This week we celebrate turkey day, or Thanksgiving for those who prefer more classical phrasing. While we all love our families and are thankful for good health and good food, there are some things that machinists seem to be specifically thankful for. I’m sure I missed a few things here, but here’s my shortlist of what machinists tend to be thankful for…

Deep pockets with tight radius corners are a real headache. Imagine a 2″ deep pocket that needs 1/8″ radius corners. The biggest end mill that can get in the is 1/4″. But with a 2″ deep pocket, you’re facing an end mill with an 8:1 length to diameter ratio. It’s going to want to deflect like crazy, so you’ll have to go super slow to get it done. Plus, a smaller cutter is going to have to go slow everywhere else in the pocket. The bigger the pocket, the longer this will all take.

His credentials include MythBusters, BattleBots, and working as a Disney Imagineer -- it goes without saying that Grant Imahara knows what he's doing when it comes to making stuff.

Ohio State University has filled their training lab with Tormach CNC machine equipment to meet the challenges of educating future engineers.

This article is in reference to a previous article and class from Autodesk University related to surface finish.

When buying a machine tool, it’s easy to get carried away. The excitement of purchasing a fancy new mill from Tormach makes you want to buy all the tools and accessories under the sun. Eventually, your budgeting conscience starts yelling, and you’ve got to draw a line somewhere. Often, when this line gets drawn, machine owners will skip buying a 4th axis, figuring they can do everything needed with some workholding ambition. While that might sometimes be true — though hardly worth the effort — here are three big reasons it’s valuable to consider a 4th axis.