poleframer

Oh, and the snowthrower. I just have too much fun out here.

Guess while I'm going through some pics, here's some of what I do. Part of getting a forge together is that on the larger log jobs I put the posts and beams together with plate steel splined into the joints, and I'd like to play some steelwork out into view. Couple of a carport I did, and a log house I worked on.

Good guess, it was a Yanmar C10R tracked dumper, had a small dumptruck like bed on it. Then I added a blade, then I thought a little boom would be handy, kinda transformed over a few years. I can take the boom and all off with 8 bolts, and a couple quick connects and put a dump bed on. My shop hydraulic pump was down, had to turn a pulley for that pump, so I plugged the tractor into the system and ran my lathe and my press off it. Also have a wood splitter to plug into it. One year I was doing work for the forest service, building fence, I mounted an auger on it, made racks on the sides to carry materials. Built some trail with it, have a couple buckets for it, an 8" and a 12". But it aint a backhoe, thick roots stop it pretty quick. Been thinking of making some kind of powered toothed blade like a small stump grinder disk to mount on the bucket bracket for that situation.

Those chains arent hard to get, it's out of a toyota transfer case, lots of transfer cases have them. Not too hard to drive a pin out and shorten, I suppose ya could put in longer pins and make any width you want. A friend got an old skidder, needed engine work. Pullin the detroit, with the bell housing was about its limits, I put it in his shop for him. Another truck part I used was a 1 ton truck hub, cut the axle housing off, and attached a ram to one of the lug stud holes for the pivot under the mast, that rotated side to side on a turntable. Thinking of using a truck hub for a rotating boom in the shop. I've gotten a lot of mileage out of my old trucks, haha.

Guess this would go in the tool section. This thing is just too handy, only 3' wide, it'll pic a thousand lbs, can drive it around in my shop.

How is it set up, so the post that the ram pushes stays in track? I like it.

I've been really lucky in putting my hydraulic system together, no way I could afford buying this stuff new. There's a guy I know that does a lot of heavy equipment trading, he buys stuff at auction, rebuilds and sells it, has bins of parts he lets me go at. Last I was in I picked up two 4" cylinders, and a cessna motor for $25. And being used (sometimes well used) I get to learn how they goes together. Sometimes it's just a matter of seals, sometimes internal surfaces need lapped to get things going. I think part of what keeps us in this kind of occupation, or hobby, is the constant and enjoyable learning curve.

Thanks for posting that macbruce, gave me an idea.

Yea, I dont think I explained well enough. The pressure control valve is in the spool to the cylinder, it dumps at whatever pressure I set max on that spool. I do have high pressure lines from the pump, to the valve bank, and to the cyl, I'm just more geared with the flow from the pump, and the gear ratio to the diesel for more GPM, it bogs when the pressure comes up over 2000. It's not a two stage pump. I like the higher flow, since I'm running mostly motors on it, like for the bandsaw, the lathe, and the power hammer which typically run fine, and torquey at around 500-800 psi I was thinking if the small cylinder took say half a gallon to extend, and that half gallon came from the rod end of the larger cylinder, and it takes over a gallon to fill the big end of the longer cylinder, I'd be multiplying the pressure by doing that, the difference being the volume taken up by the longer cylinders rod. The increase ratio would be how much fluid goes in the top port, to what comes out the rod end port on the longer cylinder. The circuit would go something like this. Pressure to the long cyl, then a line from it's rod end to the push side of the smaller cyl, and from it back to the other spool port. Everything should just go in reverse when the spool lever is reversed. If they are both 4" diameter, and the longer cyl pushes 8" to push 4" worth of travel in the short cyl, I'd be doubling the pressure, ie; 2000psi to the longer cyl would have 4000 psi at the smaller one. I think the trick part will be in the retraction of the rods. hmmm I'm a pretty good scrounger, I might be as well off hunting down a 6" or 7" cylinder. Just wonder if anyone has done anything of the like.

Got a question for the hydraulic gurus here. I'm only running 1500-2000 psi on my system (gear motor on a 12hp diesel) have pretty good flow. I have been looking for a 6" cylinder to replace the 4" in my H press. Well, I came up with another 4" cylinder, that has a bigger diameter ram, and is a fair bit longer. The 4" in the press has a 4" throw, this one has like 14". I could get the specs on them, the one in the press is pretty thick walled welded, should take higher pressure. SO, if I ran the fluid out of the ram side of the longed cyl, into the pressure side of the shorter one, I would increase the pressure there, right? Could also have a "double acton" press, with a lower pressure,faster, and longer throw side, and a shorter, slower high pressure side. Dont know if this is done much, just the idea I have looking at the pile of stuff I have. Thanks

I just filled a 25 gal bottle, they put 22 gallons in it here. think it was $58 I have a little coal, but I've been burning dry (silver) madrone chunks, get steel hot enough to melt, good enough for me, I can cut it here :)

Someone on here put up a pretty good tool list. These kinds of lists can be handy, cause you can prioritize your purchases according to needs, and budget. A young friend is getting into metalwork, wanted a plasma machine, I talked him into an OA torch, much more versatile, not to mention cheaper. For problems like broken bolts, or bits of pipe that need to be backed out, a few reverse drills will work much better than easy outs, IMO. If all you have for metal cutting at this point is a grinder, a good first steel cutter (and one I still use a lot) is a 7 1/4" metal cutting disk on a second hand skilsaw. I actually prefer a sidewinder type for this, it puts the disk on the far side, less sparks in yer face.

Nice build! How much air does it draw in action?

Yea, that sounds better. Wouldnt mind adding another chunk of steel under the anvil either Thanks, Sam

Wondering where people like the anvil height on their power hammers, presses. Had a buddy over for a forge session, and noticed how much he stooped over. This is at 30", thinking e little higher. He wants one now, haha. He is on grid, and would be wanting an electric motor run hyd. unit, caused he really liked the control of mine. I don't have a clue of the specs on mine, its a cessna pump on a 12hp diesel outside. Would ya get similar speed, and power out of a two stage pump on 240v? Idk. I'd build it more like a forging press than a shop press, we talked about putting a shear in the action would be nice too. Ideas?

Only problem with both is- two sets of tools. You'll want all your toys and tools there, so if you need something for work on the house, it's a drive to the shop. The other consideration would be security of the tools, but it sounds like there would be watchful eyes in both locations.

Thanks, ciladog, that looks like a simpler construct than the one by Burton, in the popular mechanics article. Does it clamp right to the back bed ways? The other design has one clamp on the bed, and the other end clamps to the carriage, with the upper sliding clamp on the disconnected cross feed. Does seem that the use of a drill rod might be smoother in motion. My compound only travels 4", it's an oldie, dosnt have a degree scale, seems like a taper attachment would be easier to set up accurately. I need to cut some .098 per inch tapers, with a 1/2-13 end to fit the versamil attachment I want to use for milling on the lathe.

Great links, thanks Phil!

Hi Bob, and all. I'm off grid out here in oregon, and the hydraulic system came about when I got a big old sebastian lathe from a friend and was trying to figure out how to power it, as my system is really only good up to about a 1/2 hp electric motor. I have a little yanmar rubber tracked crawler I'd been making impliments for, and had replaced the little 10 hp air cooled engine with a kubota ZB600 2 cyl, think its rated 12 hp continuous. I mounted a hydraulic motor on the lathe, ran it off an aux port, and it worked very well. So I bought another ZB600 for a few hundred (they are often used on refer trucks, or for those highway light signs) and put that in a small shed next to my shop. It's very economical to run, and does most of what I want at an idle. Well, along came a big old 30" Parks bandsaw, and a versamil milling attachment for the lathe that I also plumbed into the system. One problem I ran into was that the bandsaw was across the shop, and the 1/2" high pressure line just didnt do it ripping through 8" oak I was working with, so I plumbed it with 3/4 black pipe, and set the pressure relief for that line at under 1000 psi, and it cuts just fine now. Then I made myself a H frame press, that you can see in my JYH and press thread in the Hammer section. I think I'd like to change the cylinder from the 4" to more like a 6" to 8". I couldnt stop, so I made the power hammer on it, and look forward to some time off work this winter and play with some steel. The next project in the works is a 6"x48" belt grinder, with a 12" disk, also run off hydraulic. I guess the only suggestion would be to size your lines accordingly, friction loss really comes into play if you start running longer lines. I have had good luck buying used hyd. motors, and valves, probably have spent the most on having hoses made, be aware that 1/2" steel hydraulic line is measured OD so its more like 3/8" ID, I ended up doubloing the lines from the pump to the valve bank to get everything running well. The flow control valves make for great speed controll as well, I can spin the lathe anywhere from 0 to 2000 easily, plenty of power. I think this type of system might be a good alternative to getting a phase converter, and going 3 phase in the shop for the power hungry tools, I'm not a full time machinist, or cabinet maker, so it's not like I'm running that diesel all that much.

Bump. Been pondering the regenerative circuit, and the physics allude me. Anyone have an idea if using a setup like that could increase pressure on the downstroke? Seems like if the top end is pushing with say a 4 inch bore cyl., and the ram take up room on the other side, the fluid out would have more pressure than whats going in the top. Could this be used to increase ram pressure? Or is the system pressure from the pump/valve the top end... I like to keep my system down around 2000ps Thanks

Total newbie here, I'd like to throw in the factor of the power source, and its application in the hammer design. I found that the gearmotor on my hydraulic powered rusty type hammer (see JYH and press thread in the next page) wasnt up to the task, when I went to a rotary piston motor it hit a lot harder. I think in addition to the "whip" action of the springs, there's also a fair bit of downward force from the motor to the hammer. The hyd motor is powered off pump on a 12hp diesel, I'd suppose I have around 8hp for my hammer motor. My anvil totaled about 250 lbs, and the hammer is about 35 lbs. There's also the additional weight of the press framework, it's bolted into the slab through 2" of plywood. It dosnt move around when pounding, but I can sure feel the blows in the concrete, guess I'll see how the anchors hold up. I think there's some aspect of the additional force applied to the tup, adding more to the blow than just the weight of the tup.

Wonder if diesel would go through a gasoline fuel injection nozzle...would be less explosive, and a safer fuel I think.

Lived at this backwoods place years ago. There was an old outhouse, listing badly to one side. Someone had written on the wall "you'd have to be somewhat inclined to sh*t here, I'd say"

I'm very interested in this regenerative circuit concept. I have enough flow with my diesel (12hp) running a gear pump, but have been considering going from my 4" cyl to a 5 or 6". Can a regenerative circuitbe used to increase pressure on the push side of the ram? I run my system up to around 2000 psi, gives me about a 10 ton press.