Just making really big gears
September 10, 2018 7:45 PM Subscribe
Descaling the metal before it goes into the press so it doesn't stamp the indentations of the scale into the finished product, I assume.
What always sorta of surprises me from the small scale molten metal I've ever worked with (solder, light aluminum casting) is just how long the steel remains plastic. I suppose a couple of tons of metal retains a bit of heat, even when it's getting shaped by another couple of tons of steel.
posted by Kyol at 8:12 PM on September 10, 2018 [1 favorite]
What always sorta of surprises me from the small scale molten metal I've ever worked with (solder, light aluminum casting) is just how long the steel remains plastic. I suppose a couple of tons of metal retains a bit of heat, even when it's getting shaped by another couple of tons of steel.
posted by Kyol at 8:12 PM on September 10, 2018 [1 favorite]
Dang, civilization is crazy. Just the sheer scale (size, quantity, complexity...) of the physical/built production of civilization is mind-boggling, and things like this video add yet another example of something that just by itself is astounding.
posted by whatnotever at 8:30 PM on September 10, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by whatnotever at 8:30 PM on September 10, 2018 [1 favorite]
Like, we're just a bunch of squishy, floppy, awkward organisms running around doing whatever, but you get a couple billion of us in one place, and look what we can make! We don't even have good teeth or claws. Like, get a billion beavers, and you won't be surprised if they make the most awesome timber dam ever, right? But you look at a billion people... you honestly don't expect much. Maybe you figure they're good at making fancy shapes out of soft mud or something. And then it's all of a sudden, "Oh, look at this super-giant hyper-precise ultra-strong pure-metal gear thingy me and my civilization made!" Huh.
posted by whatnotever at 8:38 PM on September 10, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by whatnotever at 8:38 PM on September 10, 2018 [4 favorites]
Looks like the Cold Stone guy is putting a scoop of gummi bears in the bowl at 2:15.
Surprising lack of gears, all in all, but very cool anyway. I'm a sucker for a bad-ass mandrel.
posted by rhizome at 9:49 PM on September 10, 2018 [1 favorite]
Surprising lack of gears, all in all, but very cool anyway. I'm a sucker for a bad-ass mandrel.
posted by rhizome at 9:49 PM on September 10, 2018 [1 favorite]
This is the perfect bookend to the cookie cutter post
posted by not_the_water at 10:29 PM on September 10, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by not_the_water at 10:29 PM on September 10, 2018 [2 favorites]
It was strangely satisfying that the gears they were making from red hot rolled steel were going to be used in a steel rolling mill.
What was going on in the last couple minutes?
posted by monotreme at 12:10 AM on September 11, 2018
What was going on in the last couple minutes?
posted by monotreme at 12:10 AM on September 11, 2018
Yeah, I was mildly disappointed that the actual gearmaking was just good ol' hobbing and not some fancy ass million-ton press stamping them into a mold like the fist of a god.
posted by Kyol at 2:41 AM on September 11, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by Kyol at 2:41 AM on September 11, 2018 [2 favorites]
yeah, that sequence from 8:30 on, dancing silver spacemen backscratching a giant glowing table before plunging an enormous mushroom-headed robotic shaft deep into it, all while getting the funk out a la 70s porn.
How it's made, indeed.
posted by Devonian at 4:57 AM on September 11, 2018 [1 favorite]
How it's made, indeed.
posted by Devonian at 4:57 AM on September 11, 2018 [1 favorite]
« Older The night is dark and full of timeslots | The brace position: what passengers need to know Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by axiom at 8:05 PM on September 10, 2018