Whipped Cream Difficulties

…I am generally opposed to the use of my tax dollars for things other than the basic functions of government: police, courts, and the military.

However, if the government is going to spend my tax money on other things, I prefer that the government spend it on cool stuff: things that go fast, things that explode, things that go fast and explode, or just simply engineering marvels.

Like the 50,000 ton forging press.

Its 14 major structural components, cast in ductile iron, weigh as much as 250 tons each; those yard-thick steel bolts are also 78 feet long; all told, the machine weighs 16 million pounds, and when activated its eight main hydraulic cylinders deliver up to 50,000 tons of compressive force.

According to Alcoa’s web site, the Fifty is back in service. And they have video (which I can’t watch on my work machine).

I wonder if they offer tours? If not to the general public, to polite bloggers who agree to wear a hard hat and safety goggles, and promise not to put their hands in the press?

(Hattip: TJIC on the Twitter.)

This entry was posted on Monday, February 13th, 2012 at 12:49 pm and is filed under Clippings, Geek. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.