Software

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.

Conventional versus climb milling

For all practical purposes, says Bob Warfield of CNCCookbook.com, manual machinists always use conventional milling and CNC machinists always use climb milling. "Most of us do one or the other, and seldom change," he observed, but is that right?"

Short answer: it usually is for manual machinists, but things are bit more complex for CNCers, Warfield reports in the 14th episode of the CNC Chef video series, titled "Conventional versus climb milling."