Medical

Shop Operations Columnist Tom Lipton offers additional tips for operating a CNC lathe in the February 2014 issue of Cutting Tool Engineering magazine.

Boost productivity and extend tool life when cutting cast aluminum surgical light housings. A special PCD endmill with laser-machined cutting edges.

By their very nature, horizontal machining centers are among the best friends a shop can have if it hopes to remain agile and competitive in this brave new world of low-volume, high-complexity machining.

A typical CNC lathe program is quite short compared to some of the mammoth CAM-generated programs for milling machines. Here are some tips and tricks to programming a CNC lathe.

Run at high machining parameters without chatter when demonstrating machine tools. A precision collet chuck.

Effectively produce M-42 and M-2 HSS microdrills. A 5-axis tool and cutter grinder coupled with CBN wheels.

"Having been in manufacturing as long as I have," writes Machinist's Corner Columnist Michael Deren, "you might think I've grown tired of the daily grind. On the contrary, I usually can't wait to get to work each day."

Combination cutting tools for holemaking applications save a significant amount of time when the application is right.

Like many in the industry, when I started in the machining world it was on a manual lathe. I have a special place in my heart for lathes. That includes CNC lathes, the next step up for aspiring machinists. In my experience, I have found there is a lopsided ratio of CNC mill machinists to CNC lathe machinists, with about 10 times as many being mill machinists. My theory is this is partly because the CNC lathe is more difficult to operate.

While the basic CNC lathe is still a standby in many machine shops, new technology has vastly expanded turning capabilities. For example, live tooling and multiple turrets turn a basic lathe into a multitasking productivity center. When equipped with a large automatic toolchanger, these machines can hold tools for dozens of jobs, reduce setup time, and turn, mill, drill and finish parts in a single setup.