Some of the work i do at my real job!

[lazylathe]

Hi All,

Thought i would share some pictures of what i do!
Dental technician by trade, 5 years at Technical College and ended up with a B.Tech Degree, many years ago... ;D

Anyway we had a cool case come in that sort of related to machining!

A gold implant bar needed some 1.8mm holes drilled and then tapped with a 2mm tap.
Studs screwed into the bar to which attachments that are in the denture will snap into.

We usually work with Titanium, this was an older implant bar.

The bar and the tap


A fuzzy picture of the locator attachment


Setting up in the surveyor



Ready to drill the first hole


Applying cutting fluid while drilling


Almost there


Tapping the holes


Fuzzy picture of tapped holes. You can just see some fine threads in the far hole


One locator in. You can see the threads better in the far hole this time!


Both in tight!
Just needs a good polish now!


Hope someone found this to be of some interest!
Not everyones favourite topic... ;D

Andrew

[doubleboost]

Hi
Andrew
So they pay you to play with kit like this
John

[andyf]

Fascinating! I bet you were careful to collect the swarf 

When you say it's an "older implant bar", is it one that's been pulled out of someone's jaw for repairs?

Andy

[lazylathe]

YES!!! They actually pay me to do this!!

All the gold dust and waste gets collected and sent for refining.
The boss gets a HUGE check every 6 months or so....

This bar had different attachments on it that were failing and the company had gone out of business.
We cut them off and replaced them with new modern ones.
Also because the bar is cast out of gold it is very expensive to make these days.
We usually CAD design them and have them milled out of medical grade Titanium.
Cheaper, lighter and so much stronger since it is milled from a solid homogenous block.

The owner will soon be eating steak again!

Andrew