Gallery, Projects and General > Project Logs
Heron's Aeolipile
Circlip:
2 1/2 ton Stew ? that's nobut a bairns press, now 100 Ton HME bonking my signatures out of 3/8th carbon steel, used to shake the floor a bit, and assault the ear drums. My closed height disaster was having a tool made whose closed height was the same as the open height of the toggle press it was supposed to fit into. It was annoying in the fact that the bits of tool steel being "encased" in a die set was a job I used to set up on the shop floor before I was "promoted" to the D/O. A new "Toolmaker" transformed the setting operation from 2 Mins to 1/2Hr. Hmmmm.
Another incident, though not mine, was a setter letting the press have one "Bonk" on a piece of strip,the full length of, but slightly narrower than the guides on a stage tool. Didn't break the shaft, but certainly made short work of a brand new tool ( £2K but 45 years ago). Oh how SOME of us laughed, but not in the earshot of the works manager who at the time was calling for all the fires of hell and damnation to fall on the setters head.
I think there will be some thinning of the metal around the top edge John, cos once the metal starts sliding, I would expect it to wrinkle and resist the slide, despite any lubrication, and a spring pressure/stripper plate would increase in tension as the punch travels further down. Another thing that I don't think is helping is the location spigot on the punch. The hole in the sheet is going to be muchly distorted and bigger by the time you get to full depth.The ring die suggestion was so that the material had somewhere to go instead of trying to bottom, ( see Stews ref to broken crankshaft ) and yes I know it's a lot smaller than a power press, but the operation of a toggle press relies on the "sweep through" action of the handle. Thats why they tend to be used for cropping and punching operations, a flypress tended to be used for bending.
Trying to stop you getting disillusioned with this one Ralph cos I want to see you steam yer glasses up with it running.
Regards Ian.
PS. Key words to bash in on "Search" could be Die sets and Die springs. Trouble is, when I came out of toolroom, Tinterweb didn't exist.
CrewCab:
--- Quote from: Circlip on December 06, 2008, 11:28:46 AM --- Trying to stop you getting disillusioned with this one Ralph cos I want to see you steam yer glasses up with it running.
--- End quote ---
You n' me both Ian :thumbup:
Ralph ............ you've certainly embarked on a steep learning curve here, but ........... that's no bad thing I think .... I'm certainly expanding my "virtual" horizons and learning loads to boot, it doesn't matter if I will ever try these particular technique's the principle's will be invaluable ........... :bow:
Keep up the good work Ralph ................ your audience is waiting with bated breath :headbang:
CC
bogstandard:
I am in no way trying to put Ralph off the idea, in fact this method was the one I suggested because I had a little working knowledge of the processes involved, but because I had run out of the basics, was the reason I invited Stew to give a bit of insight on his dealings on the subject, to try to push it a little further along, using the materials and machines at Ralph's disposal, and nothing else. Maybe this wasn't the way to go, but if the avenue wasn't explored, you would never know where it would lead to, whether it be failure or success.
The process that is being explored is to turn a blank of a known size into a required shape, not by stretching the material but by deforming it so that it retains its original cross sectional thickness as far as possible. As stated in a previous bit to this topic, if this method doesn't work, the punch can still be used for a spinning form. There are always more ways to achieve what you want.
If Ralph really wanted to push it, I could most probably call in a favour and get some half spheres made for him, but Ralph nor anyone else would learn anything by doing that. It is the same as the die, one could very easily get one spark eroded out, and the offer has been made, but again, this has initially been turned down, as nothing would be learned about how to do it manually, and it was only the wrong material that caused it to be only a partial success. Everything else went like clockwork.
John
Darren:
Quite..a hobby is all about diy, well as much as feasibly poss it is.
Ralph, only a suggestion, the heat I mean. The ally should take it fine, they make pistons out of the stuff and they get a touch warm at times.
But I'm not suggesting this is the way to go, could easily be the wrong way though, it was just a thought. :wave:
sbwhart:
Hi Guys
Ralph as certainly got our little grey cells working. I've no doupt we could press a sphere its just a matter of getting the tooling correct, we use to make thousands of copper cones a week using the pressing method, and a good deal thicker than Ralph is trying to make. If my memory serves me right we did it in three pressings with interstage aneals.
You tooling scetch is spot on ralph you got the principles right, for what you are trying to do I don't think you will need steel pressure plates you could try making them out a chip board or melonean (spell) or even a plastic chopping board.
If you could get hold of thin guilding metal sheet you may have more sucess (90% copper 10% Zinc) its got excelent deep drawing and forming properties, its what bullet jackets are made from.
Her's another shop desaster:- It was with the reduction gear box of a 24" rolling mill, the oil feed to the gear box became blocked, the site widow was dirty and the oil couldn't be seen circulating, did the oiler clean the widow NO, :hammer: he kept checking the tank and was happy it wasn't going down. By the time the problem was spotted a 20 inch diameter hering bone gear had teath worn down to about 1/8" thick :(
Have fun, and keep trying, you don't know what can be done until you try.
Stew
:wave:
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