Machining

Indexable-drill performance depends on insert selection, toolholding, coolant, and hole-entry conditions. This guide covers the setup details that most affect results.

The PVD and CVD processes produce coatings with specific strengths and weaknesses. This article compares the processes and attempts to correct some common misconceptions about CVD coatings. The findings of a survey on tool coaters' use of coating materials and methods are also reported.

An exclusive survey finds shops struggling to locate and hire skilled labor. This report of the survey's findings also reveals the most popular techniques to ease staffing woes.

Using his students as researchers, an industrial-arts teacher sets up an experiment to test claims being made for tool resharpening using cubic boron nitride wheels. The experiment taught the students how to keep a log of tool conditions, use and sharpenings as they gathered data for their study.

A new cryogenic tool treatment subjects tools to minus-320-degree temperatures by immersing them in a bath of liquid nitrogen. This article details the procedure and offers test results from the laboratory and the field that show how the treatment can extend tool life.

Pipe tapping is one of the more demanding threading operations because taper threads raise alignment, sealing, and tool-load requirements. This guide reviews the tools and techniques used to produce taper pipe threads reliably.

Superabrasive bore finishing can achieve results in one pass that rival the finishes produced in several passes by other bore sizing operations. This article recounts how a number of shops have used superabrasive tools to finish bores with a higher degree of quality and a lower overall cost per piece.

A manual milling machine can be retrofitted with a CNC system for about one-fourth the cost of a brand new CNC machine. This article discusses the pros and cons of retrofitting and provides guidance to determine when retrofitting is the most appropriate solution.

This article charts the gradual move by CNC manufacturers from proprietary hardware-based machine controllers to open, software-based systems. The article also reviews recently developed controllers that represent steps in the direction of totally open controls.

Researchers using computer simulation and refined probing techniques attempted to mill a pocket as accurately as possible. This report tells how the researchers used their high-tech tools and how close to perfection they came.

This report of a Cutting Tool Engineering survey charts the shift in the way shops are purchasing tools. As the survey's findings indicate, an increasing number of tools are being bought directly from manufacturers and many shops are narrowing down the number of tool suppliers they do business with.

Representatives of management, labor and the government are working together to arrive at a workable regulation to reduce shop-floor exposure to metalworking fluid mist. This article reviews the debate and looks at ways shops can reduce their own workers' exposure.