Peter Zelinski Editor-in-Chief

15 Sep 2000

Air-Powered High Speed Spindle

Two different designs for this spindle allow it to be mounted on a lathe's turret or slide (like an add-on live-tool spindle) or mounted in a machining center's toolholder. In either case, the spindle is capable of 30,000 rpm. When driven by an 80-psig shop air supply, the spindle can deliver 75 W of cutting power.

1 Sep 2000

An Odyssey Right Here

Next year will be 2001. That year also appears in the title of a famous movie.

1 Aug 2000

Keep Your People Producing

As you look at any of the machine tools on display at IMTS, you may ask yourself, Does my shop have the work it will take to keep this machine cutting? Don't answer yet. Instead, pause to consider whether that's the right question.

EDM 15 Jul 2000

EDM vs. Milling In Die/Mold Machining

In many die and mold shops, the choice between ram EDM and CNC milling is far less clear than it used to be. Changing technology is changing the rules.

CNC & Machine Controls 15 Jul 2000

Production Without Paper

Giving operators electronic access to job information was the first step. Letting operators electronically refine that information came next.

1 Jul 2000

What The Machine Tool Means

All of our "careers" result from some combination of aspiration and accident. The aspiration part, for me, was to make my living as a writer.

CAD/CAM 15 Jun 2000

CNC Hole Making Without A Programmer

With NC programs created automatically, this shop goes straight from the designer to the machine tool.

Horizontal Machining Centers 15 May 2000

Cutting The Cost Of Custom Machines

There is a gap between the price of one of this builder's custom machines and the maximum price that even many large contract shops can afford to pay for capital equipment. But that gap is getting smaller.

Turning Machines 15 May 2000

Machining The Majority Of Job Shop Parts

This builder has introduced a compact vertical machining center and a compact lathe, both with the same full CNC functionality as larger machines.

Vertical Machining Centers 15 May 2000

Agile Or Lean?

Either way, machining centers may make sense. When CNC machines are used for high-volume work, this question comes first.

Toolholders 15 Apr 2000

What's Possible At 10,000 RPM

High-value work doesn’t have to demand a high-cost machine tool.

15 Apr 2000

Electrode Machining Set Free

These two shops used to mill EDM electrodes on their metal cutting machines, but they have now shifted the work to graphite machining centers. Both shops say the advantage isn’t just in the cycle time savings, it’s in the inefficiencies they can now overcome.