Machine used at Hurd lock company to make, uh, ... ???

This is an air/hydraulic press, where an electric switch lets compressed air in turn create hudraulic pressure, which in turn pushes a steel ram downward with about 5000 lbs. force. There is a very busy-looking mechanism added in the "bite" portion of the press, so it could make exactly what Hurd needed made. The "dies" I'll call them, top and bottom, are unpainted steel and are marked, in part, "snap shackle." A real snap shackle is used on sailboats and yachts, and I couldn't verify that Hurd ever made any, so maybe the term describes some part of a Hurd lock? Does "snap shackle" mean something in lockology?

The press itself, not including the table it is on, is about 2'x1'x4' and probably weighs 700 lbs.

 

I'm amazed at your vintage machinery!
The oldies work wonderful! Most of my woodworking machines are Olivers and from the late 30's to early 50's. Have them all powered with a 10 horse motor running thru capacitors to produce 3 phase power..

Oliver wood lathe was 1938 from the serial#

1950's Oliver 399 planer (18") and an unknown model (or year) jointer, plus a true mechanical Bridgeport that I added a digital readout to and a 1940's double 20" Oliver sander:


And an Oliver 20" band saw that I just love!! The Grizzly 18" band saw was just a 400$ purchase that I rebuilt the entire base with heavy gauge steel and put a Baldor 3 HP 220 V motor on it and added a ball bearing blade guide.

 

Thanks. Can anybuddy tell me what a Hurd snap shackle might be? I guess if they had made shot I'd be able to find out much more easily. 'Cause it would be known as the Hurd shot around the world.

 

Many snap shackles are associated with sailing!

• Ideal for Marine or Industrial Use

 

Thanks, am familiar with those, but I couldn't confirm that Hurd had ever made any. Here's a list of items they are known to have made:
"Hurd Lock and Manufacturing Company manufactures security products for the automotive and industrial applications. Its products include cam locks and cams, plate locks, bolt locks, display case locks, self adjusting latch locks, non-locking twist locks, tubular keyed locks, switch locks, garage door locks, push locks, latches, and mechanical fuel pumps. The company was founded in 1919 and is based in Greeneville, Tennessee. Hurd Lock and Manufacturing Company operates as a subsidiary of Avis Industrial Corporation.
603 Bohannon Avenue
Greeneville, TN 37744-1450
United States"

Frum da web

 

Interesting - A lock making company that at one time had to expand their product line to stay in business? Or may open up another venue to their products?

 

Hubby went to Boston today and has not returned, yet, or I'd ask him. Is the Lock Museum in Torrington CT still in business? They might know.

http://www.lockmuseumofamerica.org/home.aspx

 

A shackle as used in a padlock is pictured below......a "snap padlock" refers to the type of padlock that can be left open, and then snapped shut without a key. The shackle for such a padlock would be called a "snap-lock shackle," I suspect.

 

I'll be darn - I have the same "shut machine off" pedals for my DD20 Oliver disk sander. Same "safety" yellow color and everything.

 

Thanks, I have no reason to doubt that. Since my machine is basically a press, the busy rack-and-pinion affair added to it might just bend straight, round bars into lock shackles. When I get the compressed air connected, I'll fire it up and see what it does. I think the yellow button starts the "press" cycle since it is the only momentary-contact switch installed. The toggle switch (looks like light switch) turns the electric power on.

 

No oh.
~
Note... I have stood exactly where that happened.
I have chills of it now.

 

I'm thinking they should be bent hot and then quenched. Is there obvious signs if heating?

 

Haven't noticed anything that stands out, will look harder when near it again.But now u got me looking at da pichurs agin-

Looking at first one at that monkey-motion gizmo on the left, the press-powered rack is geared via pinion (behind that stuff) into CW rotation of the upper, larger of the two grooved rollers. The upper roller is fixed to the vertical flat piece with a big hexhead adjusting screw out of its top. So the upper master roller rotates CW and u can see the circular path the flat piece makes in the grease. The jaws are probably operated manually by the long lever. Where the jaws bite is shaped kinda like the cutout near the end of the lock shackle. So I guess the operator squeezes a blank in the jaws and when they are closed, starts the ram and thus the CW rotation of the flat thing to make the bend between the two grooved rollers, top one is master and lower one is slave, although if there's a lower gear I can't see, both wheels are powered. Top rotates CW and bottom, CCW. I think the blank would already have the D shaped cutout in the end because I don't see a proper mechanism here to form it. The part on which long lever is mounted may move laterally in its groove, but dunno. Will go play with it someday soon and see what really moves where, have not touched it yet.

 

I can see it is the sort of thing that any red-blooded teenage boy of any age might want to play with, maybe fire up to go kerchunka-kerchunka some, and if you have a torture chamber in your heavily fortified castle of horrors, it would be a grand finger and appendage crusher, but aside from these reasons, why have you got it and did you actually pay any money for it?

 

Um, yeah........sure.............I get it.................................jaws and CW....sure...............yep, that's it..........uh huh............master, slave, jaws.......okay..........................

 

"Feed me, Seymour. I'd like some fingers."

 

5000 lbs is a very light press. I remember using a press of that capacity to crimp together extruded aluminum picture frames - really light weight frames. Whatever your press was producing, it wasn't anything of weight or substance.

 

I think presses like this (without the added gearing etc) were/are typically used to assemble parts where one part was pressed into or onto another. They are the next step up from the manual arbor press, which would wear out an assembly-line worker very quickly. The Denison company is one of the most prominent players in similar presses but most of theirs are straight electrohydraulic, and come in any capacity up to at least 300T. All the better to crush you with, my deah!

 

NOW I want one..........................