[TheForge] Manual shears and punches

[Ries Niemi]

There were a lot of manual shears and punches in the old days because 
power was so expensive. Sure, you could have a steam engine, but that 
was only worth it for a big, many man shop.
So the little guys used manual equipment.
One problem with this was the capacity was limited. 5 tons is a big 
lever action punch, and 5 tons wont punch much of a hole. Same with 
shears. Most old manual shears  will only cut 1/8" flat bar, with a big 
cheater bar. They did evolve a few compound actions on shears, to get 
up to thicker stuff- I have a 1913 catalog showing a Buffalo manual 
ironworker that will cut 2" square bar, but the 1913 price was $400. In 
today's dollars that would be  something like $7500, about what a 
decent hydraulic ironworker would cost you.
Even a smaller Buffalo no.5, which would shear 6" x 5/8" or 1" round 
bars, and punch a 3/4" hole, was $2600 in todays equivalent dollars.

Roper Whitney does still make some hand operated tools- the no. 20 
punch will punch a 3/4" hole in 1/4" plate, and they make some hand 
powered shears as well.
http://roperwhitney.com/index.cfm

But the coolest manual ironworkers still made are from Germany- Mubea 
used to make them, but now they are sold in the USA by Glaser- Harry 
Haake is the US rep, at 88-668-8427- I dont know if he stocks any of 
these here or not, and they would not be cheap anyway, but they are 
very cool-

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/rniemi/glasershear.jpg

ries