Indian Mountain Machine improves finish & reduces cycle time with devibe bar from MAQ

ABOUT: Indian Mountain Machine is committed to providing exceptional value through competitive pricing, superior quality, and dependable on-time deliveries as well as personal and professional customer service. Every year Indian Mountain Machine provides thousands of precision machined parts to companies of all sizes. They machine many types of materials including stainless, brass/bronze, copper, plastic, aluminum, epoxy, Delrin, nylon, PVC  and carbon fiber.

by ​Jerry McNealy, Owner, Indian Mountain Machine

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My name is Jerry McNealy – I’ve been in the machining industry for over thirty years, and I am the owner and operator of Indian Mountain Machine based out of Jellico, Tennessee. Here, we handle some highly complex and precision parts (most of which have just as high a value placed on their cosmetics as they do their function/tolerance).

Pair this with the fact that I started running a CNC lathe only a couple years into my early career, and I can definitely claim to know a thing or two about some of the problems you tend to come across with thin-wall parts in a lathe.

At our shop, we do several somewhat thin wall long parts, and we’ve bought other anti-vibe bars in the past that have usually resulted in having to turn the RPM down very low, as well as the feed rates, which results in these projects taking a considerable amount of time to achieve the finish we need – and it’s still not good enough.

One day, we were tooling up another machine to do some parts, and I spoke with Gary McNealy at Jones Marketing Inc., who suggested that we try out this new chatter-free anti-vibe bar made by MAQ. I hadn’t yet heard of MAQ, but it looked interesting, and I trusted his recommendation. Looking back on it now, I’m extremely glad we did – because I have never seen anything perform quite as well as these bars do.

Indian Mountain Machine running an MAQ Devibe Bar

We decided to start out with a 1” diameter bar, running some 6.5” long parts – which then progressed into some 8” long parts, and still only required a 1” diameter bar.

And as we continued to run parts, we kept increasing the speed and feed rate, before finally ending up around 1000 RPMs and a feed rate of .005 IPR.

We were completely surprised by the finish, not to mention the speed with which we could now produce these parts!

In fact, another incredible thing that the MAQ Bar’s performance has done is improve the product and its finish, allowing us to actually skip the dreaded sanding and polishing process. Some parts can even be cleaned and shipped straight to plating.

​We ended up going into some 9” long parts, which we were able to get the 1.25” bar for. To really illustrate how great the MAQ Bar is, though, when we first started running the parts, I went over to my toolbox and got the best 1.25” anti-vibe bar that we’d had previously, thinking that we might just try with it first and see how it goes. This bar has seen a lot of parts over the years, and it has a lot of character to show for it; rubber bands wrapped around it, bungee cords wrapped around the parts, the whole deal – anything to dampen vibration.

Using this bar, however, we only ended up with what I figured to be a low RPM, slow speed, and a very poor finish. This particular part we were working on was going to take up to an hour and 15 minutes to rough and finish the bore.

But once we switched over to the MAQ 1.25” Bar, it roughed and finished the part with the same bar in less than 15 minutes. The finished product was checking at under a 20 (micro), and was absolutely immaculate.

Like I said, I’ve been at this a long time – and I’ve definitely been around the block enough to recognize a game-changer when I see it.

MAQ Bars are, without a doubt, true standouts that have impressed me and the rest of the team here at Indian Mountain Machine. They are built to extremely high standards, save us valuable time, and are completely dependable, always resulting in final products that we are proud to ship out from our shop.

​I am personally a huge fan of MAQ, and I cannot recommend them highly enough. You will not be disappointed with what they have to offer.