Mike Lynch Founder and President

22 Jul 2009

Enhancing Safety Through Preventive Maintenance

The primary reason companies perform preventive maintenance on their production equipment is to minimize, if not eliminate, unpredicted downtime. Potential problems should be corrected before they cause machine components to fail.

15 Jun 2009

Be Careful With Unwritten Rules

Every company I’ve visited has at least some unwritten rules. These rules are related to things that experienced CNC people sometimes take for granted. Certain company methods may be considered so basic and obvious that there is no need to document them—or even to talk about them.

Basics 14 Apr 2009

Tool Pressure Deviations During Touch-Offs

How to determine program-zero assignment during touch-offs.

Basics 16 Mar 2009

Understanding Vacancy

Custom macro B users tend to struggle with the concept that variables can be vacant. To fully master custom macro B, you must understand the concept of vacancy and its implications.

17 Feb 2009

Judging Acceptable Spindle Run Time

What is an acceptable percentage of spindle run time for metalcutting CNC machines such as mills and lathes?

15 Jan 2009

Confirming That The Right Tool Is In The Spindle

Regardless of how tool changes are actually made, it is imperative that the cutting tool currently in the spindle matches the program segment that uses the tool.

16 Dec 2008

The Pros And Cons Of Constant Surface Speed

Constant surface speed (specified by G96 on most machines) is a turning center feature that automatically determines the appropriate spindle speed in revolutions per minute (rpm). This article details the advantages and disadvantages of using this feature.

13 Nov 2008

Automatically Backing Up Your Fixture Offsets

In most applications, offsets are so dynamic (often changed) that that you wouldn’t even consider keeping a backup copy. But consider a more complicated machining center qualified setup. A backup copy may prove to be beneficial.

14 Oct 2008

Which Is Better For Looping—IF Or WHILE?

With custom macro B, there are two logic words that can be used for creating loops—the two types of loops are called IF and WHILE statement loops. So which one should you use for your applications?

29 Sep 2008

Custom Macro To Helically Mill A Counterbore

Counterboring is a machining operation that will enlarge an existing hole’s diameter to a specified depth. Traditionally, counterboring is done with either a special counterboring tool that has a pilot, or it is done with an end mill. In either case, the diameter of the tool (end mill or counterbore) must match the diameter that is counterbored.

20 Aug 2008

Did A Parameter Setting Cause That Problem?

As you probably know, parameters control many functions of a CNC. Just about every CNC function has at least one related parameter setting—everything from setting initialized states at power-up to determining the specific procedure required for powering down is controlled by parameter settings.

26 Jul 2008

Multiple Machine Operation Revisited

Multiple machine operation has been the subject of several recent Tech Talk columns (January through May of 2008). I have received many comments, and I want to thank everyone who responded. The series states that successful applications for having one operator run multiple machines do not just happen—a successf