Interesting Machining Sight

[the penguin]

About 15 years ago, I sold a car to a guy, it was a 1964 MG Midget. The car was a former SCCA race car, full roll cage, boxtube frame, I bought it and returned it to the street. I blew up the dying engine in no time, so I had a roller with no engine. I also had a rusting hulk of a Mazda RX-7, so a few quick measurements and a few fabricated parts, I had a 350 hp car that weighed 1350#. I sold the car as I was too young and foolish and felt I would die in the car. This afternoon, I went and started negotiations to buy the car back, he had never registered the car, but trailered a few time to Watkins Glen, for a few race outings. Damn, its fast!!

Now to get to the title of this thread, the guy has a milling machine, that is hydraulically driven. The main spindle is a hydraulic motor, the X, Y and Z motors are all hydraulically driven. there is a 5 hp motor that runs a hydraulic pump mounted on the supply/return tank, that pump, feeds all of the motors. He also has a lathe that is hydraulically driven, from a separate pump mounted on the same tank, with a separate motor. Its no surprise as the guy is a hydraulic engineer, working for the largest hydraulic equipment supplier in the state.

Maybe not realistic for everyone, but the mill is dead silent when turned on, as the tank and motor assembly is in a shed attached to the shop. I would like to see them in operation, but no shop projects going on at this time.

[Dr Stan]

That is interesting. Did he build the machines from scratch or convert existing equipment?

[the penguin]

(03-19-2016, 06:19 PM)Dr Stan Wrote: That is interesting.  Did he build the machines from scratch or convert existing equipment?

The mill was a Wells-Index and the lathe was a Monarch

[hermetic]

very interesting, probably not quite as efficient as powering them locally, but oh so quiet111 I used ti visit a precision engineering one man job shop in Bridlington which was all overhead power shafting, and was always impressed by how quiet it was.