General Shop Equipment & Supplies

The Grinding Doc examines the forces at work when cylindrical grinding produces round workpieces one minute, then something resembling a fried egg or a flower the next.

As discussed in the current issue of Cutting Tool Engineering magazine in the feature article "Specialization on tap," material-specific taps continue to evolve. Sources anticipate increasing specialization of the materials used for taps across industries.

State sales tax bases are both too narrow and too broad.

Avantech recently added two new, large bridge-style CNC machines, significantly enhancing its capability to provide large-scale tooling for customers.

The new release of Edgecam, from Vero Software, contains 54 items of new or enhanced functionality that improve productivity for manufacturers by using a range of cutting technologies and machining strategies. They include significant changes to the Pre-Drill Approach Roughing cycle, creating features from wireframe entities, 3D milling cycles in mill-turn Rotary mode, 28 new technology databases in the Wire EDM module and Tombstone.

For those new to the world of AutoCAD, as well as those honing longtime skills, an effective resource is the "Beginning AutoCAD 2019 Exercise Workbook" by Cheryl R. Shrock and Steve Heather from Industrial Press Inc. Two new features are included in the 2019 edition, "Drawing Compare" and "Shared Views," both of which make it easier for colleagues and clients to share and comment upon changes to drawings in real-time.

I admit to some bias against school. From about fifth grade on, our educational system and I were rarely on speaking terms. Think oil and water rather than peas and carrots. Needless to say, I left at my earliest opportunity. Aside from that thing with my daughter pulling the fire alarm, my kids were far better students. So when it came time for them to make the big decisions, I kept my opinion to myself and did what most parents do these days: Encourage them to get their college degrees.

March U.S. cutting tool consumption totaled $207.08 million, according to the United States Cutting Tool Institute, Cleveland, and The Association for Manufacturing Technology, McLean, Va. This total, as reported by companies participating in the Cutting Tool Market Report collaboration, was up 8.8 percent from February's $190.32 million and up 3.5 percent when compared with the $200.05 million reported for March 2017. With a year-to-date total of $581.02 million, 2018 is up 6 percent when compared with 2017.

BIG KAISER Precision Tooling Inc. held its Breakfast & Learn 2018 open house May 8-10 at its headquarters in Hoffman Estates, Ill. Each day include a technical presentation. On the third day, John Zaya, workholding product manager for BIG KAISER, covered multiple-axis, quick-change workholding systems.

Picum MT, a startup at Leibniz University in Germany, is collaborating to redefine the manufacturing workflow, which traditionally has involved moving a workpiece from machine to machine or from station to station.

Competition in the automotive industry is driving the need for higher-quality parts and lower manufacturing costs. All aspects are affected, including turning.