The Old Timer of Royal Oak, Mich., was a regular contributor to H&P years before we ever even heard of the internet. But most of his advice is just as ueful — and interesting — today.
So rather than leave his wisdom printed on pages archived in our storage room, I pulled out issues from the late 1980s and early 1990s and have been reproducing relevant entries in this blog. Here is my 14th entry, which was originally published in the February 1989 issue:
Extra cylinders beef up assembly press
When some parts were redesigned with new materials and thicker sections, it looked like our pneumatic assembly press had become obsolete. Even at maximum available air pressure, the 16-in. bore cylinder couldn’t develop enough force to do the job. And the press configuration would not let us substitute a larger bore cylinder.
However, after a bit of careful carving on the press frame and reinforcing the platen, we could add some smaller cylinders on either side of the existing press cylinder. We hooked up a pair of 8-in. bore cylinders in tandem to give us the extra pressing force we needed. At the same time, we vented the main cylinder to convert it to single action. By using only the new 8-in. cylinders to return the press, we were able to perform the heavier assembly work without increasing our compressed air consumption.
