Organization

We had an order for three hundred hydraulic cylinder rods, 1045 steel, each needing a 10mm through- hole at 600mm depth. It was a repeat job, one we had run maybe five or six times over the past two years. Simple work, good margins, the kind of job that keeps the lights on. The first sign of trouble came when I walked into the tool crib to grab the 10mm gun drills we needed. The drawer labeled “10mm” contained eight drills, but three of them were 10.2mm, one was 9.8mm, and the rest were a mix of diameters that someone had thrown in there because the drawer was open. Of the actual 10mm drills, two had chipped carbide tips that should have been sent out for regrinding weeks ago, and one had a bent shank that you could only see if you rolled it across a flat surface. ...

An organized gun drill inventory saves time during setup and prevents the wrong drill from being used on a job. I’ve seen shops waste hours looking for the right drill. Here’s how I organize gun drill inventory. Labeling System Every gun drill gets a label showing: Diameter (in mm) Length (in mm) Type (standard, carbide-tipped, solid carbide) Condition (new, used X holes, needs regrind) Tool ID number The label is attached to the drill shank or to the storage slot. I use color-coded labels for quick identification — green for ready to use, yellow for needs inspection, red for needs regrind. ...