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weirdest substance you ever machined

  • Thread starter Johnny Larue
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Not me, but I watched another guy wreck some experimental plastic once. We thought it was Lexan and it was some experimental shit that the chem dept had made. Not too often you get to destroy something truly unique.
 
Silver, whilst being watched by a security guard.
Regards Tyrone.

They didn't trust you enough to be honest
with the swarf?? I'd of refused, that's an insult.


Machined some sort of pure Teflon a few times.
Weird bright white color with a blue hue.
About like soap. Clamp it too hard and it will crack up
Clamp it too easy and it slides in the vise jaws very well.
So how snug do you tighten the vise?
Didn't help when the engineer said the (2)
1-1/2" square cubes cost $650
 
Chemically pure Gold for electronics. Used a cloth type paper for chip recovery Also had to wash my hands with the same paper in the sink.
 
Gadolinium.

4 inch dia. boule that I cut 2ea x 1" thk slabs for sputtering targets.

Oh yeah, it had been melted in an Iridium crucible so that got sliced up too!!

Tim in D
 
Silver, whilst being watched by a security guard.

Regards Tyrone.

worked with a guy that had previously been instructed to hold a piece of cardboard under a silver part in the engine lathe. He got tired and started to rest his thumb on the tool bit to support his arm.
Do I need to finish the story??? nah, you get the picture.

it's what happens when you listen to carefully to the boss. My colleague should have just cleaned the chip pan, as he said it.


as far as exotics for me nothing special. Kevlar, carbon fiber, 6al4v and 2222Ti, A286, urethane along with normal metals of various hardness. just mentioning to be relevant to OP.
 
Well so far timascus is. It's a laminate of 2 or more titanium alloys which is basically damascus but of titanium. It is pretty darn expensive being around I think $55-60ish an inch for around 5/8 diameter rod, and it was $311 for .134 thick 8.6x2.2 sheet of it. I've also machined Zirconium which is very gummy, and very dangerous if caught on fire. Also apparently illegal in taiwan. Theres also black timascus which is zirconium and titanium laminate. It apparently sparks when machined or people just don't know how to machine properly
 
Had to bore out some bushings a few years ago that got a silver plate on the ID.. Whoever plated them got a little
crazy... I got 14 adivap..adivoospr...regular ounces of silver chips from that job.. Back when silver was almost $40 an ounce (Troy)...

Making some more of those bushings right now.. I hope the plater is as generous with the silver this trip around.

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Uranium -- for a machinability study way back in college. The machining and insert flank and crater wear measuring part wasn't so unusual . . . it was getting in and out of the facility.
 
Some kind of semi soft Rubber, had to turn it down. It was when I worked for a big soft goods company. Soaked it in liquid nitrogen, turned a bit, then back to get cold. Repeated this a few times got the part in tolerance and was all grins. Then I set it on the bench, it warmed up and broke into a dozen or so pieces. worth a try I guess.
 








 
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