The world of metalworking and machining is broad, in part because there are so many varieties of metal to play with. One of the most forgiving metals to cut is brass, and here’s four reasons we love to work with it.

Letting students take control of the CNC machine for the first time each semester can be terrifying enough if they were paying attention to your wise words of caution, but we all know some of them weren’t taking studious notes. An easy way to save your machine and nerves is to give your students forgiving workpieces, like machinist wax, wood, or plastic, but that’s not always the best solution.

Years ago, when I was starting out as a DIY machinist, my limiting factor was always the ease and convenience of rough cutting stock.

Wood is a great material to cut when you first start learning to machine – it’s fast and cheap. But, machining in wood has a darker side as well.

These are things I hear over and over again talking to CNC’ers. There are some better ways and some better answers that can really improve your feeds and speeds practices, if you’re open to them. Fixing your feeds and speeds is one of the easiest productivity hacks you’ll ever make.

We recently had a customer ask about the PCNC 770 and its cutting capabilities. After some conversation about the machine’s ability to cut anything that you can put under the spindle – it all just depends on feeds, speeds, and how long it takes to cut – the customer cut to the chase: “Can it mill Tantalum?”