Drill Bit Sharpener: Great Gift Idea for Machinists

I was thinking I ought to mention a few Holiday Gift Ideas for machinists.  You know, the sort of thing where you can just email the article to your significant other and if you’ve been nice, maybe one will show up.
After thinking about it a bit, I decided a really nice gift for a machinist would be a Drill Bit Sharpener, such as the Drill Doctor.  Between their “Drill Doctor” brand and their industrial brand for more professional machinists, Darex seems to own the Drill Bit Sharpener market.  There are others, but I’ll stick to these for this post in the interests of brevity and of sticking to a model I haved used.… Read the rest

Rose Engines: The Preferred Machine for Guilloche

I was very pleasantly surprised to see that the brief blog posting on Engine Turning, Jeweling, and Guilloche was the most popular post last week.  It seems that others share my fetish for these interesting decorative machine arts.  As a result, I wanted to share a couple of great videos that really show how Guilloche (that’s pronounced “Gee-o-shay”) is done with a machine called a “Rose Engine”.  Perhaps the idea that a Rose Engine is used results in the use of the term “Engine Turning” for Guilloche.  I like that latter term better.  … Read the rest

Engine Turning, Guilloche, Damascene, and Jeweling

Sometime, when you’re not doing much else, Google “engine turning”. You’ll find a number of extremely fascinating entries:

Classic engine turning by Eamonn Keogh…
That photo is what we classically mean by “engine turning” here in the States. It goes by a number of other names as well:
Jeweling
Krayling
Damascene / Damascening (particularly for firearm bolts)
Ornamental Turning
Swirling
Snailing
Mottling (especially in the UK)
 
It is a purely decorative effect that is quite pleasing. Even more elaborate, more impressive, and also called “engine turning”, is the work done for fine jewelry, cufflinks, clocks, and similar purposes:

Guilloche…
This work is often referred to as “guilloche” and to my way of thinking it’s more a type of engraving than engine turner.  … Read the rest

CNC Holiday Project: EDM Reindeer

 
Stirling South is a neat site for the CNC hobbyist.  There’s a group of three working together on a variety of projects including a whole lineup of Stirling engines, puzzles, and some really nifty CNC arts and crafts. They have “pro” quality CNC machines from Haas and others, so its almost a bit beyond hobby status, but its fun to see what they accomplish. How about these EDM wire cut reindeer, for example:

The reindeer plans…

Finished Reindeer…
The reindeer were inspired by a woodworking project where one cuts them out in one axis on a scroll saw, then rotates and cuts the other axis.… Read the rest

Satin Finish Burnishing Machines

There’s nothing quite like a really nicely finished metal surface.  Sometimes the machining marks are the look you want (someday I am going to write a little software utility that will pattern those marks for appearance sake!), but more often you’re looking for something a little more refined–typically either a satin or polished look.  Being as lazy as I am, this is also the part of shop work that I am always on the lookout for labor savers to minimize the elbow grease.  Labor saving comes in all kinds of formats, from learning how to use a file properly to having the right power tools on hand.  … Read the rest

CNC Chuck Maintenance: A Kitagawa Guest Post

We’re pleased to offer this guest posting from Kitagawa Europe on the importance of proper chuck maintenance for CNC lathes.
It is important to undertake regular maintenance on your CNC equipment to ensure maximum levels of performance and uptime.  Of all your equipment, it is your power chucks that require the most attention and the majority of machine shops will grease them on a regular basis.  Unfortunately, not every machinist understands the basics of chuck lubrication.
Below we ask (and answer) the four salient questions surrounding chuck greasing, so that you can keep your operation working to the highest possible standards.… Read the rest

3D Printing Goes Mainstream: Staples to Offer 3D Printing Service

If there was ever a doubt that 3D printing would become a mainstream megatrend, this story should remove that doubt:
Staples has announced it will be offering a 3D printing service via its Office Supply stores.  The announcement was made today at Euromold 2012.  While this isn’t the first 3D printing service, it is the first to be announced by a household name like Staples.
The new service will be called “Staples Easy 3D”.  To use the service, customers upload their designs to Staples’ website, then pick up the printed objects at their local Staples.  … Read the rest

More Projects from G-Wizard Customers

I always love to get news from customers on what they’ve been working on.  I recently got a couple of notes on different projects where the customer used G-Wizard that I wanted to share.
First up is a nice-looking set of paper shears made by a company called Lean Machining in South Dakota for a customer:

Some interesting labor-saving tips are visible in the photo including the magnetic holders for hex keys.  I’m wondering if the air ratchet hung on the machine enclosure is setup for the vise.  Looks like several cordless drills hanging on the toolbox and wondering if they’re set up to deburr or some other common operation.  … Read the rest

When is Manual Machining Better than CNC?

Let me start out by going on record as saying I don’t think manual is ever better than CNC except in certain special circumstances that are really not a test of manual vs CNC, but of other factors.  I’ll walk through the three special circumstances in a moment.
I’ll be the first to admit it is a controversial viewpoint.  Machinists will spend hours debating the whole manual versus CNC thing and every related issue.  For example, they will debate whether you can be a decent CNC machinist without having trained extensively on manual machines first.  … Read the rest

Check Out Our Cyber Sale: It’s Our Last Sale of 2012

First thing I did after getting back from a holiday trip to visit the family in Houston was get to work launching a Cyber Monday sale for CNCCookbook.
We have 3 great offers underway:
-  Buy a 3 year subscription to G-Wizard Feeds and Speeds Calculator for $109 and save $20 off the regular pricing.
-  Buy a 1 year subscription to G-Wizard Feeds and Speeds Calculator plus Gearotic Gear Design Software for $109 and save $13.40.
-  Or, our best deal of all, buy a 3 year subscription to G-Wizard Feeds and Speeds Calculator plus Gearotic Gear Design Software for $129 and you save $30.  … Read the rest

A New Every Day Carry Product: The Ti2 Sentinel Cache

The folks behind the original Ti2 pen project on Kickstarter recently dropped me a note about their latest Kickstarter project, the Ti2 Sentinel Cache:

It’s got a decidedly “Every Day Carry” feel to it and looks like a very cool EDC accessory.  The ends both unscrew to allow for storage inside the cache.  The Kickstarter project depicts a variety of uses ranging from keeping pills and waterproof matches to using one as a cigar humidor.  They’re machined from Titanium, and I’m sure the workmanship will be excellent just like it was on the Ti2 pen.… Read the rest

Clearing Welded on Aluminum from Endmills, Drill Bits, and Inserts

Anyone who has machined much aluminum will sooner or later wind up with an endmill like the one shown in the photo (thanks Practical Machinist and Bobw):

Aluminum welded to and clogged the flutes of this endmill…
The same can happen to twist drills and inserts.  Aluminum is a sticky material.  You’ll need the right lubricant or coating on your tools to cut it successfully without the welded on aluminum, and even then, you can still get it if you push too hard.  The aluminum comes out looking like taffy.  Interesting to look at, but unless you’re real fast with the red button, it will break the endmill pretty quickly and possibly screw up the job you’re machining.… Read the rest

Zoho: A Machined Android Figure

Zoho is a gorgeous piece of machine artwork created by Mark Ho:

Zoho’s joints had to be pretty close to a human being’s to create such lifelike poses!
Zoho stands 43 cm tall, weighs 6 kg, has 920 parts, 101 of which are found in each hand. Of the 920 parts, 85 are mobile. Zoho was constructed of bronze and stainless steel.  Amazingly, Zoho was done entirely through manual machining–not a lick of CNC was involved.… Read the rest

Anodizing a Multi-Color Logo Onto a Titanium Knife

Every Tuesday John Grimsmo does a new YouTube video in a series he calls “Knifemaking Tuesdays”.  Today we got a really interesting video that shows how he anodized a multi-colored Eagle Scout logo onto one of his knives for a customer:

I love engraving, anodizing, and all forms of finishing for CNC projects, so I wanted to pass along this neat video.  If you’ve never done any anodizing before, John has done a lot of it on both aluminum and titanium.  Titanium is neat because you can get different colors as shown on this log by using different voltages.  … Read the rest

Fancy CNC Tubing Bender

I have to admit, I have something of a fetish for unusual CNC machines–things that are a little off the beaten path from the normal mill, router, lathe, or plasma table.  I thought this CNC bender from Nissin looked like great fun:

Enjoy!… Read the rest