Chip briquetter

[forhire]

Yikes stripes that's a whole lot of glowing steel. Your electric furnace seems to be a perfect fit size-wise for it.

When you were talking heat treat I figured you were talking about subbing it out. Totally forgot you were setup for it. Nice work and I'm looking forward to seeing how it works out. Hope you get some sleep too!

Any longer and I would have had to send it out. I had to remove one of the pith blocks. An inch on the bottom and a few on the top. Not much extra.

Sleep is overrated.

Let it cool and a light sand blast your good to go

I over slept... I set the alarm for PM. It normalized for a couple hours more than planned. My sand blaster must be underrate. It didn't touch this stuff. It did clean up some of the scale on the threads and anything loose... but not like cleaning up mild for sure.

Oh yeh, what a guy . The lil woman wants to go out for supper and you swing by the local get 'n go to see what they have under the lamp .. I spose the drive through at Micky D's is a real special event eh??

I suggested the Mexican restaurant but she wanted chicken from the quicki-mart. Drive thru is a 50 mile drive... so yeah... a special event.

My book from Cincinnati Tool Steel says that when air quenched, expect H13 to expand 0.001 in/in of cross section. A little late, but now you know what to expect!

I had planned for some growth on the threads. The holes for the pin wrench were tight and took some clean up but I think that was scale. I did end up with a lot more scale on the thread than I expected. Interestingly the 7/16-20 thread I hung the part from was perfect. Next time I think I'll turn something to screw over the threads. None of the other dimensions are critical as you don't want the punch to be too tight.

I couldn't get the part to thread into the cylinder, even after sand blasting so I tried cleaning the threads with some emery cloth... that appeared to work be was way too slow. So I put it back on the lathe, picked up the thread and cleaned them up. Didn't cut any metal, just cleared the scale. Screwed right in after chasing the threads. After I checked the threads I put it back in the furnace to the final normalization.

[forhire]

I decided I would pickle the part in sulfuric acid to remove the scale. I think I should have left it well enough alone. The solution was dilute so I left it over night. Scale came off fine. It looks ok... but now the thread isn't as tight as it was. Still usable but not what I was hoping for. Turned out the scale layer was pretty thick.

Pickling setup was simply a length of abs pipe with a flat cap glued on the bottom. After the pickle I lowered it into a solution of soda ash to neutralize it.

I'm sure I did it totally wrong so fire away. I know very little on this type of stuff.

[JeffKiper]

A few drops of BLUE loctite. Will be more then enough to secure that. I am not a huge fan of red loctite on chromed parts. If you are not careful heating the part then off comes the nice chrome.
My rule of thumb if chrome changes color it's to late. I got to play years ago with chrome parts. Heat this until it turns straw color. Heat this until it is blue. Several time the straw turned blue more times then I would like to admit. Even a small propane hand held torch will blue chrome and make it lift.

[forhire]

The cylinder has finally been re-assembled. I started by putting the piston on the rod with some purple Loctite 545 sealant/locker and tightened it on as hard as I could with the large spanner, followed by several smart blows with the 2 lb sledge to "torque" it down. I then punched the threads to prevent it from coming loose. It should hold. I then re-installed the four cast iron rings using the shim method I used to remove them in reverse. I then installed the new lower o-ring and then lowered the rod and piston into the cylinder. I used a hose clamp to compress one ring at a time until I had all four inside the cylinder. Worked perfectly. I then installed the back plate and tightened everything by hand. I then raise the cylinder and it appears to move very smoothly.

Tomorrow I'll torque it down with the multiplier.

[JeffKiper]

Now comes the fun stuff. How are you going to eject the puck once done? I think we covered it in 1 of the 9 pages but I have slept since then.
The offer still stands for the Automation help.

[forhire]

Now comes the fun stuff. How are you going to eject the puck once done? I think we covered it in 1 of the 9 pages but I have slept since then.
The offer still stands for the Automation help.

The cylinder will extend and compress the puck, then retract a little allowing the bottom plate to retract, then the cylinder will extend to full extension allowing the puck to drop out. Check the video in post #36.
http://weldingweb.com/vbb/showthread.php...71#post4631071

Today I torqued it down with the torque multiplier to 1200 lbs. After a few failed attempts I managed to make a giant wrench to hold the cylinder while being tightened. Not perfect but it worked. Next time I'll drill a sheet of 1" plate and bolt it down to that. I almost drilled anchors in the concrete! I didn't realize how much force is involved. The torque multiplier worked perfectly.

I then spent the rest of the day moving junk around so I could get the hydraulic unit and the cylinder hooked up and tested. Worked perfectly. It's no speed demon. I was able to test it to 1000 psi. No leaks.

Now I need to start building the base... I'm where I wanted to be a year ago...

[forhire]

Here's the proof of life.

[teachagmech]

Easy there, Sailor.. That's a lot of strain on that cylinder for a preliminary test.


Sent from my dumb smartphone

[el bob]

It lives! Re-read the thread from the beginning. Good luck and I like the square tube floor wrench.

[JeffKiper]

It's been a long time.

[Boostinjdm]

Yeah. This thing done yet?

[forhire]

It's been a long time.

Yeah. This thing done yet?

I've been busy. I really need to get on and finish it. My scrap bins are full... and scrap prices are too low to sell.

[Denis G]

I read your thread with interest and it seems that you prefer to come up with your own engineering solution to this problem. Once you finish your compactor, you'll have the hurdle of increasing cycle times and possibly automating the machine.
Don't know if you've looked at used machinery. It wasn't mentioned, and the machines may be beyond your budget, anyways. But here's a source for used machines that would fit the application:
http://www.detroitprocessmachinery.c...rre_Press.html

[forhire]

Dennis, thanks for the link... I hadn't thought about using a powered metal press. Food for thought.

The bar had been sitting here for months. I finally turned down and threaded 6 inches on one end of the bars today. Not sure why I didn't get it done earlier... it didn't take long. Now I need to figure out what I'm going to do for the base so I can finish the other end. I need to scrounge up some heavy plate for the base.

[forhire]

I'm still working on the business end of the briquetter, namely the compression plate and the ejection plate. I drew this with 2" plates but I'd really prefer to use 3.5" like the cylinder uses... I just don't know if I can handle the price. I also need to sort how this press will remain vertical, It's very top heavy. I may bolt it to the floor. I really need to find a good source of some heavy plate remnants. Anyone know where I can get some 3" to 4" plate cheap? Ugly and rusty doesn't matter to me.

I rendered the basic design so far. I haven't drawn the hopper/feed mechanism but I have a small auger that should work well. Of course I could vibe it also. My chips are uniform in size as I classify them when they come off the conveyor. One image is with the cylinder retracted and the other is extended in puck push through. I'm thinking I should get an 8:1 compression and I'm shooting for a puck that is about an inch or so thick.

I'm open to ideas... I'm still in the design phase. Notice the support rods are likely longer than required. I ordered 48" knowing that I'd likely cut them down a few inches.

[farmshop]

Could you just stack multiple thinner plates and weld them together? Or Will this not be strong enough

[forhire]

Could you just stack multiple thinner plates and weld them together? Or Will this not be strong enough

I have some 1" plate on hand... and I could make it out of that. I think it might be worth my time to walk some scrap yards before I cut up the new stock. Maybe I should do some load calculations. Anyone can build a bridge but it takes an engineer to design it with the least amount of steel.

[farmshop]

Yeah but the old timers would build it 3x heavier than a engineer would and it would last forever. In Tue time spent looking for material it could be built and making you money or else if your like me you'll get fed up with overflowing scrap bins and sell it and the price difference would pay for the material. Good luck

[JeffKiper]

OK so after 4 years did you get it to work? I saw a unit today that reminded me of this thread.

[forhire]

OK so after 4 years did you get it to work? I saw a unit today that reminded me of this thread.

I've been focused on other stuff. I ended up using the 5 hp power unit for a press at the school. The rods have been threaded and sitting on a pallet for a LONG time. I picked up a a 10 hp power unit a few month ago. I'm hoping to get something done over summer break. The roof leaked over the winter and I'm sorting that first.