Throwback Thursday: Adding Value
This throwback from 2006 shares some simple shop practices for cutting costs without negatively impacting your product, which have nothing to do with improving labor efficiencies, reducing machining cycles or increasing tooling life.
Sometimes it’s the simple things that can have the greatest impact. We can apply this theory to every shop environment. For example, taking care of your toolholders.
You can add value to your product by subtracting damage to the toolholders used. Simple things—such as cleaning the tapers and bores of HSK tooling, proper assembly techniques and proper storage equipment—can go a long way toward eliminating taper damage and ensuring that your tooling can deliver all the performance it’s capable of.
- When assembling tooling into toolholders, use an assembly fixture, not a vise or a spindle.
- Don’t store toolholders on a bench or in an open factory environment where they will get covered in oil-mist that attracts damaging particles.
- Train and encourage your machinists and tool crib people to handle and clean HSK toolholders as the precision parts that they are.
- Use purpose-built carts to transport tooling between crib areas and the machine itself.
- Restrict access to toolholders and components to people who actually need to work with them.
All simple, basic steps. Once the storage issues are settled, it’s time to take a look at what you will be storing. The tolerancing on an HSK toolholder is very tight. For more, read the full article here.
