On Tuesday, October 15, 2013 9:04:13 AM UTC-7, wrote:
On Mon, 14 Oct 2013 22:56:21 -0500, Ignoramus30725

wrote:



I am just curious. Are screw machines completely obsolete technology,

meaning that they cannot be used in a cost competitive modern

production process? Would that be a true or untrue statement?



Tomorrow, there is going to be an auction with about 80 of them for

sale. I want to make sure that I see them properly. In my eyes, they

are scrap metal material, not resellable.



i

Screw machines, the cam operated ones, can still make someone lots of

money. But they need to be in good shape, have a good setup person,

and have a very large quantity of the same part to make. Like 10,000.

Eric


Reality Time:

Most parts that need to be done in large quantities are no longer made in the USA.

Production machining in the USA is now all about short runs of varied parts.. These kinds of parts often have very tight tolerances and need to be probed.

Here is an example of what a modern machine shop doing varied, multi-parts to tight tolerances, often running unattended/lights out, looks like. Their Mori-Seiki setup, tied to a linear pallet pool, costs 1 1/2 million dollars. It's a modular system that can be expanded:

http://www.pyramidprecision.com/