Kip Hanson

Articles • February 1, 2000 • Kip Hanson

Pecking Order

The CNCs on many lathes don't have drill-pecking cycles. The author ndescribes several ways to program CNCs to peck, including shortcuts such as nsubprogramming and parametric programming.n

Articles • January 1, 2000 • Kip Hanson

Hard and Fast Rules

Author describes what he's learned about turning hardened steel. Discussed are the machine tools needed as well as PCBN and ceramic inserts.

Articles • January 1, 2000 • Kip Hanson

Lowering Your Grades

Article discusses the disadvantages of carrying too many grades of carbide inserts. Often, using a less-than-optimal grade can save a machine shop money.

Articles • October 1, 1999 • Kip Hanson

Air Power

Vacuum chucks can be useful for holding parts that are thin, irregularly shaped, large and flat or easily marred. This article describes the components and machining required to build a vacuum chuck in-house. Accompanying Articles discuss the commercial units that are available and the use of router bits to reduce the lift on vacuum-chucked parts.

Articles • September 1, 1999 • Kip Hanson

Small Wonders

Small-diameter drills designed for drilling circuit boards can be used as a low-cost alternative for producing holes in other materials as well. Their fragility is the only drawback. This article describes these tools and the special handling they require. n

Articles • September 1, 1999 • Kip Hanson

Open Minded

Open controls allow users to integrate commercially available hardware and software with machine tool CNCs. This article reviews how different CNC makers have designed systems that incorporate or connect with PC-based products to offer this level of flexibility. Accompanying Articles describe one shop's experience with open architecture and list the skills needed to operate these new systems.n

Articles • August 1, 1999 • Kip Hanson

Get it Straight

Spot drilling is a time-consuming process, but sometimes it is necessary to prevent drill walk. This article describes the reasons for spot drilling and the economic impact of adding the operation to a job. It also explains why a spot drill is a better choice for the operation than a center drill.

Articles • June 1, 1999 • Kip Hanson

Ready, Preset, Go

This article reviews the basics of coordinate systems and machine programming as a basis for presetting tools. The process for setting tool offsets is described with an explanation of the G-codes involved. In an accompanying article, the author tells how his company built its own presetter.