Articles & Columns

Discussion of different types of toolholders for lathes, including collets, drill chucks, bushings and keyless chucks. Author discusses best holder for different applications, based on his experiences.

GE Superabrasives' silver-coated diamond crystal is designed for grinding tungsten carbide. Discussed are the benefits--reduced friction, greater crystal retention and a cooler grinding environment--and how to apply wheels made from the crystal.

The author discusses the advantages and proper application of twin-cutter boring tools. They're recommended for rough-boring applications on castings, forgings and other jobs requiring a tool that can bore a cored hole. Details are provided on the three basic types of methods for rough boring with a twin cutter: balanced, stepped and full profile.

One company instituted a comprehensive plan for reducing setup times and saw its average setup time drop from 252 minutes to 39 minutes. The plan involves everything from standardizing tooling to consolidating raw materials to creating families of parts. The author outlines a step-by-step program that readers can apply to their metalworking setup operations.

The trend toward developing finer and finer carbide grains continues. The author looks at recent developments in the production of nanosized tungsten-carbide grains, which are smaller than 0.2 microns in diameter. Though not used widely at present for the production of cutting tools, some predict that will change as the technology evolves.

High-silicon aluminum--aluminum that consists of at least 11.8 percent silicon--has qualities such as lightness and strength that appeal to automakers. The abrasives nature of the material, however, makes it difficult to machine. The author offers suggestions for milling, tapping, drilling, turning and grinding high-silicon aluminum.

Gundrilling: going deep

The author discusses the disadvantages of using a finishing endmill for roughing applications. He also presents a quick, systematic, step-by-step series of calculations that allows machinists to optimize metalcutting when applying coarse-pitch, cobalt-HSS roughing endmills.

A conversation with Lee Iacocca, chief spokesman and a member of the board of directors of The Online Asset Exchange (onlineassetexchange.com), a service for buyers and sellers of machine tools. Iacocca also is involved with a company that produces electric bicycles. The former president of Ford Motor Co. and of Chrysler Corp. was at WESTEC 2000, where he met with CUTTING TOOL ENGINEERING to discuss manufacturing’s role in the economy, his perceptions of the machine tool industry and business-to-business e-commerce.

A look at the different types of inserts used for single-point threading and how to figure feed rates for cutting threads on a CNC lathe. Also offers programming tips and recommendations for reducing tool wear.

Establishing a good relationship with your cutting tool salesperson can benefit your operation. A good salesperson can help solve problems you don't have time to tackle and offer recommendations for machining difficult parts. The author also addresses what to do when a relationship sours.

A rotary table allows a 3-axis vertical machining center to machine in the
4th and 5th axes. The author explains the different types of rotary tables
that are available and discusses the advantages and disadvantages of each.

Switching from a brazed-tip trepanning tool to an indexable-insert tool
reduced downtime for a manufacturer of cast iron cylinder heads by 45
minutes. And, incredibly, the price-per-piece dropped so much that the
company could save $690,000 annually.

Ninety-nine percent of indexable tools that break can be repaired, according to companies that repair tools. And, they say, a broken indexable tool can
be repaired so it performs as well as or better than the original.

Round-up of five recently introduced indexable tools: stub drill, universal
milling cutter, center-cutting endmill, dovetail cutter and insert clamp.

Tool chatter is one of the biggest obstacles to effective machining that job
shops face. The author discusses the sources of chatter and offers
suggestions for minimizing it.

People in the aerospace industry expect a lot from reamers. The author, an
engineer who works for a manufacturer of aerospace components, discusses
strategies for job shops interested in developing a precision reaming
program.

Creep-feed grinding is not as popular a process as it was predicted to become in the late 1980s. But a machine shop that specializes in CF grinding has found great success by using the process. The shop's owner and other CF-grinding experts contend that as workpiece tolerances become tighter and manufacturers begin using more exotic workpiece materials, CF grinding will grow in popularity.

As the government publishes ever-stricter regulations for metalworking fluids, more shops try dry machining. The author examines the cost benefits of machining dry and looks at the various types of tool materials designed to enhance dry-machining applications.

The author, an expert on cutting tool edge preparation, explains the importance of applying the proper edge hone to a tool. He also discusses a brush-type honing machine designed to apply a variable edge--a capability not available with other machines on the market.