Air Force Research Laboratory
This site contains results of the AF's work in manufacturing and metalworking, but you'll have to dig a bit to get at it. If you're feeling investigative, you might find something useful here. Here's a clue: you can find their Technical Library here.

Business.gov (formerly BusinessLaw.gov)
BusinessLaw.gov was developed by the Small Business Administration to give small business owners access to legal and regulatory information. But they've also included tutorials, wizards, and other online utilities to deliver advice on finances, starting or expanding a business, and accessing state or local info.

BusinessLaw.gov has been absorbed into the larger portal Business.gov.

Defense Electronic Business Program Office (DEBPO)
DEBPO might seem a bit contrived; after all, the government and the Department of Defense aren't necessarily famous wellsprings of e-commerce information or cyber-savvy prowess. But if you're looking to do business with the government, if you covet defense-related work, or should you ever become curious about where such work might lead or require of you, you're going to want to visit this surprisingly deep site. You'll find tons of information about the three "p's": policies (hey, this IS the government), programs and projects.

The Uncle gets funky.

Dept of Defense Info Analysis Cntr (IAC) HUB Page
Created and maintained by the Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC), this page is a "rotunda," with links to several interesting, government-sponsored IACs. Included are links to IACs created for: Metals Information; Metals Matrix Composites; Manufacturing Technology; and Nondestructive Testing Information. All are good repositories of Metalworking data -- most are excellent. There is a Defense flavor to most of the information, but it is very thorough and is maintained extremely well. All IACs are searchable.

Employment Laws Assistance for Workers and Small Businesses (ELAWS)
The Department of Labor has created this site to help you (boy, does THAT sound familiar) understand your rights and responsibilities under the employment laws and regulations. ELAWS accomplishes this with "Advisors" in three categories: Retirement and Health Benefits; Safety and Health; and Wage, Hour and Other Workplace Standards. The site is straight-forward and easy to understand; however, the path to each "advisor" is a bit long. Allow for some time to see what in this site is relevant to your business.

Enviro$en$e
Quite possibly, the best of the government bunch. This pollution control site, created and maintained as part of EPA's Web presence, is one of the best you'll see for content, navigation and behavior. "Hey, this is OK, but there's nothing here directly relating to metalworking stuff," you may say. "Check out the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP), a program to help small- to medium-sized manufacturers better utilize technologies and increase efficiency," I would reply.

This site has undergone a recent face lift and reorganization of some of the information found here.

Environmental Protection Agency
Good news/Bad news. Up-to-date, well-thought-out, simply-designed site presenting all things environmental -- legislative, regulatory, contractual. Most of the regulations are downloadable only as PDF (Adobe Acrobat) files. You decide which is which.

EPA MP&M Regulations
The Metal Products & Machinery (MP&M) Effluent Guidlines will, rest assured, affect your shop to some degree. The EPA's Office of Water and Web site present these guidelines in detail for review, and you'd probably do well to review them.

And, maybe, get involved.

FedStats
You want statistics? Odds are you don't. But within the labyrinth of U.S. Government statistics that this site offers access to may lie business info that can help your shop or your business. This site tries hard to simplify access to massive amounts of data, and--sometimes--it works.

FirstGov
OK, is this too much of a GOOD thing, or too much of a BAD thing? We'll let you decide. Brought to you by your friendly US Government (hey, they ARE here to help us, right?), this site is a compilation of all things governmental on the Web; that is, EVERY site hosted or sponsored by the government is listed here. That includes State and Local governments, folks. Still don't get the SIZE of it?

This is one, really cool resource, regardless of what you think about the source. For instance, plug the word "metalworking" into FirstGov's search engine and you get back over 1000 links. This is an excellent resource for the business end of a machine shop or plant, as well as a wellspring of technical data.

A sort of Yahoo, brought to you by the original Yahoos.

International Trade Administration
This is a good resource for global trade philosophies and information, as they apply to some Metalworking-related industries.

IRS' Manufacturing Page
OK, before you start freaking out about this, pay the IRS a visit and look into what they've presented to help (did I just type that?) manufacturing businesses with tax info. Included in this site are Tax Tips, Audit Technique Guides, a section with Tax Laws and Regulations for Manufacturing, and more. Not too shabby a site, particularly when you consider the source.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Another University of California and Department of Energy project, this site offers a searchable wealth of technical and metals-related data.

Los Alamos National Laboratory
The Scientific and Technical Information page of the renowned national laboratory, a project maintained by The University of California for The Department of Energy.

Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory (MEL)
The MEL is a subset of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and is sort of a conduit to technology for manufacturers. Their stated purpose is to "provide the best in the world calibration services, accurate machining processes characterizations, and technical access to the rich opportunities of information technology." The MEL is organized into 6 "sectors" that include 5 divisions (Precision Engineering, Manufacturing Metrology, Intelligent Systems, Manufacturing Systems Integration, and Fabrication Technology) and the Advanced Manufacturing Laboratory. Not only is this Web site a portal into the MEL that you may use to engage them in research, it is also as rich a repository for manufacturing info as any you'll find from the U.S. Government. The access to their published reports alone (under "Publications" on the home page) is worth the visit. Nice work.

Manufacturing Extension Partnership
Verily, they are here to help us, eh? According to their site, MEP is a nationwide network of not-for-profit Centers in over 400 locations nationwide, whose sole purpose is to provide small and medium-sized manufacturers with the help they need to succeed. This site is less of a hotbed of massive metalworking info, and more of a portal through which to initiate contact with MEP. If you're a small- to mid-sized manufacturer and would like some assistance with your processes, this might not be a bad idea.

Metalworking Fluids - Safety & Health
OSHA has put together a nice collection of information about MWFs, their hazardous qualities, and how to work with them safely. And, yes, there's information about dermal exposure.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Quite possibly the best of the National Laboratories Web Pages, in terms of functionality, search capability, and information. Utilizes the Harvest search engine (high speed, accurate), and the layout of this site is simple and easy to use.

Sandia National Laboratories
Presents a technical repository that is searchable and thorough. This is one big site. Several sections of Sandia's site serve metalworking professionals extraordinarily well. This site is worth an hour of digging to any machining pro or manager.

Standards.gov
This site was developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to help with access to standards, regulations and other data used by the federal gub-mint. Of particular note to manufacturers should be those standards employed to select sources for manufacturing services.

Standards.gov
This site was developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to help with access to standards, regulations and other data used by the federal gub-mint. Of particular note to manufacturers should be those standards employed to select sources for manufacturing services.