during student years many eons ago I worked in a aluminium extrusion + rolling mill – the large slugs or billets of Ali straight from the refining plant were if I recall correctly about 6 inch dia and about 18 inch long – squeezed to give 10m or longer lengths of rail etc

What I find equally interesting is that according to an on line dictionary the alternative definition is:

1 archaic : a brief letter

2 a: an official order directing that a member of a military force be provided with board and lodging (as in a private home)

b: quarters assigned by or as if by a billet

and I receive an invitation to a formal meeting described as a billet every so often.

So not only why billet for metal but why two so different meanings?

And then we have Billet as in temporarily lodged soldiers

MichaelR

Nick Clark3 beat me .

Edited By MichaelR on 03/10/2023 09:00:41

Edited By MichaelR on 03/10/2023 09:01:04

"Billet" sounds better than "lump" for sales purposes

I always thought of a billet as a slice off a bar say a 1" thick slice from some 6" CI bar.

But it has become the norm of anything machined from the solid as opposed to a rough casting or fabricated. The US users above use it to mean cut from solid, they would not use it for a machined cast aluminium component. So a billet engine block will be from a solid piece not a machined casting or a wheel will be from solid round stock not a casting or forging.

These days Billet, mostly due to the car modding world usage has come to mean anything not made from a casting, but whittled from the solid. So by extension any old lump of non cast metal becomes a billet, though round and flat bar & sheet have remained the same providing they still look like bar and sheet.

English has a nasty habit of moving on without us innit.

The listing only includes billet in the title – probably just to try and cram in as many slightly relevant keywords as possible.

For what it is worth, I consider when used in the context such as 'billet aluminium part' it means, as several people have mentioned, machined from a solid block.

Dave

Can I suggest that the language needs terms which are not precisely constrained, and Billet is a good candidate. It means something more definite than a lump or a piece, roughly rectangular, and not quite as well-organised as a slab or a strip.

In the same category are ‘off-cut’  and ‘noggin’, neither or which means the same as Billet but come close.

Regards, Tim

PS where has my face gone?

Tim, you need to go to your profile and put a new avatar picture in it. The old ones do not seem to have been carried over.

Martin C