Kip Hanson

Articles • June 19, 2018 • Kip Hanson

Avoiding Workholding Woes

Whether a fixture is hydraulic, pneumatic or mechanical, or whether it's built internally or subcontracted to others, it's important to understand your true costs and to consider workholding early in the part-design process.

News • June 13, 2018 • Kip Hanson

Remembering Kennedy

It's a rite of passage for any new machinist. You order dial calipers, a few micrometers and a dial indicator or two, and before long you're wondering where you're going to stick all this stuff. It's time to get your first toolbox.

Articles • June 8, 2018 • Kip Hanson

Shop-floor data analysis not negotiable

Like it or not, Industry 4.0 is here. The networked nature of our cars, appliances and, yes, machine tools will only increase. Choosing to ignore that fact won't keep you from producing parts, but it could mean that at least some of those parts end up being produced at a more efficient, technologically savvy machine shop.

News • May 29, 2018 • Kip Hanson

Admitting my mistakes

I received an email from a reader letting me know that he disagreed with my recent article on tapping versus thread milling. In it, I stated, "There's little chance of successfully thread milling metals much above 45 HRC. And if you're going to try to tap them, be prepared to duck the flying shrapnel when the tap explodes!" We all make mistakes. So when Tom Fares, president of TNT Custom Equipment in Stow, Ohio, called me out on that section of the article, saying that he routinely taps holes in 45 HRC steel alloy and thread mills into "the low 60s," I listened to what he had to say.

News • May 16, 2018 • Kip Hanson

Skipping school

I admit to some bias against school. From about fifth grade on, our educational system and I were rarely on speaking terms. Think oil and water rather than peas and carrots. Needless to say, I left at my earliest opportunity. Aside from that thing with my daughter pulling the fire alarm, my kids were far better students. So when it came time for them to make the big decisions, I kept my opinion to myself and did what most parents do these days: Encourage them to get their college degrees.

Articles • May 10, 2018 • Kip Hanson

Do you tap or thread-mill?

For many in the machining community, tapping is the preferred method of threadmaking on a CNC machining center. Yet others contend that thread milling is better. Kip Hanson breaks down the long-running argument.

Articles • May 7, 2018 • Kip Hanson

Lasers take Swiss-style lathes to higher level

By integrating laser-based cutting and, in some cases, welding heads onto their already-capable equipment, Swiss-style lathe builders are taking these machines into bold new territory.

News • April 30, 2018 • Kip Hanson

Mumbling Mike and his quoting software

I once worked in the cubicle next to Mike, the shop's estimating guy. He sat there all day using an electronic pen to trace the outlines of parts on paper drawings. He painstakingly determined the length of each journal, the depth of each hole and the number of cubic inches contained in each milled pocket before feeding that information into the company's estimating software. That's all Mike did.

News • April 23, 2018 • Kip Hanson

Alexa, what’s manufacturing?

There's a new woman in my life, and my wife is jealous. Really? I admit that I've been a little preoccupied lately with automating my house, but to say that I talk to Alexa more than the mother of my children is unfair. No, it's not obsessive behavior; it's an experiment in what's possible.

News • April 16, 2018 • Kip Hanson

Boondoggle or bonanza?

A good friend and I have had a running argument lately about 3D printing. He says the fervor over additive manufacturing is, for the most part, hype, something he likes to call the boondoggle of the manufacturing century. He could be right.

Articles • April 5, 2018 • Kip Hanson

Making the most of tired CNC machining centers

While milling has gone high performance, the newest machining centers at your shop were installed when Bill Clinton was president, and the oldest one still uses paper tape. So how might you benefit from emerging high-tech milling strategies?

Articles • April 4, 2018 • Kip Hanson

Part-to-part consistency key to shop’s success

When prompted by requests from customers for products that their existing manufacturing supply chains were not producing, Dan Olsen made the leap into manufacturing.