Setup-Time

Workholding is the bottleneck that nobody budgets for. When I walk into a shop that is struggling with deep hole drilling throughput, nine times out of ten the fixturing is the problem, not the machine. Modular fixturing systems have changed how I approach setup planning, and the numbers speak for themselves. The Case for Modular Fixturing Dedicated fixtures for deep hole drilling parts commonly cost $2,000 to $8,000 each and take four to eight weeks to manufacture. For a shop running fifty different part numbers, that investment becomes prohibitive quickly. Modular fixturing, built from standard base plates, locating towers, clamp brackets, and support elements, can cover 80% of those parts with a single system investment of $15,000 to $30,000. ...

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. ...