"Karl Townsend" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 20 Aug 2011 11:49:08 -0400, Spehro Pefhany
wrote:


http://www.grimmspeed.com/catalog/pr...FQvCKgod2CSU-Q


Is that better or worse than "aircraft grade"?


Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany

It exists and i have a whole bunch of it. For Gulf War #2, the miltary
came to my son's workpace with a special rush project. They needed a
couple dozen special parts to attach something to their large cargo
plane. All hush hush and rush rush. Anyway, the military supplied four
inch thick four foot wide by thirty feet long slabs of military grade
AL. Had it rush shipped in. "The Kid" wrote the CNC program and sat by
the bridge mill sixteen hours a day for two weeks.

Anyway, there were huge scrap pieces. They had to go someplace. My
grove made sence. I've made a few parts. It machines chips more like
steel, not stringy gummy like other AL. The kid told me the tension
spec was far higher than other AL.

Karl

Very likely it's just reinforced metal composite. They put ceramic whiskers
and a variety of other things in there to get higher tensile strength, heat
tolerance, and, most noticeably, greater stiffness. It has a variety of
defense and aerospace uses.

Sometimes it's a bear to machine; other varieties machine just like regular
aluminum grades, but they typically knock the edges off your tools in a
hurry.

As for the gadget that Spehro pointed to, ho-ho, ha-ha. g

--
Ed Huntress