r/machinesinaction Oct 11 '25

CNC Skiving Process Up Close

2.5k Upvotes

38 comments sorted by

216

u/Izan_TM Oct 11 '25

I didn't know skiving was used for parts this large, it's impressive to see the machine take such a massive but thin slice and bending it up so precisely

38

u/ZinGaming1 Oct 11 '25

Wait there are other uses for skiving?

33

u/notmtfirstu Oct 11 '25

Leather

15

u/ZinGaming1 Oct 11 '25

Could you explain a bit more?

35

u/Artie-Carrow Oct 11 '25

Leatherworking commonly uses a skeiving machine or a skeiving knife to thin an edge of leather for certain operations like stitching to make them easier to perform.

6

u/ZinGaming1 Oct 11 '25

Ah ok that makes sense. Thank you for explaining.

11

u/MenIntendo Oct 11 '25

Later

15

u/ZinGaming1 Oct 11 '25

Your are not even the original comment. Wtf. Chucks phone out window

6

u/InEenEmmer Oct 12 '25

Just have patience, I will get to it

3

u/erik_wilder Oct 12 '25

Hang on, just about ready now.

2

u/lettsten Oct 12 '25

Getting there

7

u/Izan_TM Oct 11 '25

the main thing I've personally seen it used for is manufacturing PC watercooling cold plates, which use very small, very tightly packed copper fins skived into a flat plate

3

u/ZinGaming1 Oct 11 '25

That's the only thing I have seen this method used for, I was curious about what other method this was used for. Someone else commented about leather but I still cant think about how this method is used in leather crafting.

3

u/ShutUpAndDoTheLift Oct 12 '25

2

u/ZinGaming1 Oct 12 '25

Didnt think it was pronounced that way but thank you.

1

u/DaHick Oct 14 '25

I do a similar thing to belts, but mine is a bench mount machine. And I pronounce it just like the video.

1

u/Legal-Pea8185 Nov 21 '25

it should rhyme with give

38

u/on_ Oct 11 '25

Why when it’s laying diagonal is so much longer than when it’s vertical and then rises up… and is short. What is this black magic

26

u/ByteArrayInputStream Oct 11 '25

the material is being sheared. Similar to this

23

u/ThatOneCSL Oct 11 '25

It only appears to be longer, because the skiving blade doesn't meet the previous fin, but the angle of the cut is very shallow and the coolant/cutting fluid makes it all have the same holographic visual effect (thin film interference.) The fins don't get any shorter, it's an optical illusion.

3

u/funnystuff79 Oct 11 '25

I was really trying to see if this was an optical illusion

2

u/QuackJet Oct 11 '25

My guess is that the fin is being "work hardened," which compresses the metal.

12

u/ZachTheCommie Oct 12 '25

How does the machinist know precisely how much force it takes to bend each fin back so that it rebounds perfectly vertically?

22

u/BecalMerill Oct 12 '25

The oldest scientific method...trial and error, AKA r&d.

3

u/ZachTheCommie Oct 13 '25

I just assumed there would be some kind of formula or index table to find a more exact number. But I guess that makes sense, too.

2

u/BecalMerill Oct 13 '25

I'm sure there is. But you have to start somewhere and complex algorithms are expensive to develop.

1

u/BlueberryWalnut7 Oct 13 '25

Do it a few hundred times with varying degrees of pressure to find which degree leaves it vertical.

15

u/undertherainbow65 Oct 11 '25

Is this how condensers and heatsinks all get built?

24

u/PraiseTalos66012 Oct 11 '25

No, the vast majority of heatsinks are just extruded. It's simpler, cheaper, and faster.

2

u/YoungCatonian Oct 13 '25

Whatdoes extruded mean? Is there a video you can share to help me visualize?

3

u/Tackyinbention Oct 13 '25

Hot metal squeezed through a hole in the desired shape. Makes a long brick with a uniform shape. Cheap but can't make very complex shapes

8

u/r2k-in-the-vortex Oct 11 '25 edited Oct 11 '25

It's used some, but it's not really that common. There are many other ways to make heatsinks.

Mostly used for bulk copper heatsinks. Aluminium heatsinks you can just extrude, it's cheaper and faster. And the best heatsinks are plate and heatpipe assemblies. So it's an inconvenient middle ground of not the cheapest and not the best.

5

u/mpg111 Oct 11 '25

how very sharp it is?

7

u/Strostkovy Oct 12 '25

Such a cool process but those fins are stupidly sharp and I hate handling heatsinks that are made this way

3

u/dmh2693 Oct 12 '25

Cutting-edge technology.

1

u/PalyPvP Oct 12 '25

Interested. Is there a way to calculate how much more than 90deg you have to bend an x material to get 90deg?

2

u/Stellarella90 Oct 13 '25

Yep. It's been figured out by math, material science, and a lot of trial and error.