Any recommendations for cnc lathes that will be good at turning tungsten darts?
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Any recommendations for cnc lathes that will be good at turning tungsten darts?
Tungsten isn't a very easy material to turn I believe and will require a good lathe with correct tooling/inserts. I think most tungsten is ground rather than turned.? But I'm not a lathe guy so could be wrong.!
But if you are wanting something more than a hobby machine I do have the perfect machine that will do this standing on its head.
It's a BIG Tarex Burger twin ATC turret lathe with hydraulic Collet chuck, Fanuc 11T controller, and Fanuc AC Red top servos, it's a serious bit of kit that is the size of a small car but it's your for £2k.
Are they "Tungsten" or "Tungsten carbide"
https://www.youtube.com/results?sear...ten+on+a+lathe
Normally tungsten carbide is fitted to wear surfaces by brazing and then ground flat or square.
Have some past experience of "Tungsten carbide" dart manufacture, still have some somewhere.
They were pressed blanks, shaped drilled etc and then sintered
Tungsten carbide - high density - smaller barell
Would copper tungsten be a better material to use? The high tungsten variants have similar density to tungsten carbide (WC !) and I'm told it's a lot more machineable.
High quality Tungsten darts have a body in metal alloy with up to 97.5% tungsten, not Tungsten Carbide in a sintered substrate, tungsten metal has a significantly higher density than tungsten carbide in a sintered substrate.