[TheForge] Ironworkers

[Ries Niemi]

I think actually the company that owns Bertsch bought Piranha too. 
There is a holding company based in Pittsburgh and they also own the 
old Mesta Machine, once the worlds largest machine shop in West 
Homestead Pa.

As far as Ironworkers go, I have used scotchmans, old mechanicals, and 
Geka.
I ended up buying a Geka, as the features seemed the best to me. I 
really like the adjustable stops on the punch table and notch table, 
which have built in stainless steel rulers, so you dont have to measure 
anything, or constantly vise grip on scraps of angle iron. You just 
move the stop to 1", and the hole is punched with the center 1" from 
the end. There is a similar stop for cutoff, but it has a built in 
switch in it, so you set it for 48", push in your bar, or round, or 
angle, and it whacks it off at 48". I use it a lot for repetitive 
cutting- like right now we are cutting 150 pieces of 3/8" ss round bar 
100" long. Takes a couple of hours, just feed em in, it cuts em off.
Several other companies offer these electric length stops, but always 
as pricey (like over $1000) extras. I have had my Geka now for about 5 
years, and I have had no problems with it whatsoever. Punches for any 
make of ironworker are available cheap from Cleveland Punch and die.
www.clevelandpunch.com

Scotchman are a little cheaper, but they are pretty bare bones when it 
comes to stops. I like my geka because it will always cut rounds and 
squares, angles and flats, and notch. with scotchmans, you need to be 
constantly putting in and taking out modules. But they seem reliable, 
and easy to fix if needed.
I have seen good deals on used german machines, like Mubea and 
Peddinghaus, both of which are built like tanks. Parts are still 
available for almost all models of both. New, they cost about twice 
what geka or scotchman do. I have seen a lot of really heavily used 
piranhas at auctions- they seem to hold up pretty well though.
I would recommend hydraulic over mechanical. They are quieter, safer, 
and easier to spot holes for punching. With a mechanical, when you trip 
it, it punches. With a hydraulic, you can bring the punch down and stop 
it, then register the hole, then finish the stroke. Of course, if you 
have good gauging, you seldom need that, but it does come in handy on 
odd shaped stuff.
I have a 50 ton, which will do 2x2x1/4" angle, and it is sufficient for 
most things. It is still a reasonable size and price, and doesnt take 
up too much space. Unless you are going to do really huge work, and 
need to be able to cut 5" angle, 50 or 60 tons is probably enough.

You might look at locatoronline.com- they usually have about 75 used 
ironworkers listed, at used equipment dealers around the country, 
ranging from small, like the cute little mubea Bf10, all the way up to 
WW2 surplus mechanical Buffalo's that will cut 8"x 3/4" angle.
5 grand ought to get you a really nice used one with tooling, 10 grand 
an excellent new one.

ries

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