Hot take: you don't need to indicate every single tool change
I keep seeing new guys on the floor spend 20 minutes editing a program and adding an M06 for every single tool, even when three of them live in the same turret station. On a 2019 Haas ST-20 I ran in Fort Worth, we cut cycle time by 11 seconds per part just by grouping the rough and finish tools into one block and letting the offsets do the work. The people who argue against this say you lose safety, but I've never once had a crash from a grouped tool call that wasn't already a setup mistake. What actually matters is your offset page and your clearance plane, not how many M06 lines you can cram in there. I get why teachers push the full explicit method for learning, but on a production floor it just adds wear to the turret and eats time. Has anyone else timed a grouped block vs a full call and seen the same thing, or am I the only one who thinks the old school way is overkill?
Stopped scrolling when I read 20 minutes editing a program for tool calls that share a turret station. Twenty minutes. Somebody is standing at that control punching in M06 lines for tools that never leave the station in the first place, and the spindle is just sitting there cold the whole time. Even at one part a day that adds up to hours a month of pure button pushing for zero metal cut. The wear thing gets me too, every needless index slams that turret for no reason and those things are not cheap to rebuild. Grouped block with good offsets and a safe clearance plane has never bit me either, and I have run everything from old lathes to newer Haas mills. Teachers teach explicit calls because students need to see every step, but nobody should carry that habit to a shop floor where parts need to ship.