[Steam-engine] Steam without wheels

[Francis Orr]

Rick

Nope! A steam hammer is just that. It is used for forging steel and other
metals. You may have seen small power hammers in your local blacksmith shop.
Little Giant was a major manufacturer. As far as I know they were built in
25 Lb, 50 Lb, 100 Lb and larger sizes. My son has a 100 Lb and his friend
who is our lead blacksmith at Lynden, has a 50 Lb hammer. These smaller
hammers were used for putting points on plow shares, making tools, waggon
parts etc. The big hammers were used with and without dies for forming. At
Rollag, the 1500 lb hammer is used to stamp out a commemorative plate each
year. At the end of the year, the die is destroyed which increases the value
of the plate (made from aluminum). Our first plate was the Liberty Bell in
1976. We have had J.I. Case, Avery, Music, Gas engines, Womens activities,
etc. all depicted on the plates. On a big hammer like the one at Rollag, the
hammer and the anvil are in two parts. The reason for this that a one piece
unit would crack from the striking force. At Rollag, they dug a 14' deep pit
and filled it with crisscrossed railroad ties, topped with concrete to hold
the anvil. The anvil sits in a ring at the base of the hammer. Our little
hammer at Lynden is in one piece. I don't know where the demarcation is.
Most of the modern air hammers I have seen are one piece units.

Pile drivers are again, a steam driven hammer that augments the effect of
gravity on the falling hammer with steam. Steam is also used to lift the
hammer back up. I am not sure if the diesel and air pile driving hammers are
double acting. I have a small dead weight hammer (you lift it and drop it by
cable) that I hope to hook up to a steam hoist some day.

If you can get hold of Vol. #2 of Audels Engineers and Mechanics Guide there
is a good chapter in there on steam hammers and on dead weight pile drivers.
Your State Library may be able to did that up for you.

Glad to hear that you are ready for steaming. Did you put an exhaust head on
your engine to separate out the condensate so that it does not fly all over
everyone?

Best wishes
Francis

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Richard Strobel" <Richard_Strobel7 at msn.com>
To: "Steam-engine mailing list" <steam-engine at lists.stationary-engine.com>
Sent: Friday, August 24, 2007 4:32 AM
Subject: Re: [Steam-engine] Steam without wheels


> Francis, It's always great to see you post as friend Corky and I do
> stationary VFT also.  Boiler is now certified by Montana for 100 psi and
> will build a fire as soon as this tinderbox country wets up a little.
>
> By steam hammer, are you referring to what I call a "pile driver?"
>
> Regards,
> RickinMt.
>
>
>
>
> > Andy, sounds like you are still on the steeper part of the Huber
learning
> > curve!
> >
> > My youngest son and I were on a steep learning curve of 1-4 August at
the
> > Puget Sound Antique Tractor & Machinery Show at Lynden WA. The club owns
> > what we believe to be is a 400 Lb Chambersberg steam hammer. Some 10
years
> > ago, I got one of our steam tractors to come down to the blacksmith shop
> > and with a steam hose, hooked it up to the hammer. It didn't run again
> > until three years ago when they started using air which was entirely
> > unsatisfactory. With a new "man in charge" last year, they started
talking
> > about a big air tank for an accululator. It was suggested that since it
> > was a steam hammer, why not use steam? Since Washington State went to
> > inspected boilers, all of our steam tractors but one have
dissappearered.
> > I have a VFT boiler which I thought might do the trick so the decision
was
> > made to give it a try.
> >
> > We were lucky all along the way. My #3 son is a semi-pro blacksmith and
> > was my right hand man in getting this set up. Getting the Sched 80 1.5"
> > pipe for the steam line, the MIC (man in charge) asked how long should
we
> > get it? turned out that they got 3" to much which was easily cut off and
> > then threaded. We did as good as we could on the lineup when we set the
> > boiler down. It was close enough to do the job with two street "Ls" and
a
> > 4" nipple.
> >
> > We are still not sure how the exhaust should be handled. The end of the
> > short exhaust line was flared with a two bolt flange slid over it. The
> > cylinder has a deep, "as cast" recess. What did the flare make up to? We
> > tried five rings of 1" packing but it would not make up tight enough. We
> > finally went to a local guy who cut out a plywood doughnut that would
fit
> > in the recess and with a couple of the packing rings, were able to make
up
> > tight enough to hold the low pressure steam of the exhaust.
> >
> > I just happened to have a 1.25" Swarthout Exhaust Head which we mounted
on
> > the end of the 2" exhaust line. This separated out all of the condensate
> > and sent it down a piece of garden hose from the roof instead of
showering
> > all the spectators. When the hammer was running full bore, the exhaust
was
> > quite a sight!! Anyone know of any exhaust heads that are available, let
> > me know. I put them on everything including the big 750 HP vertical,
> > cross-compound Allis Chalmers Corliss at Rollag. That head weights over
> > 400 Lbs and is quite a sight.
> >
> > I talked earlier about the learning curve. My #2 son and I learned how
to
> > fire the boiler which was barely big enough to handle the load. It got a
> > little easier when we got a Clark flywheel pump going for boiler feed
> > instead of the big injector. Day one was rebuilding the foot treadle and
> > trying to figure out what the levers did. On day two we got the piston
rod
> > and the guides cleaned up and removed a lot of old grease and dirt. Day
> > three we repacked the piston rod and one of the two control levers
(should
> > have done the other one too). On day four, we were able to really have
> > some fun making the ground shake. Nothing like the big hammer at Rollag
> > but still an interesting exhibit. Are there any other operating steam
> > hammers out there? There used to be two shops in Detroit that had
> > operating hammers. I spent hours watching them on my layovers there.
> > Anyone wants to see some pictures contact me at steam.boat at verizon.net.
> >
> > Next time maybe I'll take about Australia or the NWSS steam boat meet at
> > Seattle on 10, 11 & 12 August.
> >
> > Francis A. Orr
> > _______________________________________________
> > Steam-engine mailing list
> > http://www.stationary-engine.com/mailman/listinfo/steam-engine
> >
> _______________________________________________
> Steam-engine mailing list
> http://www.stationary-engine.com/mailman/listinfo/steam-engine
>