What on earth are they turning on that huge lathe? Could it be a flashlight? 
Watching paint dryā¦ has nothing on this.
I dont think so. It looks like steel (from the rust) and did you see the blue chips coming off even at that speed? and no lube (I guess the Chinese like it rough.
Two tools seems like a good idea cuts down on the time to āmake one passā.
The engine parts for a bigger lathe
Looks to me that they are descaling a big forging, I would guess a flywheel for a pressā¦.
I know a machine shop here in town that has one with a 48ā swing on a 36ā gapped bed and itās the biggest Iāve seen in person. Their main business is motorcycle restorations and repair, and they use this mainly for wheel work but they do some contract work to fill in the slack times. Itās been a few years back so I canāt remember the brand but IIRC it was English, maybe a Hardinge (sp?). Anyway it doesnāt compare to the OPās machine and either will make my hobby lathe look like a kidās toy!
Phil
I would like to see the calipers they use to measure that
The uneven properties of a forged object could very well be the reason for the low revs of the lathe.
My guess, its a rotating part for a steel forging press, the kind where an ingot goes in and a white-hot 1ā piece of steel comes shooting out at 60 mph.
Or itās going to be a heat-sink for Old Lumens newest project. 0:)
My thoughts as well. 
I was thinking roller for a plate roller to make wind tower sections. I highly doubt that is the largest lathe in the world, considering Iāve seen milling machines with more than a 10āx30ā bed. Iād bet thereās something out there thatās custom built thatās bigger.
Hadnāt thought of this, it would be interesting to see them bore it for a 1.7meter driver, but the 2meter copper star is going to be pricey! Ha!
Iām surprised you all flashaholics here have never seen this! Thatās just how a (single) Surefire flashlight is made.
What kind of material do you need to take anything off that big size of metal.
must be tough stuff to shave off that much.
Carbide.
The same rules of physics apply to huge parts as small ones. Carbide is probably what they use for the sake of speed in production, but as long as the machine is capable of low enough revs on large diameter work thereās no reason high speed steel bits wouldnāt work. Itās all about surface feet per minute and feed rate.
thanks.. although I have no idea what you are talking about ;)
Think about tires of different sizes. To travel the same speed with larger tires theyād spin slower. Thatās surface feet per minute, the distance in feet the cutter moves past the material each minute. A 2ā diameter has a circumference of 6.283ā, so if your tooling and material dictates a SFM of 120 youād spin the workpiece at around 19 RPMās. Smaller pieces would spin faster because they have a smaller circumference.
Feed rate has a lot to do with rigidity and desired surface finish.
Carbide is generally run at 2-4x the SFM of HSS, but is prone to chipping in interrupted cuts and requires more HP for the same cut because they are not as sharp as high speed steel. Often something cheap is used to to get through forging scale and then the cutter is changed to something better once theyāre actually turning to the final size.
Cool, I didnāt know that.
That was just a āsmallā lathe :bigsmile: .
This, my friends, is one of (if not) the biggest lathe in europe:
Here are 2 vids:
http://vid1280.photobucket.com/albums/a500/thijsco19/video-2013-04-12-08-42-25_zpslbugcyuw.mp4
http://vid1280.photobucket.com/albums/a500/thijsco19/MOV_0696_zpsd9letlpq.mp4
Out of my head, but dont quote me on this, it has a 4M chuck.
It can hold 80 metric tons with support, without support i believe it was around 50 - 60 metric tons.
Not sure wat the maxium speed is. I thought somewhere around 60 revs. (believe me if it turns at full speed it is scary as hell :D)