10 Things No One Tells You About Machining

  1. How to use an ER Collet

    ER Collets are often a go-to for machinists because collets are readily available at varying price points and allow a tool holder to hold varying size tools. ER collets also have a greater collapsing range than SK collets. However, there are a few things that aren’t readily apparent to the beginning machinist:

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Adding a New Element of Automation to Our 15L Slant-PRO Lathe

In the world of CNC, automation is important. Using CNC, we can make all sorts of products, widgets, and parts quickly and consistently, but we can streamline that process even more by adding automation.

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When to Use a Spot Drill

Machinists are familiar with spot drills–they’re stub length and have few or no flutes.  These little drills are designed to be extremely rigid so that they can precisely spot a hole for a twist drill.  Maximum meat in the shank keeps them on target.  The goal is use the spot drill to make a little dimple in the work-piece that keeps the twist drill from walking so the hole winds up in the right place.

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The Power of the Tormach Tooling System®

The Tormach Tooling System (TTS) was developed as an affordable, quick-change solution for small milling machines. Many machine tool companies have proprietary tooling lines that can cost upwards of four to six thousand dollars (beyond the machine purchase) – this has long been considered a significant barrier to truly affordable CNC tools.

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Tormach Staff Recommendations: Stop-Loc Setup Tool

Here's a great little device to speed up setup tasks in the shop: the Stop-Loc Setup Tool.  

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Icosahedron Machining? Ask a Geometrician

20-Sided Machining What's an Icosahedron? Tormach PCNC 770 Owner Chris Moller recently programmed a 20-sided part to cut on his 4th Axis with SprutCAM.

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