The Tinbasher » Ask-a-Basher

I Really Wanna See Those (Slow Motion) Fingers Stop a Saw Blade

Paul Woodhouse — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 01:47:20 +0000

There’s enough frightening stuff goes on in your average sheet metal shop – none more so than Jasper arriving on a Monday morning having spent the weekend watching Braveheart on a loop coddling a bottle of Lidl’s finest cooking sherry.

Talk about pudgy round the gills and waxing not too lyrical. He’s simply a sequence of Scottish grunts and groans.

The last thing you’d want to do with him he engage in a conversation, let alone touching any kind of sharp instrument or operating machinery.

Still, it’s not like most of us aren’t a bit like that of a Monday morning.

But, fear not people. Those of you (and me), like Jasper, reaping the health and safety whirlwind due to early morning mental blurring need fear no more when faced with sharp blades doing anything over 1,000 RPM.

There’s some clever fella devised a circular saw locking system thriggered by by conduction – and with water being a conductor, that means your pinkies.

The following video is most impressive as they try and attack the blade with a limp hot dog and it shutting down without causing even the slightest of Stevie Nicks.

But, it gets darn close and then some – as in a 1,000th of an inch – then kachunk-a-blammo; the automatic locking system kicks in and halts the blade dead in its tracks.

Hot dog wieners are all well and good, but you need someone with real sausage fingers to really put it through its paces. So, the inventor steps up and volunteers his digits for the camera – one of those super duper slow-mo affairs that takes nearly as long to set up as it does to display the slowed down version of the film.

It takes a while as the crew wants to show exactly how close the guy gets with his finger and the forces / tensions on the blade as it abruptly stops. Either that, or they manage to film the first ever slow motion finger slice with Tarinto-esque blood spurts arcing across the shot that’s guaranteed to go viral.

But, I won’t tell you anymore. You can just watch it yourself:

Firemen Use Angle Grinder to Free Man’s Pipe from Steel Pipe

Paul Woodhouse — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 00:15:59 +0000

We all know that first week back after Christmas and New Year can be a lonely and desperate time. Just ask Jasper. Many’s the time he can be seen skulking in the steel racks for hours on end when it’s quiet with nary a peep out of him.

I sincerely hope he’s not up to what this geezer in a Southampton fabrication shop has been up to:

A MAN who got his genitalia stuck in a steel pipe had to be cut free by eight firefighters using an industrial grinder. The heavy duty cutting gear had to be used to remove the three-inch long hollow pipe after medics were unable to release it. The painstaking operation, which involved eight firefighters, took around an hour.

The drama began after the man took himself to the accident and emergency department of Southampton General Hospital.

Restricted blood flow had left the man in a state of arousal, and unable to remove the pipe.

Staff there were so concerned that they phoned the emergency services and a crew from Redbridge Fire Station were initially dispatched. But they had to bring in backup from St Mary’s station which has a fire truck equipped with specialist cutting gear. A disc gutter cutter, with a four-and-a-half-inch blade, was used to slice open the stainless steel pipe.

The man, in his 30s, offered no explanation for his predicament but was said to be “quite concerned and anxious”. He had been given an anaesthetic to prepare for the procedure.

St Mary’s crew manager Adrian Johnson said: “It was a very delicate operation. We did not want anything heating up.

The person who did it deserves a commendation for his nerve and steady hand.”

Meanwhile, watch manager Greg Garrett from Redbridge station added: “I’ve only come across this type of thing three or four times in my 17 years as a firefighter. It’s not a daily occurrence.”

The man’s private parts were left bruised and swollen.

I’m generally fairly reluctant to post entire articles seeming it goes against Rupert Murdoch’s grain, but I really didn’t know which bits to cut out (as the fireman said to the bloke with his knob stuck in a steel tube). I mean, this is why you’d love to be a local journalist. Maybe a fireman as well, but not the guy doing the angle grinding or holding the pipe steady.

However, feel free to go and enjoy yourselves in the comments to the article.

Press Brake Ron

Paul Woodhouse — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 23:21:25 +0000

Here’s a message left by a certain fella called Ron looking for help with the following:

Nice information!
In the past I have built my own hydraulic press brake 60 Ton X 4 ft wide. I utilized dual ram’s salvaged from a catipiller, I utilized hydraulic dual selonoid valves to allow balance and stop control, not fancy but served the purpose up to 1/2″ plate and more.

I am looking for drawings of a similar press but with a professional touch. Are there professional drawings available?
The previous home built press handled only 4 Ft. width, my intentions are to build a six or eight foot press brake this time around! Is their any one out there that can help me with drawings of such?
I will share pictures if any one is interested!
Thank you for any help I receive from other like minded individuals!

You can email Ron at snyder[@]wispnet[dot]net – don’t forget to remove the brackets and change the dor to an actual dot as in period/full stop .

It appears as though he’s looking for something a bit more substantial than the last press brake project I posted.

Antique Sheetmetal Fabrication Books?

Paul Woodhouse — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 22:42:38 +0000

Following on from the same lady who gave us the antique sheet metal tools, we also have the list of sheetmetal fabrication books dating from as early as 1907.

Here’s the listing of the books as it was provided to me in the email:

Antique books

1. sheet metal

a) Sheet Metal Work; Neubecker; approx 1912; fair cond.; sections include: tools and methods of obtaining patters, workshop problems, skylights, roofing, cornice work, index. 263pgs

b) [Practical] Exhaust and Blow Piping, a treatise on the planning and installing of fan-piping in all its branches; W. H. Hayes; 3rd ed. 1922 [copyright 1918]; The Sheet Metal Publication Company, New York; excellent cond.; chapters include: connecting dust separator and feeder, constructing the feeder nozzle and switch, designs for hoods and sweepers…; 200pgs

c) Sales catalogue for roofers and sheet metal workers; LD Berger, merchant and manufacturer, tinners’ and roofers’ supplies, 59 2nd st. Philadelphia; 1914; poor to fair cond; includes pictures, descriptions, and pricing for a wide variety of tools and sheet metal products, cornices; 255pgs

d) Warm Air Heating and Winter Air Conditioning; The Lennox Furnace Company; 1948; good to excellent cond.; chapters: different types of heating systems describedk designing a gravity warm air heating system, industrial and commercial wramair installations; good to excellent cond; 285pgs

e) Practical Sheet Metal Work and Demonstrated Patterns; Volume III – skylights; a comprehensive treatise in several volumes on shop and outside practice and pattern drafting; 1911; good cond; David Williams Company, New York; chapters: Making flat skylights; a novel method of building a double pitch skylight with gable ends; pattern for a valley bar, a turret skylight, details of a lifting sash…; 114pgs

f) Practical Sheet Metal Work and Demonstrated Patterns; Volume V – Cornice Patterns; a comprehensive treatise in several volumes on shop and outside practice and pattern drafting; 1911; good cond.; David Williams Company, New York; Chapters: Pattern for a Head to fill the end of a cornice cut off obliquely, pattern for mullion intersecting gable mold; pediment chart, pattern for a miter a different angles, pattern for bottom on bay window…; 112pgs.

g) The New Metal Worker Pattern Book, a treatise on the principles and practice of pattern curring as applied to sheet metal work; Geo W. Kittredge, David Williams Co. New York; 1907 [copyright 1896]; fair to poor condition; contents: terms and definintions, drawing instruments and materials, linear drawing, geometrical problems, principles of pattern cutting, pattern problems; 421pgs.

h) Standard Practice in Sheet Metal Work; National Association Sheet Metal Contractors, a reference book compiled for the use of architects, engineers, sheet metal contractors, installers of warm aair heating systems, and vocational training schools; by the trade development committee of the national association of sheet metal contractors of the U.S.; 1929; very good condition; Sections: roofing, gutters, skylights and ventilators, metal cornices, metal ceilings, blow pipe and exhaust systems…; 767pgs.

I don’t have any pictures of these, but I suppose some could be arranged if need be. I’d appreciate anybody who has any knowledge or interest in these to get in touch and I’ll pass your information on.

Antique Sheet Metal Tools?

Paul Woodhouse — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 03:29:26 +0000

Three or so weeks ago I was contacted by a lady who’d inherited her grandfather’s entire set of sheet metal tools and has had them in her garage since he passed away 30 years ago. She’s not only wondering what’s what, but would also like to determine how much, if anything, they’re worth. She could very well be prepared to donate all or part of the collection to a museum if somebody was interested.

I’ve uploaded all the tool pictures to a flickr account and there’s 70 pictures (by my bad mathematic reckoning) of all manner of old school sheet metal tools including snips, pliers, calipers, saws, drills, tapes, set squares and a host of other bits and bobs – in fact, you can check the entire sheet metal tool collection out here.

If anybody knows exactly which certain tools are which and/or what they may be worth, please feel free to leave a comment under any of the corresponding photos.

Now I’m not on any kind of cut and nor are we necessarily trying to sell them off. We’d just like to get as much information on the collection as possible.

I also have the lady’s email address for anybody who’d like to get in touch with her personally.

Thanks.

RoboGames: Sponsor a Robot.

Paul Woodhouse — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 01:59:13 +0000

I got an email yesterday from a young upstart after a spot of sponsorship for himself and his mates to help them build a middleweight combat robot for RoboGames.

I presume he’s not meaning one of these fellas.

As his email goes:

Hello, my name is Trent Brown. I’m a 15 year old Homeschool student. I’m seeking a sponsorship, on behalf of my robot team consisting of 3 additional teammates, to assist toward competing in the 2008 RoboGames. RoboGames (combat event) is a 3 day worldwide robot competition where each team will design and build a robot that has weapon systems, armor, and mobile abilities, with the intention of defeating its opponents (other teams). By competing, the students on our team will receive high school credit, along with experience in engineering, building, and competition.

Should your company decide to sponsor our team, we will place your company logos on our robot and toolboxes, as well we will print your company logo on our T-shirts. We WILL also use other ways to make known that we were sponsored by your company. Our middleweight robot is going to cost around $8,000-$10,000 to build and any amount of money donated will be greatly appreciated.

Now he’s given me permission to post something about this, but I’ll only give out the team email address – ~~teamdeltarobotics@gmail.com~~ teamannihilare@gmail.com – where you can get in touch if you’d like to help out. You can get in touch yourself for a mail address.

I suppose if we could get enough tinbashing types to chip in then it wouldn’t cost a bundle. In fact, as I write this I’m becoming more inclined to drop a bit of hard-earned their way. I might even set them up a blog so we can help them online and keep track of their progress.

Anybody game? I’ll do it if you’ll do it………

No related posts.

Sculpture Classes Anyone?

Paul Woodhouse — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 03:44:50 +0000

Here’s an email I received asking for a bit of help and have been given permission to replicate it on here to see if anybody has any idea.

I have always been interested in metal sculpture and I am having a really tough time finding any education in this area. I would appreciate any advice you can give me on where to look and what classes to take. I am interested in all metals especially copper and fabduct metals (sheetmetal?) since my husband does heating & air, we have tons of scraps and I would love to make somethings out of it. I am also curious how to learn to paint metal to look antique or rusted. Where do I find out what to use to coat the metal before/after and how to treat it. Thank you for your expertise!
Jocelyn

You can contact Jocelyn directly at jocelyn3@gmail.com but I also think it’d be quite nice if anybody answered her questions in the comments in case anybody has has the same problem at some point in the future.

I think we might be talking somewhere round Minnesota, but me being me, I forgot to ask exactly where.

Ask a Basher #4 – What is a true 45 degree elbow?

Paul Woodhouse — Tue, 15 May 2007 13:36:41 +0000

Once in a while, the transatlantic language drift grates along its respective fault lines and induces a bit of a cross-cultural brain fart. For example, this weekend somebody suggested a game of Clue, which I assumed was the same as Cluedo. It is. Not only that, but for the sake of bragging rights, we invented it as Cluedo in 1948.

With that in mind, I’m wondering if we have a case of linguistic gymnastics going on with the following question somebody asked in the comments:

What is a true 45 degree elbow?

I’ve had a spell at a place selling industrial pipe fittings and the plastic variety and I don’t recall anybody asking for or referring to ‘true elbows’. The only distinction I remember is weld or threaded elbows(M/M,M/F,F/F).

So, are true elbows an American phenomenon, or does it refer to the angle?

Or, am I just a bit thick?

Ask The (Extended) Family

Paul Woodhouse — Thu, 10 May 2007 16:19:48 +0000

Do you remember Ask The Family?

I mean the 70′s version with Robert Robertson sporting a Donald Trumpian comb-over/weave but without the necessary product.

Robert Robertson

Do you remember the picture round where an ordinary everyday object would be photographed in extremely tight close-up and they’d zoom out until somebody realised it was a potato peeler?

Well it seems my own family at Butler Sheetmetal are playing the same game with me regarding this particular photo:

On first inspection I thought it might have been a cladding for a nuclear reactor that had got stuck as they were trying to carry it out of the workshop. I was thinking the red thing was our sliding front door and that the photo had been taken after somebody had fallen flat on their arse. And then I wondered if the red thing was the floor and the grey thing was a new front door. The only problem with that being that there was never a lip leading out of the workshop before and there’s no red paint on the floor since I originally painted it and it was back to the original concrete within two weeks.

My only educated guess is that it’s another workshop or factory somewhere.

The more I look at it the less of a clue I have as to what or where it is to the point whereby I’ve now reached that state of clueless singularity: a point of infinite density.

So, the person who comes closest to what it is wins something nifty.

Fingers on shonky buzzers people.

Ask a Basher #2

Paul Woodhouse — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 19:16:17 +0000

Now if Danny can answer this one like he did the last one then he officially becomes my hero. Damn, if anybody can answer this one they’ll become my hero.

Are you able please to give me the following information:-
1)What were the names of the main types of machinery which would have been used in a tin box manufacturing company in London during the 1890s?
2) Would such machinery have been powered by electricity?
3)Which of such machines had the highest accident rate?

Step aside Google Answers (oh, you already have done!)