Old Discovery Channel program showing Tippmann making X7s; Lotsa neat CGI

[The Inflicted]

Pretty cool stuff, though I mourn all the jobs shown here that no longer exist.
https://youtu.be/XfSsIkpoicE?si=sd3uLW8Vo8cIHQUy&t=48

Also, the video's thumbnail is totally cursed.



One thing I'm wondering about, though- in the video it says repeatedly that the Phenoms are cast from aluminum, but I remember back in the day Tippmann making a big deal out of the fact that they were a magnesium/aluminum alloy. Was that just the old Mechanical X7s and not the Phenoms?

[The Inflicted]

To clarify- the actual video is NOT AI garbage.

[Magmoormaster]

Pretty sure it was just the original x7 that was magnesium. Cool vieo though. The cgi is very well done.

[Interl0per]

I'd seen the casting before, never saw the Tippmann factory, very cool and yeah a little sad

I'd be surprised if the Phenoms used a significantly different material in the castings from their other cast bodies, now i want to see if i can come up with an experiment with mine vs my 98 to find out lol

[DocsMachine]

One thing I'm wondering about, though- in the video it says repeatedly that the Phenoms are cast from aluminum, but I remember back in the day Tippmann making a big deal out of the fact that they were a magnesium/aluminum alloy.

-The bodies are die-cast, as the video shows, a form of injection molding. You can't use "plain aluminum", as that doesn't work well, here. You need to make an alloy specifically for it- something like A380, which is an aluminum alloy with quite a bit of silicon and copper. Zinc can be added for cost reasons (it's cheaper than aluminum) and some will even had a percentage of iron which helps the molds last longer.

Aluminum and magnesium is easily possible- there's dozens of "die cast" alloys- but the mag would only be a percentage of the aluminum, since it costs quite a bit more than al. And there'd be little reason to use a "magnesium only" alloy- the shells would be lighter, but would cost about a third again more, and be more prone to corrosion.

Doc.

[Trbo323]

Magnesium? I don't remember that at all. Are you sure you're not thinking of the tm15? That one was magnesium and definitely felt a little different if you have worked with both. I've worked with a handful of phenoms and they never struck me as anything but aluminum.

I'm with doc, if that's true I'd also wager it's a small percentage of the mix

Sent from my motorola edge 2024 using Tapatalk

[SignOfZeta]

I love these old shows. I liked them when they were current but now they are historical archives of how it used to be made. The one about Bones skateboard wheels is mostly still current since most skateboard wheels (the good ones anyway) are still USA made but things like nails and shoes and stuff…the knowledge of how to do that was tossed away intentionally. Now those workers kids are trying to make a go with like…medical billing or business consultancy or some way to charge people interest for something. We outsourced ourselves into technical infancy. Nobody “took” these jobs, they were sold by the bosses for temporary gains. Those bosses are now dead and we have a population too stupid to make a stick out of a larger stick.