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- Mar 15, 2019
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Working with machines, we all have need of horsepower. But what is it really? If we look it up we will find horsepower defined as 746 watts, 550 foot pounds per second or for our mathematically challenged metric users, no fewer than 6 different definitions to determine horsepower, all of which bear only slight relationships to horsepower in the Imperial System. All of these different definitions list a mass, a distance raised and a time in which it is done. But it is all so confusing and not necessarily easy to apply to a bit of metal spinning in a lathe or to a tool spinning in a mill.
So, having some experience with horses in my past, not all of them good, in fact almost none of them good, I will explain it in terms any home shop machinist can understand. To do that I have to go back to the beginning when if you wanted work done, you got a horse to do it. The more horses you had, the more work you could accomplish and the richer you would become. Interestingly, the more money you had, the more likely you were to attract a mate who would do her best to spend all of that money on more horses than were necessary to do the work that needed done and then buy expensive hand tooled leather "tack" so she could ride the horse places and accomplish no work at all, but I digress.
So the basic unit of measure is the horsepower, I am not entirely sure who came up with that term, it is probably lost to history. But you can be sure when he decided to define it as lifting 550 pounds 1 foot high in 1 second, that he had been kicked in the head by a horse at least once.
Not everyone knows of the power of a horse. We have simply lived in cities and removed from exposure to horses for too long. We can see this with our children. Any time we go for a drive through the country, invariably we will come across a farm and there will be a horse standing in a field and the kids will scream with glee and point while screaming "look a horse". Anyone who has worked or lived on a farm knows different than to be gleeful.
You see the secret magical power of a horse is the ability to take a 60 pound bail of hay, a scoop of grain and some water and turn it into 4 tons of horse crap. Some horses can do this in a day, like Clydesdales. Some may take a week, like a Shetland pony. But in the end, it is all just a matter of time, take a horse, some hay, some grain and some water and you will end up with 4 tons of crap. When horses are confined in a stall, their power is concentrated and quite noticeable. When they are out to pasture you hardly notice at all. But the output is the same.
So how does this apply to machines? Simple really, the horsepower of a machine is simply a conversion from horse crap to chips. So a 1 horsepower machine will make 5 times fewer chips than a 5 horsepower machine in the same amount of time. But that is really all that is different is the amount of time. If you take 2 identical blocks of metal and put 1 in each a 1 horsepower machine and a 5 horsepower machine and machine them down into the same part you will get the same amount of chips it will just take longer on the smaller machine.
And this is where the magic of the horse is translated to the machine. Because those blocks of metal will turn a given weight of solid metal into 10 times the weight, at least, in metal chips. And since machines are always confined those chips are always noticeable. Admit it, you yourself have taken a piece of metal and put it into a machine to "take off a few thousandths" and been amazed when you were done that there is now a 2" deep pile of chips on the mill table, floor, in your hair and even over in the corner behind the toolbox. It is a quite spectacular phenomena to those with no experience with machine tools or horses.
So, having some experience with horses in my past, not all of them good, in fact almost none of them good, I will explain it in terms any home shop machinist can understand. To do that I have to go back to the beginning when if you wanted work done, you got a horse to do it. The more horses you had, the more work you could accomplish and the richer you would become. Interestingly, the more money you had, the more likely you were to attract a mate who would do her best to spend all of that money on more horses than were necessary to do the work that needed done and then buy expensive hand tooled leather "tack" so she could ride the horse places and accomplish no work at all, but I digress.
So the basic unit of measure is the horsepower, I am not entirely sure who came up with that term, it is probably lost to history. But you can be sure when he decided to define it as lifting 550 pounds 1 foot high in 1 second, that he had been kicked in the head by a horse at least once.
Not everyone knows of the power of a horse. We have simply lived in cities and removed from exposure to horses for too long. We can see this with our children. Any time we go for a drive through the country, invariably we will come across a farm and there will be a horse standing in a field and the kids will scream with glee and point while screaming "look a horse". Anyone who has worked or lived on a farm knows different than to be gleeful.
You see the secret magical power of a horse is the ability to take a 60 pound bail of hay, a scoop of grain and some water and turn it into 4 tons of horse crap. Some horses can do this in a day, like Clydesdales. Some may take a week, like a Shetland pony. But in the end, it is all just a matter of time, take a horse, some hay, some grain and some water and you will end up with 4 tons of crap. When horses are confined in a stall, their power is concentrated and quite noticeable. When they are out to pasture you hardly notice at all. But the output is the same.
So how does this apply to machines? Simple really, the horsepower of a machine is simply a conversion from horse crap to chips. So a 1 horsepower machine will make 5 times fewer chips than a 5 horsepower machine in the same amount of time. But that is really all that is different is the amount of time. If you take 2 identical blocks of metal and put 1 in each a 1 horsepower machine and a 5 horsepower machine and machine them down into the same part you will get the same amount of chips it will just take longer on the smaller machine.
And this is where the magic of the horse is translated to the machine. Because those blocks of metal will turn a given weight of solid metal into 10 times the weight, at least, in metal chips. And since machines are always confined those chips are always noticeable. Admit it, you yourself have taken a piece of metal and put it into a machine to "take off a few thousandths" and been amazed when you were done that there is now a 2" deep pile of chips on the mill table, floor, in your hair and even over in the corner behind the toolbox. It is a quite spectacular phenomena to those with no experience with machine tools or horses.
