It’s that time of year where we all take time to reflect on the things we are thankful for, and we start to make plans for the new year ahead. There is certainly an endless list of things for which we could be thankful, but in the shop, there are some very specific things we’re grateful for.
Many Tormach owners find opportunities to make money with their machines. Whether that’s doing an occasional part for a friend, starting a business with a part they designed, or going full-on machine shop and producing batches of the same part for a client.
Steel is a material that we are all familiar with… and for good reason. It’s versatile, fairly easy to work with, and less expensive than materials of similar hardness. That being said, steel can be scary to cut, especially with a low-horsepower machine, but it doesn’t have to be!
Strain hardening, or work hardening as it is more often called, is the hardening of metal by plastic deformation. It can be a problem or a benefit in metalworking. Learn what it is and how to avoid or encourage it in this article.
At first glance, using a plasma cutter, a water jet, or a laser cutter might seem awfully similar. And to a certain degree, they are. All three predominantly use two axes and are often used for large, flat work - signs come to mind more often than anything.
Workholding (also known as fixturing) is one of the most complicated parts of CNC machining. But, like many complicated things, the devil is in the details. Sometimes, it can appear straightforward - like clamping your part in a vise - until you realize that you need to bite into the part more or you want to get more efficient with loading/unloading.
