Looking for Fairbanks hammer operating manual...

Robert, the step/angle is for drawing. On my dies one is about the same as in the picture and the other is about twice the angle, and they correspond, top and bottom.
Sid told me the odd angle at the other end(hard to really see) is for making picks.
You're gonna have a brand new hammer there Robert.
In this months Farm Collector mag is a good article about flat belts.
 
Bruce, do you think that step angle works better for drawing than the sort of arched or domed shape that you see on many dies?

I realized while eating dinner that I don't believe there is any way to just turn the shaft where the bushings ride and not turn the rest of the larger portion of the shaft. If I turn the spot on the front of the shaft under the front bushing, then the new bushing will need to have a smaller diameter opening to fit closely to the smaller diameter shaft. I won't be able to reinstall the shaft after I press in the new front bushing then, since the thicker piece of the shaft that the drive pulley rides on won't go through that smaller front bushing. The end result is that the shaft needs to be turned all the way back from behind the crank, which then means that the drive pulley won't fit on the smaller diameter shaft properly. Uh, oh.
 
Bruce, I went looking for the flat belt article and found it and a few more. You can search Farm Collector for words. I searched for "flat belts" and came up with a really good article called "Power Transmission By Belt." There are 2 parts to the article. It was published in 2000 I believe in Gas Engine Magazine, which is a sister publication to Farm Collector. The two-part article explains all about drive belt setups and gives all kinds of technical info of belt speeds, pulley diameter, crowned pulleys, etc. The article is about large drive belts from power sources to a piece of equipment, but there is a bunch of useful info for someone with a belt-driven piece of equipment in the article.
There is also an article in Farm Collector about how to lace a flat belt. That is probably information that is really tough to find if someone needs it.
 
I read the belt article at the breakfast table yesterday and haven't gotten back to the other stuff yet.
I haven't tried any other type draw dies Robert so can't really answer that. Guys will tell ya that domed dies are the way to go but I don't know if they know any way else.
I have fullering hammers and use the anvil horn a lot to draw so don't really need domed dies on the hammer. With the type I have, I get anice even draw that needs very little cleanup on the flat potion of the die. Mebbe these dies are made for sumpin else but they have worked well for me. If I needed that type of die, I think I would build hand tooling rather than play with changing dies all the time. That;'s a pain!
When I bought this hammer, I had never worked on one before, only saw a Phoenix in operation one time. I just knew I needed one to break down large stock, so it has been a learning experience from day one . By doing my homework, picking the brains of lots of foundrymen and blacksmith, I've gotten this thing in operation.
 
Bruce, no, I don't have any dies that I can use. Yeah, I've got 5 sets that came with it, but like I said, they are all worn out. Some are really dished out from extreme use and being ground on by the slag and others are really rounded over, chipped, etc. Can they somehow be recycled? This hammer was just used and used and was not taken care of, and that includes the dies.

I will end up with a totally rebuilt hammer, but not by choice. I have had to face the fact that all of this is just what's necessary to make it run the way it is supposed to run. It makes me cringe when I hear people say to just use the hammer and not worry so much about stuff. Those people will end up with a hammer like this one became. It takes so little time to lubricate the hammer, adjust it and take care of it, compared to the time that it saves the guy who uses it.
 
farmer12888 said:
I realized while eating dinner that I don't believe there is any way to just turn the shaft where the bushings ride and not turn the rest of the larger portion of the shaft. If I turn the spot on the front of the shaft under the front bushing, then the new bushing will need to have a smaller diameter opening to fit closely to the smaller diameter shaft. I won't be able to reinstall the shaft after I press in the new front bushing then, since the thicker piece of the shaft that the drive pulley rides on won't go through that smaller front bushing. The end result is that the shaft needs to be turned all the way back from behind the crank, which then means that the drive pulley won't fit on the smaller diameter shaft properly. Uh, oh.
Click to expand...

It would work if the bushings had caps holding them in place... like with poured babbit bushings. I think some of the hammer designs moved to bronze bushings but still used caps.
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If you can get Bruce to send pics of his dies, you could send them to Sid and ask what he felt the functional difference would be for the use you intend to put them to.

It might be a person could weld up and grind down the dies you have. It would help to know the material they are made of but a good welder would figure out how to get the job done without knowing... just more time... where's the little flying dollars smilie? ~$~ =]

Mike
 
Bruce, I'll try to measure them today. If you have a set somewhere that would fit, I would sure be willing to buy them from you.
Mike, welcome back. I am moving to the next phase of getting the machine work done. Trying to not have to replace the shaft, but it may be necessary, since the turning under the bushings alone won't work, and I really don't think a thin bushing under the drive pulley on a turned-down shaft would be great.
 
Mike, I haven't taken the shaft out of the crank/flywheel, if that is what you are calling the drive disc. I knocked out the key on the shaft that holds the shaft and crank together, but they will need to be pressed apart. No, I don't believe they are one part. There wouldn't be any point in having a key holding them together. However, the United Hammer material in Freund's book lists the crank disc and the shaft as one piece, and it also lists the key. Go figure. I will probably be finding out soon, since having a new shaft made may be necessary for me. It will be that or building up with welding and turning down the old shaft to get rid of the scouring on it. The guy who is going to do the machining told me that he could put the shaft and crank disc together in his lathe, and there was no need to separate them to work on the old shaft.
 
Talked to Sid today. The cross head in my hammer looks OK. The top of one side arm needs to be welded shut and bored but the other one may be OK with a bushing. We chatted about dies. He thinks it could be possible to weld up and grind down old dies but was not sure about hardening the filler, etc. We talked about a new shaft. He charges about $200 give or take $20, depending on the clutch configuration, for a new shaft for an LG 50#. The shafts aren't hardened - just cold-rolled.

I am having a super difficult time trying to get the old main shaft bushings out of the yokes. The front bushing is thick and large in diameter. The back one is about one-half the size of the front. Neither of them will move. I put together a piece of pipe larger than the bushing with 1/4" angle iron welded across it and a hole drilled in the middle for a piece of 1/2" all-thread. I put a piece of metal on the other side of the bushing smaller than the bushing and tightened the all thread to try to draw out the bushing. I bent the angle and then put a 3/8" bar on top of the 1/4" piece that I bent. I then bent the all-thread when things got just a little off-centered.

Sid suggested heating the casting around the bushing while pulling. I had thought of that but was hesitant since the machine is in a cold building, and I did not want to crack the casting. Sid said he has taken a hack saw apart and put it through then put it back together and cut them out of machines before, but he was surprised when I told him the front bushing was really thick.
 
Robert, have you ever connected with Doug Freund? I'm wondering if he has information on bushing install and take out.

Have you measured the bushing faces? Are they the same diameter front side/back side?

You could call Bruce Wallace and see if he will talk about bushing replacement... there is almost no way he hasn't done it.

Mike
 
Robert , yer maolbox is screwed up. keeps rejecting some info I sent ya from 2 different addresses.
 
Bruce, just trying to keep the riff raff out of the mailbox. The advertisers sure figure a way to get things in there. Don't need any erectile pills do you?

Mike, I haven't talked to Freund. I figure Sid knows about as much as anybody about hammer construction. I am going to really look closely today at the setup. I think the bushings have to be pulled to the outside, because there is not enough room between the yokes to get them out. Sid's surprise at the thickness of the front bushing is going to make me look at it again for diameter. I may try heat on the casting and 5/8 all-thread today.
 
There is stuff about Fairbanks Sid doesn't see in Little Giants. Doug Freund has studied them and found data on them not commonly seen.

Mike
 
How can I get in touch with Freund?

I got the main shaft bushings out of the yokes this evening. It took 3/4" all-thread, a couple of sockets from a 3/4" socket set, a 1/2" impact wrench, a whole bunch of air and a torch with a rosebud. I drilled out the holes in the 5/8" of iron welded to the pipe and replaced the 1/2" all-thread with 3/4". I used a very large socket to pull back against the bushings, since the 3/4" all-thread would pass through a socket from a 3/4" set. I had to heat the casting around the rear bushing, and it was harder to remove than the front bushing.

These bushings are really quite large. The rear one was much wider in diameter than I thought. That entire protrusion on the back of the rear yoke that I was thinking about grinding off when I was considering mounting the pulley outside the yoke is all bushing. I will take some pictures and post them and some measurements of the bushings. That protrusion or donut as I was calling it is now gone. The back of the yoke is a little uneven from the casting and was never ground flat like the front of the rear yoke and both sides of the front yoke.
 
That's really interesting, Robert. I'm looking forward to both pictures and measurements.

Ask Sid if he will put you in touch with Doug Freund.

Mike
 
Taking out these bushings has me thinking about trying to convert to a motor-driven setup again like from the factory. The donut or flange on the back that was going to be a problem is just bushing sticking out and can easily be cut off now. Since the bushing is so much wider in diameter than I thought, I think a shaft of one diameter, the larger diameter, could be supported all the way through the hammer and out the back. That would allow the drive pulley to sit on the same size diameter shaft as it does now and eliminate a sleeve under it. The only problem I see is that the back of the rear yoke needs to be flattened and squared with the inside of the rear yoke. There is a seam that runs from the top to the bottom that is a casting mark there, and it is not exactly even on both sides. Maybe that lack of dressing of the back of the rear yoke is the only difference from a motor-driven frame at the factory? Since I am making new bushings and a new shaft, that dressing of the back of the rear yoke may be the only additional step required.
 
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