Tool finder

Tracking down the right tool turns a nightmare job into a dream at AB CNC.

Most machine shops start small. AB CNC Services & Consulting Inc. is no exception, starting with one person, one machine and one job. For Andy Baczynski, company president, the story of how the shop came to be began many years ago.

“I’ve been in machining since I was 16,” Baczynski said. “First at a trade school in Europe and, since 1981, working for various U.S. companies.” Along the way, he garnered expertise in boosting machining productivity. In 2005, he began doing consulting work, using his expertise to help other companies improve their setups and machining operations.

Andy Baczynski, president of AB CNC Services & Consulting

“While I was consulting, people started asking me why I didn’t start my own shop,” Baczynski said.

Then, in 2006, a company Baczynski had worked for offered to sell him one of its CNC machines, an advanced Index ABC lathe with live tooling and a bar feeder. “They called me because I knew the machine very well and they guessed—correctly—that I might be interested,” he said. “I told them I’d buy the machine as long as they gave me some work to get me started, so they did.”

About half of all small businesses fail within the first 5 years, but Baczynski’s has not only survived, it has prospered. He has added two employees, two machines—a Haas VF-2 and a Haas Mini Mill—and moved from his original 1,600-sq.-ft. facility to a 3,000-sq.-ft. one.

“My bread and butter was and still is turning parts that require multiple, additional operations, such as milling and drilling, and doing it all in a single setup,” Baczynski said. “Thanks to the capability of my dual-spindle Index lathe and my experience with these sorts of parts, I can offer customers a ‘done-in-one’ capability that can save them time and money.”

Baczynski’s expertise, craftsmanship and attention to detail have won him a growing list of customers in diverse industries. He noted with pride that he does parts for the British Broadcasting Corp., aircraft cargo conversion (rollers, locking systems and other components on the floor of cargo planes used to move and retain the cargo), and water purification and filtration.

Tough Challenge

It was a part for the water industry that recently presented him with one of his greatest challenges. “It was a small order, just 100 parts,” Baczynski said. The part was a clip that secured components in a pump assembly for a water filtration system. It measured 1.75 “×1 “×0.1875 ” and four clips were cut from a 1.875 “×4.9 “×0.25 ” plate.

Courtesy of All images: Walter USA

Machining of clips for pump assembles used in water filtration systems. The clips are made of Super Duplex 2507 stainless steel.

At first glance, there didn’t seem to be anything particularly challenging about the job, but the work material was Super Duplex 2507, a stainless steel with 25 percent chromium, 4 percent molybdenum and 7 percent nickel. It provides exceptional strength and corrosion resistance. Because of the material’s high nickel content, it was expected to be difficult to cut, but just how difficult only became apparent after Baczynski put tool to metal.

“I started with a solid-carbide endmill that I had used in the past because the geometry of the tool looked much stronger than any other endmill I had in the shop,” he said.