Centerless Grinders: Much Safer Than They Once Were When I was a boy, my father told me about his time operating centerless grinders. He worked at a machine shop while attending art school, and later became a commercial artist. In...
Cylindrical Grinders: Production Ready My brother-in-law was responsible for the shops’ two cylindrical grinders. Both were Myford model MG12-HPs, built in 1975. He bragged that he could hold a tenth all day long, no sweat, and he usually did. I...
Kent Industrial USA Inc. (KENT) plays a vital role in the supply chain for the Critical Manufacturing Sector with ongoing support for production in numerous crucial components used in the medical, food, defense and energy sector. During this crisis, KENT,...
Radial Arm Drill: Just the Ticket for Drilling and Tapping Big Holes One of my first jobs was operating a radial arm drill for a sheet metal fabricator in Minnesota. I made $2.30 an hour. The company’s since gone out of...
Variable Speed Spindles: Four Reasons Why They're The Best Thing Since DROs I’m not a tall guy. Maybe 5’ 7” or so, and that’s wearing steel-toed boots. So while it wasn’t very nice, it’s not surprising that my fellow machinists...
Shopping for the best knee mill? There are certainly a lot of brands out there to choose from, never mind all the features and accessories to wade through. Chances are you’ve developed a checklist or maybe even a spreadsheet to...
Let’s talk about the elephant in the room: chrome ways. It might not be a pleasant discussion. In fact, a few of you might become upset. That’s especially true of the older machinists, the ones who were turning cranks and...
Starting Out: Plan Carefully, and Invest in the Right Equipment After writing the previous blog post on Kent USA’s ACU-MILL-series CNC machining centers (Starting a Shop: What Machine, and How Much Money?), I got to thinking about my first attempt at...
Thinking of starting a shop? Unless you have a ton of money and willing customers, it can be a tough row to hoe. Still, thousands have done it, so why can’t you? You need a good machine, though, and if...
Do you send work out to wire EDM houses? For instance, close tolerance through-holes? Narrow slots and keyways? Long, complex part profiles, or micro-sized cutouts? These are just a few examples of the parts and part features where wire EDM shines....
