What defines BILLET …

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

I suppose it could depend upon the scale at which one is working, but I am surprised by some of the small items on ebay that are listed as billets of Aluminium Alloy.

My understanding [such as it is] was probably based on Aerospace components which were often machined from a [presumed stress-fee and void-free] billet of material in preference to using [ riskier] castings.

Many CNC-machined components are identified as ‘billet’ for that reason.

Harrison brakes use the term as a ‘brand’

… but, is word legitimately appropriate to [for example] a 70mm square of alloy which appears to have been cut from sheet ?

… or only to a ‘lump’ taken from a much larger volume ?

 

Just wondering.

MichaelG.

 

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 03/10/2023 07:13:02

[pgk pgkParticipant @pgkpgk17461]

Several definitions online but most consistently as a small piece of rolled or cast material for further machining.

Perhaps it just sounds more up-market for the entitled generations than 'scrap end' or 'nubbin' ?

pgk

[Frances IoMParticipant @francesiom58905]

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

[Martin ConnellyParticipant @martinconnelly55370]

Do the online definitions include roughly cut or sized? That's how I always imagine a billet to be. So faces that are not flat or have been flame cut or rough cut on a saw for example and certainly not to exact dimensions all round.

Martin C

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Frances IoM on 03/10/2023 08:01:08:
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

.

Thanks, all for the replies so far

This one, Frances, is perhaps particularly relevant to my question:

Your billet, for extrusion, is essentially an homogenous and stress free ‘lump’ of material with a modest aspect-ratio … but does a small piece of the resulting extrusion also qualify as a billet, I wonder.

MichaelG.

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

The word billet is not confined to aluminium alloy.

It does not mean "scrap".

It does not indicate any particular metal, grade or physical properties.

It is an ill-defined term for an ingot to be extruded, or short length or slice of cut bar stock.

The latter, typically but not necessarily round, is usually either of a specific length for a particular purpose (including sales-units as by our retailers), or is the bar-end from cutting those pieces.

It is an old, generic word and cannot possibly be used as a trade-name.

[Nick Clarke 3Participant @nickclarke3]

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?

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Just for clarity [of which there is little, these days]

**LINK**

https://www.billet.co.uk/index2.html?home.html~mainFrame

MichaelG.

.

Check the ‘about us’ link

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 03/10/2023 08:40:57

[MichaelRParticipant @michaelr]

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

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi MichaelG, my dictionary says (as in the case of metal) is a bar of iron or steel in an intermediate stage of manufacture, which is, Middle English, from old French billette, billot, diminutive of bille, log, block, tree trunk. from Medieval Latin billus, >. It seems that it can be any metal now though, from Astro Machine Works being used in a manufacturing process, rather than the manufacturing process itself.

Regards Nick.

[Ady1Participant @ady1]

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

[CirclipParticipant @circlip]

Another term widely bandied about by our brethren across the pond to try to re-write (rite) the English dictionary. All the Custom builders use the term as the holy grail for normally Aluminium machined components.

Regards Ian.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

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.

[Chris Pearson 1Participant @chrispearson1]

A piece of metal (any metal) which is sufficient for making one article.

[Dave HalfordParticipant @davehalford22513]

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.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

For info. … This was the ebay listing which prompted the question: **LINK**

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/162747005133

… and I then discovered that the use of ‘billet’ was surprisingly widespread.

MichaelG.

[David SeniorParticipant @davidsenior29320]

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

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by David Senior on 03/10/2023 13:49:23:

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

[…]

.

Quite so … but many of the others major on the word billet

I’m not going to labour this … I just asked a question and have had a variety of answers.

That will suffice for me, thanks.

MichaelG.

[Tim StevensParticipant @timstevens64731]

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 StevensParticipant @timstevens64731]

And … no-one should be surprised to find a word in English which has two or more meanings. One reason for this is our history as a ‘nation’ (on which the sun never set), and another is the hopeless lack of useful terms in the Latin and Greek that our education was built around.

Just consider words like ‘set’ and ’round’.

Cheers, Tim

[Martin ConnellyParticipant @martinconnelly55370]

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

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