How to destroy a head.
 

This was rather simple to do.... I did not double check the hold downs.. one was not tight enough.......

This is /was a Dodge 2.2L/2.5L SOHC

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1334674877

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1334674877

Notice the chunk missing from the side of the head??
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1334674877

When it was thrown out of the machine, it also shattered the cutter blade ($290.00 later) I have another on the way....

This is a good example of why alum heads are so great to work on.... this head that is mangled... can still be saved..... Some welding and some grinding then resurface the head. And a pressure test.. It would work just fine...

Its just not cost feasible to go thu all that work to save this head, when another casting is readily available.

Oh wow, good thing no one was hurt.

What did it hit when thrown out?

The safety gaurd of the machine. Put a good dent in it.

Tha damage seen is from the becoming loose, and the cutter bladetryin to cut about .500.

It was sort of like tryin to filet a fish as it was flopping around.

Bet you triple check hold-downs from now on.....

Good frikken lord.

That is what parts I worked on would do look like.

Did you have to find a new head for the customer?

olderguy.. Yes, Yes I do!

Faeflora, yes I ordered in a replacement core head and went thu and did all that was needed.

But if this was some sort of rare head, say a Ford 429 Hemi head from 1969, I would have had s buch of welding done to the surface, machining of the water and oil passages, blend ing into the combustion chamber and then surface the head back to spec.

But on a head that can be had for $65, it was not worth the hours of labor to restore it.

I love destruction.

My favorite was an older lathe that didn't seem to have any load sensors. Coolant ran dry without the operator noticing. Boring a 2" hole eventually created molten swarf, and it eventually tripped the breaker. I really wish I had pictures, but it basically looks like a 5" steel rod with a 2" drill bit stuck half way in, and splashes of metal flying out of the flutes. Looked pretty.

Glad you're okay. I had to have my screen replaced on a mill when a lathe threw a part at it. Lathes and mills don't get along.

Curly, good thing that the machine is designed that if anything comes loose it gets tossed towards the back of the machine.
Some how I do not think the vinyl chip garud would do much to stop a head.

In about 6 years of having this machine, I have only pitched 2 heads, this was the second one. The first one was the third head I ever cut on the machine.

Is the head off a K car?

Shearhead, I honestly can not say or remember, I did this 3 or 4 years ago.

Most the time I never know what the car the engine or head is in.

I get year and engine code, or chase the info I need from casting numbers.

OK, machining fiascos.

I was surface grinding a large die block. I worked third shift at the time. Things were slow so the stamping plant supervisor was hanging out in the tool and die shop. I was grinding on the automatic Okamoto surface grinder. It was going back and forth on it's own, cross feeding automatically.

We had this rubber squeegee thing that we used to clean the magnetic chuck before putting on the next workpiece. Anyway we were talking and he was setting the squeegee down on the block, it would go back and forth and he would grab it on it's way back towards the grinding wheel. This went on a few times and we kept talking. Well one time he missed it and it went under the grinding wheel. a 16" wheel promptly exploded into a million pieces, the larger chunks denting the safety guards pretty bad. Scared the crap out of me. It was sudden and extremely loud.

He got a three day vacation for that stunt.

Sounds about like a Big Van Norman/Berco wet segment stone grinder on steriods!

I never been around one of those when they kicked a part.

I hope you bought you a new pair of underwear!