Ever wonder where the metal from your gun comes from?

[marvin02]

Back when Inland had days where your family could tour I never told my wife about them. Her brother was in the same department as me so she went as his guest.

I was working that day and when I got home she was telling me about the tour of the BOF. She said they didn't get to see the furnace operating because of a breakdown, but she saw, "Some idiots hanging from some pipes way up in the air working on it." Yeah, that was me on the side of the furnace unbolting a cooling panel. She said it looked dangerous. I said that's why you didn't need the tour, I didn't want her to be constantly worried.

Her dad and three of her brothers also retired from Inland.

 

[Bugzilla]

Got to take my daughter to a Family Day tour at USS A few years ago. She got to see the hot strip in action. Growing up my dad was a rolling mill operator at IH south Works. Driving by at times you could see the bars going down the mill. Always regretted never getting a tour when I was a kid.

 

[eldirector]

My MILs side of the family are all coal mine and steel mill Italians. My wife's grandmother lost one husband to the mines and another in an explosion at the mill. #3 worked for Corning, as I guess molten glass is a lot safer.

Amazing both how much and how little has changed in this industry in the last 75 years.

For me, those videos are full of "nope"! I will gladly pay the going rate for US steel, and leave that job to the pros.

 

[schmart]

Actaeon,
I'm missing a bunch of comments replying to your first post on this topic, but this entire thread is AWSOME! Your comments on the video were exemplary and brought much more understanding of what was happening! Thanks for taking the time and effort to put the videos together. I will be watching them all.
--Rick

 

[Dean C.]

Feel free to post it, if you want

This was about 5 minutes before the alloy ate it's way through the side wall. I cannot say I am as knowledgeable on the actual melting side of things but I know enough to be dangerous . Being the chemistry nerd I get to stay in my air conditioned lab away from the heat.

Someone mentioned upthread about recycling , we do that as well though we have to be very selective about what scrap we use for different alloys as our tolerances are so tight. Though occasionally we do melt control scrap to use as starter material for our 4-Hi

 

[actaeon277]

Actaeon,
I'm missing a bunch of comments replying to your first post on this topic, but this entire thread is AWSOME! Your comments on the video were exemplary and brought much more understanding of what was happening! Thanks for taking the time and effort to put the videos together. I will be watching them all.
--Rick

Missing a bunch of comments?

 

[actaeon277]

I would bore you (spelling?) with how hot it was today, but most of you (or all of you) have heard me wine about it. So...


Anyway, back in the 90s, this was the Allen Bradley Programming Terminal I had to lug around a rail yard to different PLCs.

 

[foszoe]

I would bore you (spelling?) with how hot it was today, but most of you (or all of you) have heard me wine about it. So...


Anyway, back in the 90s, this was the Allen Bradley Programming Terminal I had to lug around a rail yard to different PLCs.

View attachment 155667

Ever pursue a different career in the past 30 years or is the storytelling worth it all?

Had two uncles work steelmills. One got out by a murder conviction, the other was a electrician and moved into power plants.

 

[actaeon277]

Ever pursue a different career in the past 30 years or is the storytelling worth it all?

Had two uncles work steelmills. One got out by a murder conviction, the other was a electrician and moved into power plants.

When I hired in, I figured it was "till I got a better job".
Then after a while, I might as well stay till Social Security.
But now I am REALLY looking at leaving at, or just after 30 years.

Not just the heat.
Also the long hours.
Shift work.
Bosses looking at you strange when you tell them you need a part.
Bosses looking at you strange when they didn't order the part, and now the plant is down.
Bosses that don't really know what I do, but like to offer suggestions.

But right now... the HEAT.

 

[actaeon277]

And, no the storytelling isn't worth it.
But, the pay. And pension.

 

[marvin02]

Bosses looking at you strange when you tell them you need a part.
Bosses looking at you strange when they didn't order the part, and now the plant is down.
Bosses that don't really know what I do, but like to offer suggestions

I've had a variety of jobs since I left the mill. Mostly bosses are the same everywhere.

When you get a good one it's pretty amazing. I have been lucky enough to have a few. The only bad part about the good ones is that they make the usual suspects look so bad.

Oh, another bad thing about good bosses is that they seldom last because they get chewed up being in the middle between upper management and the workers.

 

[SmileDocHill]

The massive scale and extremes of it all! It's amazing to watch in action but what has me befuddled is how they came up with the process?
Watching a guy alloy some metals and forge a knife in his back yard I can wrap my head around. Who had the engineering balls and budget to experiment with scaling this up to this size though!?

 

[actaeon277]

The massive scale and extremes of it all! It's amazing to watch in action but what has me befuddled is how they came up with the process?
Watching a guy alloy some metals and forge a knife in his back yard I can wrap my head around. Who had the engineering balls and budget to experiment with scaling this up to this size though!?

One step at a time.
And scale is what makes steel cheap enough for the average guy.
Otherwise, it would be a much bigger investment.

 

[marvin02]

Some of the tech changes pretty fast and other stuff stays the same. In the time I was in the mill we went from 400 people making 800,000 tons of coke per year to 120 people make 1.2 million tons.

They were still using a rope driven rolling mill until the mid 80s.

Electric furnaces required the tech to generate and sustain the power they use.

 

[indyblue]

The massive scale and extremes of it all! It's amazing to watch in action but what has me befuddled is how they came up with the process?
Watching a guy alloy some metals and forge a knife in his back yard I can wrap my head around. Who had the engineering balls and budget to experiment with scaling this up to this size though!?

You can thank Henry Bessemer for scaling it up. Modern automation and heavy machinery does the rest.

 

[tv1217]

We wouldn't be doing any of this mill nonsense of it wasn't for the money and benefits lol.

I was in a motorcycle accident that cost a couple hundred grand between medical bills, physical therapy and a medevac helicopter. I paid maybe $500 out of pocket, probably less.

 

[Dean C.]

And, no the storytelling isn't worth it.
But, the pay. And pension.

I wish us younger guys still got those sweet pensions , question does your plant just run airmelt furnaces or do you guys have a vacuum furnace as well?

 

[actaeon277]

I wish us younger guys still got those sweet pensions , question does your plant just run airmelt furnaces or do you guys have a vacuum furnace as well?

I don't know what airmelt, and vacuum are.
We have Blast Furnaces to make the iron.
Most steel is done at a BOP/BOF.
Some recycle is done at an electric arc furnace.

 

[schmart]

Missing a bunch of comments?

I just hadn't read through the entire thread before I commented...

 

[Dean C.]

I don't know what airmelt, and vacuum are.
We have Blast Furnaces to make the iron.
Most steel is done at a BOP/BOF.
Some recycle is done at an electric arc furnace.

Genuinely learning a lot about iron making here, I should have figured super alloy melting would be different but again no experience with traditional iron on my end.

For a lot of our aerospace alloys (high tempature resistant commonly used in turbine engines) we will often use vacuum-induction melting (VIM) followed by electroslag remelting (ESR) to further refine the microstructure of the alloy. Melting in a vacuum environment allows the chemistry to be very tightly controlled and especially with alloys utilizing aluminum and titanium which traditional non vacuum melting allows oxidation to occur.

Our "standard" Air Melt technique uses a electro arc furnace. Downside to vacuum melting is smaller heat sizes averaging about 10,000#.

Carpenter Technology outlines how high-tech melting creates high-performance metal alloys

Advanced melting techniques give metal alloys high-performance properties that standard air-melting processes can’t deliver.

www.machinedesign.com