concrete lathe, concrete milling machine and others

[gaz1]

ive been around youtube often and have noticed a few builds out there

concrete lathe

https://www.engineeringforchange.or...6/02/multimachine-concrete-lathe-ver-1-10.pdf

milling machine

http://opensourcemachinetools.org/w...ploads/2013/12/romig-a-small-bench-miller.pdf

cnc machine

 

[Rig Pig]

No substitute for good old cast iron, I wonder how long it would last on a lumpy interrupted cut.

 

[8ob]

No substitute for good old cast iron, I wonder how long it would last on a lumpy interrupted cut.

You have to admit its an interesting concept though Mr Pig , never heard of epoxy concrete before Thanks for posting @gaz1

Bob

 

[Kram]

Epoxy granite is supposed to be the best, many of the big machines use it, but getting the right mix, without bubbles or the mix settling out, is quite difficult. It is used with steel plates/ rails for mounting everything.
I have 5 concrete fence posts in the garden Im very tempted to use one for a drill press

 

[Pete.]

That first one is a full-on abortion

 

[gaz1]

No substitute for good old cast iron, I wonder how long it would last on a lumpy interrupted cut.

the problem with cast iron its expensive to have something cast using its method

i had taken note of @pressbrake1 post casting of the camel back / fish back straight edge

and to have something cast would truly be expensive

https://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/threads/camel-fish-back-straight-edge.97254/page-9

not everyone can afford one depending on where you live

 

[bricol]

18 years ago I was working on a project that involved a well known German manufacturer of rather large machine tools and several well known military aircraft manufacturers in various places in the world (that only recently finally delivered some flying machines to the UK) that was using high strength concrete as part of the machine structure.

Funnest bit for me was seeing a guy in typical German bib and brace soveralls, using a fold out wooden carpenters rule and a laser to position things

 

[gaz1]

@8ob

watch this video its interesting

 

[gaz1]

That first one is a full-on abortion

this one is a world war one concrete/metal lathe



https://www.engineeringforchange.or...d-war-i-technology-meets-21st-century-design/

http://www.lathes.co.uk/multimachine/

 

[Rig Pig]

the problem with cast iron its expensive to have something cast using its method

i had taken note of @pressbrake1 post casting of the camel back / fish back straight edge

and to have something cast would truly be expensive

https://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/threads/camel-fish-back-straight-edge.97254/page-9

not everyone can afford one depending on where you live

It's only expensive because we have closed down most of the iron foundrys, it's still cheap in other countries where they actually make things, epoxy granite isn't cheap really and I doubt it compares strength wise with iron, I believe it's used as a damping filler in high end machines. Its interesting to see what people are making but i wonder how well these machines actually perform.

 

[gaz1]

I was looking down concrete to build a metal planing machine as its the closest i can get to cast iron build

i could use an old cast iron radiator for the runs but it would be ackward to replace over the years

however the build would still need a homemade shaper or grinder to flatten the material off

epoxy granite planning machine is viable but way too expensive for that sort of a build so its back down to concrete again

either use soft steel hardened and replaced when needed

 

[Rig Pig]

I was looking down concrete to build a metal planing machine as its the closest i can get to cast iron build

i could use an old cast iron radiator for the runs but it would be ackward to replace over the years

however the build would still need a homemade shaper or grinder to flatten the material off

epoxy granite planning machine is viable but way too expensive for that sort of a build so its beack down to concrete again

either use soft steel hardened and replaced when needed

It would be an interesting build but getting everything square and true enough to operate as sideways would be a nightmare, I spent a while planning a bedway grinder for an old lathe I had, I was thinking of using old hydraulic rams as the ways because they were the only thing I could think of that would be accurate enough, the problem is the effort and cost involved didn't justify it, a better lathe was cheaper! There are some horrible botch jobs on YouTube using angle grinders to try and dress bedways, sadly the end result is probably worse than the worn bed was to start with!

 

[grim_d]

Epoxy granite is supposed to be the best, many of the big machines use it, but getting the right mix, without bubbles or the mix settling out, is quite difficult. It is used with steel plates/ rails for mounting everything.
I have 5 concrete fence posts in the garden Im very tempted to use one for a drill press

I wouldn't, they tend to be rubbish concrete and are super fragile. The strength is all in the 6mm "rebar"

 

[pressbrake1]

the problem with cast iron its expensive to have something cast using its method

i had taken note of @pressbrake1 post casting of the camel back / fish back straight edge

and to have something cast would truly be expensive

https://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/threads/camel-fish-back-straight-edge.97254/page-9

not everyone can afford one depending on where you live

To get a full size wheeling machine (English wheel) cast in England is £3000+ and there’s no cores single piece casting out of grey cast iron.
I reckon to make say my dsg in the correct dsg spec semi steel would cost £5000 a ton so £25000 before we even start

 

[pedrobedro]

18 years ago I was working on a project that involved a well known German manufacturer of rather large machine tools and several well known military aircraft manufacturers in various places in the world (that only recently finally delivered some flying machines to the UK) that was using high strength concrete as part of the machine structure.

Funnest bit for me was seeing a guy in typical German bib and brace overalls, using a fold out wooden carpenters rule and a laser to position things

A concrete aeroplane sounds like it would go down like a lead balloon Ordinary concrete was used to make boats and barges, wreckage of one appears at low tide near Whitby Scar.

 

[gaz1]

my thoughts on the concrete planing machine

with bolts coming through the base of the planning machine then goes through a u channel bolted down to it

leveling off can be done with planed spacers and a long steel bar to fit into the channel which is then bolted to the u channel

this is then fastened to another bar either use a hardened steel bar or use a cast iron bar

the uprights can be done the same way but by using longer bars it would create something to fasten too and able to slide the mechanism up and down

 

[Seadog]

A concrete aeroplane sounds like it would go down like a lead balloon

What about a ship made of ice, then?

 

[gaz1]

ive made this out of perlight and fire cement

slight tapping on the forms to settle them but not too much as heavy material drops to the bottom of the mix

perlight and cement mix was heavy in that context however was powdery and also wears away too easily as had to be careful with the forms

small one



large one

 

[chrisg3103]

What about a ship made of ice, then?

Not ice, pykrete - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pykrete

 

[gaz1]

things have changed enough other items can be made nowadays with different technology

so concrete lathes

concrete planing machine

concrete milling machines

all can be made even very smooth