Articles & Columns

END USER: Modern Machining Technology Inc., (303) 945-7570, www.destroked.com; SOLUTION PROVIDER: Industrial Coolant Systems LLC, (303) 968-1707, www.industrialcoolantsystems.com; CHALLENGE: Reduce the cycle time when drilling a large quantity of holes in a 1018 steel part. SOLUTION: A high-pressure coolant system.

Shop Operations columnist James A. Harvey underscores the importance of his initial CNC training, which involved changing tools on a new mill. Just the act of changing a tool let him interact with the machine and controller in a way that gave him confidence.

Sam Yu, president and owner of Corona, Calif.-based Machine Control Technologies Inc., said he builds specialty tool and cutter grinders in months—and at a fraction the price of competitors’ custom grinders.

Machine tools are big-ticket items, so it’s no surprise that they’re normally acquired using some sort of financing. In addition to banks, financing can be obtained from machine tool OEMs and nonbank lenders known as finance companies.

Michael Deren, who writes the Machinist's Corner column for Cutting Tool Engineering magazine, explains why he now believes wholeheartedly in lean manufacturing.

Tapping attachments date back to the early 20th century—and they’ve endured for good reason.

On the one hand, many employers in the manufacturing industry view millennials as being self-absorbed, unfocused, disloyal, addicted to mobile devices and lazy. On the other, most millennials don’t view a career in manufacturing as something they want to pursue.

Where is the field of inspection headed and, more importantly, where do the manufacturers that depend on it desire it to head? In 2014, the Coordinate Metrology Society (CMS) combined forces with the University of North Carolina-Charlotte to find out.

Because through-coolant toolholders eliminate the variances often experienced with external cooling nozzles, the additional cost of such holders, which is sometimes zero, can be easily justified through the reduction of cycle times and improvement of tool life and part quality.

We called them “submarines.” Tough, 17-4 PH stainless steel forgings shaped like miniature German U-boats, each requiring several ¼" (6.4mm) through-holes to be drilled at a 25° angle. Each sub was loaded into a jig that held it at the required angle, and a metal plate fitted with hardened steel bushings was then clamped to the top of the jig before the holes were produced with a drill press.

END USER: Mast Motorsports, (936) 560-2218, www.mastmotorsports.com. SOLUTION PROVIDER: Hurco North America, (800) 634-2416, www.hurco.com. CHALLENGE: Replace technologically obsolete production equipment. SOLUTION: Purchase two new 5-axis CNC milling machines

The Look Ahead department in the December 2016 issue of Cutting Tool Engineering looks at a multitask machine for making injection molds.

END USER: lllinois Carbide Tool Co. Inc., (800) 323-2414, www.crobaltusa.com, www.brakedrumtool.com. SOLUTION PROVIDER: Agathon Machine Tools Inc., (203) 730-8741, www.agathon.com. CHALLENGE: Keep up with increasing production demands for carbide brake lathe inserts. SOLUTION: A 4-axis grinding machine that enables lights-out production.

The Look Ahead department in the December 2016 issue of Cutting Tool Engineering features a platform for Industry 4.0 connectivity.

Presented here is the second part of a two-part series of columns about the importance of becoming familiar with CNC programming code. The following describes the steps involved in manually writing a program.

Before CNC lathes, most high-volume turned parts were made on multispindle, cam-driven screw machines. Setup times were long, and great skill was needed to design the cams and grind the cutting tools. However, by being able to perform a dozen or more operations simultaneously, they could produce hundreds—often thousands—of parts per hour. Whatever happened to those old mechanical monsters? According to Giovanni Principe, they’re alive and well.

In the first part of this two-part series, I looked at what actually happens in the cutting zone and how that knowledge allows end users to select the best possible cutting tool and CAD/CAM strategy for a particular material to optimize material removal. This second part covers why it is important to adopt this approach not only for all CNC machining processes, but as a significant production cost-saving measure companywide and industrywide.

Are you about to scrap an old machine tool and replace it with a new one? Before you do, consider what could be a much less expensive way of getting a better machine: having the old one remanufactured.

The Grinding Doc fields the following questions: 1. The grinding wheel manufacturer I work for wants to set up a basic lab for testing wheels and different Al2O3 grits. What’s the best, most-economical way to do this? 2. I’m getting chatter on parts and am trying to determine if it’s from grinding forces that are too high or from an out-of-balance wheel. Is there a way to tell?

While attending IMTS in September, it was nice to meet fellow machine shop owners and managers, many of whom expressed optimism and reported a robust year for their businesses. That was good to hear, considering our market is in the midst of a downturn and requires aggressive management to persevere.