Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Steam Engine Part 3

So, I've been putting it off for a few days. I actually wanted to post several things but I just didn't have the time to. Like I said before, I wanted to post something about building a new computer. So, at this point, my blogging goals are: 1) process of building a new computer system 2) continue posting about the steam engine project 3) getting an internship/job during or after college Number 2 would be the quickest. Does anybody remember my very first post about this steam engine project? It was a failure so it shouldn't be too hard to remember. Basically, it turned out all lopsided and deformed because we had too much water in the sand and really, we were rushing it. Anyways, we were able to find some that were in a lot better condition, but still not in top form. So that's when the milling process came in. Vertical mill was the type that we used to cut the deformities off the aluminum frames. My friendly neighborhood Wikipedia explains it better:
A milling machine is a machine tool used for the complex shaping of metal and other solid materials. Its basic form is that of a rotating cutter or endmill which rotates about the spindle axis (similar to a drill), and a movable table to which the workpiece is affixed. That is to say, the cutting tool generally remains stationary (except for its rotation) while the workpiece moves to accomplish the cutting action.
Source: Wikipedia-Milling Machine
So the entire process was cool. In a matter of seconds, your material can be smooth and polished. To me, the advantage of using a milling machine over a lathe is that parts of the mills (endmills, etc) in a milling machine don't have to be switched out during th process. Instead, the actual part that you want to mill is moved (rotated, etc). However, this is not true for the lathe. When using a lathe, the part is stationary while the different drills,etc. are replaced. So which one would be more efficient in the end? Well, I believe that the milling machine would be a little bit more efficient because one doesn't need to switch out the different endmills, etc. However, it is said that a lathe is able to do ALL of the functions of other machines. But why would you want to do that if there are faster ways?



No comments:

Roomie-Mania


        Want to be my roomie?