[TheForge] Re: Old Punch Press ... is it worth it?

[Mike Spencer]

PF wrote:

> Let's be clear...If you run the flywheel at speed, and stick a cold
> piece of steel under the die, and the machine can't finish it's
> stroke....  You have a fair chance of a catastrophe!

Which leads to the notion of the shear pin, soft flywheel key or
similar, engineered (possibly for shade-tree values of "engineered"
:-) to fail gracefully before major parts fail catastrophically.

I have no idea when this trick became popular nor where or how widely
it was adopted.  But if one were repurposing something that has the
capability of removeing major body parts on failure, one might try to
incorporate it into the modification plans.

A neighbor here has an old punch press, about 8' tall, non-working but
apparently in restorable condition.  I know he'd part with it for
scrap price or, to a loving home, even less.  Shipping could be a
problem beyond Lunenburg County, NS, though.  :-)


Idle thoughts,
- Mike

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