[TheForge] Twister

[Ries Niemi]

Paley's twister was reputed to be an elevator motor, something like 
25hp.
I have never heard if it had a stepper type motor, but I think not.

I have a german made cnc twister, and it uses a brake on the motor to 
achieve accuracy to one degree of rotation.
Which is nice, for specific stuff, but I find for fancy reverse twists, 
I usually use it in manual mode, and just stop when it looks right.
Of course, at something like 14rpm, its pretty easy to move it in very 
small increments anyway.

The ornamental yards that twist 20 foot lengths of 1/2" square bar for 
window grilles just use a 10 or 15hp motor run thru an old truck 
transmission to slow it down, and clamps on a big piece of I beam. The 
guys who run those machines just eyeball the twists, but after the 
first 500 or so, you get pretty consistent.

I imagine you dont see this much up in Nova Scotia, but in LA, Arizona, 
and Texas, where spanish style houses are common, there is at least one 
big twister in every major city, with a guy working all day going thru 
entire bundles (usually 2000lbs) of 1/2" square, twisting away.

ries


On Oct 25, 2006, at 11:10 AM, Mike Spencer wrote:

>
> me> Somebody just gave me a pipe threading machine.  The chuck is
> me> completely worn out...
>
> LB> Sounds like a bar twister to me..
>
> Yeah, maybe for yer Al Paley-style twisted, double-twisted,
> gnarly-twisted and twisted into two pieces -type twists.  The gross
> mis-alignment of the chuck would guarantee the "gnarly" part. :-)
>
> Less frivolously, the motor runs on for a bit after power-off.  For
> big heavy bar or cold twist, I supposed the resistance of the
> workpiece would stop it but for lighter stuff it seems like it would
> be impossible or at least very difficult to twist just the right
> amount.
>
> I'm guessing that a really good twister would have a stepper motor.
> Didn't Paley use an elevator motor and gearbox to make the machine he
> used for all that 1980s, twisted-to-destruction stuff he made?
>
>
> - Mike
>
> -- 
> Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada       .~.
>                                                            /V\
> mspencer at tallships.ca                                     /( )\
> http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/                        ^^-^^
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Ries Niemi
Industrial Artist

http://www.RiesNiemi.com