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…
DetailsLast month’s newsletter was about undimensioned features. This month we are going to us a topic suggestion from a reader – Camilo Parra – from Universidad Eafit Columbia, an overview of 5 axis machines and how they machine parts. There are several different types of 5-axis mills in both vertical and horizontal orientations. They can…
DetailsOur last newsletter was about designing and machining thin floors. This month we are going to revisit a past topic about undimensioned features on drawings. We recently had a customer who was considering a change to their drawing note about undimensioned features on their minimally dimensioned drawing template. They had read our newsletter from back…
DetailsOur last newsletter was about designing and machining thin wall sections. This month we are going to continue that theme by suggestion of Larry V. from Lockheed Martin and discuss designing and machining thin floors. As with designing thin walls, sometimes it is desirable to design a floor of a pocket, shelf or web to…
DetailsOur last newsletter was a case study about an expensive flower vase. This month we are going to look at designing and machining thin wall sections. I just gave another DFMA Bootcamp yesterday for a group of about 35 engineers (the third for this company! – They are really committed to reducing the cost of…
DetailsOur last newsletter was a case study about surface roughness. This month we are going to look at another case study for a part which was much more expensive than it should have been. This part is a machined aluminum flower vase for an aerospace application (see fig A). It is intended to hang over…
DetailsOur last newsletter was about O-Rings. This month we are going to talk about the surface roughness callout for a recent part we made. Generally speaking, surface roughness is called out as a maximum condition. For function and appearance reasons you would like to keep your surface more smooth than “X”. Whatever “X” might be…
DetailsOur last newsletter was about title block tolerances. This month we are going to talk about Toric Joints, or more commonly known as O-rings, a form of mechanical gasket. O-rings were originally patented in Sweden in 1896 and were not brought to the USA until 1937, when a machinist named Niels Christensen was awarded a…
DetailsLast month’s newsletter was about OD threads. This month we are going to talk about title block tolerances. We discussed title block tolerances in September 2010 but a recent email from a customer made us realize that there is much more to talk about. Our customer proposed completely overhauling their title block tolerances for all…
DetailsLast month’s newsletter was some thoughts about our favorite metal – Aluminum. This month we are going to talk about OD threads. This topic came from Robert C. from Megger. Thanks Robert! Any part that needs to have a nut fastened to it, or thread directly into some other part or assembly, will need to…
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