Frank Turley Posted July 28, 2013 Share Posted July 28, 2013 Today on Yahoo, they showed some construction photos of the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier. One of the photos showed some chain claiming that each link weighed 360 pounds. Sayings and Cornpone "Your hustle is your heaven." Old hippie saying Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SmoothBore Posted July 28, 2013 Share Posted July 28, 2013 Many, many years ago, my daily commute took me past the railroad siding that served the old "Campbell Chail" facility, ... in York, PA. From time-to-time there would be "Gondola" cars on that siding, loaded with the cast iron "Barrel Links" that are often incorporated in that sort of anchor chain. ( Campbell Chain Company would forge and weld a "regular" chain link, alternately, to join the weighted "barrel links" into a length of weighted anchor chain. ) [ Note : The weight of an anchor chain ( rode ) serves to keep the "load" on the anchor in a more nearly horizontal, rather than a verticle direction. An anchor is designed to "dig in" ( set ) when pulled horizontally, ... and to "break out" when vertical lift is applied to the anchor rode. Additionally, the weight of the chain portion of the anchor rode, works a a "shock absorber", ... in that the "pull" of the ship, must first lift the chain off the bottom, before any load is transferred directly to the anchor. ] . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles R. Stevens Posted July 28, 2013 Share Posted July 28, 2013 Learn somthing new every day, thanks guys Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
njanvilman Posted July 28, 2013 Share Posted July 28, 2013 About 20 years ago I visited Baldt Chain in Chester, Pa. They had been making chain since the Civil War. The business was very slow. Most of the current work was for oil drilling rig platforms. They showed my examples of how the technology had changed over the years. Early chain was forged by hand. Eventually, in the 1920, interlocking cast chain was the standard. Then they developed die-lock chain, where two pieces were forged together. One was a large U shape with a female step socket on each leg. The other piece was smaller, with a mating male stepped end. The female end was heated to almost a welding heat, then the two pieces were brought together and hammered in a huge die to lock them together. This also formed the connecting link in the middle. That technology lasted until the 1980's. At that time they went to induction welded chain. The bar stock was bent to the rough shape, then induction welded together. The mid link was put in place, and the link was pressed to shape. Only one side of this mid link was MIG welded to hold it. THis is how they are still making chain. They had a sample of the biggest link they ever produced. If I remember correctly, It used 6 1/2" round stock, and stood almost 5' tall. It weighted in at 600+ lbs. This was for WW2 era carriers. I believe the Battleship NJ and others used 3 1/2" Baldt chain. I do not know if Baldt is still in business. Last time I went was about 10 years ago to see if they had any of the chainmaking equipment left in the place from the hand-forging days. We walked through the entire plant, but could not find any. I guess sometime in the last 80 years, that tooling was scrapped out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KYBOY Posted July 28, 2013 Share Posted July 28, 2013 Believe it or not I saw a piece of anchor chain here in Easter,Ky at a scrap yard a good deal larger than those in the pic..the stock looked to be about 5 1/2"-6" ..Id say it weighed at least 500 pounds per link.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted July 29, 2013 Share Posted July 29, 2013 Sincerely doubt cast iron was used in any critical item with tensile stresses applied. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joel OF Posted July 29, 2013 Share Posted July 29, 2013 I recently overheard a smith (who was a volunteer at a working museum) telling a member of the public that large chain used to be forged by 5 guys. There'd be 3 swinging a 3 handled hammer & 2 guys that would help get the hammer back up in the air on the rebound by somehow. He also went on to say that the buyers were allowed to have a section cut out & tested before committing to buy the whole length...but because the company buyers weren't the sort of guys to get their hands dirty they'd never actually take away a test section...so the company making the chain wouldn't cut sections out needlessly & always dragged out the same 1 section they cut out years ago & just pretended it was from the length they had just forged. I don't know what sort of size chain he was talking about or what period in history, but it all sounded good anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
windancer Posted July 29, 2013 Share Posted July 29, 2013 Interesting thread- thanks to all! Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beth Posted July 29, 2013 Share Posted July 29, 2013 great photo frank! gives an idea of what massive force we try to fight with the ocean..! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
njanvilman Posted July 29, 2013 Share Posted July 29, 2013 Sincerely doubt cast iron was used in any critical item with tensile stresses applied. Tom, Come to my museum in NJ sometime and see a section that I have. The links are about 2" round, and weigh in at over 50 lb/link. It is actual ship anchor chain. I did not say it was cast iron, you assumed that. I believe it is cast steel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted July 29, 2013 Share Posted July 29, 2013 NJANVILMAN; perhaps you missed the post that said "From time-to-time there would be "Gondola" cars on that siding, loaded with the cast iron "Barrel Links" that are often incorporated in that sort of anchor chain." and assumed I was referring to your post? I'm a little late to the party as I was able to drive up and see my wife and my apprentice showed up from CA so we forged 3 dishing hammers from R R bolts and a hardy for his anvil from a wire handled cold cut---got to use the 9# sledge and the 515# anvil to work the shank down! Didn't spend a minute on the computer till I got back to my domicile of exile... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foundryman Posted July 29, 2013 Share Posted July 29, 2013 I found this video on Youtube a while a go and figured it might be relevant to this topic. It's fascinating watching them work, building up the anchor from separate billets of wrought iron at the end of the video is seriously impressive, i counted 6 strikers working at once in one shot! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted July 29, 2013 Share Posted July 29, 2013 There is a similar on on chain making including shots of chain being tested as the British Admiralty required 100% test as I recall Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SmoothBore Posted July 29, 2013 Share Posted July 29, 2013 NJANVILMAN; perhaps you missed the post that said "From time-to-time there would be "Gondola" cars on that siding, loaded with the cast iron "Barrel Links" that are often incorporated in that sort of anchor chain." and assumed I was referring to your post? It seems we have a failure of communication. Perhaps "Barrel Link" is the incorrect term, for the sort of CAST IRON weights, that are incorporated into Anchor Rode Chain. In further explaination ..... In what I know as "Barrel Link" chain, the Half-Barrel shaped weights ( like a barrel that is split vertically ) are riveted into both sides of every other link, of an Anchor Chain. They bear no load, ... and serve only to add weight, and to give the chain a more uniform cross section, ... thus alowing it to pass more smoothly through the "Hawsehole" ( or "Cat Hole" if you're British ) and around a Capstan Winch. . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bentiron1946 Posted July 29, 2013 Share Posted July 29, 2013 Interesting to think of all that anchor chain sitting up forward, whenever we would weigh anchor it always amazed me at how much of it there was that went below decks, lot of tonnage there. Nice design problem for the naval architects to solve to keep the ship in trim. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted July 30, 2013 Share Posted July 30, 2013 OK; I did not perfectly discern your description. Out here in the desert I have seen some heavy anchor chain used to clear land I believe strung between two bulldozers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wroughton Posted July 30, 2013 Share Posted July 30, 2013 Interesting to think of all that anchor chain sitting up forward, whenever we would weigh anchor it always amazed me at how much of it there was that went below decks, lot of tonnage there. Nice design problem for the naval architects to solve to keep the ship in trim. Ye old chain locker. My first dory (500ft +) had three. It's chain was approximately 2 1/2' per link. AS-18 USS Orion med moored in Santo Stefano, Sardinia, Italy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
forgemaster Posted July 31, 2013 Share Posted July 31, 2013 Back in 2003 I was asked to quote on a chain job by the Austrailan Industrial Supplies Office, they need a pricing on chain assemblys for a offshore natural gas project the chain was to be used in a submersible bouy system capable of mooring a sizable ship. (ie natural gas tanker) The chain needed was to be 800 metres long each and they needed 6 such chains. Each chain consisted of 679 links of 92mm (3 5/8") dia chain of 607mm long overall by 339mm out side width (total weight for the 92 dia links was 42.9 ton) and 308 links of 162 dia (6 3/8") measuring 972mm overall lenght x 543mm out side width there was also 6 shackles for each chain with the shackles weighing between 250kg to 325kg each. Needless to say we did'nt do the job, we could'nt even get such a chain out of our shop, let alone transport it to a port. We had no way of welding the bigger links anyway, we cold have bent them but we had no way to link them together. I recall that each chain assembled weighed in the region of 151 tons each. The big links each weighed 344.8 kgs alone. Dont know who ended up doing this job, but man I would have loved to see their workshop, and to find out just how they managed this kind of job. Phil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
njanvilman Posted July 31, 2013 Share Posted July 31, 2013 The standard length for anchor chain (one "shot) is 90 ft. Most chain manufacturers make the chain in this length. It corresponds to the proofing test bed that all of the chain is put in for certification. The manufacturers also make special links that match the chain for assembling the shots into a full length chain. Having the chain in 90' pieces also helps in the transport of this heavy material. The chain is assembled at its final destination. That Australian job shows how massive some of these chains have to be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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