Jacob Schweizer isn’t a household name, but in the engineering world, it should be. It was his desire to build better watches that led to the invention of precision manufacturing equipment now used worldwide. To make watches more portable, he invented the machinery required to build the tiny components that go inside pocket watches and […]

When choosing a metal for your application, there are countless options, and each has pros and cons. Material strength, ductility, toughness, fatigue resistance, hardness, and conductivity are key properties that must be considered when choosing your metal for CNC machining. And depending on the metal, your machining methods and costs can greatly differ due to […]

CAD (Computer Aided Design) and CAM (Computer Aided Manufacturing) are critical software components of modern CNC (Computer Numerical Control) machining. Most modern machine shops make extensive use of CAD and CAM software because the vast majority of manual machines have been replaced by CNC versions.  If CAD and CAM terminology has you confused, you aren’t […]

I’ve been through the gauntlet of prototyping, design, and manufacturing a few times. I started out fixing other people’s designs with a hand file, and I’ve also designed involute gears for a low-precision injection mold. Thanks to this breadth of experience, I was able to create a simple cheat sheet for making quick manufacturing decisions […]

With modern, incredible advances in computer-aided design tools available to more people these days, there is no limit to what can be designed. As products get more complicated, machining them can get complicated also. Bringing a design to life can require machinery with incredible capabilities to make advanced designs a reality. CNC machining allows for […]

Tolerances — the amount of acceptable variation from a design for a part to still function — are an integral part of any engineering design process. There are many books, courses, training seminars, companies, and even professions devoted to tolerances/geometric dimensioning and tolerancing (GD&T). Tolerances help us, as engineers, ensure our products are manufactured so […]