Visited a small shop in Ohio that changed how I think about fixturing

I was down in Cincinnati last week helping a buddy with a side job, and we stopped by this tiny CNC shop called Riverbend Machining. They had this setup where they drilled and reamed their own fixture holes on the machine table, all within 0.001 inch of true position. I always just clamped stuff down with whatever was handy, but watching them swap parts in under 30 seconds without re-zeroing the probe really got me thinking. Has anyone else tried making their own sub-plates with custom grid patterns?

2 comments

2 Comments

barbara_kim24d ago

Honestly, drilling my own grid has cut setup time by at least 40 percent.

parker54324d ago

Drove three hours to a job last week and realized I forgot my grid template at home, so I had to freehand it on the fly (which turned out shockingly okay, honestly). But yeah, @barbara_kim, having that pre-drilled grid on hand wouldve saved me from a real headache that day. There's nothing worse than showing up to a site and realizing your prep work is still sitting on your workbench, you know?