Last September, we talked about a few tools that you never knew you needed in your shop, but when it comes to machining, there are a million different ways to do everything. So, here’s a sequel to help you discover some tools you never knew you needed in your shop… or maybe you did know, and you can just use this as a justification for all those tools.

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.

Letting students take control of the CNC machine for the first time each semester can be terrifying enough if they were paying attention to your wise words of caution, but we all know some of them weren’t taking studious notes. An easy way to save your machine and nerves is to give your students forgiving workpieces, like machinist wax, wood, or plastic, but that’s not always the best solution.

Understanding lathe tooling, what it does and how it works is a big part of refining finishings and maximizing tool wear and tear. There are a lot of options, so it can seem confusing, but it really isn’t once you understand the basics.

I like new toys as well as the next guy, so I try to take reasonable care of them. Toward that end, I’ve adopted a standardized “check-in” procedure for my shop.