2 Chambersburg #200 Steam Hammers

[macbruce]

I don't think my little giant will fit into my forge!

Swelling of the forge follows........

[Drq]

Glad to hear these hammers are going to be working in a shop and not going to scrap. Makes me sad to think of all the good equipment and vehicles that have been melted down. Thanks for saving them.

[Tom Allyn]

Makes me sad to think of all the good equipment and vehicles that have been melted down.

I don't miss the vehicles, at least not those produced after about 1970. But the machinery and tools we're losing make me wanna cry. The old 'Made in USA' stuff was built to last. Back in the day it was about how well you could make something, not how cheap you could make it. Seeing all that quality steel going to the junkyard to be sent to Asia and melted down just breaks my heart.


We're fools.

[mrichard76]

It is a shame to think about how much of this has been melted down to make rebar!

[mrichard76]

It seems as though every scrap yard in Baton Rouge knew about this place and was hounding the last owners on a weekly basis to let them get in there and haul them off. I really don't know how they would have got the 400 out of there though. We used an articulated front end loader with a 12,000 lb tipping load capacity to lift these and transport them to the lowboy trailer. The rear tires were just floating when picking up the frame for the 400! On top of that they were located behind a house in a subdivision. Makes me wonder how they got those hammers back there in the 50's.

[ThomasPowers]

Our tax structure is much to blame for this as depreciation means that a stout old tool totally paid for and ready to work another 50 years is due to depreciation making less money for a company than junking it and buying a new one that does the same job but you owe thousands on.

I had to take some economics and accounting classes for my degrees and this was the part of it I thought was voodoo...

[Francis Trez Cole]

You have to find a patten number the book pounding out profits might be a good source the then you can down load the information for free. Great save

[Tom Allyn]

Makes me wonder how they got those hammers back there in the 50's.

There are some massive forklifts out there. When we were relocating one of Boeing's machine shops we used a 100,000 lb. capacity forklift to move many of the larger pieces of equipment. 100,000 lbs is the equivalent of 2 dump trucks filled with gravel.

The thing looked like an army tank with a pair of mammoth tusks sticking out the front. The wheels were steel with solid rubber tires, about 36" high and 24" wide. Weights are stacked on the back to increase load capacity. And it could expand in the middle to push the counterweights further back from the forks for more leverage. It looked similar to this forklift.

http://omegamorgan.c...y-moving-09.jpg

Omega Morgan was our subcontractor for this work. They can move anything.

One day they backed over one of our steel job boxes and flattened it like a paper sack! Amazing power in that machine.

[Sask Mark]

A local steel mill uses a 60 ton forklift to move it's big coils of steel.

I have dealt with contractors specializing in moving big things. They priced moving a 500,000+ pound bridge on Hilman rollers for me. They have moved 1,000,000+ pound structures in the past (lifted with Enerpacs, set on Hilman rollers and moved into place).

[mrichard76]

Got the cylinder/ram assembly mounted back on the frame. Opened up the cylinder and everything looks good inside with no broken rings or gouging. The frame was outside laying on its side for the last few decades after failed attempts of removal by the local scrappers. The whole upper assembly was kept under a carport out of the weather. I found a small brass plate on riveted on the frame marked G.S.A. 5-1931. Does anybody know what that might be? The General Services Administration was established in 1949...

[Dillon Sculpture]

The tag is probably inventory# form the shop that owned it, my Bradley has three different ones. You have the original bolts for the top? The all-thread would be fine for a test fire but I would'nt trust em for for on hammering. I really like that HAMMER!

[mrichard76]

I have all the originals but the got really screwed up by whoever disassembled the hammer years ago. The all thread is just temporarily holding the upper assembly in place - not under power :-)) I'll be using 1" grade 8's for the permanent ones. I love this hammer too! Just hope the compressor and reservoir can handle the hammer!

[Nakedanvil - Grant Sarver]

How big of compressor and storage do you have?

[mrichard76]

20 horsepower and around 500 gallons of reservoir. Reservoir will need to be relocated as close as possible to the hammers. Will also be running the 200 lb utility but not simultaneously.

[forgemaster]

So the air compressor is about 80 CFM (thats free air delivered, not at the compressed pressure)

[Dillon Sculpture]

It will run the 200 great, but you should just bring the 400 to Ga. I have plenty of air.

[mrichard76]

Will have to get an accurate measurement of the reservoir. Mike, I think the iron's gonna get cold between my forge in Louisiana and Georgia! Maybe you could bring your 500 lb Bradley down to Louisiana and I won't need a compressor!

[Nakedanvil - Grant Sarver]

Depends a lot on the condition of the hammer. I've had small steamers like this that could drain my 100CFM compressor with 500 gallon tank in no time. Had to close the shut-off to build back up. Remember; you can by-pass your compressor's after-cooler and run the hammer direct with hot/wet air. You probably don't have a problem with icing up, but it does have a bit more energy. Hammers built to run on steam have big clearances. Not just for expansion, but also to keep live steam flowing through them to keep them hot and prevent excess condensation.

To run hot air you run the pipe straight off the compressor to the hammer and put in a tee to the tank. I had great 20 HP Gardner-Denver two cylinder single stage compressor that put out 120 psi and just over 100 CFM and I'll bet that air was over 400 degrees!

[Dillon Sculpture]

Some were set up for air and some were set up for steam, you can run a steam with air but not the other way around, not enough clearance. I would be concerned running a air hammer with 400 degree air but I doubt the 400 was a air hammer.

[mrichard76]

The 200 lb still has it's original brass ID plate stating air operation at 80-100 psi. The 400 has no remaining info. Is there a way to determine if it was indeed built as a steam hammer?

[Dillon Sculpture]

Measure the tolerances, not sure what they should be, Grant could probably better answer the set up for expansion, my 200 is pretty tight. When I got my 750 it was worn out and the piston to cylinder clearance was probably around 1/4" to 3/8", throttle valve 1/8". I rebuilt it around a few thousand.

[mrichard76]

When I was checking out the piston and rings on the 400, I think the rings weren't any more than an 1/8" thick. I would imagine (with out a whole lot of wear) you wouldn't have more the an 1/3 of the piston ring thickness exposed outside of the piston groove while in the cylinder bore. This would give you around 0.042" clearance. This is just estimation though...
I measured my resevoir and it is a 600 gallon tank.

[mrichard76]

Here's a picture of the inlet plumbing if this can tell anything.

[Dillon Sculpture]

Probably steam, check clearance of the control valve. The large port out the back of the inlet goes to the safety cap, sends pressure to the top when you top out the piston. The other two could have been to warm the dies, blow away scale or remove water from the line.