General Shop Equipment & Supplies

END USER: Royce/Ayr Cutting Tools Inc., (800) 959-5641, www.royceayr.com. CHALLENGE: Increase PCD cutting tool manufacturing capacity, flexibility and capabilities. SOLUTION: A machine tool that combines rotary erosion and grinding. SOLUTION PROVIDER: Vollmer of America Corp., (412) 278-0655, www.vollmer-us.com

Shop Operations columnist Tom Lipton offers tips for enhancing the operation of a manual lathe in the April 2012 issue of Cutting Tool Engineering magazine.

Workholding involves much more than slapping a part in a vise or chuck and pushing the cycle-start button, according to the Workholding column in the April 2012 issue of Cutting Tool Engineering magazine.

The Machine Technology column from the April 2012 edition of Cutting Tool Engineering magazine examines how machine tool vibration often causes problems when machining. Chatter, a self-excited vibration, can lead to poor surface finish and cutting tool chipping or breakage.

Look Ahead column for April 2012 looks at binderless nano-polycrystalline diamond cutting tools

It's getting to be a broken record. February was another up month for U.S. manufacturing as output increased 0.4 percent. Output rose 0.7 percent in January after jumping 1.5 percent in December—the biggest gain in 5 years. Also, U.S. manufacturers added 31,000 jobs in February, on top of adding 227,000 jobs in 2011. Of course, the big question is how long can this last?

Aluminum parts that are anodized using electrical energy or chromate conversion coated can offer wear and corrosion resistance, among other benefits.

Estimating burn depth is tricky. It depends on the thermal conductivity and specific heat capacity of the workpiece material, the maximum surface temperature reached and, most importantly, the time the wheel is in the grinding zone.

As we climb out of the winter grind, we've all had our share of weighty issues to manage.

Say your machine shop just received an order for 316 stainless fuel-injector nozzles requiring angled holes to be drilled on the workpiece face. Or perhaps your best medical customer needs miniature blood-pump impellers with complex 3-D blade geometries like those on a jet-engine turbine. How are you going to make them?

Manufacturing molds used to produce plastic parts with features that can be too small to be seen with the naked eye or measured with standard devices is challenging. That's why moldmakers that perform this work are specialists in the nuances of designing and building micromolds.

When choosing among coated-abrasive flap discs to remove metal and finish parts, grit size is just the beginning.