We’re an extrusion equipment manufacturer shipping extrusion barrels reaching 10-12 feet in length. For rust prevention we have been applying cosmolines and oils using a long, makeshift broom caked with oil. The process takes a lot of manpower, workers and customers often complain about the smell of the oil, customers have to use mineral spirits to the remove the oil from the metal, and sometimes the parts still rust. Some of our equipment can be valued at as much as $100,000 per piece. Is there a better way to prevent rust?
Oily in Memphis, TN
Dear Oily,
We brought your question to David Yancho – vice president of Armor Protective Packaging, a manufacturer of corrosion inhibiting & rust removal products, to discuss some different options.
Oils and Cosmoline are tried and true products that certainly do the job in terms of rust prevention, but I’ve heard some accounts of the messy and labor-intensive nature of the applications. They’ve also been known to be a contaminant for dust and other particles that gravitate to them.
Water-based rust preventative (RP) liquids are the closest alternative to what you’re using now. They provide similar benefits to oils, but can be easier to apply and remove because they’re water-based. That means they’re safer for the worker as well as the environment. They still can be messy, have an odor, may be difficult to remove, and possess disposal challenges. Also, RP liquids fowl to high and low spots in the metal, resulting in less than full surface coverage.
We are a job shop manufacturing turned parts on screw machines and CNC lathes for a variety of customers and industries. On parts with multiple diameters some customers call out a concentricity specification. Others will use run-out and some show a position requirement. Aren’t they really all asking for the same thing? Why do they say it three ways, and can they be used interchangeably?
Call of Confusion
Dear Call,
Concentricity, run-out and position are all methods that can be used to control the “coaxiality” of part features. “Concentricity” is still a term commonly used by designers and machinists when describing how much deviation is allowed between coaxial diameters. There are however, significant and sometimes critical differences between the three terms as described in the current standard ASME Y14.5M-1994. This standard has been adopted by the Department of Defense and the majority of companies in the pubic domain. It is generally recognized as the last-word regarding dimensioning and tolerancing issues in the USA.
Regarding “concentricity,” the standard specifies that the median points of all diametrically opposed elements are on the axis of a datum feature. The standard does not say that the features have to be circular or that there is any rotation around the datum axis. This means that this control can apply to any shape feature such as an ellipse, rectangle, square, etc. The measuring method used is generally very complicated and usually not necessary. In most cases concentricity may be what the designer is asking for but is not the appropriate control for turned parts.
We usually run our Brown & Sharpe machines at cycles less than 30 seconds. I was setting a stainless steel job at 120 seconds and my turret would double index at times. One of my co-workers said to grind some height off the trip dogs. The shop foreman saw me grinding on the trip dogs and hit the ceiling! He said to adjust the backshaft clutches instead. When I asked him what to do, he just said “adjust the screw.” Which screw, what direction, how much? Help!
Signed, Tripping Along
Dear Tripping,
Your foreman is absolutely correct about not grinding on trip dogs. Never do that. All trip dogs should be at the same height.
When your backshaft clutch pocket and eccentric are in good shape and adjusted properly, the machine will not double index no matter what cycle time you are running.
The first thing to check is your eccentric screw (properly called the operating screw). If the edges are rounded or worn or the bottom of the screw is no longer flat, then replace it. They are cheap when compared to replacing the clutch. A worn screw will damage a good clutch pocket eventually.
Examine this first. Unfortunately, changing the operating screw will not solve your problem if your clutch pocket is overly worn. Look for wear in detent end. Test this by manually activating the clutch. If the pin drops back into the pocket, the clutch is worn and should be replaced. Again, keeping a good operating screw and proper adjustment will prevent premature clutch failure.
NBA owner rep, David Stern, is getting blamed more and more for the failed NBA negotiations.
One of the more interesting parts of attempting to teach my son Noah the art of business concerns negotiating. It’s a topic of enduring interest because there is seldom a day when I don’t negotiate with somebody−a client, an employee, or a partner.
Lately, I’ve been reading the accounts of the messy negotiations between David Stern, who represents the NBA owners, and Billy Hunter, who speaks for the players union. From an outsider’s perspective it appears to be a botch for both sides, with everybody involved losing big−except the lawyers.
What I try to teach Noah and continually relearn myself is a lesson I learned from my father and uncle. “Always let the other person feel that they’ve won, because the relationship is more important than one deal.”
The reality is that often there is only one deal to be made with a particular client, but that really isn’t the point. You never really know when you will meet up again, but each deal helps establish your reputation in the wider world, and teaches you lessons.
As I talk to machining firms these days I am regularly hearing that big company buyers are now negotiating with the mindset that good suppliers are scarce assets, not interchangeable widget makers. The balance of power in the supply chain world has changed over the last year and the shrewd buyers of machined parts have recognized it.
One of the most important aspects of a negotiation is how time plays into it. We are watching that play out dramatically right now in the NBA talks because players have now missed their first big paycheck of the season, agents are missing out on rookie signings, and the owners are staring at a cancellation of the entire season.
When I negotiate a deal I always try to ascertain the time requirements of my potential buyer and withhold my own needs from him. By talking to a client frequently, not only can I often discover his time restraints but I can also build a mutual investment in working out a deal. One of the drawbacks of email negotiating is that it removes that feeling of personal investment in a deal and tends to make it seem like it’s all about the money.
From my experience, money is just one factor in most negotiations, and often not the most important one. In my reading about what’s going on now with the NBA, a deal was within reach, until the owners pushed the players into a corner on peripheral issues like random off season drug testing, which energized a weak, disorganized, even apathetic group of players into an angry opponent. David Stern evidently misjudged how far he could push. It’s okay to leave money on the table, my Dad told me and I say to Noah. “Does the deal work for us?” is question number one. But the important corollary is, “Can the other person feel good about it, too?”
The great negotiating mavens such as Herb Cohen argue that you should plan your moves ahead and know your own bottom line. I adhere to this idea in theory, but I believe you also need to be creative and improvise because there are crucial moments in a negotiation that you can’t afford to miss. This is when the active listener can pick up on cues about the time needs of the opposing party to conclude a deal. If the big moment is missed the deal that was makeable can go away.
I often go home and tell my wife that I am frustrated about deals that keep sliding away. She’ll say that it probably doesn’t have anything to do with you. Be patient, it will come.
Sure.
Sometimes it does.
Question: Do you care if the NBA season is canceled?
Question 2: If you could choose between deer hunting and going to an NBA playoff game which would you pick?
Thomas Clouse is a 31-year-old freelance journalist living and working in China since 2002. He has written for Global Finance, Accounting and Business Magazine, and Automotive News China. We asked him to give us an insider’s perspective on an American living in China.
What made you go to China to be a freelance reporter? I majored in philosophy and economics, and both attracted me to China. I went there in 1997 and traveled, then went back in 2002 to teach English for a year. Shortly after that, I applied to a Chinese magazine in Beijing that was searching for an English editor.
Are you fluent in Chinese? Spoken Mandarin, yes. I’m still working on the written Chinese.
What strikes you as the major difference between Chinese and American people? I think Americans are very individual-oriented. They’re conscious of themselves, of expressing themselves and being different. In China, there is a group mentality. I think the strongest example is their emphasis on family.
What’s the make-up of the friends you’ve made in China? About half my friends are Chinese and half are foreign. The ex-patriot community in Beijing is also a very interesting group of people. There are diplomats and investment bankers and filmmakers and artists – it’s a really diverse collection of people.
Acting is a family business for Michael Douglass, his father Kirk, and son Cameron
One of the most important things we do in our work lives is labeling, and it’s one of those things we usually do casually, without the care it deserves.
Attaching words to our actions, our products, and especially ourselves adds or diminishes value. Do you “operate a machine shop” or do you “make extremely precise components which are part of a knee replacement?” Do you “work for your old man” or do you “learn from a master” or “work with your father to build something that will endure?”
I believe we search for meaning in life with language as a tool, but too often we are lazy with our vocabularies. Every day has a story to be extracted and dramatized hopefully to a willing listener, but if not, translated into our own inner voice. Sometimes the narrative is funny, or ironic, even tragic, but with the proper context it is interesting.
I believe we fall into the greyness of “drift” when we fail to label what is happening in our lives with positive or a least provocative words or pictures. Setting goals and writing them down is another way to label. Ten weeks ago I decided to change my eating habits with the unannounced goal of reaching my high school weight at my 50th high school reunion next June. I am not “on a diet” but I have adopted a “new eating regime for the rest of my life.”
To me this is a crucial labeling difference that has great meaning for me. Every “diet” I’ve ever embarked on has ultimately failed, but a “life change” is a total commitment. The labeling story that resonates most clearly for me and my family came from the great soprano Beverly Sills. She was on a long concert tour traveling from city to city. She was doing eight performances in seven days when she reached San Francisco. Entertainment columnist Herb Caen interviewed her and asked her how it feels to “have to do so many concerts.” She answered, “I get to do them, I don’t have to do them.”
The words “get to” exchanged for “have to” can change your life. They’ve changed mine.
Question: Do you “work for your old man,” or do you work with a master who happens to be your father?
Tom Friedman, the New York Times columnist, wrote a book a few years ago titled The World is Flat, where his thesis was that national and geographical separations had gone away. A factory in Thailand is the same as a factory in Tupelo and a call center in India can do the same things as one in Indianapolis.
The events of 2011 have shown us that he misunderstood the hills and depressions still separating the inhabitants of our planet.
The earthquake and tsunami in Japan is still affecting Toyota and Honda. They are under social and political pressure to keep production in Japan even if it is uneconomic. The floods in Thailand are screwing up their infrastructure even more.
Japan is also slogging through the impediment of a 77 yen to the dollar exchange rate that damages its ability to export goods.
In Europe, the grand experiment of the Euro as common currency for countries as different as Greece and Germany appears to be failing.
Events like the Japanese earthquake and the financial earthquake rumbling through Europe should not be underestimated. These events make North America more interesting to invest in for multinationals.
The horizontal drilling boom for oil and gas, which will probably make United States energy independent in a decade, is a huge serendipitous event that coincides with the realization that long supply lines do matter, and they can fail.
The media tells us that people in America are depressed and pessimistic. Probably true. But the world that I see favors the U.S. right now if we find the right leadership and pull together for a decade.
The drop of 25,000 people per month on Government payrolls shows that the country is starting to self correct. The steady reduction in personal debt is another hopeful sign of correction. Lower real estate prices are also on the whole a positive rebalancing of asset values. Used re-priced homes are finally selling and prices are stable to up in half of the major markets in the country. Retail sales are solidly up at Home Depot, which would not be the case in a deteriorating home market.
I think we spend so much time staring at our own warts that we miss the bigger picture. The world is not flat. We may not be king of the hill, but if not us, who is?
Question: Which country do you think is “King of the Hill?”
We are turning a part made from PEEK (polyetheretherketone plastic) and need an 8 Ra surface finish on the part. We have tried carbide and a PCD insert. We can achieve around a 10 Ra finish but that is about the best we can do. Since it is a medical implant we can’t use coolant or abrasives. What process will enable the required surface finish?
Too rough
Dear Too rough,
You are on the right track using a PCD (polycrystalline diamond) for machining PEEK. The high hardness, abrasion resistance, and heat tolerance of diamond makes it an ideal tool material for machining medical grade PEEK.
However, in order to achieve very low surface finishes in soft materials like PEEK, or even metals like aluminum, you need a tool with a nearly flawless edge. Polycrystalline literally means “many crystals.” A PCD insert has a tip composed of small diamond crystals held together with a metallic binder. The random orientation of the crystals along with the metallic binder (usually containing cobalt) helps give the very hard diamond some toughness to resist fracture.
If you were to look at a micrograph of the cutting edge, you would see the diamond crystals do not provide a continuous, smooth cutting edge. In turning, each little crystal in the matrix will leave its “mark” on the turned surface. The solution is to use a monocrystalline diamond tool, which is a single piece of diamond crystal with a lapped cutting edge.
For the last eight years I have lived my life as partially sighted. I’ve suffered detached retinas in both of my eyes, with the sight in my right eye permanently compromised and my left eye repaired by laser. My left eye is also impaired by floaters and a cataract but my doctor is afraid to operate on it because such a procedure would increase the possibility of another detachment, he says.
I have a patch for my right eye that I seldom wear because I don’t want people to regard me as “disabled,” but I’m rethinking that notion because the double vision I endure constantly is exhausting for somebody who spends a lot of time reading and writing.
I’m writing this blog not because I’m feeling sorry for myself (because I’m not) but because I’m rethinking the use of an eye patch. I don’t want to be regarded as disabled but maybe this is my ego and vanity overcoming my pragmatic side.
Most of us at one time in our lives will be “disabled” so perhaps we should all regard ourselves as “currently-able” if we are not dealing with a limiting physical or emotional condition.
The question I am posing to you is, “When should a person make the decision to expose a disability to the world by using a cane, wheel chair, an eye patch or a driver?
Howie Damron, Owner and Chairman of the Board for DCS Solutions
Noah Graff: What is NuBricity and where did the idea come from? Howie Damron: It’s kind of hard to say what it is in a nutshell because [discovering] it was a 20-year mission. NuBricity works through a metal seasoning process. You’ve seen a well seasoned cooking pot, that’s what we do to the metal. We go inside and we season it. The best part is we don’t have to turn it black like cookware. It’s important that everybody understands that you can’t just put NuBricity on a metal surface and expect it to season. It actually takes metal-to-metal contact. People everywhere need to realize that metal conditioning is the solution to all the insanity involved in conventional lubrication. [With regular lubricants] you’ve got to dispose of them afterward and then make more. You’ve got to bring it in by truck in bulk.
NG: Who developed it? Were engineers involved? HD: I developed the product back in 1995. I was actually working in industrial lubrication maintenance, and I started looking at all the different technologies out there. I wondered why [these technologies] were not being utilized fully in all industrial [applications]. I started going to visit some of the greatest lubrication engineers, metallurgists and tribologists in the world. About two and a half years ago I discovered the product and found that it worked great on all of my own test equipment. I then realized that once NuBricity is applied, it is not coating, it actually penetrates into the steel and you can’t get it off.
NG: What are your qualifications to make these claims about the product? Are you an engineer? HD: I don’t have an engineering degree. When people ask me what my background is I tell them I have 20 years of on the job training and learning about grease from others. This mission has not been and it never will be about putting money, fame, or fortune in Howie’s pocket. That’s not what I’m after. What I’m doing here is trying to educate everyone that there is another way of lubricating equipment without continually having to reapply. If you can actually stop the heat and the wear on that metal surface, well, you’ve accomplished a bunch, mostly [reduced] the wear on the equipment.
Dear Shop Doc,
