Have you ever paid over the odds for drilling, boring or honing? If so, you’re certainly not alone. 

Drilling, honing and boring costs are notorious for being something of an arcane secret for people who aren’t ‘in the know’ about the process involved. We have attempted to shed some light on the world of pricing in our latest downloadable e-book: The Guide To Deep Hole Drilling, Boring & Honing Costs. You can download a copy by clicking here.

At Hone-All we are committed to the belief that simpler is better when it comes to supply chains. Most people know Hone All for our practical services in advanced honing, boring, and CNC machining. However, we’re also dedicated to trouble shooting, project management, and ironing out supply chain creases.

In this article we would like to talk about quotes; specifically, why specialist CNC engineering companies charge what they do. There is a cost versus quality debate in every industry we can think of. The argument possibly goes that the lower the quote, the more corners must need to be cut at the suppliers’ side in order to achieve the price while still returning a reasonable profit. This usually leaves a fairly wide margin for flexibility, but it also means that a race to the bottom towards ever lower prices is rarely beneficial for either customers or suppliers in the long run.

The last few months have been a time of seismic change for manufacturing industries across the globe. Despite the dark days of uncertainty, beams of hope have illuminated a future filled with potential. Here are some stand-out moments that show how companies have adapted to change.

Outsourcing – already a familiar concept in IT and payroll – became a popular option in manufacturing following the 2008/9 recession, and the trend has persisted since, with many engineering companies recognising that outsourcing can bridge the skills gap as well as keeping costs low, improving turnaround times and boosting profit margins.

Shortly before Christmas, we were delighted to be awarded the Best Sub Contract Machining Award, as part of SME News Magazine’s 2019 Energy & Power Awards.

Oil and gas exploration and extraction relies on long, thin, durable tubing to work. However, only a very limited number of engineering companies have the expertise, machinery, and tools to create the precision-tooled, high-capacity metal tubing that fossil fuel industries need. At Hone-All, we can assist the production of oil and gas tubing by creating precision-bored, deep hole extraction equipment to bespoke order. We regularly process stainless steel extraction tubing using high-capacity, specialised stainless steel super-alloys, such as Inconel 718 and AISI 4145.

But what are the specific advantages that fuel companies gain by using us for their orders? Read on...

Manufacturing enterprises within the engineering footprint remain the largest economic contributor of the engineering-based industries, generating £156.1 billion GVA (or 9.3% of the GVA for all industries) in 2015. Indeed, in 2016 almost half of the engineering footprint turnover came from manufacturing (46.5%).

As a business, we will naturally assume there is a requirement of concentricity or equal wall thickness unless we are told otherwise, for example, if the application is simply for fluid flow

You could argue that we are over-engineering the machining and this is at the expense of our competitiveness within the industry. However, we believe in giving the customer the very best that can be achieved and ensuring that they do not encounter any unexpected issues further down the production process.

Drill wander is a major feature of all deep hole drilling and deep hole boring machinery and service provision. This is where the drilled hole will start perfectly on centre and although the bore will be completely straight, the exit will be off-centre by an amount relative to the length of the hole drilled.