KRATOSTRUCTURES
SUBMIT AN RFQ
BLOG

Notes from the floor and the stack.

News, field notes, and the open questions we get asked most. Send us a drawing problem, a data set, or a question and we will write the answer here.

Illustration of two colleagues at a bench, one inspecting a tiny machined part while the other holds a large assembly with a wide open slot.
FIELD NOTE 3 MIN READ

The Tolerance You Asked For Isn't the Tolerance You Need

We held half a thou on twelve parts over nine days. Three months later I found out the bore had twenty thou of clearance.

Kratostructures · Editorial Team 3 MIN READ READ THE POST →
Illustration of two colleagues in a doorway between a calm shop floor and an office desk buried under a tall stack of paperwork.
OPEN QUESTION 4 MIN READ

What an AI-First Machine Shop Actually Looks Like

I flew home from a robot show and walked past the actual answer at 6:40 that same evening, in my own office.

Kratostructures · Editorial Team 4 MIN READ READ THE POST →
Illustration of two colleagues beside a server cabinet, standing inside a closed blue boundary that nothing crosses.
NEWS 4 MIN READ

Your Drawings Never Leave Our Servers

A customer's form asked which AI providers see their drawings. I typed None. Then I counted how many customers had ever thought to ask.

Kratostructures · Editorial Team 4 MIN READ READ THE POST →
Illustration of two people at a table, one holding a single blank card while the other points partway down a long sequence of steps.
FIELD NOTE 3 MIN READ

A Price Is Not a Plan

Lost a forty-piece job by nine thousand eight hundred last March. Five months later I found out where that money went.

Kratostructures · Editorial Team 3 MIN READ READ THE POST →
MORE POSTS
A dark, empty machine shop after hours, machines reduced to silhouettes with one distant window of light.
OPEN QUESTION 7 MIN READ

Why Your RFQ Sits for Three Days Before Anyone Prices It

Your quote didn't take three days of engineering. It took twenty minutes, plus three overnight gaps. The gaps are the fixable part.

Kratostructures · Editorial Team 7 MIN READ READ THE POST →
Illustration of two colleagues at a tall shelf of storage boxes, each holding an identical note.
FIELD NOTE 4 MIN READ

Every Job Should Teach the Shop Something

Our senior machinist knew how that part wanted to be cut. Then he was out for four days, and we paid to learn it a second time.

Kratostructures · Editorial Team 4 MIN READ READ THE POST →
A precision machined aluminium part on a black granite surface plate beside a rolled paper print, out of focus.
FIELD NOTE 7 MIN READ

Send the STEP File and the Drawing. We Need Both.

The model tells us the shape of your part. The drawing tells us what it has to do. Send one and I'm guessing.

Kratostructures · Editorial Team 7 MIN READ READ THE POST →
Extreme macro of a carbide end mill, light catching the cutting edge and flutes against darkness.
FIELD NOTE 7 MIN READ

Five Ways a Good Design Turns Into an Expensive Part

A designer in Rochester put an R0.160" in eleven corners and took nineteen percent off his part. He didn't lose a thing.

Kratostructures · Editorial Team 7 MIN READ READ THE POST →
Tight overhead crop of identical anodized aluminium parts arranged in rows in a shallow tray.
FIELD NOTE 7 MIN READ

How I Pick a Finishing Vendor, and What I Ignore

A certificate tells me a system existed on audit day. Four delivered lots tell me what happens on an ordinary Tuesday.

Kratostructures · Editorial Team 7 MIN READ READ THE POST →
Close detail of neatly organised conduit running along a dark wall, receding into shallow focus.
OPEN QUESTION 7 MIN READ

The ERP Screen Is Becoming Plumbing

Our ERP's screens are turning into a fallback path and the API is turning into the product. Here's what I'd ask a vendor now.

Kratostructures · Editorial Team 7 MIN READ READ THE POST →