We’ve shown you some pretty wild things on a variety of YouTube channels that highlight the craftiness and skills of mechanics working in different countries making due with the tool they have. That said, this video is insane. You are going to watch a cylinder head off of a small three cylinder engine get surfaced…on a lathe. To say that we have never seen anything like this would be underselling it. Obviously there are some wild safety concerns here, starting with the head itself whipping around at whatever RPM the lathe is set at. Then there is the fact that the head itself has all those nooks and crannies in it and seems poised, at any moment, to rip the cutting tool right off the lathe as well.
We’re not faulting these guys. Hell, it is what they have to work with and they are getting it done. It’s just an astonishing thing to watch. The finished product? Well it’s not what you’d expect to see when a head comes off a broach or normal milling machine when the thing is fixed and the the cutter is actually moving, but as you’ll see in the “finishing phase” it seems to have worked out to their satisfaction.
This is just astonishing to watch.
A spinning head is nothing to these guys, I’ve seen videos with whole semi truck rear axles spinning in the lathes!
I used to machine a weldment that was a 10 or so inch flange offset and at an angle to a 15 inch flange the big end was mounted on a fixture that held the
assy so that the smaller end could be turned and faced at the proper angle to the
big end . Not a fun job as it had to be centered as best it could and then machined . As the mess turned it visually was off center and the angle flipped
back and forth every revolution – it could almost make you nauseous if you
stared at it …..
O M G I RARE NOT THINK ABOUT DOING THAT??????????
Making do…
Very resourceful.