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Re:How to Build a 50K Ton Forging Press by spenczar5 on Wednesday August 21, 2024 @12:37PM (#41311897)
Castings can achieve shapes that are impractical to machine. A classic example is a spoked wheel. The spokes are really hard to make precisely with machining, but fairly straightforward when casting. Bandsaw wheels are virtually always cast, for example.

Also, the processes are not really independent. It can be much cheaper to do a rough casting, and then machine just the critical faces of it, instead of using an “off the shelf” hunk of metal and machining it all into shape. So it’s not really “casting is superior to machining” or vice versa. More that machining is high precision but expensive. Casting has some up-front cost but once the patterns are made, each item will use material quite efficiently.

Re:How to Build a 50K Ton Forging Press by IshKebab on Wednesday August 21, 2024 @01:19PM (#41312286)
Spoked wheels aren't cast because it's hard to machine them. You can easily CNC them if you really want. But that would be insanely expensive and wasteful and not any better.
Re:How to Build a 50K Ton Forging Press by spenczar5 on Wednesday August 21, 2024 @01:23PM (#41312329)
Yes, I said “impractical”, not “impossible”.
Re:How to Build a 50K Ton Forging Press by IshKebab on Wednesday August 21, 2024 @04:19PM (#41313855)
You said

> The spokes are really hard to make precisely with machining

That is not true.

Re:How to Build a 50K Ton Forging Press by jessebro on Thursday August 22, 2024 @09:36AM (#41320130)
Back in the days of manual machining it was definitely true. CNC, especially modern 5+ axis high speed high rigidity machines are god level cheating.
Re:How to Build a 50K Ton Forging Press by buildsjets on Wednesday August 21, 2024 @04:41PM (#41314034)
I've watched enough Chip Foose on TV to know that in the custom car world it is commonplace to start with a solid blank wheel and CNC away 90% of the face to achieve any particular design. It takes only minutes, and unlike casting or forging you do not need to purchase hard tooling for each different design.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqOlM6-YIIs