[TheForge] Re: A&O

[Mike Spencer]

> Do you have a Manzel or other brand of automatic oiler on it or drip
> oiler?

No, Steve. This has a *manual* oiler for the tup.  I'm not quite clear
yet on just where the oil goes in.  I'll look into that the next sunny
day.  But the oiler is a small cast iron tank that bolts to the back
of the compressor and has a brass manual plunger.  It was badly bent
when I got it, I broke it trying to straighten it and had no end of
trouble trying to get it glued together again, straight and uniform
enough in diameter (without  a lathe) to work.  But you just grab
the brass T-handle and go squitch-squitch.  Oil flows up a brass tube
to somewhere on top of the hammer.  Most of the tube is missing and
there may have been a tee in it to feed oil to two places.

I don't know what a Manzel oiler is.  Should I have one of those?
Would that be like, say, the one shown here?

   http://www.lubriquip.com/pdf/51025.pfd     (800k PDF file)

I *did* think that I should rig up somthing better than the manual
oiler, though.  Details, details. :-)


> The Nazel's con-rod has a similar cup attached to the shaft that
> runs down to the crank pin. Being a passive system, I usually prime it
> first by removing the cover plate and force feed it a few squirts.

Sounds like a good idea.  I'm thinking of some kind of simple pump
operated by a little weighted lever and a flexible plastic tube to a
reservoir.  They didn't have reliably oil-proof plastic tubing when
this was made.

> The rear crank bushing (bearing) is also drip.

The A&O crank bushings (bearings?  I dunno yet what's in there.) are
lubed from two cast iron tanks inside the hammer body and connected by
a ca. 1/2" dia. metal tube to keep their levels equal.  The filler is
external so if there's oil standing in the filler, it's full in the
tanks.  One side had a nifty oil slinger hanging loosely on the shaft,
inside the tank: A brass ring ca. 5/8" wide by 3/16" thick, hinged
with a tiny pin on one side and closed with a dovetail on the other
and just springy enough that you can pop the dovetail open to get the
thing off.  Presumably the other one is just missing.

> Everything else; ram cylinder, compressor piston and main bushing
> are all pressure oiled from the Manzel, parts of which are still
> available new. The wrist pin is the only thing that relies on
> lubrication by osmosis.

I'm not completely clear on how the oil gets distributed yet,
especially for the ca. 24" dia. compressor piston.  According to the
blueprints I got from Alldays Peacock, later models had a splash pan
under the crank but this one doesn't.  (It also lacks a compression
release for ease of starting that was present on later models.)

> The wrist pin is the only thing that relies on lubrication by
> osmosis.

Haven't got that far yet.  It's all dark and greasy and scary up in
there. :-)

> One of the latest projects was getting the ram line-bored which taxed
> heavily the mill assigned for the job....Overall, they did a fine job
> and it brought back an amazing amount of performance.

Did you have to um, er, just toss the Nazel into your pickup and run
it down to the shop?  Of did they come with a portable rig?
Thirty-some years ago when I was a sports car mechanic, people already
spoke of the good old day when you could have the machinist come to
your shop and bore a block on site.  I didn't know you could get that
done any more.  I surely hope I don't have to do that.  It occurs to
me that it would be easier to have the tup turned smooth, polished and
hardchromed to fit of the bore isn't out of round.

> Guide plates; bronze is probably fine since you already have
> it. Mine are worn C.I. but in manageable shape. I looked into making
> new ones of cast iron which rough sizes can be bought from MSC or
> grainger. On a 3b they are 4X12" which makes it convienent. The real
> cost would have been machining the dovetail into the guides to hold
> the leather rings. I'm assuming the A&O has a similar set-up.

Um, kinda lost me there so perhaps it's not so similar.  The A&O tup
has a flat on one side about 8" wide.  The flat is relieved in the
center so that in effect it has two flat surfaces about 2" wide each
(over ca. 3/4 of the length of the tup) that are machined smooth.  A
heavy bar that is rectangular in cross section and wedge-shaped runs
transversely through the hammer body in a hole that has a wedge shape
cast into it.  This hole intersects the tup bore at right angles.
When run through the hole, the bar presses against the flats on the
tup and the surface where it does so has a gun metal plate ca. 10" x
1-1/2" x 3/8" bolted on with 1/2" countersunk flathead screws.  This
plate was worn down to the screw heads.  The wedge bar has a 1-1/4"
threaded extension on each end so it can be pulled up firmly against
the tup with a nut and then locked there with the nut on the other
end.

No dovetails anywhere, no leather rings.

The guy who took the pictures of my new shop was here today and
suggested that the missing metal door through which you access the
crank, conrod etc. be replace with Plexiglas.  Hey!  I like that.
Nice forged frame and hinges.  And better yet, how about a concealed
ring of purple neon tubing inside the door so that the inside of the
working hammer looks like the underside of an LA lowrider?

Sorry.  I'm getting carried away here. :-)