[HN Gopher] Watchmaking: Machining a 0.6 mm Screw [video]
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Watchmaking: Machining a 0.6 mm Screw [video]
Author : zdw
Score : 45 points
Date : 2023-02-18 17:51 UTC (5 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.youtube.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.youtube.com)
| ezequiel-garzon wrote:
| All of a sudden those expensive timepieces feel underpriced.
| maxbaines wrote:
| Swiss turning is ideal for this, on a Swiss turning lathe the
| headstock moves rather than the tool, which improves accuracy.
| 752963e64 wrote:
| [dead]
| convolvatron wrote:
| related question - I learned on a long bed Logan toolroom lathe.
| cant _really_ cut threads on that guy because of all the slop,
| but I often do a prepass to get things started before I use a
| die.
|
| I've really been interested in getting a jewelers lathe with a
| goal of making smaller parts and particularly screws. but it
| looks very expensive and intimidating. many thousands of dollars
| for a few pounds of 100 year old steel with a lot of very fussy
| and foreign looking tooling. I really love to fix things up and
| learn, but would love some advice about how to start.
|
| anyone have a suggestion?
| skykooler wrote:
| If you don't mind having to spend some time on cleaning and
| oiling, it can often be worth it to get an old lathe from an
| industrial auction; often you can find them for a few hundred
| dollars.
| KaiserPro wrote:
| http://millhillsupplies.co.uk/sherline/sherline-lathes/
|
| Sherline lathes are very small, and I think its what
| clickspring runs.
| Oxidation wrote:
| What is the industry standard for a decent, non-antique small
| manual lathe? Everything I see is either 50+ years old or
| mediocre-looking Siegs or otherwise suspiciously white-label-
| ish or it's a super-fancy CNC alien spacecraft that costs
| substantially more then a house.
| amrb wrote:
| From my talks with people who machine parts, precision can be
| super interesting, plus a bunch of equipment to measure from
| micrometers, calipers to indicators.
| barelyauser wrote:
| Precision is a marvelous thing. Every detail must be accounted
| for. I remember reading a brochure about surface plates (a
| reference of flatness), and the body heat of the person
| handling it would be accounted for.
| WJW wrote:
| Some of the highest precision manufacturing in our country is
| located in extremely rural areas because nearby highways
| introduce too much vibration otherwise. Even relatively
| humdrum spindle assembly is typically done in clean rooms to
| make sure no dust gets in the bearings. Super high precision
| machining is even more extreme. It's a wonderful thing to
| dive into but it also makes me happy to be in software
| sometimes. (That said, my friends in machining are happy
| they're not in software so take that as you will :)
| bluenose69 wrote:
| What a lovely little video this is, from start to finish. Very
| skilful work, indeed!
| KaiserPro wrote:
| For those who want to learn how to do lathe and machining, there
| isn't much better than Blondihacks
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6Dnmd3lDzA&list=PLY67-4BrEa...
| << this is the lathe one
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyuG-B95PQs&list=PLY67-4BrEa...
| is the one for the small vertical mill.
| Animats wrote:
| That's how to make a single screw as a one-off, using basic
| machine tools. That's not a production process.
|
| Screw making was automated by 1871. Here's an early automatic
| screw machine.[1] The video says 60,000 screws a day, but that
| must have been the whole shop, not one machine. You can see that
| the cycle time is about 10 seconds per screw. Who needs
| computers? We program with _cams!_ Complex cam-programmed
| industrial machines were what made manufactured parts cheap.
|
| Here's synchronized thread rolling using a CNC lathe.[2] That's a
| more modern one-off approach. Thread rolling squeezes the threads
| into the screw, rather than cutting out metal. Rolled small
| screws are stronger than cut screws. Needs a specialized tool.
|
| That's not the full speed modern production process. This is.[3]
| A relatively simple machine turns out small screws at about one
| every 250ms. Over 100,000 screws per shift. This screw rolling
| machine can go down to 0.6mm, so it can do the job in the
| original video.
|
| Here's a larger, slower, bolt rolling machine, so you can see the
| process.[4] It's very simple. A round piece of metal is rolled
| between two file-grooved die plates, and the threads are pushed
| into the metal.
|
| This is why screws are cheap.
|
| [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCmnUP5gx78
|
| [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eWghSLN3ng
|
| [3] https://www.youtube.com/shorts/HWmu4gxmois
|
| [4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mlfq_Pbh6PQ
| WJW wrote:
| That high speed machine is wild. Some of the most common parts
| in the world are crazy accurate but since they are produced in
| such huge volumes they can still be cheap. Screws and ball
| bearing that you can buy for $10 a pack are order of magnitude
| beyond what even a king could buy in the middle ages. I'm not
| even going into how you can buy processors/memory with features
| on the order of nanometres for single digit dollar amounts
| these days.
| mensetmanusman wrote:
| The iPhone would be over a billion dollars if the world only
| built 20.
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