On Thursday, March 2, 2006, at 05:50 PM, LGMCAFEE@aol.com wrote:
> Thanks to all that took the time to post on the lathe information. I
> am still
> going to do a little more research befor buying anything.
> Larry Mac
I thought of this thread the other night when a group I'm in went on a
tour of a local manufacturer -- of titanium and Stainless implants for
when you break your back or neck or hip and such.
The Bridgeport machines are there for fixing things in the shop, that's
all -- the crude work, if you will. The Tsubaki machines -- whoa, what
art! Production tolerances of .0001", dual carousels of 100 tools each
and ten jobs mounted on platforms -- so the machine can use one tool
for up to ten different jobs, then switch tools and do more jobs.
Swiss turning machines that take in 10-foot bars of stock and make
little* thingies that'll end up in your aunt's neck some day. EDM
cutters (that'd do a fine job of making blanks for some rods for my
bike!), CNC machines making implant items out of plastic, and -- even
with barrels of this cutting fluid and that coolant and such -- floors
that are pretty dang clean. 3" copper pipe up in the ceiling
delivering air to all the machines, and on and on. Nice stuff.
*Little? Pieces that'd fit on your pinkie fingernail, made to a
ten-thousandth.
I'd be rich if they gave me just the turnings from all those machines.
I don't need the off-spec Ti parts that are scrapped, no, just the
filings and scrapings would keep me happy. Oh, and I'll take the worn
tools, too -- buckets of dull Ti blades and cutters and. . .
Jon Wennerberg
Seldom Seen Slim Land Speed Racing
Marquette, Michigan
(that's 'way up north)
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