VIDEO: TOOLING UP – Mastering Milling with Niagara Cutter

NARRATOR:  This video is brought to you by Niagara Cutter, a Seco Tools company and trusted provider of the metalworking industry. If you're looking for real world insights, tips from leading industry experts, the latest trends in products and technology, you've come to the right place. From MSC Industrial Supply, this is Tooling Up.

TONI NEARY: Hi and welcome to Tooling Up. I'm your host, Toni Neary and I could not be more excited that you're joining us here today and that you've decided to tune in to our show and the MSC channel. If you're new here, be sure and click that subscribe button to make sure you don't miss any upcoming episodes. And I have to tell you, I'm so excited about today's show.

We actually have a featured returning guest for Tooling Up, and this is from Seco Tools, our product manager for solid milling, Jay "the Milling Master" Ball. Jay, you are such a wealth of knowledge and Seco has so many great products to offer, and I love the fact that you're back. How are you today?

JAY BALL: I'm doing really well, Toni. Thanks so much for the opportunity again to be on this Tooling Up episode. This is going to be a really good conversation around a very interesting topic. So I'm really, really excited to talk about this.

TONI NEARY: So just in case anybody missed your first episode that you were featured on last season and shame on you, go back and get that, tell us a little bit about yourself.

JAY BALL: I was very passionate about machining at a young age, so I actually I started off in a machine shop as a sweepist, not as a machinist at 14 years old and then right out of college actually started working for Seco, actually a company called Tesco Technologies, which was a division of Seco. For the past eight years, I've actually been working as a solid milling product manager, so I do everything from R&D to product testing to catalog production to educational content creation. You name it, I work with it when it comes to solid milling.

TONI NEARY: That's pretty awesome and it helps expand your knowledge in that area as well. Now Seco Tools has one of my favorite industry taglines and that is “a people company in the machining business”, and I think that's really important. Why don't we take a minute and kind of give us the 4-1-1 on what that means and about the success and the secret for success for Seco.

JAY BALL: We really try to strive to be a technical solution provider for our customers, and I think that's why the relationship between MSC with the metalworking specialists and the technical sales team from Seco work so well is because at the end of the day, we're again trying to be that solution provider that can help the customer save time, save money, be more efficient, get more parts out the door.

And I think that's what really separates us from our competition, is we're not just out there trying to sell cutting tools. We're trying to help provide solutions that are going to make customers more efficient, more effective, keep jobs here in the U.S. and keep manufacturing alive and well because it's a really good industry. It's growing and it's expanding and there's just a lot of opportunities.

TONI NEARY: And I think you and I are both really passionate about this industry, but I don't think a lot of people really understand the full scope. So if something has pretty much touched metal at all, it's been touched by cutting tools along the way. So my question is, have you ever sat back, really imagined the depth and breadth of our industry in the work and the impact that you have that makes Seco and your role so important?

JAY BALL: Everything that's been man made has been touched by a machinist at some point in time. And I think we as an industry need to continue to share knowledge and share education. You hear about the education gap or the knowledge gap, and I'm not saying I agree or disagree with that, but I think the knowledge is within the industry. We just need to do a better job of sharing that tribal knowledge.

TONI NEARY: And I think that's a perfect segue for what we're going to talk about today, which is when we're looking at really advancing milling processes. Let's talk a little bit about why somebody would make a transition from like a two or three flute end mill to the five flute end mills, the Niagara Cutter that we're going to talk a little bit more about.

JAY BALL: For years, the aluminum machining industry, especially aerospace, medical, tier one, tier two suppliers to big aerospace manufacturers, has been dominated by two and three flute end mills. But what you're starting to see is a transition and a shift in the industry where customers are starting to get more comfortable with advanced machining strategies. And that's why I think you're starting to see more of these multi-flute tools using aluminum.

TONI NEARY: Why would you recommend this to a customer? And who is the ideal customer for this one?

JAY BALL: For me, when I'm looking at applications as far as what best fits this type of geometry or this type of cutting tool, it's 2D straight-walled prasmatic parts. So for example, if you had a customer that was trying to use a half inch tool, the standard product off the shelf comes with either one inch of flute length or inch and a half, and their components actually allow them to take full advantage of that flute length. That's a perfect fit for a five flute tool for dynamic machining or optimized roughing with a five flute tool in aluminum.

TONI NEARY: Alright Jay, tell me a little bit about the type of support that you're offering for shop, small manufacturers and organizations that are ready to make this transition.

JAY BALL: This partnership and the relationship that we have. We can come in, look at the processes, look at your machine, look at your part configuration, and really try to determine what's going to be the best fit. We want to look at the best technologies that are out there and if five flute’s not the answer, we have a full offering of products that can work for you, but a big thing is just making sure that your components lend themselves well to this type of tooling and then also this type of strategy.

TONI NEARY: So, how quickly do you think customers would see an ROI on this investment?

JAY BALL: Really, what you're going to see right out of the gate is a reduction in cycle time because you're taking advantage of the full flute length that you know, two times D or three times D, the flute length, your roughing cycle time is roughly we've seen anywhere from 30 to 40% reductions in roughing cycle times with these tools. But then also too for those customers, like you mentioned earlier, they can actually use these tools for finishing as well. So it's almost a double whammy.

TONI NEARY: What do you think are some of the best ways to share some of these processes, taking away some hesitancy, sharing that tribal knowledge, and how can the extended Seco Tools team really help with that?

JAY BALL: Every single technical specialist that is in the field for Seco has been a machinist. So we've been in the customer's shoes. We've been, we have all been programmers, operators, machinists, engineers. So they in turn are just going to naturally want to help educate those customers and make their life easier by talking about these new strategies, implementing the new tools. And really the nice thing is too, like you mentioned earlier, is the availability for the digital resources. We're very, very fortunate to have R&D facilities both here locally in the U.S. and then also overseas as well. So for whatever reason, if the technical specialist maybe doesn't have the answer for you, it's not going to take long to get in touch with the right person to get that sort of knowledge to that technical specialist, to then give it to the end user customer.

TONI NEARY: Jay, I want to thank you not just for your time today, but for the contribution that you are making to this industry because it's individuals like you that are willing to share this amazing brainpower that, you know, the rising tide raises all ships. So thank you so much.

JAY BALL: I cannot thank you enough for the opportunity, all the support that your team provides. I really enjoyed having this conversation with you today.

TONI NEARY: I am so glad we had a chance to have that conversation with Jay today. He is just such a rock star. So if you enjoyed our conversation as much as I did and you want to make sure that you see more discussions like this, please subscribe to our channel. You can learn more about Niagara Cutter and all of the Seco products at mscdirect.com, and we'll see you next time on Tooling Up.

NARRATOR: Want more insights and ideas to improve the efficiency and productivity of your operations? Check out the MSC Tooling Up video playlist to hear tips that can take your company to the next level and subscribe to our channel so you won't miss out.