I have a friend who is a mechanical engineer at the Naval Ordnance Station in Louisville. I inquired about the machining on these big naval guns, and he told me that most of the drawings are from the 1940s, and in general, the machining is manual and conventional, although the lathes and other machinery are super sized. No doubt they do need to make special machining tools to make some of the odder things they can't make with large but otherwise conventional shop tools.
When I'm using my little lathe in my basement shop, I always keep in mind the story my friend told me about one of their most experienced machinists who one day, for no apparent reason, reached down inside the bore of a barrel that was slowly spinning in the lathe. The rag in his hand wedged and he flipped around several times before the lathe could be stopped. It didn't kill him, but it destroyed his shoulder. Horrific stories like that have given me a great appreciation for the hazards lurking in my own little lathe. Many of these large naval guns are being given a new lease on life with modern electronics, much as old military planes such as the B-52 keep being upgraded with new electronics. I have another friend who got a personal tour of Faxon Machining, a very specialized machine shop. They have large lathes that turn some of these huge barrels for the navy. While my friend was there, they were turning what was essentially the drive shaft for a nuclear reactor. It's humbling to see people working at such scale, but also inspiring. I was a teenager visiting a friend whose dad was an engineer. I had decided to be an engineer a few years before but still didn't know much about engineering. I did know that his dad had a very nice, meticulously organized and spotless machine shop in his basement, and we weren't allowed to go in there. I saw a large drawing near their front door and I slipped off the rubber band, unrolled it, and sneaked a peek. For about a minute, I tried to make sense of it but I couldn't determine what it represented. Then, near the bottom of the 48" X 36" drawing was an object that was about 3/4" long that I recognized as a railroad coal car. My friend's dad was designing a new coal fueled power plant. On 02/07/2016 03:15 PM, andy pugh wrote: > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welin_breech_block#/media/File:Sailor_looking_into_the_breech_of_16_inch_gun_aboard_USS_Alabama_(BB-60).jpg > > I suspect an extremely specialised machine for the internal version. > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Site24x7 APM Insight: Get Deep Visibility into Application Performance APM + Mobile APM + RUM: Monitor 3 App instances at just $35/Month Monitor end-to-end web transactions and take corrective actions now Troubleshoot faster and improve end-user experience. Signup Now! http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=272487151&iu=/4140 _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
