Cowpox; I built machines that made the turbine engine main rotor and the turret bearing(108" chuck VTL) for the M1 Abrams Tank(chrysler tank) too. I rebuilt another old Bullard VTL out of watervielet arsenal that wasn't ran since WW2 to machine breach boxes which i believe now was for the 155MM Howitzers. Then I got a job at Condeisel here which made/assembled all the parts for the 155MM Howitzer. I did everything from the brakes, hydraulic pump that you can drop the center pad and swing her around, barrel sleeves, barrel 200psi shocks, gear drive that raises and lowers the barrel. I've had some awesome jobs. The funniest story i have is when we built the machine to cut the main tank engine rotor. A factory rep came in from Avco Lycoming to inspect their machine and he said to us they bought a Japanese machine first and it couldn't cut the titanium the machine wasn't stable enough for hogging out heavy cuts. This is where the US made machines kicked ass they were heavy duty. The tooling alone for this machine was $250,000. As we were shjowing him his machine we were doing a horse power cut for Cameron Iron in Houston/Dallas Texas its an oil company and they do a max cut to pull out the highest horsepower out of the motor(max amp draw rating under load) As the chips were comming off this VW sized steel billet they were 1" wide and 6" long curly Q's and 1/8" thick hitting the steel guards like a machine gun. The guy from Avco ran over to see what the noise was all about and he went crazy to see a maching hog out steel like this. Those boys in the oil industry don't play around time is money and they want to do heavy cuts to get done quick. I sent machines all over the world even China too. The Chinese uncrated the machines on the dock and left them in the rain because they had no way to move them? Some of these big machines weigh 200,000lbs and it takes 5 tractor trailers to carry them. I even built some bullard chuckers that pop out trailer truck brack drums like pop corn too. I talked with the factory rep from Kelsey hayes brakes which bought 6 of them and he said the $650,000 price tag was earned back in the first 6 months running the machine 24/7 and the life of the machine was 30 years. My next question is why is the price of parts so high when they pop them out like popcorn??
Intertesting ?? I did the same chuckers for disc brakes/hubs for all the car manufacturers too. The Japs and germans bought our machines too. The Germans bought the best machines (benz) they ordered the electrical with all amphal plugs so went a solenoid went you just unplugged it and replaced it no wiring to do. Ford used our machines too they had all tooled ready to go machines waiting for one to go down, they would just replace the whole machine. I guess time is money for most manufacturers!!!!!! BigBill
