This is a bittersweet newsletter to write as it will be my last. Over the past 17 years my partners and I have grown Pro CNC from a little one-machine shop to one of the largest contract manufacturers in the Pacific NW. We have met and worked with thousands of engineers, buyers, quality staff and…
The last newsletter was about composite GTOLs. This time we are going to talk about engraving machined parts. It may not be applicable to all industries but I believe there are enough of you who may deal with this that it is a worthwhile newsletter topic. We often will receive drawings with the requirement to…
The last newsletter was about composite GTOLs. This time we are going to talk about mating parts. There are very few parts which don’t mate to anything. Usually parts will either bolt together, press together, slip together, sit inside of each other, or have some sort of relationship that requires the sizes and tolerances of…
The last newsletter was about the DFM process. This time we are going to talk about composite GTOLs. Drawings are used to communicate your design intent so a manufacturer can make parts that work in your application, while hopefully eliminating extra cost that goes above and beyond your needs. Using GD&T (Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing)…
The last newsletter was about designing impossible features. This time we are going to talk about the DFM process. The concepts of DFM and DFMA seem to be getting more attention and traction across the engineering and manufacturing sectors. They are even teaching it in some of the more forward-thinking universities. More engineers are using…
The last newsletter was about simplifying your design. This time we are going to talk about parts with impossible features. Let’s jump right to the point. Please do your best to not design parts with impossible features. By impossible I mean features that can’t be cut by the rotating tooling that is used in a…
The last newsletter was about thread depths. This time we are going to talk some simple tips to simplify your parts and reduce tool count for your shop. We recently were helping a customer reduce the cost of one of their machined parts. We noticed a few things about the design that added to the…
The last newsletter was about thread depths. This time we are going to talk about different types of shops and finding the right fit for your company. What type of shop is your shop? Not all machine shops are created equal – nor should they be. Some are good at incredibly high-precision parts measured in…
The last newsletter was about corner radii. This time we are going to talk about thread depths. We have talked about the tolerances associated with thread depths and how challenging it is to achieve a very high tolerance on the depth of threaded holes. Partly it’s because it is very hard to determine exactly where…
The last newsletter was about 5-axis mills. This time we are going to talk about corner radii and some specific gotchas to avoid. Long ago we introduced the topic of designing vertical corner radii to be as large as possible in order to allow your chosen shop to machine with the largest cutting tools, thus…
