[TheForge] Heavy floor shear

[ries]

Sounds like an old Edwards shear.
There are actually still a few variants on these made.
Edwards themselves have pretty much moved on to ironworkers now.
Here is a link to one style of Edwards shear currently for sale on ebay-
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260026452648
this is the most common style, but probably 20 different companies  
made variations on this theme between the 1880's and the 1950's.
I have an extensive collection of old hardware and tool catalogs, and  
if you find any name or model number info, I can try to look it up,  
and see if I can find its original capacity and specs.
400lbs is barely medium sized for these things- Marvel, Edwards,  
Niagara, Cannedy Otto, Union, Buffalo and others made em that weighed  
twice that, and would cut 1" round bar or 1/2" x 4".
You will probably want to bolt it down, at the very least to a big  
plank, which you can stand on, but better, to the floor.
I believe Centaur still sells replacement blades for some models.

Ries


On May 21, 2008, at 6:24 PM, Peter Hirst wrote:

I have been offeed a monster machine that I would love to have and  
know something about.  It is a huge (400 lbs or so) cast iron shear.   
Stands about 6 feet tall to the end of the handle, which is itself  
about 3 feet long.  Base is two arches with 1/2" bolt holes in the  
feet.  Body is about 6" thick.  Scissor type blades are about 8" long  
and open to 1/2" or a little more.  Body has a neat taper in it right  
at the blades, so it looks like it could take a continuous long feed  
of sheet or slitting thick flat stock.  I has some recent welded-on  
modifications arouind the throat, as if it was set up to feed 1/4 x 4  
perfectly square across the blades.  I plan to remove that, and aside  
from that it looks perfect.  I plan to use it in my historic, off the  
grid shop, as it looks like it can handle just about anything up to  
1/2 or maybe 5/8.  Save a lot of hacksawing and hot cutting.  Anybody  
ever see or use a shear like this?  Anything I should know about it?

Keziah
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Ries Niemi
Industrial Artist
http://www.riesniemi.com/