Mike Turner, operations manager at Derby Machine (Derby, Kansas) had a problem: Finding a vendor that could ID broach a blind hole in 304 stainless steel to proper size/accuracy specifications forced the company to ship its parts from Kansas to Chicago at $15 per part with a $100 setup fee, plus shipping both ways. Along with these costs, Mr. Turner says the parts were often damaged in the shipping process, so he began to ship them in ammo boxes for protection.

In search of a better solution, Mr. Turner decided to give an indexable-insert broaching tool from CNC Broach Tool (Marina Del Rey, California) a try. Though originally developed for lathes, Derby Machine would use the tool in a Haas mill. When the company received the tool and started setting up the machine, Mr. Turner says CNC Broach Tool’s John Gardner was very helpful in instructing the company on how to install the tool, as well as get the program, feeds and speeds correct.

According to Mr. Turner, the tool paid for itself several times over on the first run alone. From a single insert point, the company can broach more than 100 parts with a cycle time increase of only 2 minutes, 14 seconds. Today, the company has run more than 1,000 parts using very few inserts and has never lost the tool itself, he says.

“We never scrapped any parts because of the broach. It holds the depth and width through the whole run. I am extremely happy with the results and cost savings of this tool,” Mr. Turner says.