4 ms·
Although truly flat surfaces can be easily generated (relative to building a screw cutting lathe from scratch). It just takes a lot of time and labor, but lappi
by zrobotics 6y ago
Although truly flat surfaces can be easily generated (relative to building a screw cutting lathe from scratch). It just takes a lot of time and labor, but lapping two granite plates together would produce a good-enough surface plate; considering the accuracy likely to be achieved with a one-off homemade lathe.
Realistically, the absolute hardest part would be the castings. Cast iron is no simple feat, as I'm sure the future posts in this series will show.
- tejtm 6y agoLapping three surfaces together is the path to flats. Lapping just two together is how we make concave/convex hemispherical pairs for telescope mirrors. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatness_(manufacturing) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatness_(manufacturing)
- 082349872349872 6y agoThe Gingery books' path is via cast aluminium.
- imtringued 6y agoHere is a video series of someone building the Gingery Lathe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPGZg45dGXA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPGZg45dGXA
- skykooler 6y agoAluminum is going to be much harder to manufacture on Mars than iron, at least initially, because it requires so much more energy to process.
- jojobas 6y agoCast iron is much easier than steel. You won't get to the lathe without cast iron (and what will you lathe anyway?)
- bluGill 6y agoYou can make a lathe from other materials. Most people building one in their garage these days use aluminum. Cast iron is better in a lot of ways, but the temperatures of aluminum are much easier to deal with, and today we can get good aluminum alloys to work with. You can also use bronze if you wanted. Granite is probably better than cast iron if you design for it. Concrete has been used commercially.