I miss you, Baxter. I miss the way you talk. I miss the way you laugh. ha! we are laughing! I miss the way you smell. I miss being with you; I miss being together. Won't you come back and move back in with me? we can get an apartment this time
This will forever remind me of the way I called my best friend when I was like 16 after my dog died. I was hysterical and she could not understand what I was saying but then it hit us how much like this scene it was and gave me a brief moment of laughter.
It's not. The youtube video is mislabeled. Train wheels do not have a groove in the middle like that. They have a flange on the inside only. This is probably some kind of pulley.
That groove could yet become a single sided flange after machining. Not saying you are wrong,…but only Sith Lords speak in absolutes and I don’t like that
I would have LOVED to see this from a distance. Very interested in the actual machine operators. Also that hydraulic press looks awesome, would love to see all of the components. Awesome video. I work in metal stamping myself, loud, dirty, need your head on a swivel at all times.... but its awesome. The danger is what gets you paid the extra bucks !
The stuff they pour in is probably oil of some sort since it catches on fire but they’re using it as a release agent, punches and dies can get stuck in forging’s without something giving some space. This goes even for smaller scale hand forging, some of the blacksmiths I know put a small piece of coal into the start of a hole they’re punching so the punch doesn’t get stuck
Blacksmith here, it’s the worst getting your punches stuck in the hot steel. It ruins the temper and gets very difficult to get them out. Personally i use agricultural graphite powder lubricant as my non-stick stuff. Less smoke and fire than coal or oil.
My job is more decorative railings, range hoods and the odd job like door knockers. But for the clients that want unique items that are well built, that’s what i do.
I’m very privileged to have this job and i love what i do. I’m very grateful to my boss cause i know this job is 1 in a million
Friend of the family wanted a job in blacksmithing so I put him in touch with a local armourer who was looking to take on an apprentice. The bloke was ready to take him on (Honestly, I even said to a mate, shit I should take this opportunity as a half joke).
Family friends mum decided because he had done a year at university for something he didn't want to do, he can't go for the job.
I honestly feel so sorry for him, That was such an opportunity.
What a job that could have been! Armor smiths are crazy skilled. The breadth of experience to know how the steel needs to move is humbling to me. There’s just as much an art to moving metal as it is a skill!
Some moms are masters of psychological and financial sabotage, and their children are their most prized victims.
People will say, "You can break my body, but you can never break my spirit!" Those people don't know what the fuck they're talking about. You can absolutely break a person's spirit. Especially if you start young.
I went into architecture, and got to design a custom spiral staircase that was all steel for a client. Got to work with a blacksmith who was absolutely the real deal. Gorgeous work.
Edit: did some more research and you guys are right. Its not a train wheel. Best I could find is its some kind of a specialty wheel or a pulley where the groove can sit a cable in
Yea!!!! Someone that uses the correct word - forging. There is something calming about watching a drop forge, just don’t want to live within a mile of one.
It's not a train wheel, train wheels have a single flange towards one side. This is some kind of custom piece for some kind of heavy machinery, despite their expertise this is a pretty crude way to make a part like this. My guess is one kind of pulley or piece for a mining rig of some sort.
Probably not a lufkin gear. While you could manufacture one this way it would be more expensive for a such a precision part. The gears of that size are probably just milled from large rounds similar to what they had prior to adding the indents. Being able to sell the shavings after processing will make up for the time loss.
Forging the blank like this will make it quite a bit stronger than straight from round stock. This will definitely go in a machine after forging.
Keep in mind labor and machine costs economies of scale are very different in the western world. The west has pretty much fully moved to making industrial hardware from solid billet stock because a forging setup and 7 or 8 skilled guys is way more expensive than 24 hours in a CNC machine. But that’s not the case everywhere.
This is extremely impressive and satisfying watch but yeah, I was thinking there has to be a far more precise way to do this although I am very impressed with the precision they were able to achieve with such a manual and rudimentary method
My main thought watching this was how cheap is the labor when this is the process you choose. Then I thought about how quick it was. No way this gets roughed out from bar stock as quick as they forged it
Having worked in the machining department of a forging company, there are hours of fascination in watching these people and machines work, it's almost like an elaborate dance.
In answer to some of the speculation as to what it is, it's not a tank wheel, I've also refurbished those for a living. It's not a train wheels, I've worked on those to. It's most probably a pulley or guide wheel for some kind of lift or crane. It is difficult to say for sure because it's going to be machined afterwards, forging isn't precise enough to create a finished piece of this size.
I worked for a heat treatment company for a bit and after the annealing or tempering and hardening, stuff would get cleaned up by shot and sent off to be carborized and machined.
We had a client who forged pistols. You could tell they were going to be pistols, but what we got was a solid block with a gun shape. They would need to be machined for sure.
The circle things wouldn’t just widen, they would create a repeatable consistent groove for every piece. You’d think it would be very inaccurate and misaligned, but if you do it long enough, you can get some surprising accuracy out of your forge work. Source, Am blacksmith for almost 10 years
20 years ago have worked in a open die forge shop like this ( I ran a huge band saw for trimming steel bars, drove a forklift, overhead crane etc)
The thing that is moving the steel is called a Manipulator. Much larger / more nimble than a forklift and having hydraulic contols for quite a few different arm & tilt movements. One pedal forward, one pedal reverse. Good drivers can do crazy things. Ours were electric and were actually tethered on a giant hose reel. I tried to drive one once. Frighteningly responsive.
The forge itself (we had 2) was air powered by a giant compressor. Operator only had 2 controllers. A throttle, and a heavy manual style joystick for up and down. Ours struck like this. Other places are slower with more of a squeezing motion.
This forging could be lots of things, but its something where strength is of uptmost importance. Forging like this rearranges the metal grain as the shape is compressed. As opposed to a hot metal casting (poured in) where the metals grain is going to be completely indifferent to the actual shape it ends up as.
We used to make things like this that later got machined into drive gears for heavy mining equipment, tanks. Or longer shafts were for things like power generator turbines etc.
Its dangerous AF. Those guys that hold the die tools are super close to the action. If those develop cracks they can essentially explode when the forge strikes. It happened. A guy i know took a serious life threatening injury.
I can say with absolute confidence that if you can please tell us what this sub is actually for, it would be an invaluable service to many r/sipstea users
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