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Breathing New Life Into Old Iron
Retrofitting those old knee mills and lathes is now faster, easier and less expensive than ever, plus you get other big-time operating advantages. Here’s why. When is a machine tool so old that you...
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True CNC Tool Management: From Set-Up to Final Finish Pass
There once was a time when a tool was needed to redo a section, that it might have taken several minutes to recall the program, find the right tool number, identify the proper path and redirect the...
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No Chips, This Time
This month, I want to specifically address those in our audience who are primarily concerned with metal forming and fabrication applications and others involved in machining technologies such as...
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Hot Keys, Sans Piano
CNC function keys now offer advantages to programmer, operator and maintenance personnel alike. All CNC machine tool screens are generated by either hard pushbutton function keys, onscreen soft keys or...
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Continuing Education… On a CNC?
Shop owners and major machining departments are discovering the untapped and potential enhancements for worker skill sets. Shop owners and production department supervisors: Have you ever thought of...
View ArticleA Rising Tide Lifts All Boats
Through the cooperation of CNC suppliers, machine tool builders, educational institutions and end users, an industry improves its workforce – and itself. The headline of this month’s column is...
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All Hands On… Screen
The onset of robotics in machine shops both big and small has already significantly impacted the CNC to a great degree. But get ready, because more changes are on the way. As more work center concepts,...
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High-Speed Cutting in a Single Look
Tool and moldmakers have benefited from the onset of true high-speed cutting (HSC) for decades, but the set-ups have always been challenging. Too many screens, too many entries and, most notably, too...
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Advanced Surface Moldmaking
Last month we looked at Cycle 832 for compile cycles, residual material detection and collision avoidance as one of the latest advancements for machining. This time, in a related development, we’ll...
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CNC Safety … Integrated On Your Machines
Safety is a paramount concern in all metalworking operations, whether they involve chipcutting, rotating equipment, lasers, gantries, grinding wheels or cutoff circular sawblades. Protection over the...
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What’s in a Name?
I want to address everyone, from shop owners and machine builders to experienced operators and the young folks in their first months of employment, whether in the traditional chipcutting and...
View ArticleCNC Access Security
Compromised security sounds innocuous, but its consequences can be devastating. We’ve all see the disgruntled employee who changes passwords on computers and leaves, or downloads files and severely...
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Robotic Integration
Full robotic integration with a CNC onto a 3-axis mill, work cell, laser line, press line or full transfer line incorporating multiple machining or metalforming operations would have seemed a distant...
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CNC Collision Avoidance
Collision avoidance seems intuitive to any machine builder or user, but it’s how we get there that’s changed dramatically in recent years. Many controls have some sort of alarm mechanism and the...
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Your CNC: OEE On Steriods
The maintenance and overall process evaluation personnel are my target audience this month, as I want to tell you a little story. Shop owners and production department managers alike have long awaited...
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Hybrid Machine, Standard CNC
With IMTS on the horizon, I thought this might be a good time to do a little crystal ball gazing, though everything you’re about to read will be at the show to see, to touch and, perhaps, even to buy....
View ArticleGoing in Forward and Reverse
Your designers or your customers start with a CAD file that represents the “best effort” math model for the part. Your programmers take it to 2–1/2 or solid 3D imaging inside a CAM program. You post...
View Article3D, Robots, Big Data and a Few Memories
Another IMTS in the rear view mirror … except the housing for this mirror was made on a 3D printer and displayed on the floor of the show. During the show, all the parts for the Rally Fighter were...
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Making a List, Checking It Twice
There’s an old “saw” in the construction business that says “measure twice, cut once,” and it’s true. The difference in our world of metalworking and fabrication is that the sophisticated CNC on your...
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