Need Help!- Machining Depleted Uranium and Beyond

[JWB_Machining]

I just got assigned to completely spec out everything I would need to set up an entirely seperate shop to machine Depleted uranium. Before I start asking questions on what to get (I'm currently googling and will probably hit up the library soon) does anybody on this forum have experience machining depleted uranium? My current reference is "Machining Depleted Uranium" Issued on April 24, 1972 from the Oak Ridge Y-12 plant.

[Geof]

After Googling 'Machining Depleted Uranium' and finding this among other hits:

http://www.periodictable.com/Items/092.9/index.html

I realised that might not have been very clever because now all the sneaky people who monitor searches and page accesses will have me in their sights.

[JWB_Machining]

haha yeah There seems to be a boat load of health risks and safety procedures I'm sure we have to take care of. The project is in it's infancy but apparently i'm going to be given depleted uranium stock (No idea what kind of shapes or sizes) but I need to figure out tooling, coolant and machines. Because i've used Haas I'd like to stick to them but don't know the requirements or power and such to machine the material. You think my best bet would be to call Haas and get thier take on what machines I need? From what i've read coated carbides are the tool of choice so also recommendations on tools that can handle something as dense as Urnaium are all welcome, and remeber it work hardens very easily. So Far the greatest source of information is this....

http://nsdl.org/resource/2200/20080812103459265T

[MrWild]

That sample has the look of hot rolled steel as a comparison finish. You realize that everything that goes into that room will be a write off? Even getting rid of the machines post use maybe very dificult. Land fills have regulations, and even though it is a "low grade" radioactivity, it will absorb more curies/pico curies as time progresses. You may even have a problem getting rid of the building. Seriously I'd do a full research on everything including clean up. The clean up could kill this job. Not just the end of the job clean up, but the chips and old coolants.

[Geof]

Originally Posted by MrWild ...You realize that everything that goes into that room will be a write off?...

Talking of things going into the room I would imagine it would have to be a negative pressure space with very spiffy filters on the exhaust fans. And you would never get me in there; uranium may be an alpha emitter and pose little or no threat externally but particles of dust lodged in your alveoli could be a different matter.

[JWB_Machining]

Oh Yeah I work for the Army, and apparently My Boss' Boss' Boss' or something like that just got a building renovated here specifically for DU so me and two other guys can do Depleted Uranium Mechanical testing, so I imagine he's got disposal and such worked out. I'm just our groups new machinist so I'm supposed to be figuring out what machines, coolant and tools we need. So I'm posting here to see if anyone has recomendations. Like would a haas TL-1 and TM-1 be powerful enough for this? I imagine we'll only have to turn down small dog bone shapes for tensile testing and tiny cyldiners for compression testing. I know there's a lot to consider with safety because apparently the finer the chip the more likely it is to start a fire, so flooding with coolant is a must because apparently chips created from grinding have been known to ignite under water. I was thinking of asking for a Stuers Woxtom Cut off saw, but I feel the slurry that makes will be likely to ignite, so maybe I'll just keep it at, Mill, Lathe and band Saw. There's loads to consider and i could go on forever but i'm just trying to get the basics of a lathe, mill and saw sorted out to start.

[JWB_Machining]

And We need this place to also be capable of handling any possible replacements for DU in the future, mostly likely Tungsten.