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Jarret - when I worked at McDonnell-Douglas they
had a twin gantry mill. the bed was like 40', but the newer fighters had
no pieces over 15' so they added another mill. the gantries were huge,
weighing many tons. a secondary, independent computer would run while
parts were being milled, checking for any errors (not good on say titanium
bulkheads that take 2 months to mill). if it detected an error it could
shut the gantry down within less than thousandths of an inch. they told me
that it sounded like an explosion when all that tonnage hit the wall.
these machines had footings the volume of a 2 car garage.
I was in the home built soaring club for a
while. there was a man building a plug doing exactly what you
outlined. he was connected with a university and used their
equipment. maybe his plane is the "lighthawk" I believe? he was
proud of his ability to produce many parts that all fit to tight
tolerances. I didn't know if you were aware of this project.
kevin
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