Science/Engineering/Technical forums

We don't hear much about the Chinese actually innovating and inventing. But this is pretty cool. It was sent along by a friend who liked to amaze my engineers by whipping out a wood mortise bit to show them a square hole in wood -- this is something well beyond that.
http://youtu.be/agiHZOsMR34

They also make round pegs

Doug Coulter wrote:We don't hear much about the Chinese actually innovating and inventing. But this is pretty cool.

..but unfortunately this is not a Chinese invention!...

What we hear most of are Chinese copies, of which this is one.

I read of this in one of Martin Gardner's maths books when I was a little lad, when he was talking about curves of constant width, of which this is an example.

The earliest I know it to have been invented is the 1970's, but whether it has an earlier origin than that even, I don't know.

Probably yeah, the math's been around -- the Wankel is what it reminded me of. But you couldn't actually buy a milling tool that made square holes yet so the idea was sterile in western hands.

Would you like it if people said - assuming your fusion device works, that it was anticipated by Einstein, and all you did was copy his ideas?

I'm pretty sure I've seen them for sale before.

Not here in the most insanely large and diverse machine tool sellers like McMaster-Carr. Maybe Jerry has seen one?

Hi all;
The script on this video is Japanese so maybe this is Japanese tooling rather than Chinese after all. LRU.

The chuck is called a Watts Chuck, made by the Watts Brothers Tool Works in Wilmerding PA. It can also do hexagonal and octagonal holes.

Some more info: The original patent was applied for back in November 1916 and the patent, #1241176, was granted September 25, 1917 to Harry J. Watts of Turtle Creek, Pennsylvania.

The one in the video is a refinement of the nearly century old tech by Dijet in Osaka, Japan

So, where could I buy one? You seem to be concentrating on the chuck, and yes, I noticed a wobble, but it seems the bit also is special? Would it break the bank?