Working Remote

[mayday]

I love and I hate it. 80%,20%

I assist in fixture design and programming of very large high tech parts on very big 5 axis machines.
Working from home is nice but I'll find myself working odd hours. I take a break whenever I like.
For me it's a 4 hour round trip to visit the shop. Not a huge problem but a waste of the day.
Hardest thing is not being able to walk out and check progress. Some of these parts run for over 500 hrs.
So it's phone calls, emails and team meetings everyday. The shop runs 27/7
Still learning Vericut but it's a must before running anything
whats your situation in these crazy times

[neurosis]

I would have a tough time working remote for the reason that you mentioned.  I would have a hard time with not being able to walk out and check progress. 

The 4 hour round trip would probably convince me that working remote was the better option.   

[crazy^millman]

10 years doing it. Yes working odd hours, but get to eat breakfast and lunch with my wife since I don't eat supper. Discipline is probably the biggest thing working remotely requires. Make a set wake up time and quitting time. If I have Vericut running one of it's 8-12 hour session then I will let it start before calling it a night and then check on it in the morning. Yes great to go see for yourself, but with a good team that know what they are doing on the machine you can adjusting your programming normally pretty good. With your experience and knowledge you have a good idea what to expect and where the problem areas are going to be before you even send a program. I am happy when things go as good or better than I hoped, but until it is runnign and doing so at a good efficiency then I can say okay that one is done.

The other thing is turning it off working remotely. You find yourself going and going and not stopping and that is not good. If I didn't have my wife and kids to keep me grounded I could live in front of my computer and never realize I was doing so.

[JParis]

I would and have had zero issue working remotely...I am involved very little in what happens on the floor, unless of course there is a problem.

Beyond that, as I have prgrammed for years remotely, it is ok by me.

In my real world employment, we missed absolutely zero time during this entire mess...in the office every day.

[beej]

I program along with:
managing workflow
do quality control
listen to employees complaints
offer moral support and marital advice
and hear confessions

I would love to work from home!!

[Here's Johnny!]

If I have Vericut running one of it's 8-12 hour session then I will let it start before calling it a night and then check on it in the morning.

Dang that is quite a big part! Mine take minutes!!!

[mayday]

I'm having problems
part started out in top view, second op is the bottom side, I made a new WCS, made a new plane from the bottom so I can retain the stock models but Veritcut dont like it, part comes in upside down, do all ops have to be in top view? I hope not

[Jon@NOWHERE]

I love working remote, as long as my 2 yr old doesn't find out I am home I can actually get things done.  Unfortunately I haven't really been working remote lately and I don't know how soon it will be when I get to go back to working remote....

[Tim Johnson]

I always load the Vericut unfinished model along with the part model and fixture(s) as it would look loaded on the real machine. Try front/front/front view for loading the models

[gcode]

I love working remote and could happily do it for the remainder of my career
I'm much more productive at home due to fewer distractions
It saves $60/week on gas and wear and tear on the car plus you get an hour and a half
a day of your life back not sitting in traffic

[crazy^millman]

I'm having problems
part started out in top view, second op is the bottom side, I made a new WCS, made a new plane from the bottom so I can retain the stock models but Veritcut dont like it, part comes in upside down, do all ops have to be in top view? I hope not

Vericut gives you the ability to move the stock between operations very easily. In the second setup you want to move the cut stock using the translate,rotate or assemble process. Once you have it where you need it then right click there you have the options to preserve cut stock transition. A new Csys will be added to the setup to move the cut stock from the first setup. I have done 8-10 different machining centers this way in one Vericut file to get a good cut stock model Vericut would be happy with. Trying to save out a cut stock can be done, but make sure you don't save the history with it. It make the file grow exceptionally in Vericut if you do that. If you can model prep a solid close enough for stock in between operations then use it for the stock. To prevent Vericut from caring a stock in between setup in one file. Just make previous operation in active and Vericut will skip those setup and run whatever setup you have active and whatever stock you ave defining it. The other option is to make separate Vericut files for setup on a part you are proving out and then save cut stock and use that saved cut stock.

[Jim at Gentex]

I would love to work from home, but as a Programmer / Operator it's just not feasible.
I probably spend 75% of my time setting up and running production parts on the machines, so yeah, I can't do that from home.   

[mayday]

I would love to work from home, but as a Programmer / Operator it's just not feasible.
I probably spend 75% of my time setting up and running production parts on the machines, so yeah, I can't do that from home.   

you need to invest in an autonomous machine

[Jim at Gentex]

you need to invest in an autonomous machine

Yeah I would love that, but it probably ain't happening here.
We do lots of setup / takedown of short run production parts that would not not lend themselves to automation very well. Most runs are anywhere from 10 to 100 parts, so high-volume automation wouldn't make much sense for us.