Post by kwrangln on Apr 6, 2006 17:18:26 GMT -5
Louvers, yea, like the hotrod guys put in their hoods, but bigger and badder.
A bit of history on the project. I work on Fort Dix here in Jersey, still a large army base, one of the major inprocessing centers for the guys going to the sandbox. Back in the late 30's early 40's, it was even bigger. Big enough in fact to have its own rail system. A narrow guage rail road for transporting troops and equipment around the base and the surrounding ranges. Fast forward 60-70 years. The base museum found one of the narrow guage engines languishing in an old storage building on base. Since the museum's budget isn't all that great its falling on volenteer work to get the ole engine in a presentable condition for a static display outside the museum. Thats where I come in. My unit is doing the metal work and painting. Metal work falls squarely on my shoulders.
Here's what we have to work with, in primer.
Biggest part of the metal work for the project (besides fixing rust holes, cracks in every joint on the cab, etc) is the engine covers, or the lack therof. Pictures of the engine from back in the day show the engine covers which had 15 louvers on each side, to vent the engine heat. How the heck do ya make louvers? I didnt have a clue, no one else did either. The little ones ya see on hotrods aint gonna cut it, the louvers need to be 10" long and protrude 1/2" from the base sheet.
So I got to makin sparks to see what I could come up with. I give you...(insert drumroll)... the louver die.
Excuse the rough appearance, while my shop is completely stocked for welding and cutting, we have no machine tools, so I had to make do. Didn't put alot of time into finnish since I had no idea if it was going to even work, figured I'd scab something together to test the idea first, then make a real version. Wouldn't ya know it, the scabed together model worked so well I just ran with it.
So, how the heck do ya use such a POS to make a louver? Glad you asked.
Layout where the openings to the louvers have to go...
Cutoff wheel in a 4" grinder along the openings.
Then its off to the 20 ton press. Didn't take much effort at all, maybe a ton or so, hardest part was making sure everything was lined up 30 times. With the die posed for the pic you can see the verticle plate is to keep the bending force from just twisting the piece between openings. The verticle plate forces the sheet to follow the contour of the die so the shape turns out right. Had no idea it would be needed till I did one test shot, threw it on there and it was money.
The finnished product.
And that ladies and gentlmen is doublewide engineering at its finest. ;D
A bit of history on the project. I work on Fort Dix here in Jersey, still a large army base, one of the major inprocessing centers for the guys going to the sandbox. Back in the late 30's early 40's, it was even bigger. Big enough in fact to have its own rail system. A narrow guage rail road for transporting troops and equipment around the base and the surrounding ranges. Fast forward 60-70 years. The base museum found one of the narrow guage engines languishing in an old storage building on base. Since the museum's budget isn't all that great its falling on volenteer work to get the ole engine in a presentable condition for a static display outside the museum. Thats where I come in. My unit is doing the metal work and painting. Metal work falls squarely on my shoulders.
Here's what we have to work with, in primer.
Biggest part of the metal work for the project (besides fixing rust holes, cracks in every joint on the cab, etc) is the engine covers, or the lack therof. Pictures of the engine from back in the day show the engine covers which had 15 louvers on each side, to vent the engine heat. How the heck do ya make louvers? I didnt have a clue, no one else did either. The little ones ya see on hotrods aint gonna cut it, the louvers need to be 10" long and protrude 1/2" from the base sheet.
So I got to makin sparks to see what I could come up with. I give you...(insert drumroll)... the louver die.
Excuse the rough appearance, while my shop is completely stocked for welding and cutting, we have no machine tools, so I had to make do. Didn't put alot of time into finnish since I had no idea if it was going to even work, figured I'd scab something together to test the idea first, then make a real version. Wouldn't ya know it, the scabed together model worked so well I just ran with it.
So, how the heck do ya use such a POS to make a louver? Glad you asked.
Layout where the openings to the louvers have to go...
Cutoff wheel in a 4" grinder along the openings.
Then its off to the 20 ton press. Didn't take much effort at all, maybe a ton or so, hardest part was making sure everything was lined up 30 times. With the die posed for the pic you can see the verticle plate is to keep the bending force from just twisting the piece between openings. The verticle plate forces the sheet to follow the contour of the die so the shape turns out right. Had no idea it would be needed till I did one test shot, threw it on there and it was money.
The finnished product.
And that ladies and gentlmen is doublewide engineering at its finest. ;D
