Comments on: And they're recyclable!

And they're recyclable!

Bee'sWing — Thu, 23 Nov 2017 13:16:45 -0800

How tungsten carbide machine tool inserts are made. SLYT

Tungsten carbide. Sintering.

By: aubilenon

aubilenon — Thu, 23 Nov 2017 13:28:29 -0800

I'd wondered about this but never hard enough to look it up. But I wouldn't have guessed they were basically molded. Neat!

By: pdoege

pdoege — Thu, 23 Nov 2017 13:33:57 -0800

I checked prices. Anywhere from $4 to $40 per insert wholesale from China. So those 10-packs might run a company $400. A typical estimate is that an insert lasts about 30 minutes in cutting time. With softer materials they may last for years, iconel maybe minutes. If the insert lasts too long you wasted money buying them. If the lifetime is too short you lose money changing the tooling. So a bit of a balancing act. So, about $8 to $80/hr just for the wear on the cutting surfaces, assuming nominal hardness selection.

By: fearfulsymmetry

fearfulsymmetry — Thu, 23 Nov 2017 13:36:04 -0800

Obligatory Python

By: eye of newt

eye of newt — Thu, 23 Nov 2017 14:04:11 -0800

Tungsten carbide nanoparticles were just in the news as a possible breakthrough as a membrane material for fuel cells (used in hydrogen powered cars), compared to platinum, which is what they use now.

By: Mei's lost sandal

Mei's lost sandal — Thu, 23 Nov 2017 14:53:30 -0800

Cool fact: Tungsten carbide is more dense than lead. Sailboat owners who have more money than sense make their keel ballast out of tungsten instead of lead.

By: ColeHernandez

ColeHernandez — Thu, 23 Nov 2017 14:59:06 -0800

Thank you man

By: Tell Me No Lies

Tell Me No Lies — Thu, 23 Nov 2017 14:59:34 -0800

Neat!

By: Mei's lost sandal

Mei's lost sandal — Thu, 23 Nov 2017 15:02:27 -0800

Also this leads directly to one of my favorite genres: Machining videos.

By: idiopath

idiopath — Thu, 23 Nov 2017 15:19:35 -0800

this led me to go read up more about tungsten carbide, and to think it would be a great material to use in instrument strings - turns out the C string on my viola is already a tungsten alloy around a synthetic core (which would explain why it's lower than the g, while being about the same size and tension)

By: ZenMasterThis

ZenMasterThis — Thu, 23 Nov 2017 15:23:47 -0800

With softer materials they may last for years, inconel maybe minutes. Ceramic inserts last longer on inconel. Watch your speeds and feeds, though.

By: Bee'sWing

Bee'sWing — Thu, 23 Nov 2017 15:27:18 -0800

Sailboat owners who have more money than sense make their keel ballast out of tungsten instead of lead. Also goose hunters who can no longer use lead shot can buy tungsten shot at very fancy prices rather than steel shot.

By: Zonker

Zonker — Thu, 23 Nov 2017 16:03:38 -0800

Cool fact: Tungsten carbide is more dense than lead. Sailboat owners who have more money than sense make their keel ballast out of tungsten instead of lead. I was going to joke that they only do that because they can't get their hands on depleted uranium ballast, but that's apparently a thing that's used in some ridiculously high-end boats. (You probably can't shoot it at geese, though. Yet.)

By: Chuckles

Chuckles — Thu, 23 Nov 2017 16:22:30 -0800

Also this leads directly to one of my favorite genres: Machining videos. Those are big chips!

By: wierdo

wierdo — Thu, 23 Nov 2017 16:56:50 -0800

I've been led to believe that the Chinese inserts are more likely to fracture than the Western brands.

By: straight

straight — Thu, 23 Nov 2017 18:59:53 -0800

An "insert" is a replaceable piece of metal that is the actual cutting edge of a machining tool, for people like me who didn't know.

By: scruss

scruss — Thu, 23 Nov 2017 19:40:29 -0800

> Also this leads directly to one of my favorite genres: Machining videos. This is worth 14 minutes of your time. Machines of loving grace indeed. If you want to see the acrobats of the machining video world, you need swiss turning lathe videos. A friend has one in his shop that turns out tiny components for the epicyclic gearboxes in instrument machine heads, and it's 100% 'how it do that?

By: colin.jaquiery

colin.jaquiery — Thu, 23 Nov 2017 20:39:45 -0800

Anywhere from $4 to $40 per insert Don't forget that trigons have six cutting edges, though. ...one of my favorite genres: Machining crash videos. FTFY

By: SageLeVoid

SageLeVoid — Fri, 24 Nov 2017 03:53:02 -0800

Also this leads directly to one of my favorite genres: Machining videos. Good lord that machine peeled that piece of metal like a potato!

By: EndsOfInvention

EndsOfInvention — Fri, 24 Nov 2017 04:15:39 -0800

My wedding ring is made of this stuff. Extremely hard, apparently, but fragile, so if doctors/paramedics need to remove your wedding ring they can't just cut it once and bend it open (like gold or silver) or cut it twice and take the two halves off (like platinum), they have to hit it with a hammer or put it in a vice. Anyway, it was cheap and it looks cool. Never gets scratched, either.

By: EndsOfInvention

EndsOfInvention — Fri, 24 Nov 2017 04:20:07 -0800

Ah, you can use vice grips apparently. The ring just shatters.

By: ob1quixote

ob1quixote — Fri, 24 Nov 2017 11:22:54 -0800

“A Brief Chat about Carbide Tooling”—This Old Tony, 20 January 2017