Happy Father's Day to me.

[Gerbilsquasher]

New toy for Father's Day. How much? Very much south of four figures!

http://i1033.photobucket.com/albums/a416/froodman/CIMG4295.jpg

Now I just have to refurbish a four foot panbrake given to me by my sister which got a bit 'cooked' during the Black Saturday fires and the Gerbilsquasher Engineering sheetmetal division will be up and running :D. Providing of course that the heat hasn't annealed everything so that the panbrake bends before the sheet....

I hope you all have submitted your wish lists to your families otherwise it's socks and jocks again I'm afraid :((. Or better still buy it for yourself.

[Stustoys]

Nice!
What the frame above the motor that goes out of picture for?
Is the flywheel geared to the crank shaft on the right hand side?
Stuart

[Gerbilsquasher]

HA! HA! I thought I got it all...

The frame is actually a cunning safety feature added at some point to pull down the clamp and allow the foot bar to activate the blade, as it was explained by the seller. That way there is no way you can get your fingers near the blades. Damn good idea.

There is a big gear on the right hand side.

The blades look okay but there are a few chunks missing which look about the size of 5mm rod. Sharpening the blades might cost more that the whole machine, but that's not the end of the world.

I have no idea about its capacity but if it can do a full width cut in 2.0mm mild steel I'll be happy.

I was assured it worked and it had only been used for cutting plastics and composites but it has sat outside for a few weeks in the rain. If the electrics are fried.... once again, not the end of the world. I'll chuck a tarp over it- it's still yet to be moved to it's final location. It should dry out and be okay. I have a mate who spilled a whole cup of coffee over his laptop and it still worked, so there shouldn't be a problem with a big old chunky motor:wink:

[Graziano]

If you have the space, they're a great bit of gear to have, you'll be finding all kinds of uses for it. I used to use a similar one in an aluminium ware house, once the dog clutch was fixed it worked quite well. At home I fixed up a John Heine 800mm foot guillo and I find uses for it for just about everything.

[Stustoys]

Looks a little light for 2mm but you never know your luck. If you get the blade clearance right for 2mm you might have trouble with thin stuff. Still its not that hard to adjust the clearance.
How wide is it? 1800mm?
The extra "safety" is strange, but maybe they have the hold down set pretty high for cutting thick plastic. Do you have to pull it down by hand and then kick the pedal?
Stuart

[Gerbilsquasher]

A quick measure (in the dark) gave me about 2168 mm of blade width. Probably means something in Imperial if I went and got my calculator.

I haven't tried it yet, but they reckon you pull down the top lever (this moves the clamps down) before the bottom pedal bar allows the blades to move.

Obviously this isn't wide enough to cut a full strip off an 8' x 4' sheet on the long side, but I can find plenty of things to do before I need to cut 2mm strips this long. If you're folding stuff with a manual panbrake a guillo that can cut 12mm steel isn't much use.

A 2.0mm capacity would be nice, it would mean cutting (at least 1.2mm ) stainless wouldn't be a drama.

No doubt there is a way to adjust blade clearance and I will have to familiarise myself with how to do it with this particular guillo.

I know in the near future a large number of zincalume flashings will be required, and this baby is certainly going to earn its keep!

[Stustoys]

I assume its only the "finger" thing that move by hand and the main hold down moves with the blade, I guess you'll find out soon enough.
The clearance is adjusted by the two hex head bolts on each side.
Does it have a back stop?

[pipeclay]

What brand of machine is it.
Stustoys do you know what machine it is.
Just curious as you know how to adjust the blade clearance.

[Stustoys]

No idea pipeclay, its an interesting one though.

As far as blade clearance goes, I should have said "I think", but most of the flywheel guillotines I have seen are like that, like the way things are in pretty much the same place on bridgeport mill clones. Also there is normally a way to bow the top blade and then jack screws every 3ish inches on the top blade as well.

Stuart

[pipeclay]

Would suggest that when you go to set the clearance set it to the thickest material size the machine will cut,or the thickest material you will be cutting.
Allow 10% of the material thickness as your clearance along the full length of the blade.
You say there are chips in the blade,you will have to check but most blades will be reversable.
Are they only a 1 piece blade or multi bladed.
Are they a solid blade or laminated.
If there are shims take not of there position and size.

[Gerbilsquasher]

The blades are one piece, and don't appear to be laminated. I don't think the top blade is reversible as it has a chamfer on the bottom edge on the non cutting side.

There are a few shims, I don't know if these are to straighten the blade or to adjust clearance, it is one of the things I will have to investigate when I get it set up. This might be six months away- I should be concentrating on getting the house on the market so there is a lot of boring stuff like painting and fixing to be done. I can't afford too many distractions (especially time wise) but this one was a little too hard to resist:D

[Bryan]

Nice work. I got a shirt. :rolleyes: