3.5 tonne lump - down to 67kg!

[shiftin_gear98]

Random I know, but thought I'd share.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlG9w...yer_detailpage


Sorry no idea how to actually copy clip here.
Please feel free if you are gifted.

[jambo]

Wow.

That's a lot of swarf.

I'm reminded of a quote that I've heard attributed to Michaelangelo. There are various versions along the theme of:
"The sculpture is already complete within the marble block, before I start my work. It is already there, I just have to chisel away the superfluous material."

Jambo

[shiftin_gear98]

Yeah we were impressed - I work for a turned parts company, just not that scale!

[yorkie_chris]

Surely there's a more efficient way to make that than from round!

Originally Posted by yorkie_chris

Surely there's a more efficient way to make that than from round!

probably not unless you fancy a cast or welded engine.

[yorkie_chris]

When we've made similar shaped items we've started with flame cut or water jetted plates. Albeit they took err #a couple# of trips between machines...
Still, probably a reason for it.

Look at around 3:20 the round bit on the chuck end isn't that big then have they swapped from holding od in chuck to using a face driver later on?

I'd suggest the reason is simply that being able to use a machine lathe and do the job quickly is worth more than using a bit less metal.

I also suspect that the "wasted" metal isn't entirely wasted, there must be plenty of things it can go to that don't need the quality.

[yorkie_chris]

Recently done one, couple of steady rests (like the SLU on the machine in vid) except 2 of them back to back and used atling axi's... they pretty much just true up billets for oil and gas customers who make various down-holy type stuff... their scrap is worth a few hundred quid per 25kg bag apparently! No wasting that

The expensive bit isn't the metal that goes in the bin it's the machine time to hog it off, I bet that's probably £150/hr? More?

Then again, if it's fancy material sometimes you can't just buy it however shape you like.

[andrewsmith]

The components spec'ed for cutting from billet are aero and medical. Its something to do with the crystal structure of the material

Metal Spinning produces silly amounts of swarf (scrap man was the 3rd biggest customer at local plant) and it produces a higher tolerance part over a cast and machine finished part

[Bluepete]

I couldn't believe just how much the tool could take off in one pass! Those pieces of swarf were proper chunky hunks! The power of that thing is awesome.

Pete