Tennessee Machine Tool

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Tennessee Machine Tool Tennessee Machine Tool is a full line industrial distributor serving the automotive, aerospace, and defense industies.

Our motto is "providing tomorrow's solutions today!"

10/06/2026

Tool Tip Tuesday: Spot Drill vs. Center Drill 🔩

They look similar, but they're built for different jobs.

Spot drill: Use it to start a hole before drilling. The short, rigid body locates your drill exactly where you want it and stops walking. Match the spot angle to your drill point (or go slightly wider, like a 90° spot for a 118° drill) so the drill cuts from the corners first. Bonus: it can leave a clean chamfer in the same pass.

Center drill: Use it when you need a center hole for turning between centers or supporting work with a tailstock. The 60° countersink is made to seat a live or dead center. Using one to start a drilled hole works, but the small pilot tip is fragile and the angle mismatch can hurt hole accuracy.

Need either one? Give us a call at 865-724-2516.

09/29/2026

🔧 Tool Tip Tuesday: 118° vs 135°. Which point stops your drill from walking?

118° is more general purpose. It works well in softer materials like aluminum and mild steel. The tradeoff is a wider chisel edge that wants to skate on the surface, especially on flat or hard stock. Pair it with a spot drill for accurate starts.

135° is flatter and usually comes with a split point. That split thins the chisel edge so the drill cuts right away instead of wandering. It is the better pick for stainless, alloy steels, and harder materials, and it often lets you skip the spot drill entirely.

Quick rule: if you spot drill, use a spot angle equal to or wider than your drill point. That way the drill tip engages first and your corners do not take the hit.

Need help finding the right drill for your job? Message us your material and operation and we will point you to the right drill.

865-724-2516 | [email protected]

09/15/2026

Tool Tip Tuesday: Climb vs Conventional

Climb or conventional comes down to whether the cutter is spinning with your feed direction or against it.

Climb milling: the cutter enters at full chip thickness and exits thin. It is the default on any modern machine with tight ballscrews.

Conventional milling: the cutter enters thin and exits thick. It rubs before it cuts, which work hardens the surface and burns edges. Still the right call on older machines with backlash, and on hard scale or flame cut stock where you want the edge coming up from underneath.

Running an endmill that is not lasting as long as it should? Tell us the material and the machine and we will tell you which way to cut it.

09/08/2026

Tool Tip Tuesday

Every tap drill chart targets 75 percent thread engagement. That one number is why you keep breaking taps.

Past about 75 percent, thread strength stops climbing but torque keeps going up. Guhring recommends 60 to 70 percent for most work. In stainless, titanium, small taps, and blind holes, step up one drill size.

Almost no strength lost. A lot fewer taps left in good parts.

What is the last tap you broke?

08/25/2026

Tool Tip Tuesday: Your chips are giving you feedback.

Long stringy chips mean the chip is not breaking. They wrap the tool, trap heat on the edge, and ruin your finish. Bird nesting is the same problem but one step worse.

What you want are tight 6s and 9s. Short chips that clear on their own, silver to light straw. Blue means you are cooking the edge.

Usually the fix is more feed, not less. Or a chipbreaker matched to your actual depth of cut.

Send us a photo of your chips and the part you are running. We will tell you what to change.

08/18/2026

Not sure if you need a spiral point or spiral flute? Let the hole decide.

Spiral point pushes chips forward and out the bottom. Best for through holes.

Spiral flute pulls chips back up and out the top. Best for blind holes, where packed chips break taps.

Through hole? Pick the spiral point. Blind hole? Pick the spiral flute.

Need help matching a tap to your material? Give us a call. We have plenty of OSG USA taps in stock.

08/11/2026

Tool Tip Tuesday: Why causes taps to break

Most of the time, broken taps come down to four things.

1. Wrong drill size - Undersized hole means the tap cuts more thread than it was built for.

2. Chips packing up - Spiral point pushes chips down in a blind hole. Use spiral flute to pull them out.

3. Not square to the part - A crooked start fights the thread the whole way down. Misalignment is one of the most common reasons taps break.

4. Bottoming out - Tap hits the bottom while the spindle is still turning.

Need some taps?
865-724-2516 | www.tnmachinetool.com

08/05/2026

The cheapest tool in the building can be the one that stops your floor.

Nobody budgets for running out. It just shows up.

A spindle goes quiet. Somebody makes the emergency buy at rush prices with overnight freight, on a tool you already owned somewhere in the building. Then you pay overtime and air freight to protect the ship date, and the customer remembers anyway.

Add up one of those:

4 idle hours at $250 an hour
A rush buy and the freight to go with it
Overtime and air freight to save the date

Call it $3,500. Once a month is normal for a lot of operations, and that adds up to $42,000 a year.

The Integration Program keeps your tooling stocked, so an empty bin is never the reason a machine is down.

Those numbers are illustrative, not a quote. Bring us your spindle rate and we will run yours.

865-724-2516
www.tnmachinetool.com

08/04/2026



You can have the same cutter and have 200 parts one run and 80 the next.

The tool is rarely the problem.

There is several things that can contribute to this. Runout you never indicated. Coolant that drifted while nobody was looking. More stickout than last time. And one guy who calls it worn out sooner than the next guy.

None of that shows up on the control. All of it shows up in your tooling spend.

Pick a wear limit, log parts per edge instead of parts per shift, and the swings get a lot smaller.

What is the biggest tool life swing you have seen on the same job?

Address

3019 Regal Drive
Alcoa, TN
37701

Opening Hours

Monday 8am - 5pm
Tuesday 8am - 5pm
Wednesday 8am - 5pm
Thursday 8am - 5pm
Friday 8am - 5pm

Telephone

+18657242516

Website

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