Last week I went to Missouri to bring home a P5 Pulmax universal and it came with a plan for an alignment jig so tooling can be welded accurately since there is very little lateral movement in the holders. It is up and running on the RPC , but I expect I will need tooling so I cobbled together a pattern and machined it up today. This was actually the third attempt as I was getting shrink in the top rail so I added the risers and got it. This is how it is used. The assemblies are positioned in the slot and welded in the jig. I will add slots for hold downs to retain the square bar stock, and an adjustable platform in the gap to support the dies themselves. These are thumbnail shrinking dies that came with the machine.
I had no idea what a Pullmax was for so I went down the rabbit hole for a bit. Wow, it seems like it opens up a lot of possibilities! Pete
That is an impressive machine. I will admit to being completely ignorant of their existence let alone use. But this video provided an introduction. Hmmm, autobody fabrication in your future? Denis
I know nothing about these machines so I googled it and I came across a little bit of the original company literature that I found interesting.
Yes Pedee, they were mainly used as shears and nibblers. They became less used when tooling and plasma cutting allowed the tool to be brought to the raw sheet stock. The "5" rating is mm of shear capacity. I fiddled with some .100" material and it was a piece of cake. Here is a result of the shrinking die on .060" aluminum. It fattened to .067" on the edge and developed a concave shape that I dressed with the doming dies. It issn't clear in this shot, but the magic marker line was used as the limit of shrink, and with a large enough piece I could have made an aluminum bowl with a flat bottom. Melter, I'm making a four door Austin into a two door. It needs floor pan and fattened fenders. Thanks Rocco, I did get a complete owners manual with it, but it is good to know that information is available.
Very cool project, ESC. In some ways, with respect to metal curve shaping, it looks like the Pullmax does what an English wheel does only the Pullmax uses repeated small blows where as the wheel works like a rolling pin. The nibbling function looks great and louvering looks amazing. You gotta make louvers on the Austin somewhere! ;-) I think a row of smoothly varying length along each side of the hood would be just the ticket. And the Pullmax would do that easily. I'm envious. Denis
We put a rather thick sheet of mild through ours which was possibly on the limit but it didn't miss a beat. (I'm still a little deaf but hey)
Finished the jig. I don't need any tooling right now, but I'm ready. We shall see on the louvers. I do have plans for dies, but need to build some sort of support for something as large as the hood.
The next thing I thought I would need was the straight guide that acts as a fence when shearing or nibbling. I did get the cast iron guide, but no carrier. It fits over the lower dovetail and carries the straight guide in vertical dovetails. The height is adjusted with a vertical M16 leadscrew. So to symplify , I made an equilateral pattern yesterday that can mold both halves of the guide. I rammed them up yesterday and poured three this morning. I thought I might have shrink problems, so I added generous risers that served the purpose, but had a little slag leakage around my screen. Non structural and hidden so I may not even fix it. In my third mold I reduced to a single riser and a wider gate so it was easier to clean up. The castings penciled at 6 lbs plus risers and feed so I poured the first one and then placed the crucible back in the hot furnace and topped it off to pour out the other two. My Pyrometer was acting up so I eyeballed it, but was getting readings around 2500*. The surface finish on the last two was noticeably better, so they are the first build. Here faced off and matched together for machining. I marked the dovetail so I don't machine the wrong material if they are separated.
Nice! I see in two of your risers there is the curious little "pip" that bursts through the top of the riser as it collapses. I have seen that often in my iron risers and find it odd. No big deal----just a curiosity. Fun to see it in someone else's castings too. I see you use pretty robust gates as do I since it seems to make the resers work better and keeps that portion of the casting freezing last. I have only had my pyro malfunction a time or two. It really makes me sweat as I think visually judging temps under wildly differing lighting conditions is pretty challenging. Looks like a good project. Denis
I'll take a look at the risers, but my first thought is that it is the shrink. With two close together one has to freeze first so the other provides the metal for the casting. With the single riser it does the job and ends up with the stovepipe.
I cut the dovetails and mounted the straight guide. It still needs a dowel pin. the height adjustment screw and the levers to clamp to the rail.
ESC, you're building a pretty good metal shaping arsenal with your recent additions.........Pullmax, Mechhammer...... Best, Kelly
ShopDog , thanks to you and the english wheel, planishing hammer and on and on. I'm a pushover for tools. I even got the plans for a louver die with the Pullmax. There might be a place for holes in the Austin, but beads for sure and some flanges. Also on the pattern I had the first use of some of the wax fillet, so thanks for that too.
