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middle.road

Granite Stoopid...
H-M Supporter Gold Member
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Apr 28, 2014
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You know what? - It can be accomplished on this forum just surfing and browsing through old and new posts.
Been holed up hiding from the cold. Can't believe I grew up in Northern Illinois and Colorado and can't handle this now.

Zamak/Zamac, never heard of it until coming across several posts in the last few days. Is this what I've always referred to as 'Pot Metal'?
Just how do you go through (5) decades and not come across something like this?

The mechanical weenie in me would like to know why in the world it would be used for a Bull Gear.
 
just blame the accountants..........it's them who've wrecked the engineering world........
clogs
 
You know what? - It can be accomplished on this forum just surfing and browsing through old and new posts.
Been holed up hiding from the cold. Can't believe I grew up in Northern Illinois and Colorado and can't handle this now.

Zamak/Zamac, never heard of it until coming across several posts in the last few days. Is this what I've always referred to as 'Pot Metal'?
Just how do you go through (5) decades and not come across something like this?

The mechanical weenie in me would like to know why in the world it would be used for a Bull Gear.
Here is what it is; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zamak
 
My understanding is that Zamack can be precisely molded at comparatively low cost. It is also found in very accurate assemblies, often as precision nuts. The cross slide nut on my Emco Super 11 is made from Zamack and they work well and are very precise. Some CNC nuts are also made from Zamack. As to why a bull gear would be made from this stuff, I don't know for sure but I should think it is intended to be a sacrificial gear that would break before other more costly parts of the assembly do.
 
Using Zamak enabled Atlas to offer lathes at a price point that was very competitive for the time, and the large numbers of these gears and parts is one reason these machines are still around at (relatively) affordable prices
Mark
 
As mentioned above, much cheaper to tool up a die to cast gears, handles, brackets, etc. instead of machining each part. Cycle time on the Zamak casting was probably under a minute per part. We used to get a magnesium cast part used in an instrument panel that had a cycle time of 20 seconds. Much quicker and cheaper than machining.

Bruce
 
Zamak really has no place in the world of fine precision long lived machinery; it is all about cost, not durability.
 
Yeah - the first thing I did was hit Wiki.
I've been around all sorts of manufacturing in my time, somehow I never came across Zamak.
Which really surprises me given some of the places I've been.
 
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