[TheForge] Re: Twister (Was:: housekeeping...)

[Mike Spencer]

Dave> I think that "just the right amount" is a relative term
Dave> especially as it refers to Paley's work.

Ha! In the pieces I'm thinking of, "just the right amount" was "all
it'll stand and maybe then some".  I may sound like I'm scoffing but I
really like those gnarly twisted pieces (altho nit as much as his work
in the style of the NY Legislature gates.)

Dave> Here is my twister:
Dave> http://www.magichammer.freeservers.com/page11.html

Yow, Dave! You're real serious about twisting, aren't you?  The spring
loaded vise is clever.  I don't know how fast a threading machine turns
but way faster than 1.25 rpm.  I didn't have room in the shop for a
heavy maybe-use-sometime object so I disassembled it, squirreled the
important parts on a shelf, the clunky parts outdoors.  But I could
probably follow your idea and drive the chuck with a chain and
sprocket from a worm gearbox and get rght down there. I got the
two-way switch with it and the 110 motor is reversible.

But then, I'm not real keen on ordinary twists.  I think the last
place I used it was some twisted 1/4" hex bar as a component of some
moulding.  We'll just have to see.  No energy for more "projects"
right now.

Ries> I imagine you dont see this much up in Nova Scotia...

I believe that's right. :-)

Ries> ...but in LA, Arizona, and Texas, where spanish style houses are
Ries> common, there is at least one big twister in every major city,
Ries> with a guy working all day going thru entire bundles (usually
Ries> 2000lbs) of 1/2" square, twisting away.


There are some home built twisters around.  I don't know if any of the
bigger fab shops have anything fancy or not but I doubt it.  The gear
in your shop probably outclasses anything east of Montreal.

Interesting that when Porfirio Ricardez (who demo'ed at ABANA con)
showed his slides, there were (IIRC) no twists in the old Oaxaca
Cathedral work that he was restoring/reproducing.  Just those clever
on-the-diamond welds in square stock to make Y-shaped elements.

- Mike

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