KYBOY Posted February 27, 2012 Share Posted February 27, 2012 You always hear about LG springs breaking with great force but noone seems to know anyone it happened too..well now i do..A good friend on mine I go to church with had the spring break on a 100 pound LG..Actually it was his buddy running it..Apparently he was standing to the side forging on a billet when it broke. Went flying across the room and broke two oak boards on the wall..Ill be honest, I kinda had doubts about the force of springs breaking but I dont now..Apparently some just fall down and then some do really fly out with great force.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mudbugone Posted February 27, 2012 Share Posted February 27, 2012 Which is exactly why they need a safety cage around them...Glad no one was injured... I saw a photo of one that had what looked like a big radiator hose sleeve over the coil spring and several with steel plates and too few with a total cage.... to have nothing at all is just foolish and as your friend found out scary if something goes wrong... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
I.R.B.I. Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 I had the spring on my 50lb LG break about a year ago. I am lucky enough to still be able to hear fairl well and the hammer made a sound that just wasn't right. I shut her down and on inspection found the broken spring. It never left the hammer just snapped but stayed put....Most fortunate as there were 3 others standing in close to the hammer. I ordered my new spring from Sid and went to work on my guard. Still hav't put one on my 25lb LG so still not too bright i guess..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macbruce Posted February 29, 2012 Share Posted February 29, 2012 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mudbugone Posted February 29, 2012 Share Posted February 29, 2012 That's not the same photo of a hose covering I saw,but that is exactly what I was talking about... Those hoses are tough and should retain those coil springs in the event they break. That would keep parts from exploding around the area. After looking at the various spring arrangements & guards I wondered why there weren't two sleeves encasing the springs much like the sleeves on the top of a shock absorber...If there was one on each side and one was slightly smaller than the other so it could slip inside the other that would work too. The coils themselves don't expand & contract very far so that arrangement would keep the coil covered without binding up. There are numerous methods to contain those coils and even if they seldom fracture with exploding parts...I wouldn't want to be the exception ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macbruce Posted February 29, 2012 Share Posted February 29, 2012 I've seen some cages on LG's that were huge and encased the entire front assembly and looked as if it would take 10-15 min to get at the works to do an adjustment, that never made much sense to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brian robertson Posted March 1, 2012 Share Posted March 1, 2012 Decades ago, when Bill Gichner came to visit my shop, one of the first things he did was run a cable through the middle of my LG 50lb spring. I forgot all about till yrs later when that spring broke but all the pieces stay on that stringer. When I replaced that spring, that cable went back on too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
781 Posted March 1, 2012 Share Posted March 1, 2012 The problem with only a cable in the spring is it still can send a small piece of shrapnel at a few hundred miles an hour. My mechanical hammers have guards all around so when standing on the side of the hammer you cant get hit either. The front of the guard lifts off and on without using any bolts for easy adjustmunt and daily oiling Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iron Falcon 72 Posted March 11, 2012 Share Posted March 11, 2012 The problem with only a cable in the spring is it still can send a small piece of shrapnel at a few hundred miles an hour. My mechanical hammers have guards all around so when standing on the side of the hammer you cant get hit either. The front of the guard lifts off and on without using any bolts for easy adjustmunt and daily oiling Would you post a few photos of your guard? Sounds good! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mudbugone Posted March 11, 2012 Share Posted March 11, 2012 Along these lines in a discussion about the coil springs look at the patent drawings from 1890 of the original DuPont assembly... (I'm assuming this pre-dates other power hammer designs ) In this original design the coil springs are encased in a tube which I think was to contain the coil should it fracture. Subsequent power hammer designs all seem to have failed to use that design...probably in an effort to circumvent patent infringements. Aren't most other power hammer designs from the early 20th century ? At that time I think patent rights were in effect for a period of 17 years and a lot of designs I've seen are dated 1907 (or later)...17 years from the original patent date of 1890. It should be easy enough to encase the coil inside a steel tube for safety such as the original design used. It sounds like adding a 'scatter shield' like 781 has should work as well also. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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