This article originally appeared as an In The Loupe blogpost. In today’s ultra-competitive industry, every machine shop seeks even the slightest edge to gain an advantage on their competition and boost their bottom line. However, what many machinists don’t know is that improving their shop’s efficiency might be easier than they thought. The following five ways your shop is inefficient will provide a clear starting point of where to look for machinists desperate to earn a competitive edge.

Why are some end mills so much more expensive than others, and are they worth the cost? Every machinist must have wondered about this question at some point.  Many develop fierce loyalties to the brand that has worked for them.

Selecting the right coolant for the job may seem straight forward, but there had to be a reason there are so many options, so I started digging around. Here’s what I learned:

When you get into machining, the first tool often used is an end mill. It’s simple, it’s fairly straightforward on purpose, and it’s the universal standard tool for machining. But, we all know that that is just the beginning – tool boxes fill up because there are an endless number of options for tooling. One tool that is often misunderstood, or even disregarded, is the slitting saw. While these saws are often relegated to very specific operations, they can be an invaluable addition to your shop.

When you’re picking out cutting tools, the first challenge is to figure out which style to buy. The second is to select what material and coating combination you’ll need. You might be questioning why coatings matter – surely it’s just a marketing ploy to get you to spend an extra couple bucks, right?

Let’s be honest with each other, we all love getting new tools. Getting your hands on a new saw or cutting tool or even an altimeter drives excitement and you instantly find yourself looking for anything that needs to be trimmed, cut, or measured. When you get an end mill that you’ve never used, before you lose yourself in tooling euphoria, do these three things to make your machining experience all that is can be.