Jump to content
I Forge Iron

old style 250 pound little giant


Recommended Posts

  • Replies 139
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

This is the spring scatter shield I put on my 50lb. LG. The idea is to first prevent broken pieces from hitting me directly, secondly to have enough give pieces won't ricochet off the back and hammer frame. Lastly being heavy screen I can keep an eye on the spring and watch for signs of potential failure.

How can you SEE if a spring is failing before it cuts loose? The paint WILL flake over cracks and the kinds of stress these springs are under don't cause sudden catastrophic failures, they crack and it grows till it breaks. There is plenty of warning IF you can see it. 

That's the what and why of the shield I put on mine.

The second pic is the brake I put on it and the linkage that make it work. The return spring applies braking pressure and pressing the treadle lifts it free. I needed to make the band longer, I'd like better braking. It'll take a remake of the static band mount, pic 4 and shortening the link rod but that's in the future, it's okay for now.

1180111113_Newspringguard02.jpg.13bfcb646ea6facf1b560e07a659c0dd.jpg         

271478792_Brakeband.jpg.a701e54da358e33b8af329b1ccf763f1.jpg

772962714_Brakeleverandpushrod.jpg.e893609f7328027b088bf4bc084bce86.jpg        

32970930_Staticbandmount.jpg.ff32f549f93bb28e80b6b6e055f4eb1a.jpg

 

Frosty The Lucky.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In the future I can see replacing the door with an old fire screen that has been hanging around for far too long. I like the idea of hinging in the middle. The gaurd has to be opened to lube the hammer so I do get up close with it a couple times a day- at its age the spring isn't the only part I am watching for failure. I have seen far more failures in little giant arms than springs. Of the dozen or so spring incidents I have witnessed probably 2/3 left the spring intact. I was 30 feet away from a 100 pound that threw its spring once. I think it hit three walls and the ceiling before it came to rest. The scale of these parts leaves me preferring to have them in a cage. Most of my break parts are ready, I will likely try to get them together next week. I am getting more comfortable with this hammer. Forging some h-13 this morning and really appreciating that extra push it has.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

I learned something new about the clutch on my hammer today. First heat of the day had me in a panic that the hammer just would not run. Clutch was tuning and trying, but failing to catch the hammer. I had oiled the hell out of it like I always thought you supposed too. It turns out, these oddball lined clutches dont like oil. After cleaning it off it is back to running. Not a good start to the day though

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On June 3, 2019 at 11:19 AM, Frosty said:

This is the spring scatter shield I put on my 50lb. LG. The idea is to first prevent broken pieces from hitting me directly, secondly to have enough give pieces won't ricochet off the back and hammer frame. Lastly being heavy screen I can keep an eye on the spring and watch for signs of potential failure.

Hi frosty, I have had a few mechanical hammers break springs  (3 to date  two 60's and a 150lb) in each case there was not a simple break but the spring broke into multiple pieces some shards much smaller than your guards. holes. I had the hemmer springs wrapped in leather and there was no problem or risk at all...all the shards were contained. I have seen similar spring wraps done with with fire hose .

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, 1" grizzly screen is the smallest I had or I would've used finer. A leather or canvas wrap would certainly be a better scatter shield and I have no empirical evidence hammer springs fail by increments so the paint flaking may not provide a warning. 

Frosty The Lucky.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...
  • 3 months later...

Forging some blocks for hammers today. Starting stock was 2.5 inch hydraulic hammer bits. The gun end with it's weird cut squared up really nicely. I did not get to the 10 pound chunk today. I was planning to try upsetting with the corner of the hammer, but am not comfortable with putting that kind of abuse into my 100 year old sow block. Much to my surprise, the hammer will cycle with it between the dies. Tomorrow I will square this up. I am not used to having this much stroke. ( this hammer has no vertical adjustment)

20191121_170225.jpg

20191121_170145.jpg

20191121_170049.jpg

20191121_164731.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

No vertical adjustment is pretty wild! So enough travel in the arms to handle everything with in its range?  Come to think of it I guess my blacker is kinda like that. You set the head height and it will pretty much eat what ever you can shove under there :) 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

that is cool.  So literally there is no height adjustment  for a given stock size. 

I wonder how the spring/toggle action works to accommodate this?  IE pivot action and growth vs newer style hammers which have adjustments for throw. 

I have seen a newer style that was out of adjustment and the spring was practically falling out when adjusted for smaller width stock and then moved up to the wide side. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It was the first year. They figured out that it needed the hight adjustment about 1921 I think. Sidd apologised for the lack of info on this one since there apparently are very few like it. That is one reason I have been trying to post as much as I can about it. It is an oddball. For example, it stalls completely if it gets grease or oil in the clutch cone. It wont move at all, I can stand on the treadle with both feet and the clutch just spins not moving anything. Clean it out and it runs fine. No telling what sort of material the lining is, i would assume leather or composition belting. It doesnt look any different from other little giant clutches.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The video yesterday would not load for me, and the note looks like it was removed by a moderator. I have been trying to get this new video and it won't load again for me. Been about 10 min now. As I was typing this it loaded :o and looks good to me. Just took a while.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.


×
×
  • Create New...