General Shop Equipment & Supplies

Abrasive waterjet systems have always provided some advantages for parts manufacturers. For one, the high-pressure stream of water and abrasive grit, usually garnet, that is delivered to the workpiece surface can cut through pretty much any material. For another, being a cold process, abrasive waterjetting (AWJ) doesn't create a heat-affected zone.

Skills Inc. is a unique nonprofit manufacturing company that serves the aerospace industry and is dedicated to helping people with disabilities thrive in today's manufacturing environment.

Remember when you were the new employee? If you had any questions, you asked the individual closest to you. The Machinist's Corner column in the July 2017 issue of Cutting Tool Engineering magazine explores a better way to conduct orientation for new employees.

High-quality metrology feedback is one of the cornerstones of precision manufacturing, but that's easier said than done, according to the Shop Operations column in the July 2017 issue of Cutting Tool Engineering magazine.

For his July 2017 Manager's Desk column, Keith Jennings writes that the greatest concern at his company is the impact cell phones have on shop safety. Another factor is the ease and preference of some employees and customers to communicate via cell phone, bypassing the main phone line and the human or automated receptionist.

Resharpening dull taps by hand is probably not a good idea when you could be making parts. Plus, a thorough reconditioning requires a grinder designed for grinding the actual tap form. So resharpening dull taps is one job best left to the experts.

Deciding whether to use a turret or gang tooling is one of many topics that seems to engender religious fervor from one side to the other. Let's start by providing a brief overview of each approach and then dive into the details.

Machine tools are heavy. Moving them yourself can be dangerous, causing damage to people and machinery alike. But with the right tools, knowledge of how to use them and some common sense, DIY machine moving is possible—though not always recommended.

Whether an application involves simultaneous 5-axis machining or five-sided (3+2) machining, the workholders and fixturing techniques from the 3-axis world typically won't apply, according to John Zaya, workholding product manager for BIG KAISER Precision Tooling Inc., Hoffman Estates, Ill.

Peak oil demand is in the news. In a May Wall Street Journal article, for instance, authors Lynn Cook and Elena Cherney stated, "The world's largest oil companies are girding for the biggest shift in energy consumption since the Industrial Revolution: After decades of growth, global demand for oil is poised to peak and fall in the coming years."

The U.S. Manufacturing Technology Orders report for May 2017 showed gains for the month and year over year, according to AMT – The Association For Manufacturing Technology. May orders were up 3.1 percent over April, and 21.8 percent over May 2016.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that manufacturing employment rose by only 1,000 in June after falling by 2,000 in May. Manufacturing sectors with gains in June included machinery, electrical equipment and appliances, primary metals, and computer and electronic products.