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As our Engineering Manager, Alan Miller, likes to say, “You’re only as precise as your least precise component.”

Machining at higher speeds can save time and money, however, increasing the speed also means increasing the inherent risk in the situation. To maximize speed potential, a holistic approach that considers tool, holder, machine and operator is essential.

Micromachining, cutting where the volume of chips produced with each tool path is very small, is not a high-speed operation in relation to chip load per tooth. Rather, it involves a high spindle speed due to cutter diameter. The part may be physically larger, but details of the part require ultra-small profiles achieved only by micromachining. In other words, micromachining is not limited in scope to only miniature parts.

Chattering and deflection have always been the bane of machinists’ existence, so much so that the sight of a long and slender tool holder will immediately cause goosebumps. If you understand why a long tool holder behaves the way it does, you’ll know that there are ways to fight back against this bending.