machining keyways, how?

by broaching.

It's called broaching, as someone else mentioned.

The broach is cut in stages using shaped cutting bits. Imagine the process as a linear lathe. A chainsaw's cutting action would be another analogy. Even better, animation watched frame by frame.

I'll attempt some ASCII art to help explain.

Say the broach looks like the (very) rough shape below

L / 7

The first shaped cutter is shaped /

followed by a _

Then a " / " then another _

and then finally an l.

All this is achieved on flat bed apparatus, where the workpiece traverses bed and the working tool is stationary. The cutters are mounted longitudinally along the bed and remove material from the workpiece as it travels along it.

Make sense??

Regards, ahl

manufacturers

Thanks guys, I fugured it might be something along those lines or perhaps by some means I hadn't thought of. I was also wondering how they shell all those Brazil nuts but that's for another group :)

Shelling Brazil nuts is no big technological problem, the big question is how they get the shells of the cashews without breaking such an odd shaped and fragile nut.

They don't. Next time you are in the store, look for Cashew Pieces. They are in a can next to the whole cashews.

Daniel

Good thing! Cashew shells are toxic, the same as poison ivy. But I'm told they treat the shells with some chemicals to make it easier to remove.

Check out Google archives of alt.locksmithing there was quite a good thread a few years ago on this.