No real reason... just curious... What's the biggest chunk
of solid metal that you seen? Is there some massive 10 foot
cube somewhere?

On Tue, 07 Dec 2004 02:10:16 GMT, asdl wrote:

No real reason... just curious... What's the biggest chunk
of solid metal that you seen? Is there some massive 10 foot
cube somewhere?

Probably not he biggest but quite interesting is the Delhi Iron Pillar



Regards,

Boris Mohar

Got Knock? - see:
Viatrack Printed Circuit Designs http://www3.sympatico.ca/borism/

asdl writes:

What's the biggest chunk
of solid metal that you seen?

I owned an 18" dia by 6 foot steel bar for a few days, an (unwanted) part
of an auction lot. I didn't get it moved by the deadline and the
auctioneer "confiscated" it. Not sure what I could have done with it.
Maybe bore a replica cannon.

A 10' cube would be bush legue. If you want to see some heavy iron, take a
tour of a modern container ship yard.

--
Glenn Ashmore

I'm building a 45' cutter in strip/composite. Watch my progress (or lack
there of) at: http://www.rutuonline.com
Shameless Commercial Division: http://www.spade-anchor-us.com

"asdl" wrote in message
ink.net...
No real reason... just curious... What's the biggest chunk
of solid metal that you seen? Is there some massive 10 foot
cube somewhere?

In a copy billion years the earth core will be a fairly large & solid
chuck. (I believe it's liquid right now) :-)

I don't remember if the moons core is solid yet, or if it's even
iron/nickel)

Vince

asdl wrote:

No real reason... just curious... What's the biggest chunk
of solid metal that you seen? Is there some massive 10 foot
cube somewhere?

"Richard J Kinch" wrote in message
. ..
asdl writes:

What's the biggest chunk
of solid metal that you seen?

I owned an 18" dia by 6 foot steel bar for a few days, an (unwanted) part
of an auction lot. I didn't get it moved by the deadline and the
auctioneer "confiscated" it. Not sure what I could have done with it.
Maybe bore a replica cannon.

I saw a cube of tool steel that was, IIRC, 8 feet on a side. The block was
cast in Sweden, and it took two years to cool. The plant had a railroad
siding alongside, and it was carried by rail for something like 10 or 20
miles from the docks in Chicago.

It was in a plant in Chicago that made huge stamping dies. This one started
out as a stamping die, and then, midway through the rough machining, it was
converted into a die for SMC (sheet-molding compound), making the front end
for a truck.

That was in '78, I think. That's 1978, BTW. g

Ed Huntress

In the '70s I regularly went into the USS South Works plant in Chicago
and I recall that a crane broke at the #2 BOP shop resulting in a
"strawberry" of about 250 tons. When the crane broke, they pushed it to
the end of the bay and let it "cool" the next day it had cooled enough
to let a craneman make the repairs. They then took the cooled ladle and
dumped the solid steel in to the slag pit, where a laborer spent the
rest of the week cutting it up into smaller piece with an oxygen lance.
They used to call these things "strawberries" because they were shaped
like the bottom of a strawberry and the firebrick left a pattern on the
steel that added to the "illusion".

South Works at that time was primarily a structural mill and they made
ingots for rolling at USS Gary. At the #2 BOP shop, they tapped about
25-30 heats per shift (if I remember correctly) of about 250 tons per
heat. Some of the ingots they poured were huge, 78"x38"x96". I think
that the ingot weighed in around 40 tons. I think to molds weighed in
about 85-90,000#.

BTW a 10 cube of steel would weigh in at about 490,000#, quite a paper
weight.

asdl wrote:
No real reason... just curious... What's the biggest chunk
of solid metal that you seen? Is there some massive 10 foot
cube somewhere?

asdl wrote:
No real reason... just curious... What's the biggest chunk
of solid metal that you seen? Is there some massive 10 foot
cube somewhere?


The biggest hunks of steel I have seen up close were at a former
employers when they made a compression mold in two halves to make a
Freightliner full size semi-truck hood in one 'hit'. The press it went
into stood 35-40 feet high and the plant had to have a 'basement' dug
out to allow the machine to operate with the mold split line at roughly
4 feet above floor level.

The blocks were easily 18 feet on each side and probably 6 feet thick
and were machined out of a solid block of die steel. They were also
heated to a couple of hundred degrees in order to 'cure' the material
(GRP) after it had been formed into the required shape.

--
Larry Green

asdl wrote:

No real reason... just curious... What's the biggest chunk
of solid metal that you seen? Is there some massive 10 foot
cube somewhere?

Not cubes but some serious sized steel components were used he

http://www.asme.org/history/brochures/h071.pdf

Tom

What I remember from the Bethlehem Steel Burns Harbor plant (East of
Gary Indiana) were the ingots, I think that is what they were called. I
never worked in that part of the plant. They were, as I remember them,
maybe 3 feet square, and around 10 feet high. They poured molten steel
into molds, and after it cooled some, removed the mold and rolled them
into slabs, which were like very thick steel plate. This was a 24/7
process. After that they might be rolled into plate or sheet.

Everything in the steel mill was on a heroic scale, which I think was
why I took the job. I remember working there six months before I saw a
crane of less than 50 ton capacity, and many of them were 350 ton
capacity, to pick up huge ladles of molten steel. Two people were
killed there in the year and a half that I worked there, including one
at a place I walked by every day. There was a burned spot where the
accident was. A very rough and dangerous place.

Richard


asdl wrote:
No real reason... just curious... What's the biggest chunk
of solid metal that you seen? Is there some massive 10 foot
cube somewhere?

Being on the pouring floor of a continous casting line with 250 tons of
liquid steel in a ladle above you.

Was part of the radiation safety crew monitoring the radiation gaugeing
system during startup.

Hugh



"asdl" wrote in message
ink.net...
No real reason... just curious... What's the biggest chunk
of solid metal that you seen? Is there some massive 10 foot
cube somewhere?

Richard Ferguson wrote:
Everything in the steel mill was on a heroic scale, which I think was
why I took the job. I remember working there six months before I saw a
crane of less than 50 ton capacity, and many of them were 350 ton
capacity, to pick up huge ladles of molten steel. Two people were
killed there in the year and a half that I worked there, including one
at a place I walked by every day. There was a burned spot where the
accident was. A very rough and dangerous place.

You are very correct, EVERYTHING in a steel mill is of heroic
proportions. In my misspent youth, I drove a truck for my dad and I
hauled firebrick into the "basic" end of all the mills in the CHicago
area. Places like Charter Electric, USS So. Works, USS Joliet, USS
Waukegan, USS Gary, Republic, Wisconsin Steel, Interlake Iron, Interlake
Coke, Vulcan Mold, Interlake(Acme) Steel, Calumet Steel, J&L(LTV),
Inland, Midwest Steel, Valley Mold, Bethlehem, Birmingham Bolt, Keystone
WIre in Peoria, Northwestern Steel in Sterling, and a couple of others
whose names I don't remember. It the time all, of these mills were
pouring ingots (casters hadn't been invented yet). It was amazing to
drive through yards that were acre after acre of ingots stacked 20-30
feet high. Millions of tons, just sitting there.

I do recall a small mill in Lemont Ill, Ceco Steel that had an electric
furnace and the made rebar. Their ingots were 4"x4"x48". After seeing
the huge ingots at big mills, Ceco's ingots looked like paper weights.

In the 70's the technologies were right out of the stone age. They would
take the ingots, heat them in the soaking pits, send them to the
blooming mill, the slab mill, and then on to on to the
plate,rod,wire,merchant, rail or structural mill for rolling in to the
finished product. Now they make the steel in the furnace and send it
right to the caster and on to the rolling mill, never letting the steel
get cold. What a differance.

Hey ASDL,

Interesting question!! Ingots poured from raw molten steel in a steel
mill are a pretty good size. A railway flat car can only fit 4 of
them for pouring. They are sort of "cow bell" shaped, and my guess is
they are about 12' high, and 8' X 8' at the bottom, tapering to 6'X5'
at the top,, but that's just a rough guess. I only saw them from a
distance of maybe 100 feet. Still bright red hot when knocked out of
the ingot mold 16 hours after the pour.

Poured cast iron engine blocks for huge diesels are much larger, but
not "solid" as I think you meant. Steam locomotive frames were pretty
big also. Solid lead keels on big sail boats can get pretty big too.

Take care.

Brian Lawson,
Bothwell, Ontario.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
On Tue, 07 Dec 2004 02:10:16 GMT, asdl wrote:

No real reason... just curious... What's the biggest chunk
of solid metal that you seen? Is there some massive 10 foot
cube somewhere?

"Greg Postma" wrote in message
news:P8atd.215525$R05.94297@attbi_s53...
IF you had the "pleasure" of visiting the 2# BOP shop, you might
remember the 12" of "moon dust" that coated everything. Dam dirtiest
place I ever saw.

I think I was there three times, the first on an AISI press junket with a
crowd from the general press (Time, Newsweek, The NYT, etc.), and it was one
of the funniest things I remember from those days. Those people were freaked
out, in the true sense.

But anybody would be impressed. It's one of those monstrous operations that
can make you feel really small and vulnerable.

I remember the thick dust (it was in most steel plants I visited in those
days). And there was that tall guy with the horns and the flames. 'Looked
like he was having a hell of a good time...

I do recall an incident when a young "summer help" cut
into the middle of a hot strawberry and it exploded, covering him with
molten steel. It burned right through his aluminized suit, his greens
and jeans and tee shirt. His screams and pleadings for some one to kill
him haunt me to this day. He died in the Burn Center at Cook County
Hospital 2 days later. He was a sophomore in college, the same age as I
was. Pretty much gave me a new respect for hot metal.

Damned dangerous business, still.

Ed Huntress

asdl wrote:

No real reason... just curious... What's the biggest chunk
of solid metal that you seen? Is there some massive 10 foot
cube somewhere?
Sure - they make massive gears that are that easily.
To process, use verticle lathes and mills.
Martin
--
Martin Eastburn, Barbara Eastburn
@ home at Lion's Lair with our computer
NRA LOH, NRA Life
NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder

"Tom" wrote in message
...
asdl wrote:

No real reason... just curious... What's the biggest chunk
of solid metal that you seen? Is there some massive 10 foot
cube somewhere?

Not cubes but some serious sized steel components were used he

http://www.asme.org/history/brochures/h071.pdf

Tom

Holy Mackerel, that is quite a hunk of machinery. Wow!

Lane

"asdl" wrote in message
ink.net...
No real reason... just curious... What's the biggest chunk
of solid metal that you seen? Is there some massive 10 foot
cube somewhere?

40 tonnes. I got to cut it up into strips about 6 months ago. about 11
meters long, just over 3 meters wide, and 160mm thick, IIRC.

In article ,
says...
asdl wrote:

No real reason... just curious... What's the biggest chunk
of solid metal that you seen? Is there some massive 10 foot
cube somewhere?

Not cubes but some serious sized steel components were used he

http://www.asme.org/history/brochures/h071.pdf


You're holding on the rest of the good stuff, Tom. Great
find.

http://www.asme.org/history/brochure.html

Ned Simmons

Check out my other post on the huge engine or just click he

http://www.bath.ac.uk/~ccsshb/12cyl/

I'm sure something big was used in there somewhere.

Regards,
Joe Agro, Jr.
http://www.autodrill.com
http://www.multi-spindle-heads.com

V8013


"asdl" wrote in message
ink.net...
No real reason... just curious... What's the biggest chunk
of solid metal that you seen? Is there some massive 10 foot
cube somewhere?

Tom wrote:

Not cubes but some serious sized steel components were used he

http://www.asme.org/history/brochures/h071.pdf

How does that compared to the block for that ship engine that someone
posted some time ago?

How does that compared to the block for that ship engine that someone
posted some time ago?

That ship engine block probably went together either two or four cylinders
at a time. Even though I think I'm the one who posted it, I'm not exactly
sure what the deal is. I do, however think that they have engine blocks
that "stack" together to make 8, 10, 12, 14 cyl. models. etc.
--


Regards,
Joe Agro, Jr.
http://www.autodrill.com
http://www.multi-spindle-heads.com

Terry Collins wrote:

Tom wrote:

Not cubes but some serious sized steel components were used he

http://www.asme.org/history/brochures/h071.pdf

How does that compared to the block for that ship engine that someone
posted some time ago?

If you look here you will see that the "block" is bolted up out
of modular sections:

http://shopswarf.orcon.net.nz/96rta5.jpg

Tom

"Terry Collins" wrote in message
...
Tom wrote:

Not cubes but some serious sized steel components were used he

http://www.asme.org/history/brochures/h071.pdf

How does that compared to the block for that ship engine that someone
posted some time ago?

The largest ingot casting I have seen would rival the 350T casting,
unfortunately it was the result of a ladle freezing solid, and it only
lasted as long as it took for someone to get round to cutting it up.