Next Bolthole devellopment

DDHv wrote:The supply chain could be a problem. For production, our current technology is moving toward more flexibility using design programs and controlled machine tools. A few months back, http://www.instructables.com/ had an article where someone explained how he built his own computer controlled woodwork machine for very low cost. How far could this go over centuries

kzt wrote:In the honorverse it is popping out a complete missile or entire pod. It seems a little harder to have a general purpose fabricator that can turn out 5000 tons of complex molecular scale electronics that can handle thousands of gravities of acceleration almost with the superconducting cabling etc.

Particularly given that they use metal flywheels in their hyperdrives.

Brigade XO wrote:

DDHv wrote:The supply chain could be a problem. For production, our current technology is moving toward more flexibility using design programs and controlled machine tools. A few months back, http://www.instructables.com/ had an article where someone explained how he built his own computer controlled woodwork machine for very low cost. How far could this go over centuries

Back in the mid 90's, a member of our computer users group set up his own CNC woodworking shop using an "old" Apple II GS (in a seperate room to keep the dust out). This was a small commercial operation. He wrote the software and expanded his capacity. Put a glass panel in the wall between the computer room and shop floor so he could keep an eye on the equipment while adjusting or modifying the instructions.

I also had a customer who was running a machine shop making automotive and aircraft related parts (amoung other things) with "old" CNC equipment. You know, "simple" machines that could only do one or two jobs at a time with a limited tool-head that might/mostly only hold a couple of the same tool so they didn't need to stop as tool wear might compromise the tolerances, just rotate to the next one. He was buying these units used and setting them up in small clusters such that one operator could essentialy monitor three or four machines doing the same thing, replenish stock/parts for ongoing operations, change out tools as needed, keep the cutting oil screens clear and the workspace clear. He could manufacture some quit complicated parts, it just took moving the batches of parts along through multiple sets of machines. He would continue the training of his new people so they went from entry level machinists and toolmakers very competent & flexable operators to be able to do all of the jobs nessisary to set up and run almost any operation there including trouble-shooting and QC. He would take all sorts of jobs and could deliver parts, not by the container load(from China etc), but by several hundred or less (or more) in a partial truck-load shipment consistently. On time, in spec. You don't have to have the most current/fastest equipment, you do need to maintain quality and delivery and continue to make a profit.

JohnRoth wrote:As far as those thousands of gravities goes, there's a whopping big anomaly in the way impeller drives work. I expect it's been mentioned before, but either the structural anchorages for the nodes have to be able to take a really, really great amount of stress to move the rest of the ship at the stated accelerations, or the gravitational field they generate has to operate on the entire ship volume as a whole.

Clearly, the grav plates and compensators are there to distribute the grav field that the nodes aren't capable of doing by themselves. Is there any reason why missiles can't do the same thing?

Jonathan_S wrote:

JohnRoth wrote:As far as those thousands of gravities goes, there's a whopping big anomaly in the way impeller drives work. I expect it's been mentioned before, but either the structural anchorages for the nodes have to be able to take a really, really great amount of stress to move the rest of the ship at the stated accelerations, or the gravitational field they generate has to operate on the entire ship volume as a whole.

Clearly, the grav plates and compensators are there to distribute the grav field that the nodes aren't capable of doing by themselves. Is there any reason why missiles can't do the same thing?

RFC has said that missiles do kind of do the same thing; more specifically that one of the ways missile impellers differ from ship ones (aside from vastly higher acceleration, vastly shortly lifespan, and inability to restart or throttle them once 'lit') is that they also provide a compensator like effect on the missile to make the acceleration manageable.
"Missile wedges use a slightly different variant of impeller technology. They don't use inertial compensators at all. Or, rather, the minimal compensator effect needed to permit them to accelerate that such velocities without suffering serious damage is built into the nodes themselves, and not into a separate compensator."

kzt wrote:Ships are ABSURDLY strong. Like over 400x stronger than needed for any practical purpose. Reread "What Price Dreams". It's like designing a passenger jet so it can fly through skyscrapers or forests with no more than superfical damage.

kzt wrote:If the compensator fails the ship should pretty much look like a 747 that flew into a cliff. A 10,000 ton fusion reactor is going to go right through the deck when it suddenly weights 8 million tons. The water hammer in the fuel supply lines when they are suddenly pressurized to roughly the equivalent of 2 miles of ocean depth will be impressive, etc.

I have no idea why David thinks they can just be hosed out and put back to work.

JohnRoth wrote:

Brigade XO wrote:"="DDHv"
The supply chain could be a problem. For production, our current technology is moving toward more flexibility using design programs and controlled machine tools. A few months back, http://www.instructables.com/ had an article where someone explained how he built his own computer controlled woodwork machine for very low cost. How far could this go over centuries
/"

Back in the mid 90's, a member of our computer users group set up his own CNC woodworking shop using an "old" Apple II GS (in a seperate room to keep the dust out). This was a small commercial operation. He wrote the software and expanded his capacity. Put a glass panel in the wall between the computer room and shop floor so he could keep an eye on the equipment while adjusting or modifying the instructions.

I also had a customer who was running a machine shop making automotive and aircraft related parts (amoung other things) with "old" CNC equipment. You know, "simple" machines that could only do one or two jobs at a time with a limited tool-head that might/mostly only hold a couple of the same tool so they didn't need to stop as tool wear might compromise the tolerances, just rotate to the next one. He was buying these units used and setting them up in small clusters such that one operator could essentialy monitor three or four machines doing the same thing, replenish stock/parts for ongoing operations, change out tools as needed, keep the cutting oil screens clear and the workspace clear. He could manufacture some quit complicated parts, it just took moving the batches of parts along through multiple sets of machines. He would continue the training of his new people so they went from entry level machinists and toolmakers very competent & flexable operators to be able to do all of the jobs nessisary to set up and run almost any operation there including trouble-shooting and QC. He would take all sorts of jobs and could deliver parts, not by the container load(from China etc), but by several hundred or less (or more) in a partial truck-load shipment consistently. On time, in spec. You don't have to have the most current/fastest equipment, you do need to maintain quality and delivery and continue to make a profit.

Yup. And that's similar to what the Lean Manufacturing people were recommending. Simple machines and skilled operators beat the heck out of complex, single-purpose machines that constantly break down and require a priesthood to keep working. "Mass production" techniques don't work for small lots.