Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Re: Materials for machines. Was MDF for machines

Hi Tom,

> Different people choose building materials for many different reasons.

East

> of the Mississippi River most people prefer to have a home with asphalt
> shingles. They last from 15-20 years roughly. I have heard that in

Europe,

> they would not think of building a house with a roof that would only last
> 15-20 years

Like most everything else, its a question of what is best for the particular
job and what is available. Virtually all houses round here are built of
brick or local stone and have roofs made of slate or red tiles. Mine has
been around for over 40 years and will last at least that again with only
occasional minor maintenance. Farmhouses in the neighbourhood have roofs
made of stone held on with sheep's shinbones in the old manner and some of
these have been around for 3-4 hundred years with virtually no maintenance.
The reason for this is that our weather is subject to wide swings and is
normally quite damp and so wooden structures wouldn't last too long. Also,
as places are usually quite close together - towns only spaced by a few tens
of miles, making and distributing substantial building materials isn't a
problem whilst most of our timber has to be imported.

England has always been an 'over-engineered' place - massive cast iron
bridges, solid stone buildings and equally solid machinery, so, I guess we
are just so familiar with 'well built' things that we would never think of
using something as weak as aluminium for machine tools in case someone
opened a door and it blew off the bench.

Ian
--
Ian W. Wright
Sheffield UK
www.iw63.freeserve.co.uk