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General Metalworking - All aspects of working with metal.
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Posted by Ignoramus15795 on April 9, 2008, 12:09 am
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>
>>> No delivery. You have to "demil" (de militarize) them on the spot. 50
>>> pounds EACH times 22,000 of them is 28 fully loaded semi trailers full.
>>
>> They weigh as much as a complete Big Boy steam engine.
>>
>
> It's going to be interesting who does finally buy them, and what they do
> with them. Anyone with this knowledge, please keep us posted.
>
They are supposed to be "demilled", which will render them militarily
useless. Basically they will be ruined mechanically (the procedure is
outlined in the auction). Then they will most likely be sold for
steel scrap and melted somewhere.
What I am wondering about, is why did the military scrap them.
i
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Posted by Stormin Mormon on April 9, 2008, 7:24 am
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Mighta been reinstalled in other shells. Or, who knows.....
Could have been dumped in a pile, and burned off.
--
Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
.
>What I am wondering about, is why did the military scrap them.
>
>i
And what happened to the explosive filler?
Gunner
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Posted by Lloyd E. Sponenburgh on April 9, 2008, 7:31 am
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> Mighta been reinstalled in other shells. Or, who knows.....
>
> Could have been dumped in a pile, and burned off.
>
A lot of those have TNT as the main bursting charge. TNT is readily re-
processed. It can be melted out with steam, and re-cast. There are a
number of outfits in the U.S. that will "de-mil" munitions.
I'd be more concerned with the fuze than the main charge. That's usually
a sensitive primary explosive, and not readily made inert ('cept by
'splodin' it).
LLoyd
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Posted by James Waldby on April 9, 2008, 3:19 pm
Please log in for more thread options On Wed, 09 Apr 2008 06:31:03 -0500, Lloyd E. Sponenburgh wrote:
> "Stormin Mormon" ... [wrote]
[re Gunner's "And what happened to the explosive filler?"]
>> Mighta been reinstalled in other shells. Or, who knows.....
>>
>> Could have been dumped in a pile, and burned off.
>>
> A lot of those have TNT as the main bursting charge. TNT is readily re-
> processed. It can be melted out with steam, and re-cast. There are a
> number of outfits in the U.S. that will "de-mil" munitions.
>
> I'd be more concerned with the fuze than the main charge. That's
> usually a sensitive primary explosive, and not readily made inert ('cept
> by 'splodin' it).
The http://cgi.govliquidation.com/auction/view?id=1620194 projectiles
appear to be already defused.
If the ring of yellow diamonds on the nose cone is per table in
http://www.bravecannons.org/the_gun/munitions.html then these could
have been M449 ICM's, which "dropped sixty bomblets that bounced up
five feet in the air before going off."
Regarding some earlier comments about using bandsaws to demilitarize
these, I'd instead expect a 318-ton-force shear like the one at
http://www.enterpriseco.com/enterprise/shear400.html to be used
instead. For cutting the nose cone, a smaller shear like the little
ones at http://www.americanrecycler.com/nov03/spotlight.html probably
could be used.
According to auction, each shell has 45 pounds of steel, 2.75 pounds
of aluminum, and the other 2+ pounds is the copper band and fibreglas
so the scrap value of this stuff may be somewhere beyond $400000.
(30 tons aluminum, say $75000; 10-20 tons copper, $70000-140000;
steel, http://www.grede.com/customer_service/prices/steelPrices.jsp
says $600/ton is current scrap price, or about $250000 for 495 tons.)
-jiw
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Posted by Wes on April 9, 2008, 9:03 am
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>What I am wondering about, is why did the military scrap them.
The military periodically test fires munitions that are in storage as a QA
step. You really don't want long shots or short shots from artillery. It
can ruin your day.
One example is the risk of colateral damage, another is if you are walking
fire with troops behind the barrage moving a head and the third would be
firing *close* to friendlies as in ahh shit, help us out, the enemy is
right on top of us.
Wes
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