[TheForge] Re: Air hammer valves

Sat Dec 14 01:30:04 2002

Ok, looking at the picture again I can see the other clamp. Now the question
is where do the ports that mate with the round side of the valve go?

Darrell

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Spencer" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, December 13, 2002 9:03 PM
Subject: [TheForge] Re: Air hammer valves

>
>
> darrell> If I am seeing it right, both reed valves are in a common
> darrell> chamber to double the air flow capacity. With one missing,
> darrell> the air can go both ways instead of
> darrell> being a one way flow.
>
> Summary: The two reeds permit air flow in opposite directions.
>
> You're not seeing it right -- my fault because I didn't label
> photo adequately or describe the parts fully.  Worse, part of what I
> wrote here on the list was false!
>
> If you look again at the detail photo showing the reed valve, (is that
> the right term?) there are two hex bolts holding the spring (which
> retains the reed) and the reed itself.  There are also 4 larger hex
> bolt heads.  Those larger bolts hold an approx. 1" thick plate to the
> main valve body.  One reed spring you can see (labeled "Flap valve
> spring") attached to the visible side of that plate.  The other reed
> is missing but CONTRARY TO WHAT I WROTE earlier, the bowed spring and
> bolts are there, on the OPPOSITE SIDE of the 1" plate.  That's where
> it was and that's where the wear marks indicate it always was.  The
> missing reed covered the two rectangular ports that you can see in the
> photo just under the visible (and labeled) spring but on the opposite
> side of the plate from the spring visible in the photo.
>
> So the two reeds permit air flow in opposite directions through the 1"
> plate.
>
> Only the thin reed is missing from the other side of the plate, but
> all of it is missing, i.e. there was no broken-off stub under the
> bolts indicating that a piece had come off in operation and been
> sucked into the works somewhere.
>
> On the other hand, one of the bolts for the missing reed is
> mismatched.  That suggests to me that the reed and its spring *may*
> have come off in service and that one of the bolts (and maybe the reed
> itself) got sucked into the works somewhere.  Or maybe they just
> dropped that bolt in the mud while removing the reed for some purpose.
> Who knows?  (What do you call this kind of thing? Forensic
> millwrighting?  Industrial archaeology? :-)
>
>
> And yes, one end of the reed is held by the bolts but the other is
> free, retained only by the pressure of the relatively heavy, bowed
> spring.
>
>
> - Mike
>
> --
> Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada
>
> [email protected]
> http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/
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