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A comment on James Webb is fully deployed. Parent comment

Re:James Webb is fully deployed by mlyle on Saturday January 08, 2022 @05:02PM (#29856840)
You still don't choose forging as a process to make quantity 2 (unless you absolutely need forged parts for strength). Instead, you're milling two parts from billet.

Milling 2 parts from billet is cheaper per unit than milling 1 (some shared setup and programming costs), but it's the same amount of raw material and basically the same amount of operator time.

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Re:James Webb is fully deployed by WalterBright on Saturday January 08, 2022 @05:09PM (#29856924)
You're right that a one-off forging is so expensive that a hogout will be used instead. My point was how expensive one-offs can be compared to multiple ones, and I used extreme examples as illustrative.

Even in custom machine work, the cost is in the setup. A machinist can make two identical cuts on two parts for not much more cost than one cut on one part.

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