January 20, 201214 yr Author spoke to old mate today, i asked him how much he wanted for it, he ummed and ahh'd for a bit and said, how's $40 sound?....!! now i just have to move it.!
January 22, 201214 yr Author esca catalogue 1911http://www.flickr.com/photos/41924895@N07/6740240611/in/photostream
January 22, 201214 yr Sounds like my kind of deal! The inlet is way to small for that hammer, mine has a 2" supply. Is that a air compressor right behind the hammer?
January 22, 201214 yr I agree a good deal. Different kind of set up on the throttle valve, might be only open or closed. The 1600 lb. hammer in the shop I worked in was similar, it didn't cycle, every movement of the motion lever was a corresponding movement of the ram. This means you have to have a hammer driver. As far as storage goes I had a 400 gal. tank hooked up to my 250 and talked to Grant Sarver (RIP) he said hook the compressor straight to the hammer, the hotter and wetter the air the better and it did run better.
January 22, 201214 yr Author tell me more about your hammer jim, what size compressor to what size hammer? steam hammer? dillon, i really havent checked what is in the background, its all old mates stuff, in his shed. he put the inlet on, to see how it went
January 23, 201214 yr Mine is a 250 lb. steam hammer converted to air with a GrimmerSchmidt 175 compressor. Rule of thumb is 20 cfm per 100 lbs. of ram weight, less if rings and seals are good more if things are loose like mine.
January 25, 201214 yr As requested, 250 lb. Bement Miles and 1600 lb. John Bertram & Sons in the railroad shop I use to work in.
January 25, 201214 yr Author thanks for posting those jim, i am really starting to love steam hammers... just from researching them... dou you really notice the difference when run on steam vs run on air? when you say "Mine is a 250 lb. steam hammer converted to air with a GrimmerSchmidt 175 compressor" did you re ring or sleeve/machine it or did you just whack an air hose on it? is the treadle linked directly to the control valve, single blow style, or does it have a multiple blow setting hidden from view? i am trying to fathom a plan to convert mine to multiple blow- single operator. and is yours then a 175 cfm compressor??
January 25, 201214 yr I have never run a hammer on steam but would love to. The hammer was converted to steam long before I got it, I think it's mostly different packing around the rod where it exits the cylinder. I don't think they changed the rings, which might help explain its air consumption. The compressor is rated at 175 cfm. probably overkill but I don't have 3phase electric. This compressor is similar to ones used to power pavement breakers or sandblasting units. The treadle is connected to the throttle, the motion lever is set on the notched bar and there is a "monkey tail" connected to the motion lever that is acted on by the ram moving up and down which gives it multiple blow operation. Your hammer might have a similar tail hidden inbetween the frame. I have seen a diagram that shows hooking both valves to the treadle but I haven't done it.
January 25, 201214 yr I think it was an old "Anvil's Ring" magazine in an article by Don Hawley. Not sure if I could find it but maybe someone on the ABANA website could help.
January 25, 201214 yr I'll have to see if I can find some of my old boiler desing books, I sure hope that there were not thrown out when the water damaged storage a couple of years ago. The folk up in India still run most of their hammers off of steam and use either charcoal or coal as fuel, heck some just burn wood, and they don't even reclaim the condensate water just keep bringing in fresh water all the time. Just real simple boiler systems. If electicity is costly then a steam boiler fired off of locally available organic fuel is the way to go.
January 25, 201214 yr I agree a simple vertical monotube boiler would work the best for a hammer. As far as linking both valves I don't think it should be too complicated as long as your throttle valve is rotary, I'll try to sketch something up and scan it.
January 25, 201214 yr Haven't tried it yet, I always liked Grants hook up better though. I can make a copy if someone has a need, PM.
January 26, 201214 yr Author http://www.flickr.com/photos/41924895@N07/6763182577/in/photostream this it the way i was thinking of turning it into a multiple blow machine, but this is set up so as to function without a treadle, and i would need to rig it up to a treadle to the part T. but that would then restrict me to a prescribed throttle setting. "when the lever T is pulled to the extreme right of it's sector Q, the hammer makes short rapid strokes,the strokes becoming longer and corresponingly slower as the lever is moved from that position towards the left. When the lever T is at the extreme left of its sector, the self acting mechanism is pulled out of gear, the hammer having then to be operated by the hand lever. A self acting mechannism of this kind is applied to most smithy hammers, so that they may automatically stike a series of uniformly light or heavy blows, as the work may require." 1906. i like grants hookup too, but i cant quite work out how it is done, just from the video. and that hammer has been scrapped hasnt it?
January 26, 201214 yr Author basically that is directly attached to the control valve, i have been studying this thread for quite a while! virtually the same action as one with a sword.
January 29, 201214 yr Author moved the old girl today, to my outlaws place for a bit of t.l.c. looked tiny hangin from the crane! ill put up some picture soon!
February 6, 201214 yr Author opened up the shuttle motion valve, and she is nice and clean! the cast iron shuttle has been built up with bronze/brass at some stage, and re machined, and there is so little slop in the movement that i did a little air punch when i saw it! the cylinder of the ram seems to be quite clean and tight too. i would dearly love to run this thing on steam, and a monotube boiler does look to be the go, run on waste oil, but the physics of it need a little assistance in my mind...... as phil said, rule of thumb is 10hp for every cwt, and 40 to 90psi, so neither of these thins seem to make for too volitile a mixture for a small boiler. the weight is 132 kg- roughly according to my calculations,( or, according to a 1911 catalogue for machinery sales in my capital city, rigby style like this one) 2 1/2 cwt. so 25hp (or 34 gallons of water turned to steam an hour per horsepower) should be the score. i am going to sandblast the worst of the rust off and then give her a good oil, then hire a tow along compressor to see what she'll do.
February 9, 201214 yr Author here are the shots of the valving, after a bit of a degrease.http://www.flickr.com/photos/41924895@N07/?saved=1
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