General Shop Equipment & Supplies

Achieve a 24-hour-maximum turnaround time on aluminum prototypes for tablet computers. Endmills designed for maximum metal-removal rate when cutting aluminum.

Like many in the machining world, I've dealt with more than enough serious issues in 2013, so it's cool to have been part of a fun experience.

Many machine tools are equipped with touch-trigger probes to measure parts while they are still on the machine. The probe is often stored in the tool magazine and can be installed in the spindle like any other tool.

Vise jaws that grip as little as 2mm of workpiece material without special tooling or machining a gripping feature.

While the basic CNC lathe is still a standby in many machine shops, new technology has vastly expanded turning capabilities. For example, live tooling and multiple turrets turn a basic lathe into a multitasking productivity center. When equipped with a large automatic toolchanger, these machines can hold tools for dozens of jobs, reduce setup time, and turn, mill, drill and finish parts in a single setup.

To the public at large, the word "counterfeit" mostly brings to mind so-called "funny money" or, more recently, low-priced CDs and DVDs that violate copyright laws. What is less widely known, but more threatening to public safety is the counterfeit parts and products that have found their way into the supply chains of critical industries, including aerospace, automotive and medical.

Whether the surface-treatment task involves deburring, blending, grinding, polishing, finishing, dimensioning, patterning or shaping a metal workpiece, there's a coated-abrasive product available to get the job done. The products include belts, rolls, sheets, pads and flap discs and wheels.

Separate yet combined is an apt description of Stock Drive Products/Sterling Instrument. Located on New York's Long Island, in New Hyde Park, both sides of the company were founded, and are still managed, by engineers.

At a trade show, a company displayed a grinding wheel with slots, where coolant is poured into the center of the wheel and then ejected into the grinding zone. What's your take on this design?

Offering an economical, entry-level CNC pipe-cutting solution in a compact footprint, the new MASTERPIPE Mini Profiler from Lincoln Electric improves pipe fabrication productivity and quality by consolidating set-up, programming and cutting as an easy operation.

Bulky part machining can often become very difficult to integrate into a manufacturing process, when attempting to perform multiple operations on conventional CNC machines. Limited space or axis travel, one-sided spindle or tool accessibility are common restrictions when trying to design and fit multiple tool requirements onto a rigid machine concept. In addition, cycle time demands and accessibility issues from all sides and angles can make a single tool, 3-axis CNC machine option a losing proposition. One new solution involves compact and self-contained single tool Multi-Master flex shaft machining units from SUHNER.

With each new release of their cost estimating software, MTI Systems says its Costimator is improved, and the latest iteration, Version 12.1, is no exception, especially for manufacturers who do machining.