"Diesel Damo" <Diesel_4WD@yahoo.com.au> wrote in message
news:11eb5da7-530a-4c07-a435-

HTF does it stay sharp enough for so long? Or is that why they're not
demonstrating full size blocks?

Carbide & ceramic tipped tooling at high speed with plenty of flood coolant,
and a computer to calculate the precise speed & feed rates for optimum
cutting and chip clearing. The tooling actually lasts for quite a while when
used in this way. Bearing in mind that the "demo" piece was a solid billet
of Aluminium, which cuts like butter at high speed, but similar results with
steel are usually obtained at not much slower speeds.

I've been standing next to similar machines watching them carve intricate
bits out of solid chunks of 1041 steel, and it ain't much slower. Impressive
to watch with the lights out as the chips flying off are a very dark blue
with a tinge of red.

I've got a handful of 1041 offcuts laying around here, and when I try to
make the odd bit of crap out of them on my lathe or mill I can wake the
neighbours with the scream the tooling makes, and can't touch the workpiece
for around half an hour :)

--
Regards,
Noddy.