[Last Dakotan]

We have a CNC milling machine we bought from a government surplus auction. The machine was used at Los Alamos, but for what we can only guess. It looks like they were cutting some incendiary material by the way the paint was burned off where chips would impact. Amongst other non-factory security devices there is a keyswitch on the monitor so that the operator can't see the G code as it machines a part.

The machine is currently making opener shanks for planting equipment. We call it our "Swords to Plowshares" machine.

[Tennessee_Bob]

I was talking to one of the machinists out at the weapons plant when I worked at CoorsTek. He was telling me about the criticality tolerances they would achieve on their mills - surfaces parallel within a millionth of an inch across the body of the mill work - and the working surfaces would be several inches apart on the body they were milling. Pretty amazing (but then, I was doing data analysis, not millwork - but it seemed pretty amazing to me).