Quantcast

who needs Ti ?

Westy

Westy

the teste
Nov 22, 2002
54,394
20,185
Sleazattle
That's a pretty darn good price. One could probably make money taking it directly to a scrap dealer, if it really is ti.
 
HAB

HAB

Chelsea from Seattle
Apr 28, 2007
11,580
2,006
Seattle
Adventurous said:
In all seriousness, I'd love to know what a chunk like that would be used for.
Click to expand...
That's not that big. Obviously it's a different shape, but that works out to about an 8" cube. I've worked with lots of plane parts that start out much, much bigger than that on fighter jets and the like.
 
Westy

Westy

the teste
Nov 22, 2002
54,394
20,185
Sleazattle
HAB said:
That's not that big. Obviously it's a different shape, but that works out to about an 8" cube. I've worked with lots of plane parts that start out much, much bigger than that on fighter jets and the like.
Click to expand...
Been a few decades so I can't remember the exact numbers, but I worked on a machine that took about 700lbs of titanium and turned it into 90lbs of an F-15 nose landing gear strut. Took about 3 days of machining.
 
HAB

HAB

Chelsea from Seattle
Apr 28, 2007
11,580
2,006
Seattle
Westy said:
Been a few decades so I can't remember the exact numbers, but I worked on a machine that took about 700lbs of titanium and turned it into 90lbs of an F-15 nose landing gear strut. Took about 3 days of machining.
Click to expand...
I see you that, and raise you one F-22 bulkhead. That fucker is one piece.
 
Westy

Westy

the teste
Nov 22, 2002
54,394
20,185
Sleazattle
HAB said:
I see you that, and raise you one F-22 bulkhead. That fucker is one piece.
Click to expand...
I am sure we all pay a few bones for each one of those. 777 APU bulkhead is a single piece of ti, I can only imagine how long that takes to cut.

Biggest PITA to cut. Space shuttle main engine impeller. 30 days of machining. Wasn't a huge part, but milling tiny passages with long flexy tools took a very long time. $100K part 30 years ago.

 
Last edited:
Adventurous

Adventurous

Starshine Bro
Mar 19, 2014
10,319
8,880
Crawlorado
HAB said:
That's not that big. Obviously it's a different shape, but that works out to about an 8" cube. I've worked with lots of plane parts that start out much, much bigger than that on fighter jets and the like.
Click to expand...
They only trusted me with smaller, superalloy, cast jet engine components, so Ti was like a foreign material.
 
Pesqueeb

Pesqueeb

bicycle in airplane hangar
Feb 2, 2007
40,295
16,734
Riding the baggage carousel.
Westy said:
Firewall I assume.
Click to expand...
Yea, but that can be done with stainless. I know they are a lot smaller, but the APU on a CRJ200 is contained in a stainless enclosure/box for expressly this purpose. The enclosure is relatively light as its made of stainless sheeting, and is probably 1/1000th the price. Every other plane we have just has the APU hanging on a mount aft of the rear pressure bulkhead, no firewall needed. Is this more a question of location?
 
Pesqueeb

Pesqueeb

bicycle in airplane hangar
Feb 2, 2007
40,295
16,734
Riding the baggage carousel.
Adventurous said:
They only trusted me with smaller, superalloy, cast jet engine components, so Ti was like a foreign material.
Click to expand...
Story time!

We used to have a guy, manager of the engine shop, been with the airline forever. Every once in a while this guy would load up his truck with stuff that had come out of torn down engines and haul it off to the recycler and bring in BBQ for everyone. This went on for years.

Now, I've still never heard how this all shook out, but eventually someone started thinking about it, put 2&2 together and didn't get 4. Truck loads of engine parts made out of exotic metals, even at recycling prices, doesn't equal 100 or 200 dollars of BBQ. Turns out, engine shop guy had quite a gambling problem, but had managed to find supplemental income. He'd turn in these parts, get a grand or two of cash, buy the fellas BBQ, then take the rest of the money across the salt flats into West Wendover, NV and gamble it away. Corporate got wise and gave him the boot, but FSM only knows how much cash he made scraping engine parts right under everyone's noses.
 
Nick

Nick

My name is Nick
Sep 21, 2001
24,025
14,637
where the trails are
Pesqueeb said:
Story time!

We used to have a guy, manager of the engine shop, been with the airline forever. Every once in a while this guy would load up his truck with stuff that had come out of torn down engines and haul it off to the recycler and bring in BBQ for everyone. This went on for years.

Now, I've still never heard how this all shook out, but eventually someone started thinking about it, put 2&2 together and didn't get 4. Truck loads of engine parts made out of exotic metals, even at recycling prices, doesn't equal 100 or 200 dollars of BBQ. Turns out, engine shop guy had quite a gambling problem, but had managed to find supplemental income. He'd turn in these parts, get a grand or two of cash, buy the fellas BBQ, then take the rest of the money across the salt flats into West Wendover, NV and gamble it away. Corporate got wise and gave him the boot, but FSM only knows how much cash he made scraping engine parts right under everyone's noses.
Click to expand...

Prior job we built new manufacturing lines, automated & manual workstations, big equipment handling equipment, etc. First thing we did when we visited the old factory being upgraded is inventory metals and recyclables. Our contracts always stated that once signed we took possession of everything under the roof, with the caveat that we had to dispose of it. Some projects we'd spend the first few weeks stripping copper, cashing out thousands per day, week after week. All that cash became our bonuses. People got boats and motorcycles out of that loot.
 
Adventurous

Adventurous

Starshine Bro
Mar 19, 2014
10,319
8,880
Crawlorado
Pesqueeb said:
Story time!

We used to have a guy, manager of the engine shop, been with the airline forever. Every once in a while this guy would load up his truck with stuff that had come out of torn down engines and haul it off to the recycler and bring in BBQ for everyone. This went on for years.

Now, I've still never heard how this all shook out, but eventually someone started thinking about it, put 2&2 together and didn't get 4. Truck loads of engine parts made out of exotic metals, even at recycling prices, doesn't equal 100 or 200 dollars of BBQ. Turns out, engine shop guy had quite a gambling problem, but had managed to find supplemental income. He'd turn in these parts, get a grand or two of cash, buy the fellas BBQ, then take the rest of the money across the salt flats into West Wendover, NV and gamble it away. Corporate got wise and gave him the boot, but FSM only knows how much cash he made scraping engine parts right under everyone's noses.
Click to expand...
In a past life, I was an aircraft engines design engineer with my specialty being hot section section blades and stators. They were all cast out of Rene series alloys with various concentrations of Rhenium, which is ungodly expensive and rare. I seem to recall hearing that 1 lb of Rhenium was yielded from 50 tons of copper ore. Stuff was $$$$$$.
 
SkaredShtles

SkaredShtles

Michael Bolton
Sep 21, 2003
65,632
12,695
In a van.... down by the river
Pesqueeb said:
Yea, but that can be done with stainless. I know they are a lot smaller, but the APU on a CRJ200 is contained in a stainless enclosure/box for expressly this purpose. The enclosure is relatively light as its made of stainless sheeting, and is probably 1/1000th the price. Every other plane we have just has the APU hanging on a mount aft of the rear pressure bulkhead, no firewall needed. Is this more a question of location?
Click to expand...
Listen - these military budgets ain't gonna spend themselves!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom