Elastic Bands on the Boring Bar

by Morning Machinist

Author

Jon House
July 06, 2025

“Meet our shop's newest hire Ekko. I was told he is paws-itively skilled with precision.

First day on the job, he walked up to the machine, inspected everything and immediately lay down.

"It's been a ruff day. I need a paws", he said”

Andrew Bui

Top comments include:

  • “Keeping an employee chained to a machine is one way to keep production up….lol”

  • “He must be former union”

  • “Are you Fur-real ?”

👷‍♂️ hireCNC Featured Companies / Jobs

Machining Tricks

Only old school machinists will know why the boring bar has elastic bands on it.

Mike Read

Top comments include:

  • “Chatter deterrence”

  • “The golden rule was use as big a boring bar as possible and ensure thr overhang was at the minimum required.”

  • “I used rubber and also clay.”

  • “Silence that scream ! Resonance sucks, and rubber bands are safer than holding your finger on it ! Mind you, in this instance, a larger, more rigid boring bar would have been a better solution, as the bore isn't tight”

  • “Use to use a innertube for same purpose!”

  • “It's killing the good vibrations, lol”

Machinist Nostalgia

This is what I used for engineering drafting until 1982 when the company purchased Autocad 2.1.

Terry Forbes

I Like Big Tools

  • “Those are what I use to torque my balls in place, first thing in the morning”

  • “There's my 10 mm I misplaced!”