[TheForge] heavy metal math/c frame press

[theforge@mailman.qth.net]

Well , uncle.   I guess my point is that in the systems most blacksmiths 
are contemplating,  the real dangers are from fire hazard from 
misting/leaking/spraying hydraulic fluid,  breathing misting hydraulic 
fluid, mechanical failure of the press frame of any sort that is going 
to send shrapnel flying, and of course misaligned work that decides to 
translate potential energy into velocity.   Of course, we do have our 
lunatic fringe with power hammers the size of barns that may eventually 
move on to presses ;').     There are certain design factors they should 
be aware of as I have mentioned like boiling fluid, cavitation etc.  
They should also thoroughly think through the structure.   I saw one guy 
building a bypass scissor shear for cutting heavy plate and he chose a 
bolt for the blades to both pivot on, with nice tight fitting square 
holes.  It turned out to be a fancy bolt cutter that only did one size 
bolt.  

Speaking of streams of high pressure liquid,  a friend of mine was City 
Engineer for a small town outside of Dallas for awhile.  He got called 
out because one of their backhoe crews managed to clip a   high pressure 
sewage line ( I never knew that had such things)   The line was blowing 
a fine quarter inch stream about twenty or thirty yards into the road on 
a warm spring day.  Passing cars were getting stripped with sewage.  The 
unlucky ones with windows open were getting a more thourough treatment.

Charles

Grover Richardson wrote:

>Agreed.  But still, a stream of liquid (or gas) can cut you in half (under
>certain circumstances, and 10 ms of stream can still push oil under the
>skin).  Remember back when they did injections in the early 70s with
>pressure, no needle.  I'm not trying to be paranoid, however if someone is
>taking on a system with which full knowledge is not known (which may or may
>not be the case here), caution is advised.  I regularly get called to fix
>things with little or no documentation.  It gets interesting sometimes<G>.
>  
>