Broaching
Team Owner
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 38,897
Likes: 1,927
From: Washington Michigan
Flint V-8 and Tonawanda each ran 5,500 engines per day, and McKinnon Industries in Canada (currently known as St. Catherine's Engine Plant, birthplace of the Corvette "LS" engine family), produced an additional 2,600 per day of 350, 305, and 307 engines, and built the most modern grey iron foundry in North America in the 70's (closed in 1995 when they went aluminum). For about 20 years, those three plants produced 13,600 Chevrolet V-8 engines every single day (about 850 per hour total).
Pro
Joined: Feb 2015
Posts: 625
Likes: 213
From: Agawam MA.
C2 of Year Finalist (appearance mods) 2019
FYI
The winter 1992 issue of the NCRS Corvette Restorer Magazine, described the process as follows, " The first operation was a cleaning to remove the last of the core sand,then three surfaces were spot face machined to locate fixtures and two saw cuts made groves in the sides. These are the points from which the block would be positioned and all measurements were located from these surfaces.
Then the block was held stationary on its side while a huge plate,some 15-feet high,30 feet long and 6 inches thick moves past it. The stroke of the machine is about six feet. Teeth mounted on this plate rough cut the head surfaces and the bottom of the intake manifold valley in one pass. The case rotates 180 degrees and as the plate makes its return stroke, the oil pan rail and half circle for the upper half of the main bearings are cut. This machine is called a broach, was made by Cincinnati Milling Machine Co. Another machine. with slightly different tooling and feed rates, made the finish cut until 1986, when it was changed to a mill" .
The winter 1992 issue of the NCRS Corvette Restorer Magazine, described the process as follows, " The first operation was a cleaning to remove the last of the core sand,then three surfaces were spot face machined to locate fixtures and two saw cuts made groves in the sides. These are the points from which the block would be positioned and all measurements were located from these surfaces.
Then the block was held stationary on its side while a huge plate,some 15-feet high,30 feet long and 6 inches thick moves past it. The stroke of the machine is about six feet. Teeth mounted on this plate rough cut the head surfaces and the bottom of the intake manifold valley in one pass. The case rotates 180 degrees and as the plate makes its return stroke, the oil pan rail and half circle for the upper half of the main bearings are cut. This machine is called a broach, was made by Cincinnati Milling Machine Co. Another machine. with slightly different tooling and feed rates, made the finish cut until 1986, when it was changed to a mill" .
Last edited by rnixon; Nov 16, 2015 at 12:04 AM.
