[TheForge] Nazel/Chevette -

[Ron Childers]

Mike, 

Your power hammer safety concern could possibly be solved with 1940's
technology. Grampa had a flat belt set-up to run a buzz saw which ran off
one rear wheel hub to which was attached a pulley. We would back the old
1934 ford into place, replace the tire with the pulley and run the flat belt
to the pulley on the saw.

 We would then block the accelerator at the appropriate speed, cut up the
fire wood (that's all we had to heat the house), put the tire back on and
the car was ready to drive again. The pulley was made of laminated wood
through bolted to a metal flange which fit the lug pattern. Simple, but it
worked really well and I could use it by myself.

Fifty years later a friend made a similar rig of welded steel to bolt on
over the rear wheel of his truck. He would attach a nylon rope to the drum
and tie the other end to a tree to get out of a mud hole.

You could use your hammer and still drive your truck.

Ron C  

-----Original Message-----
From: theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Mike Spencer
Sent: Wednesday, February 23, 2005 9:00 PM
To: theforge at mailman.qth.net
Subject: [TheForge] Have you run your Nazel/Chevette lately?


Okayyy.... Back On Topic, eh?

> Have you run your Nazel/Chevette lately?

Nitpick: That's "Alldays/Cavalier".

No.  I *have* run it single-handed, i.e. without a 2nd guy to drive the
hammer, the Chevy or both.  I've hammered hot steel and hot wrought
iron with it.  I have proof of concept.  That is, I put it back
together right, there is reasonably good control, nothing goes
bash-bash that isn't supposed to.  (Something did, but I fixed it.) It
hits like a sonoffabitch.

But it takes a half an hour or so to start: install battery, check
fuel for water, re-attach some cables and switches, lube external
throttle, check the tires & oil, remove squirrel nests from engine
compartment etc.

And when it's running, it's pretty scary.  The car's going about 40
mph and straining hard.  What happens to that big irreplaceable hammer
gear if I blow out a tire from chafing?  Especially if the tether
tears free?  What happens, for that matter, to tender little me?  I
can't concentrate on the iron and think about that stuff at the same
time.

This spring, I'm going in pursuit of either (a) an old tractor with
sufficient HP and a good PTO or (b) an industrial engine with a
governor.  (3PH is out of the question and 15HP is getting pretty
heavy duty -- not to mention heavy $$ -- for a converter or a straight
single phase motor, even on a 200A entry.)

A last resort will be that I retire my '81 4x4 pickup.  Remove the
rear drive shaft and replace it so that it becomes a PTO.  Then I can
move the truck around with the front wheels in 4WD, then put it into
2WD and only the rear shaft goes, to drive the hammer.  I have the
drive-gear & shaft from the original 15HP electric motor.  

With the power plant not trying to take off at 40mph, some pillow
block bearings and other parts from the Farmer's Co-op together with a
little welding should give me a much safer rig.

Be nice to find a mechanical tach with the right RPM range so I
could rev it up to just the right speed instead of guessing.

- Mike

-- 
Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada       .~. 
                                                           /V\ 
mspencer at tallships.ca                                     /( )\
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/                        ^^-^^

-- 



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