Demonstrating the relationships of all the working parts of a metal shaper. The rotating mechanism (driven by a small pinion gear) and arm moving left and right is a bull gear and adjustable Scotch yoke and drives the top most sliding part, the ram, head, clapper, and cutter.
The final sequence demonstrates the eccentric follower and ratchet that provides for the critically timed cross-feed of the table the metal block and vise are on. In this scene the imaginative viewer can, while listening to the music, envision in the reciprocating movement of iron a mare and colt at full gallop, stride for stride, into a brisk spring dawn, dashing forth purely for the joy of it - and because they can.
The cutter is on the head of the ram on a mechanism called a clapper (so named for the clapping sound it makes on the return stroke), and is shaving light finishing cuts from a block of cold rolled steel and in the process producing small tightly curled swarf. The machine is capable of removing very thick cuts such that you can hear the metal chips fall from the cutter with a distinct "tink" sound.
A 1 horsepower motor through reduction pulleys and belts drives the ram at 36 strokes per minute, keeping perfect time to the background music.
The music is the beautiful a cappella voice of Hawaiian vocalist Leokane Pryor of Hana, Maui - it really is just one person singing all the voices. His Maunahele CD is out of print and difficult to find but well worth it. Find more Hawaiian music at http://Mele.com/. Malama pono!
The video was captured with a Sony DSC-H2 camera at 640x480, 25 fps, and the mixing was done on an Apple MacBook Pro laptop with Apple's iLife toolkit: iMovie and iTunes.
Mahalo nui for viewing this presentation. Aloha ka kou, a hui ho!
Tags: metal shaper machinist machinery industrial american manufacturing
