[TheForge] Little Giant advice sought

[Mike Spencer]

Well!  I posted this last night late and this morning it wasn't there
in incoming mail -- just complaints about a drought of mail on
TheForge.  And then Dave reported:

> The QTH.NET mailman list server has been having severe problems
> lately....A number of list postings in the last three days have not
> made it through.

So here's a topic to get us off the frozen slacktub:


I'm about to set up my 25# Little Giant in the new shop -- actually
it's a Jardine (aka Canadian Giant) knock-off of the LG.  A web search
seems to indicate that it should run at 425 to 450 RPM.  Anyone know
the ideal speed or have any other advice?

The rest of this post is the yarn that explains why I'm asking.


In the old shop, I originally rigged up:

   A motor given to me by the local fish plant owner who didn't want
   to go to the trouble of getting it off the old pump it was rusted
   on to, and

   The transmission of an English Ford that the previous owner of my
   house left out in the field after he had driven it to despair and
   his teenage sons had driven it to death and disassembled it, belted
   to

   A line shaft that I fetched out of a blacksmith shop in Sunderland,
   Mass.

All of this to run a clunky 100# no-name hammer -- the one I've
swapped off for a 300# Alldays and Onions -- with lots of friction
loss.

When I got the 25# Jardine, I just hooked up the same belt and it
worked fine.  I was able to mess with the adjustments and get pretty
good control and good blows with no stuttering or hula.

But that old Ford transmission makes a terrible racket even with SAE 90
gear oil in it.  I want to use the 2HP 1725 RMP motor that the
original owner of the Jardine used.  I saw it run in his shop and it
went way too fast at ca. 700 RPM (4" pulley to 10" pulley on the
hammer.)

So I have a bunch of flatbelt pullies, line shaft, bearings etc.  and
a couple of neighbors with promising junkpiles of that kind of stuff
whom I'm going to visit tomorrow (if the rains stops).

Since I'm sort of starting from scratch, any advice about speed or
setup would be welcome.  I have in mind mounting the hammer on a piece
of 1/2" thick gravel conveyor belt on the concrete floor.  Anyone know
if that's a really bad idea?  The base of the hammer isn't really
flat and needs somthing.  Would, say, 3/4" of plywood or maple be better?

(I don't think a rebuild is due at this point.  The giudes seem true
and I've shimmed them to a good fit.  The shaft has little or no
slop.)

- Mike

---
Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada 
                                 
mspencer@tallships.ca            
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/