Railroaders place to shoot the shit.

Nah... The cutter heads, or spindles have ten bars, which hold eleven ta twelve 'buttons' which are carbide steel. When an edge is taken off... The screw is loosened just enough ta rotate that cutter a few degrees to expose a clean/sharp face.

And no two cutters are in the same axis of rotation of any other in that spindle...they're staggered just enough to accomplish a pretty decent finish afterwards.

The speed of rotation of the spindles is not adjustable, but the drive roller is. That driver rotates the wheel to be cut. It'll run about ten, ta twelve minutes [depending on diameter of the wheel], and speed of the setting. The speed is adjusted slower when a wheel has defects [flat spots, or skids, or dynamic braking 'push' metal build up] that could tear out cutters, or shatter ' em hitting a harder spot than the regular surface of the wheel. I try ta match the speed with the vibration of the needle/pointer of the dial gauge when the cut is made... I've gotten pretty good at running that machine, and it's one of the jobs I like. But not every day.

Anybody can cut wheels... But the set up is what takes time...and reassembling journals, axle end caps, shock absorbers, yaw dampers and all the other 'jewelry' that some units have at the ends of the axles, and truck frames make the job a pain in the ass!

A four axle unit [locomotive] is easier because you don't need ta worry about mismatched diameters during/after a cut.

The spindle rotates with the wheel, that is the cutters spin away from the surface being cut... Also to lessen wear/damage to the cutters, the bars, and the spindle mechanism. We've been using a dial gauge ta control the depth of each cut... We've agreed to take no more than a .110" at once. And we 'index' the cutter after every sixty cuts.

Sometimes a wheel flange defect [thin flange] can need more cuts than anything else. Or when a mismatched set of wheels on a six-axle loco needs to be cut to size... I've seen 'em cut a brand new, full sized wheel halfway down ta match the smallest wheel in that truck [three wheels] to comply with FRA regs.

There's more to the job than my explanation, but that's about all I can think of right now... And today was another job back there. Two wheels [four] on one unit... That the day shift guy left for me specifically ta cut. Two wheels on one axle. Ya can't cut one wheel at a time. Ya drag the unit onto the machine with a winch/cables, and spot the wheel(s) to be cut on the machine...

More manana!

Fucks just called me for O/T! One hour! Whatever happened ta the TWO hour courtesy call for overtime, since I'm first up?

Bastards! They think just because I live five, ten minutes from the roho... Fuck 'em!

Make a sandwich...

Highly skilled laborer, ya dolt!