We got a new Walter Helitronic 600 the other day, and we’ve been getting it running lately (to good effect, mostly). The only weird thing is that Walter Grinders changed the control from whatever it was to a Fanuc control. This will supposedly give better MTTF, as Fanuc controls are said to be less likely to fail on a yearly basis like the old controls.

Unfortunately, this means that the entire front panel layout has changed. Unfortunately because the front panel has been mostly unchanged for the seven years I’ve been around them and everyone here is used to the old layout. When it came in, I was like, “Wow, that’s going to be inconvenient.”

As it happens, it’s expensive, too. And I’m not at all blaming Walter for this (if I did, they might just call me up and kvetch), but one of our guys just drove the X-axis into a spindle. Which means we need a new spindle, and no one here is very happy about that, especially the guy who just signed all those paycheques.

Tags: employment