Anyone who’s drilled a deep hole on a CNC lathe or mill knows it’s not easy. Go much deeper than 10 or 20 diameters and out-of-tolerance hole straightness, chip packing and premature tool failure become real concerns. Some machine shops turn to gundrilling houses, where specialty machines and tools make easy work of holes hundreds of diameters deep or more. Unfortunately, this means shipping the parts, incurring additional costs and increasing lead time to customers. Surely there’s a better way.