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How props were made

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Brian,
Ignore him, this is engineering history, and that is what you put up there. That stuff makes the ten ton foundry, where I used to work in the UK, look like a hobby shop.
B.E.
 
Jmw, you know you want to spend the day rooting through that site, admit it!!

Im sorry I wasn't about back then, so much was figured out. All that figuring out later became Inputs for computer programmes. Im still figuring out the Inputs 70yrs later LOL

BG
 
I did spend a day rooting through that site. That was the point of my comment.
I also enjoyed it very much and what really facinates is how they tackled projects back then without all the tools we have today. And the further back you go, the more impressive are some of the projects that not only were seriously considered but actually built.
That includes pyramids, medievil cathedrals and so on.
Today I got a snippet from the Greenwich Museum on the radio.
I had previously read a book about Harrison and seen a TV show devoted to Harrison and his marine chronometers.

H3 is being rebuilt.
It has over a thousand components all made with very centre to basic lathes and the plates were hand filed. It took him 19 years to make H3.
Today's very brief radio article brought out something of the manufacturing methods the complexity of the design and it revealed that Harrison, in his pursuit of the very best chronometer invented the caged ball bearing and the bi-metallic strip... back in the 1750's.

So yes, posts like this fascinate me but they also take up a lot of my time.... so despite what I said, do please keep such links coming.

But maybe they didn't have 'elf and safety, HR or dumb managers to hold them back... or did they? (Must go look at that other thread on this and see what people have been saying).

JMW
 
Brilliant

Can a machinist tell me why a ball ended milling cutter, or a grinding wheel, weren't used for that planing (shaping) job? An active tool has to be easier than transferring all the cutting forces via a gantry.



Cheers

Greg Locock


New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376
 
I think the planer is multiply articulated and geared (very unlike a classical planer) so as to generate a curved surface with a simple cutter translating along a linear slide (which is itself moving during the cut), not unlike the way a Gleason gear generator produces a curved tooth using a straight-sided cutter, which is easy to sharpen.

Also, given the surface speed limits imposed by the tough bronze they're cutting, the extra speed available from live tooling couldn't be used, even if you could solve the problem of providing clearance for a milling head and drive all over the generated surface.




Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA
 
Now that's good!
As a matter of fact I did get an all too brief tour of the MAK (now Caterillar) works in Kiel.... it was quite something to see the how they make the large diesel engines..... I'm sorry I didn't get the same access when I visited Man B&W but the one I'd like to see is Wartsila's machine shop..... now there are some big engines!

JMW
 
Going back over the first sequence of pictures, I couldn't help but think that "elf and Safety officials would have apoplectic fits if they encountered foundry work being conducted that way today....

JMW
 
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