Picking out the right drill can be challenging for novices like myself, especially when you take into account the material, flutes, coatings, point styles, tolerances, length, and other factors. But one of the first hang ups I encounter are the different types of sizes – letter sizes (A-Z), wire gauge (#s), fractional sizes (inches), and metric sizes (mm). My knee jerk reaction is to buy a handful about the size I need, labels aside. What’s with all these different systems anyway? Aren’t they just the same tool called a bunch of different names? Here’s what I learned.

The most important measuring tools from Tormach.

After a bit of time off, we're getting back into the swing of things on the blog.  Today's video topic is in response to several recent questions we've fielded recently about a very useful gauge: the Haimer 3D Sensor. For those unfamiliar, Haimer 3D sensors can be used to quickly and accurately find milling work offsets in X, Y and Z.   When properly setup, these will exceed the accuracy of most other edge finding techniques available to the small shop machinist. Here are two things to keep in mind:

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