Bump bending

[JBFab]

Originally Posted by camdigger

I am curious how thick the original cones were if they are wearing through from the flowing grain.

Having said that, there was a market for worn boards from wooden grain spouts from the old wooden grain elevators. The grain would differentially wear away the growth rings and create some very interesting patterns.

Are these literally cyclone style separators? If so, I wonder what is being cut from what? Ie grain from chaff or hulls, or dirt and small stones from grain?

Grain is surprisingly abrasive. Also, in seed plants especially clean-out is very important to prevent mixing of different batches. I used to work for a company that specialized in this work. I remember soybeans were some of the most abrasive seeds we worked with, and being round you would expect the minimum angle to be lower for successful clean out, but it was actually higher than corn! We would not allow any surface under 45° for beans. This also helped with longevity of the parts. Another thing you can try is putting 1/8" rubber sheet on the inside of transitions that seem to wear prematurely. You do need to do an impeccable job of prep - blasting is best from what I remember, and don't cheap out on the adhesive. Don't bother with mechanical fasteners on the edges (tried that, wore off in no time).

[camdigger]

I guess I shouldn't be surprised at the wear from grain. The separation cylinder bars in a combine thresher are hardened steel and do wear out over a decade or so. This on a machine that runs a few hundred hours a year.

[Ironman]

This is for Cutter, the rest of you don't look
Pictures of the cones in various stages of assembly.

I started with the knife top die and was not having any fun because the bottom die was too short. I switched to a round piece of stock that I made attachment to the top die, and used the long wide bottom die. When that worked, I hunted down a ragged flame cut bit of 1/2" and clamped it to the mill table and ripped it straight and welded it to the rod.

It took way too long and I'll charge about 1/2 the time I spent, chalk the rest down to learning.

[Ironman]

At this time of year the frigging flies come back from holidays and want to go to welding school.

They bounce off my head and helmet on their way to the molten pool, and then when they get close enough to incorporate themselves into the weld, it blows up and spits everywhere. I have to stop and grind out the mess, kill some more of them and weld another two inches before another kamikaze pilot dives in.

I have no idea why they are so fascinated by what I'm doing.


One more question.
I'm tempted to weld on the inside of the cone. In most of the long welds to join the two clamshells together, I have left enough gap to have full penetration and it looks like a flat bead on the inside. On some spots the gap closed up from the heat and it is not through. If I weld this section, about 14 inches, I'm wondering if this will disrupt the flow and cause increased wear. I feel like smoothing off the outside where I have had to grind flies out of the bead.

[digr]

Nice cones I have never seen anything like those flies you have there

[terry lingle]

I suspect that they are Warburg Garlic flies

[Ironman]

Originally Posted by digr

Nice cones I have never seen anything like those flies you have there

It's the time of year. During the summer they go off and eat cow shit and vomit it up for a desert. Now the writing is on the walls and they know they better find a crack to hibernate in. They hang around the doors waiting and you can feel them bounce off your head as they beat you through the door. Mama is running around with a fly swatter now.

Back when I was driving truck, I had to go to Witby, Onterrible. I had a single cattle face fly in the cab. I had a plan to get rid of him, just leave the window open. Nope. Then the plan was to let him crawl around on my face and walk out of the truck to fuel. Closed the door and swatted the bastard away. After fueling, checking lights, clean the windshield, etc, I opened the truck door...yup, he beat me into the cab. The fucker circled around watching for 1/2 hour and waited for me to get in. Every night I woke up with that thing crawling on my eyelids.
Finally got to a truck stop that had mosquito coils and lit 4 of them in the cab and left for supper. The smoke was so thick you could not see the seats.
That was the end of the face fly.

They are smarter than they look, but they'll never make it as a weldor.

[Whitetrash]

Those came out Damn nice Gerry. Flies, seriously this isn't NASA shit. I'm willing to bet they will be pleased as punch with those and they are going to throw a bunch more work on your plate. Folk that can get shit done are in demand

[Ironman]

Originally Posted by Whitetrash

Those came out Damn nice Gerry. Flies, seriously this isn't NASA shit. I'm willing to bet they will be pleased as punch with those and they are going to throw a bunch more work on your plate. Folk that can get shit done are in demand

Thanks, but that took me 6 hours. Lots of oops, better unbend that a bit... I can only hope if I do it again that I don't forget everything I learnt.

[milomilo]

Originally Posted by Ironman

Thanks, but that took me 6 hours. Lots of oops, better unbend that a bit... I can only hope if I do it again that I don't forget everything I learnt.

Get 3 used hydraulic rams and build your self a slip roller.