On Thu, 09 Oct 2003 21:10:10 GMT, Ed Huntress wrote:

I didn't think it was any worse than, say, 316 SST. Not a day at the
beach,
but it certainly could have been a tougher to machine.

If you don't think 316 is bad, you're a better man than me, Skuke.

Thanks, but I doubt it. It's just all kinda relative after spending time
machining waspalloy, hastalloy... synthetic ruby...uglynium.



I was speaking from experience only with the copper-based shape-memory
alloys,

Do you know what elements where in the copper based stuff? I would think
(gooeyness aside) that it would be easier to machine than anything with lots
of Nickel (or even Ti) in it.




It was like
aluminum-bronze from hell.

LOL, No, that would be the aluminum armor plating. We got some by mistake
and I started to cut the stuff. It was like a 2000 series Al but VERY
plastic. It was hard to get a clean chip since the stuff just "oozed" out
of the way. I guess that's why it made good armor plating. ...just slow
down the projectile and dissipate the energy rather than stop it with "brute
force" hardness.



--
Skuke
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