Why it is hard to demonstrate a steam hammer

[DMahalko]

Here's an image from Wikipedia, which was very dark due to the windows and hot steel blinding the camera. I've upped the gamma and increased the contrast so the darker details are more visible.

http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll9/DMahalko/WMSTR%20Stuff/Santa_Fe_RR_steam_drop_hammergammai.jpg


The dollar signs roll past my eyes, looking at that hunk of steel they are shaping and all the other hardware in that room.

- What does an 8 inch diameter steel rod 6 feet long cost?

- What is the energy cost of heating that rod to a bright red?


That's a cute little pair of tongs the fellow on the left is holding. There's a keeper band over the handles on the far left to keep it squeezed on tight.

Look at the giant hoist, supporting the steel rod! It's got a free-spinning pulley above the rod so the guy on the left can easily flip the rod over.

Is the wood block on the forging anvil for rough-sizing the steel? Or is that just an "end stop" bolted to the anvil, to keep the rod from rolling off when the guy on the left flips the rod over?


Heh, so they were probably whacking that steel rod as fast and hard as possible to shape it before it cooled down. WHAM WHAM WHAM WHAM.... the poor guys' legs were probably numb from the ground bouncing around so much.

,

[DMahalko]

Looking at this some more, on the left side of this image, the tong arms have U-shaped things on them..

http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll9/DMahalko/WMSTR%20Stuff/tongsU-shapedhandles.jpg


These are probably extension handles give the tong operator more leverage to easily flip around the huge heavy rod as they work it.


Also, the way the tongs are put together is interesting. That looks like a massive hinge rivet, formed with a steel-melting rivet head-former, and which would be more commonly seen on bridges, buildings, or steam boilers. In this place everything is built HUGE! :D

,

[Jerry Christiansen]

Thanks for posting the pictures. That is some large equipment. I also noticed the eye proteciton, hard hats and ear protection that all the workers were using.

Later,
Jerry Christiansen

[mrnewway]

Jerry:
You have a good eye and noticed the proper safety equipment???:thumb:
All joking aside this is history and how it was done in the past, and is refered to as forging. that is how they get some of the special steel aloys to a workable size/shape.
We have a company here in Seattle, Issacons Iron Works and when working on projects for for Kenworth Truck which was just down the street one would see some of these forgings square, round , hex, etc with weights in the neighborhood of 2 to 5 tons. No idea what they would be made into.
One thing we have to keep in mind, we don't have anything this big on the grounds of WMSTR!! We do have the steam hammer that is used to forge the plates, this is a cold punching/pressing operation and trip hammers in the blacksmith shop for working small pieces of hot iron which are much,much smaller, not sure if any of these are directly powered by steam, some are from the line shaft system in the building and some are powered by electric motors.

[DMahalko]

I also noticed the eye proteciton, hard hats and ear protection that all the workers were using.

It appears they didn't figure that out until about 1924.

New Masks for Peacetime Uses
Popular Science, December 1924, page 57
http://books.google.com/books?id=FSkDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA57


- Dale

[DMahalko]

Followup to this old thread.... wikipedia now has another steam hammer picture.

I see now what the third person is doing in the photo. He is holding a "sizing block" on the anvil next to the hot metal being worked. That block makes sure that the worked metal stays the same thickness as they pound it and shape it:

http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll9/DMahalko/WMSTR%20Stuff/561px-Blacksmith_shop2C_railroad2C_.jpg

That looks like a potentially really painful and deadly job, since the hammer's full dead force strikes that block as the metal gets to the right size. If the sizing block is not perfectly flat on the anvil, it may move and vibrate in the hands of the guy holding the support rod.

http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll9/DMahalko/WMSTR%20Stuff/Blacksmith_shop2C_railroad2C_Topeka.jpg

So it would appear that the job of the guy operating the steam control lever is to hit the hot metal hard enough to shape it, but then back off on the force as it gets to the right size, so he doesn't break the wrists / arms of the poor guy holding the sizing block on the anvil.

.

And this explains what the third man is doing, in the first photo of the huge hammer that started this thread. That person is holding a really long metal rod attached to the sizing block on the anvil, out of sight of the photographer:

http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll9/DMahalko/WMSTR%20Stuff/Santa_Fe_RR_steam_drop_hammer.jpg


- Dale