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Passing The Tinkering Torch

“From Franklin to Edison to Carver to Ford, all great inventors have shared one thing in common: as children, they had all been inveterate tinkerers. They fiddled with things, took them apart, put them back together, wondered how everything fit together—and tried to make something new out of what they’d learn by doing.” These are the opening words from actor John Ratzenberger on his Web site, www.nutsandboltsfoundation.org.

Best known as Cliff on “Cheers,” Ratzenberger is an unabashed champion of American manufacturing. His charitable organization, Nuts, Bolts and Thingamajigs Foundation (NBTF) is dedicated to introducing young people to the joys of tinkering in an effort to inspire the next generation of skilled manual artists, engineers and inventors. READ MORE

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How’s Your Short Game?

While visiting shops throughout the country, I see the entire gamut of bar feeder options. Different shops not only have different requirements for their machines and applications, but also varying opinions of which bar feeder is right for a given situation. Choosing the right bar feeder requires careful consideration of productivity factors such as bar loading time and setup time, as well as part length and rpm requirements. Part quantities and cycle times should also affect the decision, along with the amount of untended machining that is desired.

One of the biggest differences in bar feeders is READ MORE

Featured Event
The Precision Machining Technology Show returns to
Columbus, Ohio, April 28-30, 2009. PMTS 2009 will feature
machine tools, tooling, workholding, software and much more.
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Optical Comparators Provide Quickness And Accuracy

Have you ever tried to read words written in very small type or tried to inspect a small object? The outcome is usually a headache, frustration from failure to see the details or both, which gets you nowhere.

Imagine having to take measurements of a part that is 2 inches in diameter or smaller by hand. It would be almost impossible to produce an accurate measurement of a complex part. This is why optical comparators, also known as READ MORE