Well the fab shop new addition is now framed up and ready for a concrete pour. With any luck I will have the concrete completed in October.
This weekend is also honey-do weekend as well. The tile needed to put down in the hallway and bathroom and the new lighting installed. This is by the end of Friday night.
This is the progress by Saturday night.
And the progress in the bathroom.
This is the end at Sunday night for the hall.
And the bathroom.
The hall lighting was installed as well.
The fun task is the solid works class that we put on for my friend from Texas. He is scheduled for a stop over here for a couple of days with his job, so it is time to learn and do a project. In this case we are working on the fluting press and a set of back grips for his semi 1919.
More work has been completed on the Japanese 99 magazine.
We are also working in the fab shop. There is a lot to be completed in here to allow me to go forward with the projects. The first item completed is the band for the bracket to hold up the vent exhaust tube for the forge area.
And a close up.
After the clamp the supports were made.
The complete assembly up and in place.
Now with the tube installed.
On to the next project. I have a section of 1″ steel plate that has a few supports welded on it. This will be cut up and machined for the necessary components needed for the fluting machine.
A little close up of the welded supports.
After all the supports are removed and ground the plate looks like this. A simple project that tool several hours and was way to much fun. This was accomplished with a cutting torch and a couple of grinders.
Then it was time to lay out for the necessary parts. This next phase of the project was completed by the world famous MacGuyver
A special welding guide was made up for a straight cut.
Starting the cutting operation.
All the cutting was done on my home made cutting bench.
The cut part way through.
A couple of looks at the completed cut slab.
From here it will be cut on the saw for the correct lengths and milled for proper size. That task will be completed this next week.
Here is a quick video of the torch cutting operation.
The rest of the honey do list was tackled. Last weekend we drilled hole in the frame of the walk in cooler and injected foam to act as a thermal barrier. I might have got a little carried away with the foam.
After a week of removing the excessive foam and sanding the frame we painted it again.
Once we got started with painting we just finished everything that needed to be done.
Time to go back to the fab shop for some more fun. More work was completed on the hot forging press. The hydraulic manifold was welded on.
And the brackets for the piping were welded on as well.
Enough fun for the this weekend.
Use some ‘soaker’ hoses to keep the surface of your addition concrete moist for a week after it is poured. Will change the solidification of the concrete from ‘outside in’ to ‘inside out’. This will greatly increase the surface compressive strength of the concrete; important given the equipment you will be putting in there.
Don’t like the flexible hydraulic hoses over the workspace in your forging press. If one of them bursts due to heat or age while your are forging, you are in for a spectacular fire. You can use a nonflammable glycol-based hydraulic fluid or put in a sheet steel catch pan / shield just below the lowest cylinder fitting. Normal industrial practice is to use steel piping, a shield to protect the operator, and glycol hydraulic fluid. Otherwise, the press seems to be well designed. Four two to three inch diameter vertical steel guides running in CDA 95X aluminum-iron bronze bushings should provide adequate lateral stiffness.
Thanks for the info John. We are currently looking at ways to isolate the hydraulic hoses. I looked at hard piping and do not think it is possible. I am checking on the nonflammable hydraulic fluid. Thanks again as safety is paramount.
Can you rotate the cylinder bodies 90 degrees so the inlets and outlets face to the reat?
Alternately, you could convert the press into a ‘toggle’. Think Luger pistol with muzzle pointed down and horizontal cylinders actuating the middle joint. Provides much better forging force curve. Make eight links, four for each cylinder. All four connect to each cylinder clevis, two each connect to the ram and two each connect to the upper anchor point. This gets you cylinders well to the rear where they are easy to shield.