Always thought tool presetters were overkill for a small shop. Now I think I was wrong. What am I missing?

I ran a Haas VF-2 in a 3 man shop for 5 years. Never used a presetter. Just touched off with an edge finder and moved on. Boss bought a used Haimer last month. Set up a 10 part run in 45 minutes instead of my usual hour and a half. That time adds up. But it's still $1200 I could spend on tooling. Has anyone else gone back and forth on this? What made you finally switch?

2 comments

2 Comments

gray_gibson13d ago

1200 bucks for a Haimer that shaves 45 minutes off a job? I ran a Bridgeport for 12 years without one and never lost a job over setup time. What happens when that presetter gets knocked out of calibration or you drop it? Then its just an expensive paperweight. A digital height gage and a tenths indicator cost half that and do the same thing if you know how to use them. Plus half the stuff in a small shop is one-off or repair work where you touch off the first part anyway. Real savings are in the tooling, not shaving a few minutes off a setup.

karen27513d ago

Get where you're coming from but I gotta disagree hard. That 45 minutes isn't just a few minutes, it's almost half your setup time gone. Over a year that adds up to real hours you're not standing around with an edge finder. And yeah a height gage works but it's way easier to mess up and you gotta be way more careful with it. As for the calibration thing, I've dropped my Haimer twice and it still checks out fine on a ring gage. Plus one-off work is exactly where it shines for me because I can measure the tool before I even put it in the spindle and know it's right. The time I save not guessing and re-checking is worth way more than the $1200 to me.