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Pete Zelinski, Executive Editor
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Are you Making Chips or Making Value?
Does this picture alarm you? Not my picture -- the set of pictures below. The images show a precision CNC grinding machine that just got finished doing what any machining center could do. That is, it drilled the two holes that are visible (just barely visible) in the top of this part. Just before the current grinding wheel was loaded, the machine’s spindle was carrying a drill. Was it a waste to let this high-end machine do such basic machining?
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| The Maegerle grinder shown above offers the ability to use milling and drilling tools. |
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| "Consider also why this machine, or any machine tool, is purchased in the first place. It is bought not literally to make chips, but to make value." |
Chris Stine of United Grinding Technologies says no, not necessarily. The Maegerle grinder shown here offers the ability to use milling and drilling tools, and the holes shown needed to locate relative to the same datums as the root form which will be ground. Therefore, why not perform the drilling as part of the same setup? In a cycle that is 90 percent grinding and 10 percent more basic metal cutting, he says, letting the grinder perform the last 10 percent makes sense. Still, he says that even many users who see the logic in this nevertheless have an aversion to watching their expensive machine do such work.
I have heard something similar regarding probing on machine tools. Locating or measuring the part through probing on a CNC machine may make sense in the abstract. In reality, though, it can be hard to watch a machine tool spend any time on motion that does not directly involve material removal.
Could a bias like this be affecting the way you use your equipment? Is there a sense that each machine should spend its time doing only the most obviously valuable work?
Consider the savings that result from drilling the holes on the machine in the photo. The part is spared an additional setup on a machining center.
Consider also why this machine, or any machine tool, is purchased in the first place. It is bought not literally to make chips, but to make value. And that value sometimes is created not only by doing work, but also by ensuring that costly extra work elsewhere does not have to be done.
ALSO In this issue...
METALWORKING MOJO: Call him "Pierre"
INBOX INSIGHTS: Manufacturing is for girls
OUR NEXT ISSUE: Workholding
YOUR THOUGHTS: Little things mean a lot
SWEATT & BULLETS: The metalworking Web
NEWLY POSTED PRODUCTS
INDUSTRY EVENTS
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METALWORKING MOJO
Personalities making parts
Peter Boucher is the president of 3V Precision in Lakewood,Washington, a shop whose success machining orthotic components will be profiled in Modern Machine Shop’s June issue.
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3V Precision President, Peter Boucher, insists an artistic sensibility is an essential element to quality machining. |
For a time, Mr. Boucher also had a second identity. He was “Pierre” Boucher, a gallery artist. Mr. Boucher exhibited sculptures he had created through CNC machining.
He says, “I visited galleries, saw crude metal sculptures and said to myself, ‘That isn’t art.’”
He knew his own CNC machines could make far more interesting shapes, so he made some sculptures of his own and brought them to a gallery. He received an enthusiastic welcome. A side career as an artist followed.
Today, he is too busy for that side career, but he brings an artist’s sensibility to his day job. For example, he says it influences who he hires.
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Mr. Boucher not only creates sculptures like the ones above using CNC machines, but also looks for the "artist" in each of his employees. |
“In each of my employees, I need to see an artist,” he says. “When machining is not an art is when it gets ugly.”
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INBOX INSIGHTS
Manufacturing is for girls
If a job isn’t open to both male and female candidates, then the employer is the one who suffers. The available talent pool is cut in half.
In manufacturing and metalworking, the door is not closed to either sex, but one sex clearly dominates. Girls and women don’t gravitate to these trades in numbers comparable to boys and men. This apparent lack of female interest is worth a second look today for multiple reasons. First, the attributes appropriate to manufacturing work have changed, and second, the males aren’t gravitating to these trades in such large numbers anymore either. Could more females find their way to this work if they had the chance for safe exposure within a welcoming environment?
One county in New York may find the answer. This July, the “SMART” camp in New York’s Ulster County is open to the county’s girls entering grades 7 through 10. Short for “Summer Manufacturing and Robotics Training,” the week-long program will use hands-on activities to introduce girls to basic concepts in automation, part design and machining. Various organizations are funding the camp -- including Ulster BOCES, the Fabricators & Manufacturers Association Foundation and the Nuts, Bolts and Thingamajigs Foundation -- and at least one of these organizations specifically hopes to see the idea reproduced in other parts of the country. I think many of us would love to see that as well. |
OUR NEXT ISSUE
Workholding
In Modern Machine Shop’s May issue, our special coverage of workholding includes articles on vacuum workholding for machining armor plating, as well as a discussion of workholding’s influence on vibration. Also, a gear maker describes its use of CNC honing for sizing and finishing bores. For more information on workholding technology, visit Modern Machine Shop's workholding zone at: www.mmsonline.com/workholding
Don’t miss this issue! Subscribe at www.mmsonline.com/subscribe
YOUR THOUGHTS
Share your views, win a prize
Recent issues of this newsletter have asked you about changes your shop has made, and we have received interesting replies. However, much of what we have heard about has involved large-scale changes. Sometimes, it is a little change to the production process or the machining cycle that delivers a larger-than-expected series of benefits. Have you seen a change like this in your shop -- perhaps related to just one of your parts? What seemingly small change have you made to the production process lately that has proven to have a big difference?
Please share your thoughts on this question. If we publish your response, you’ll receive your choice of one free title from the Hanser Gardner bookstore (www.hansergardner.com). To respond, send your e-mail to Pete Zelinski at pzelinski@mmsonline.com.
SWEATT & BULLETS
The metalworking Web
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A.J. Sweatt, Online Editor
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- An Interesting Perspective - Allow me to share something with you, a quote from Forbes magazine: "The United States leads the world in wages and in purchasing power of wages, because we lead the world in production per man. To continue this we must keep our home market for our home industries, and get and hold our share of the foreign market for the products of our factories, farms, mills and mines. Foreign wages are low; raw materials are comparatively cheap; and the scale of living is low. We cannot maintain our high wages against low foreign wages, unless we increase and maintain production per man high enough to offset the wage difference." This is a refreshingly focused enunciation of policy. It is admirable. It is simple and refined. It was written and published in February of 1922.
- New Site For Machining Professionals - Last month, a new site was launched to serve the diverse needs of manufacturers that you'll want to keep your eyes on. Mfgx (www.mfgx.com) is currently in the beta stage and, as such, much of it is being refined at this point. The current phase offers some relatively standard online fare, including forums, job posting utilities (you can post or review as an employer or prospective employee), and a marketplace for posting or buying equipment for sale amongst members. What distinguishes Mfgx from previously launched manufacturing sites are its community tools that allow for the creation of personal or corporate profiles (think MySpace for manufacturers) and a manufacturing Wiki, wherein technical content is submitted, edited and policed by the Mfgx community at large. (Not familiar with what a "Wiki" is? Check out Wikipedia for the original example of this model.) According to sources at the company, Mfgx was launched and is maintained as a service to the manufacturing community by Mfg.com.
NEWLY POSTED PRODUCTS
From the product repository of MMS Online
INDUSTRY EVENTS
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April 18-19, 2007
Donald E. Stephens Convention Center
Rosemont, IL, USA
www.moldmakingexpo.com |
April 24-26, 2007
Greater Columbus Convention Center
Columbus, OH, USA
www.pmts.com |
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