Mill Reminder / Clarification

Remember that you should not move the table beyond the points where the autofeed stops activate. This means, if you are moving the table manually when you are near these stop points, you must keep a close watch on your position relative to these stop points, and stop moving when the autofeed stop button becomes depressed. While you can technically move a short distance further, this is not allowed as a matter of shop policy. Continuing to the very end gives you no leeway to act if something becomes jammed or stuck.

This is particularly an issue in the vertical (z) direction, as it is common that a short tool cannot reach a table-mounted piece when at the upper auto-feed stop. The solution is to lower the tool via the quill, not raise the table. In fact, I recommend lowering the table well below the auto-feed stop point to give yourself more movement options later. (These points are both made clearly in the mill class.)

Today, someone raised the table past the autofeed stop, then continued beyond the absolute physical stop, throwing the whole mechanism out of alignment and damaging the autofeed stop actuators (along with a fair bit of cosmetic damage). I again remind everyone to pay attention to details and stop to investigate when oddities arise. The physical effort to raise the table must have leapt up when the user hit the last stop, but they continued anyway.