Machining

I consider several factors when purchasing a drill and try to find the balance between price and performance that gives the best cost advantage while maintaining part quality and productivity, reports the Shop Technology columnist in the October 2013 issue of Cutting Tool Engineering.

During the summer, writes the Shop Operations columnist in the October 2013 issue of Cutting Tool Engineering, it gets pretty hot in a shop that's not air conditioned. With sweat running down my semibald head, I was trying to get a part set up in a CNC lathe. This particular part was giving me some trouble because of a tool compensation problem. I was hot and frustrated.

Simultaneously improve product quality and productivity when EDMing PCD and PCBN cutting tools and wear parts. An automation process that incorporates work cells.

Cutting cycle time for a 3,000-piece run. Two wire EDMs.

Achieve tightened tolerances and increase throughput when machining microholes and other microscale features. Two new machine tools, each with 0.5µm positioning accuracy and a 50,000-rpm maximum spindle speed.

Machinist's Corner columnist shares personal experience with purchasing tooling and fixtures for the shop.

The Machine Technology column in the October 2013 issue of Cutting Tool Engineering offers guidance for protecting spindles from contamination.

Diminishing numbers of skilled tradesmen in the workforce and the need to reduce production costs have caused machine tool automation to proliferate during the past decade.

Tom Lipton, the author of Cutting Tool Engineering's Shop Operations column, shares a trick he learned that reveals an interesting use of relatively crash-proof soft metal or plastic bed plates on a milling machine.

Improve cutting edge integrity and flute faces of cutting tools. A flute finishing process that uses a fine-grit, hybrid resin-bond flute polishing grinding wheel, special truing wheels and fine-grit dressing sticks.