General Shop Equipment & Supplies

Improve cutting edge integrity and flute faces of cutting tools. A flute finishing process that uses a fine-grit, hybrid resin-bond flute polishing grinding wheel, special truing wheels and fine-grit dressing sticks.

Minimize lubricant for a mass-production cylinder head line. Switch to minimum quantity lubrication.

Produce additional parts without investing in a new machine tool and eliminate manually bending parts. A robot that is flexible and easy to program and move.

After working in the machining and fabrication business for 21 years, Keith Jennings, the Manager's Desk columnist for Cutting Tool Engineering, has concluded that million-dollar jobs don't guarantee big profits.

This month's Cutting Tool Engineering Machinist's Corner column asks, "Why waste everyone's time courting a new customer if you aren't prepared to accommodate them?"

Shrink-fit toolholders can improve grip, balance, and reach, but only when shops manage the full heating, handling, and runout routine correctly.

Ultrashort pulsed-laser deposition of diamond-like coatings.

Cutting Tool Engineering Editorial Director Alan Rooks ponders the impact additive manufacturing will make on the industry.

Producing prototype automotive parts via 3-D printing helps reduce time to market while boosting vehicle quality and fuel efficiency.

Abrasive waterjet users can benefit by learning about the technology's expanding applicability.

Electron beam drills make short work of microholes.

When cleaning parts, there is general cleaning and then there is precision cleaning. Both types are important in medical device manufacturing, but precision cleaning -- repeatable removal of contaminants to a specified, usually validated standard -- has become more prevalent in part because of increasingly stringent Food and Drug Administration oversight of the manufacturing process, resulting in stricter process QC.