General Shop Equipment & Supplies

Self-centering ID Clamps from Carr Lane Manufacturing simultaneously locate and clamp from the inside of an existing hole or slot in the part, leaving the entire outer surface clear for machining.

Through its rotary tilting table, the Mikron HEM 500 U from GF Machining Solutions enables 5-axis machining in one setup. The machine comes standard with a 12,000-rpm, ISO-B40 spindle and 30-tool magazine that provides a 2-second chip-to-chip time.

Among the 85 respondents to Cutting Tool Engineering magazine's Salary Survey Addendum, the annual average salary for manual machinists stands at $39,340, which represents an average hourly wage of $18.91. Combining the survey addendum results with CTE's 2014 Salary & Benefits Survey, which is based on data collected last fall from 215 respondents, the annual average salary for manual machinists is $39,202, which is about $18.85 an hour.

A new corporate website has launched following the merger of Dormer and Pramet, along with updates to its social media accounts and several new interactive apps. The website, www.dormerpramet.com, brings both previous company sites together into one location to feature all relevant information on Dormer's rotary program and Pramet's indexable tooling ranges. The new site is available to view in 15 languages.

Every lathe and grinder operator has, at one time or another, struggled with workpieces that are out of round, tapered or have poor finish. The "quick fix" is typically replacing centers. The more involved fix requires replacing spindle bearings that appear to have failed prematurely. In either case, the problem goes away initially, only to reoccur a short time later.

A shop I once worked at had a beautiful cast iron welding table. It was 5' wide × 12' long and had started life as a surface plate for assembling diesel engines. The owner bought it at auction for $100. With a screen in the middle, two guys could work on it at once.

Accurately machine EDM electrodes used to produce micromolds for medical parts. A high-speed, high-precision, 3-axis micro milling machine.

Efficiently machine stainless steel parts without breaking endmills. 6-flute, solid-carbide endmills.

I strive to start each year on a positive note, but 2015 sure hasn't taken long to throw us our first challenging management scenario. It requires immediate oversight of rapidly changing economic conditions.

The cutting zone in a machine tool is dangerous. Hot chips and large quantities of coolant are often safety threats, but a tool rotating at a high speed is an even greater one.

I don't like bringing this up, but two key metalworking markets -- defense and energy -- are in a bit of trouble.