One of the common things I hear is "That is how we do it" and more so at older companies. While established processes can be good to hold on to firmly for quality there are some cases where its less helpful. We all have things in our day to day ...

One of the sticking points you will likely run into is how do you know what you need? Finishing is what we know so we are going to stay on that branch of machines here. Many of the general concepts will apply to all manner of machine but finishing ...

The stroke sander is one of the machines that some may not have ever even seen before. Then there are some that will have seen one in the past but were not sure what it was for. Lets dip into what a stroke sander is and what its for. I will just ...

There comes a point in every machines life where you have to look at letting it go. In some cases this can be clear and in others it can be a bit more hidden from view. When you find yourself spending 10% or more of the machines purchase price on ...

One thing I learned early on in machinery was to look to the future. Many times folks will look at a situation with blinders on. The issue here is they miss the larger picture and only see the topic right in front of them. If you focus on just the ...

There were so many good questions sent my way on this topic I wanted to do a follow up. So what I am going to do is answer some of the questions here so more folks can have the same information. These are just some of the more common ones and please ...

When the topic of automation comes up cutting costs is always part of the conversation. More often than not people do not understand the full scope of what this means. "I need to cut costs what can automation do for me?" Labor tends to be the first ...

What are the main issues or points that need addressed? These will not be in any set order of importance. There are items you need to have on the list so you can make things as smooth as possible. These are some of the key items and the why attached ...

In some cases it comes down to "I don't know where to start" and that is what I want to touch on just a bit. Every case will have its own unique aspects but in a general sense the steps are much the same. Be aware of time. As a project comes to life ...

Small parts are one of the challenges most shops face at some point or every day in some cases. They can be tough to manage and tend eat up a lot of time while in some cases being dangerous. Most will try to send them through the old belt sander ...