depth .03" +/-.0005 from the end of the part cutoff side. Oh and its 316SS.
One hour? I realize these machines are great, but the fact is this part can only be done on a single head and the fact nearly the entire OD comprises of a theaad, plus the crossholes wall thickness, makes it a pretty tricky part.. not to mention its pretty much impossible to bore .236 to a depth of well over 2 inches, to a flat blind bottom, with an insane tolerance.. its a shop that's supposedly been in business over 20 years...
I told them how difficult the part would actually be and quoted them my rates, saying it would take a day minimum to have a solid working set up where they would only need to adjust offsets. The machine is used and I have no clue its condition or what tooling they have available, I'm guessing none since its their only swiss so I said I would come and do an assessment and create a parts and tool lists for a nominal fee and then we could go forward from there.
I've not heard anything back. Supposedly this is a small prototype run leading to 10k batch orders, and they need to get it running ASAP. Now either I don't know what I am doing or they are smoking crack and shooting themselves in the foot. I certainly don't come cheap, but they could have their parts running by Monday morning. By the sounds of things it seems no one wants to touch the job, or they feel it really will only take an hour and don't want to spend the money to pay someone for a full days rate.
I actually really want to tackle the job, and I know they will love the end product, but I know based on the material and the aspects and dims of the part that its not going to be anywhere near as simple as plug in a program, tools, and hit go, when is it ever?
Heck.. just to change out all the collets, clean everything proper, and then reset all the pressures etc can take a friggin hour!
/rant