Thread: Ever seen a train lay its own track ????

Originally Posted by Stustoys

We can do gif's but only 100kB, So at 1.39mB you're a little over size
Stuart

Oh dear, that is pretty big. Here's a link to a version that's half that size:
GACK_Animation-sm.gif

Jordan

How many pivots has that thing got? It would take a week to lube it!

Originally Posted by Bryan

How many pivots has that thing got? It would take a week to lube it!

pays well ...but it would be a boring job

Old thread, but ...

How many pivots has that thing got? It would take a week to lube it!

If I counted right, there are 43 oil/grease nipples or holes.

Why is that a punch-shaper?
Punching dies often do make millions of strokes punching out parts. These punches are screwed to a platen. Often, one complete punch is made out of several parts with odd shapes. To help align the punches, the feet (side that is screwed to the platen) are rectangular. If the transition from the odd shape to the rectangular shape is sharp, that rises stress (millions of strokes). Also, during hardening, sharp corners increase the risk of cracks.
So the transition form odd shape to rectangular shape has to be smooth. That's done with a radius. And that shaper does make an adjustable radius at the end of the stroke.
In the old days, the punches were cut, then hardened. Then the cutting face was ground on a surface grinder and the sides stoned by hand.

I know from the owner's son, that he made punches for GDR's watch industry.
"UMF Ruhla" means "Uhren und Maschinen Fabrik Ruhla". "Ruhla" is a city, "Uhren" means 'watches', "Maschinen" is 'machines' and "und" is 'and' as you maybe have guessed.


Nick

Thanks for the info Nick. Sounds like it was a pretty specialised machine even when it was made. Or were they common? Any idea how many might have been produced? Now it seems like an elegant oddity. (If anyone is wondering what we're on about, go back a page and see the vid.) Maybe it's silly but I really want a machine like that to have an ongoing use, even if uneconomic. I wonder if you could generate gears with it?

PS: Making some Bavarian geezer happy is a use I guess.

Sounds like it was a pretty specialised machine even when it was made. Or were they common?

I don't know how many were produced. At least, there was a marked, or they would not have produced them. Maybe 1000?
Mass production is a synonym for punching and pressing.
Making those tools didn't have too many ways. Filing, milling (the Deckel FPs had an attachment for that) or shaping. The Gack HE20 shaper I had, had a tiltable table (in fact, that would have been the model H20) that was intended for that. Also, there was a ram available, that did cut a radius at the end.

I only found such (my Ruhla) a beast in one old book ('bout 1950). Other references were to the Deckel FP.

Cutting gears:
If you thought about generative gear cutting: Only at the first look. If you do have some gears that couple the feed to the rotary table, that would work. But only for one tooth. Then you would have to index to the next tooth, ... OMG, that would take time.
Dedicated gear shapers have long been invented.
But spline shafts (if they are called that way) would be something.

PS: Making some Bavarian geezer happy is a use I guess.

That's enough. At least for me.


Nick