One of the best parts about the holiday season is seeing all the wonderful ornaments and gifts that our community creates using their Tormach equipment. During a Tormach YouTube live streaming event, a member of the Tormach team created a snowman ornament out of aluminum and stainless steel using our capable 770MX CNC mill and the 15L lathe. The snowman shape was designed using Fusion 360.

In the world of CNC, automation is important. Using CNC, we can make all sorts of products, widgets, and parts quickly and consistently, but we can streamline that process even more by adding automation.

Texas is a hotbed for high tech manufacturing companies, especially machine shops. Colter Crossley, who owns and operates Blackstone Solutions and Technologies, prides himself on being a successful small business in the heart of a highly competitive market.

Every machinist knows things work a whole lot better when turning if you can get your tool tip right on the centerline. During a trip to Tormach to test their CNC lathe before I got one years ago, I saw this first hand. I “eyeballed” a tool tip to center and made an OD turning pass. The cut was fine, but the finish seemed poor. So, we set the tool on centerline using the ruler trick:

 Whether you’re new to the world of turning or you’ve been using a lathe for years, it’s important to know your tools and the best way to use them. Lathe tooling designations are there to help, but they can be just as confusing as the tools themselves.

This is one of the many topics that seems to engender religious fervor from one side versus the other. I personally went through several hundred online articles and correspondences I’ve had with our G-Wizard customers about this choice. For my upcoming Tormach CNC Lathe, I initially had ordered it set up for gang tooling based on my needs, but then hastily added a turret after several conversations with the turret aficionados, just so I could write about and compare the two more fully, and I’m glad I did.