[TheForge] Re: website

Tue Jan 21 08:12:03 2003

        Hi Mike,  The weld rails are 20 foot pieces of 4" channel you put
into the floor before you pour. They go 48 inches apart to the center so you
can use them to weld to or weld a half or full sheet of steel to for doing
large sculptures or duplicating stair situations for modeling them up.  The
leg goes down and it provides a flat surface to weld the plates to.
Running a welding leed from the edge of your shop wall to the weld rails
makes no ground cable cross the floor, and also allows you to set your fab,
layout, or jig table on them and tack weld to complete a welding curcuit
again without a ground cable.
        The removeable power hammer foundations is something Eric Ziner in
Deer Isle Maine came up with.  He took 275 gallon drums, cut them in half
and placed 3 of them in a 30" deep sand pit that would allow room for all
three half drums and a couple of feet in between.  You weld the bolt pattern
to the hammer into the grid of rebar and pour the drum full of crete.
Voila......a foundation that works, is isolated from the concrete floor, and
you can pull it out and throw it away and replace it if you ever change
hammers......the sand is easy to dig out, and a tractor pulls the drum out
easily.  He has two hammer set up on them so far.  One is a 25 lb LG and the
other is a 50 lb Champion.   The third awaits the next hammer.
        Wheels and casters are just the tip of the iceburg on shop set
up.......they are extremely handy and you should be able to double your
floor space with your tools on casters.  The other trick is to put all the
accessories that go with that tool on the tool itself so you have everything
you need when you roll it out into place.  Locking wheels are another good
thing to install for certain tools.  Floor pockets allow castered tools like
benders and hossfelds to be "pinned" to the floor so your floor becomes the
anvil and the castered tool similar to a hardy.
        If you are interested in puting a jack shaft assembly on your hammer
and don't want to fasten it to the roof system or collar ties and listen to
the noise as it vibrates the building........you can use a steel plate under
the hammer(then use hardwood blocks to raise to correct anvil height), and a
rubber mat to take up the inconsistencies in the casting base.  The steel
plate extending beyond the hammer base allows you to put a vibration free
tower to drive your hammer with.  If you use the floating foundation
method......then it becomes really nice.  Eric did this with his Champion.
The tower that drives the hammer is bolted to the floating foundation
also......no excess floor shock, and  no vibration transfered to the
building.
        As usual these conversations and tips come right about after the
concrete is hard enough to reomove only by jack hammer.......  :-(     All I
can say is these are good ideas, and they have proven themselves to work
well.  I'll send you a picture of the hammer and tower I built for Doug
Wilson a couple years ago.

Ralph


----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Spencer" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, January 20, 2003 12:11 AM
Subject: [TheForge] Re: website


>
> > What type of shop accessories did you stick into the new building you
> > just put up?  Did I get those pictures out just a tad late?
>
> Yup, you did.  I pretty well planned my layout ahead of time but time
> constraints meant I couldn't work through all the details and optimize
> everthing before hand.
>
> > Is there still time to add the floor pockets, blower feeds, downdraft
> > exhaust system, the weld rails, and the floating/removable power
> > hammer bases?  Or is your floor all creted over and a done deal?
>
> Cement poured, building up, all moved in, forge in place and just got
> the 25# Jardine bolted down.  An moveable hood exhaust system and a
> bridge crane similar to yours are planned but the money pipe is
> sucking mud until I sell the old shop building.
>
> But tell me -- tell us -- about them there "floating power hammer bases".
> I'm about to install an overhead flatbelt jackshaft for the hammer but
> I can imagine having a change of mind, especially if I manage to get
> the A&O air hammer going next summer.  And what are "weld rails"?
>
> Actually, in my planning I thought more about how to put stuff on
> wheels than about how to make permanent, immovable floor pockets.
> F'rgzample, I have a poor man's version of your scissors jack dolly --
> a wooden dolly with heavy duty casters and a thing sort of like a
> simple wagon jack -- to move my 4'x4'x1/2" welding table.  The forge
> is on casters so, after pulling off a 10" wide band on the flue, it
> can go out of the way, taking the attached quench tank and blower with
> it.
>
> - Mike
>
> --
> Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada
>
> [email protected]
> http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/
> _______________________________________________
> http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/theforge
> theforge mail list group photo site is
> http://www.photoaccess.com
> Login:  [email protected]
> password:  anvil
> ___________
>
>