Columns
Strategies for Expanding a Shop the Right Way
It’s very easy to get paralyzed by all the directions you can go when upgrading a shop, but breaking this decision into its simplest forms can help curb future buyer’s remorse.
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Does Metal Additive Manufacturing Belong in a Machine Shop? The Answer Is Mixed
Machining is a necessary capability for metal part production through 3D printing, but succeeding with metal AM demands a role and procedures much different from those of many machining providers.
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Saving Time and Money on the Shop Floor with AM
The ways additive manufacturing is presented sometimes miss the most practical and valuable ways it can be used.
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Improve CNC Productivity by Addressing Three Production Issues
To boost a CNC machine’s productivity, prioritize improvements to machine setup time and production runtime.
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Reading What the Dial Indicator Is Saying
Dial indicators provide good value for their resolution. With a glance, one can quickly determine if the part is larger or smaller than the master setting and by a degree of how much.
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Solving Process Issues With a Detail-Oriented Approach
It is essential for a machinist and a shop to have the discipline to pause a process and reassess when encountering issues, even when schedules are tight.
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Little Wins Create Value in Additive Manufacturing
How to create value with a multi-level approach to additive manufacturing.
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Performance Digital Comparators Offer an Alternative to Bench Amplifiers
Electronics today allow for matching the linear variable differential transformer performance and digital indicator size into a new digital comparator that provides even more value than traditional bench amplifiers.
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A Unique Additive/Subtractive Process for Injection Mold Components
This hybrid machining approach takes advantage of the benefits of deposition 3D printing while using CNC machining to overcome its limitations.
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Process Modernization is Scary but Necessary
When done correctly, process modernization can help secure a shop’s future in the industry and open new opportunities.
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3 Examples of Machines that Combine Manufacturing Methods
Certain “hybrid” machines combine some form of additive manufacturing with CNC subtractive manufacturing. Columnist Mike Lynch, President of CNC Concepts Inc., explores three types of these machines here.
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Determining Out-of-Roundness at the Point of Manufacture
George Schuetz, Mahr Inc.’s Director of Precision Gages, offers these techniques for measuring roundness on the shop floor.
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