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What's the largest lathe you've seen?
- Thread starter waltben
- Start date
john lucas
AAW Forum Expert
I was watching a show on PBS on night and they showed a lathe that they used to true up these giant motor amatures. The armature must have been about 8 feet in diameter. They said it took a whole day to make one pass.
Any kind of lathe, or wood lathe? Recall the bowl lathe (it was not a dedicated machine) some Germans (?) made a couple years ago? They could (and did) stand inside the lathe while they were turning the bowl (as I recall it was also probably the largest segmented bowl ever)
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If I/m not misstaken they mounted it on a Tractor. The tractor was on a platform. That thing, the bowl, was HUGE!
Brian
Brian
For shear size, the lathe's at a Naval shipyard can't be touched.
Think about the bed-length on a lathe that turns and trues propeller shafts for Aircraft Carriers or Battleships (yes I've seen them)
For that matter the lathe needed to turn a 16" 38 cal Battleship main gun (dito)
Think about the bed-length on a lathe that turns and trues propeller shafts for Aircraft Carriers or Battleships (yes I've seen them)
For that matter the lathe needed to turn a 16" 38 cal Battleship main gun (dito)
We have a member that designed a built a wood lather that will turn up to about 40' as I remember and maybe 36" in dia. Used it make giant wood column posts for anti-bellum style homes in the area. Hydraulically operated with a cutter that would spin with carbide cutters. Pretty nifty machine, I've seen it operation, but not much use to make a bottle stopper or pen with :cool2:
When I was in college in Pensacola I worked some as a draftsman at the Westinghouse Nuclear Reactor plant. We had a vertical metal lathe used to turn the reactor cores that were made from stainless steel. As I remember (32+ years ago) it would turn maybe 24' in diameter and 32' tall. At that size it would turn only a few rpm's but the cutter speed on the outside was huge. Pretty impressive to watch in action, forgot the specs but it turned to very tight dimensions. Unfortunately the tree-huggers about put them out of business, but I still personally believe that nuclear power is what we will see in the future to partially solve the energy crunch that we will face. Not looking for a debate on that, it's just my opinion.
When I was in college in Pensacola I worked some as a draftsman at the Westinghouse Nuclear Reactor plant. We had a vertical metal lathe used to turn the reactor cores that were made from stainless steel. As I remember (32+ years ago) it would turn maybe 24' in diameter and 32' tall. At that size it would turn only a few rpm's but the cutter speed on the outside was huge. Pretty impressive to watch in action, forgot the specs but it turned to very tight dimensions. Unfortunately the tree-huggers about put them out of business, but I still personally believe that nuclear power is what we will see in the future to partially solve the energy crunch that we will face. Not looking for a debate on that, it's just my opinion.
woodwish said:
Ray:
I take offense at that comment.....
Indeed, I believe there are MANY, MANY tree-huggers on this forum....
We have to get those really big bowl blanks into the shop some how...
Cheers!
Rob
Years ago in the service I toured Watervliet Arsenal in upstate New York. There they had the lathes which were used to craft the 16" guns for the Iowa class battleships. Now THAT was a lathe!
Largest Lathe
In 2003' my wife and I visited Mystic Seaport in Conneticut where in one of the ship assembly buildings sat a lathe that could turn a 100' mast for sailing ships, with a large motor, steel rails for ways with spindle steadys and a tail stock with the excption of the motor none of which resembled what we use today.
In 2003' my wife and I visited Mystic Seaport in Conneticut where in one of the ship assembly buildings sat a lathe that could turn a 100' mast for sailing ships, with a large motor, steel rails for ways with spindle steadys and a tail stock with the excption of the motor none of which resembled what we use today.
I was trying to imagine standing inside the arc of rotation on a turning that is about ten feet in diameter, as your images suggests, and concluded that at a relatively low turning speed of 250 - 300 RPM the rim of the bowl would be rushing by at nearly a hundred miles per hour. 
I'm gonna want to be inside an armored cage to work in that environment. They must slow that thing WAY DOWN for that kind of work.
I'm gonna want to be inside an armored cage to work in that environment. They must slow that thing WAY DOWN for that kind of work.
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There is a video somewhere on the net showing them doing it. And it's more than 10'. Probably more like 25-35 from rim to rim. Truly a work of art or stupidity. Still cool either way as long as it's not me turning it. Brian
nuturner said:
Of course they do. Surface speed is all that really matters anyway. Tables of rpm's and diameters are just for convenience, so we don't have to do so much arithmetic.
Joe
Offensive!!!
Rob..as to Ray's offensive remark..I find it offensive that you take his offensive comment to be offensive, and I am maybe offensive to bring up this offensive topic, which I find offensive!!!! So, let's get off this offensive topic and on to other less offensive topics. WHEW!!!! I feel less offensive now!!!
Rob..as to Ray's offensive remark..I find it offensive that you take his offensive comment to be offensive, and I am maybe offensive to bring up this offensive topic, which I find offensive!!!! So, let's get off this offensive topic and on to other less offensive topics. WHEW!!!! I feel less offensive now!!!
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Rob Wallace said:
OK, ya got me there
The biggest lathe I've personally seen was one in Elberton GA at the Athens Machine and Foundry shop.
I'll bet the ways were at least 20-25 foot long. The swing was pretty large, probably 48 inches or so.
They had some pretty big machines in there.. wonder what became of them when it was shut down?
I operated a big drill press once. Used to belong to Rome Plow in N. GA, and was used to drill artillery shells in WWII. When I got to it, it was pretty worn. It had an 8 inch ram that drove the spindle down, and a 6 or 8 speed transmission for different speeds. The tranny was so worn that it just screamed and howled! We had to lay it down to get it in the building too. It was 15 foot high or so... I sure bored out a lot of bearing shells with that thing.
I like those monster machines, if I don't have to pick them up and move 'em...
I'll bet the ways were at least 20-25 foot long. The swing was pretty large, probably 48 inches or so.
They had some pretty big machines in there.. wonder what became of them when it was shut down?
I operated a big drill press once. Used to belong to Rome Plow in N. GA, and was used to drill artillery shells in WWII. When I got to it, it was pretty worn. It had an 8 inch ram that drove the spindle down, and a 6 or 8 speed transmission for different speeds. The tranny was so worn that it just screamed and howled! We had to lay it down to get it in the building too. It was 15 foot high or so... I sure bored out a lot of bearing shells with that thing.
I like those monster machines, if I don't have to pick them up and move 'em...