Shop Operations columnist Tom Lipton offers tips for enhancing the operation of a manual lathe in the April 2012 issue of Cutting Tool Engineering magazine.
Say your machine shop just received an order for 316 stainless fuel-injector nozzles requiring angled holes to be drilled on the workpiece face. Or perhaps your best medical customer needs miniature blood-pump impellers with complex 3-D blade geometries like those on a jet-engine turbine. How are you going to make them?
Manufacturing molds used to produce plastic parts with features that can be too small to be seen with the naked eye or measured with standard devices is challenging. That's why moldmakers that perform this work are specialists in the nuances of designing and building micromolds.
Dynomax Inc. is taking self sufficiency to a new level. For example, while machine tool builders often use their machines to produce parts for making other machines, Dynomax stands out by building machines for its own contract part manufacturing operation.
The manual lathe remains the cornerstone of machining fundamentals. This guide explains why lathe basics still matter in training, setup work, and real shop operations.