What is this contraption?

[Smouser]

I acquired a contraption that looks like a metal shear but it did not come with blades.
Looking at it more closely, I am not convinced it is a shear.

It is heavy-duty and well-built. The steel sections are about 33mm thick.

It has a pneumatic cylinder with a 'gear rack' attached to it which drives a gear which in turn operates a cam which pushes the rear end of the 'arm' up.

The gantry came in handy lifting it off the trailer.

I decided to weigh it. My 150kg scale started screaming at me and the reading 'pegged' at 182kg. I quickly lowered it again to hopefully prevent damage to the scale.

At the front of the ram/arm there is a hole and also two plates which look like dovetails.

These bits were also with the machine/tool.

Finally, it looks like there is a big part missing that was bolted onto the base plate.

Currently, it is just a big piece of scrap metal.
What is it? What can I do with it?

 

[jenki]

Shear for bar stock??

 

[Arc Tourist]

I acquired a contraption that looks like a metal shear but it did not come with blades.
Looking at it more closely, I am not convinced it is a shear. ................................

Currently, it is just a big piece of scrap metal.
What is it? What can I do with it?

Bend tacos ?

 

[MoreWellie]

How does the arm come back down again? does the gear get to a point where there are no teeth on the slide so the arm drops or is it a controlled descent by venting the air?

The hole and two dovetail plate look like a means of sliding in a piece of tooling with the separate two hole plate fixing to the tooling to control the position

 

[MetalMonkey]

Probably some sort of specific production line piece of equipment.
All I can tell you, is there are another three out there at least

 

[Dev]

Maybe a press brake type bender? Dies go in the dovetail slot with matching base and there’s a long handle for leverage.


Edit: Oh there’s a shaft coupling on the pinion, no handle then.

 

[Erie Fred]

The rack gear and the round profile die makes it look like a pipe bender.....sort of.

 

[Smouser]

How does the arm come back down again? does the gear get to a point where there are no teeth on the slide so the arm drops or is it a controlled descent by venting the air?

I am not sure.

It did come with this foot-operated lever.
It was disconnected

There are 4 air 'connection' points on the foot pedal.

Two must go to the cylinder, one must be an air input, what is the other one for then?

Unfortunately, I don't read pneumatic
So I don't even know which one is the input is for air.

A closer look at the cam from the rear.

The arm lifted slightly.

 

[bricol]

Air into port one via that tee poking up - supplies the valve for motive power, and air to the valve controlling the pilot signal - connect the cylinder lines to the other two open ports (the tee to the foot valve, one on the other valve body) - connected one way, it will drive the cylinder forward on pedal press, bring it back when you let go - connected the other, it will do the opposite.

As to what it's actually for . . . no idea.

 

[DAPPH]

A die punch machine that sees the die pressed down as the rocker tips forward , can be fitted with different dies & anvils . ? But what for .. punching holes & fitting brass eyelets in thick folded over sewn up canvas or hospital ward bed curtains sort of thing . Or as a brain wave it's a simple press or punch pneumatically operated

 

[Ton-up]

Production crimper for big cables.

 

[Smouser]

A die punch machine that sees the die pressed down as the rocker tips forward , can be fitted with different dies & anvils . ? But what for .. punching holes & fitting brass eyelets in thick folded over sewn up canvas or hospital ward bed curtains sort of thing . Or as a brain wave it's a simple press or punch pneumatically operated

Thanks.

I should have said, it came from BVI (https://www.bvimedical.com/).

I think they used to make medical equipment.

It being a die punch machine seem to be the most likely.

 

[DAPPH]

Ahhhh. a capping machine for phials of contact lenses in saline solutions or pushing ground lenses into spec frames perhaps

 

[julianthegypsy]

Ahhhh. a capping machine for phials of contact lenses in saline solutions or pushing ground lenses into spec frames perhaps

A bit heavy duty surely? And slow?

 

[cheb]

Any magnets in it?

 

[Smouser]

Any magnets in it?

No magnets!

 

[Nomad]

It's heavily engineered so won't be for lightweight work, it will be slow and labour intensive which rules out anything that could easily be mass produced.
The base looks ideal to hold a former or a vice
Looking at the company website I don't see anything obvious - eyelets for heavy screens sounded ok but that's not their type of work.

Edit: a long time ago I worked on a production line (old school - it still has the shaft in the ceiling with pulleys so you could run a belt to each machine!), it was a very manual job - place the raw item on the machine - stamp on the foot pedal - remove the item and put the item on the "finished" pile - repeat. Now work like that would be done on an automated / semi-automated production line.

Dunno sorry

 

[Smouser]

I agree, it is heavy duty.

They had surgical blade sharpeners and stuff so I guess they made all sorts of surgical tools. Maybe they used it to form anal speculums

So we kind of had an idea what it did do.
Now I need clever ideas to modify it to turn it into something useful......

Seems like an awful shame to weigh it in for scrap.

 

[frank horton]

dread to think how much it would cost to make.....
oh, by the way....a very nice gantry....u lucky boy.....

removing bread from a toaster.....knew a guy that showed stationary engines, he rigged his up so that every ten mins a hand bell would ring....that way anywhere on the engine show ground he new it was working...
put a lamp on it .....
yes to nice to scrap.....

 

[Nomad]

Flypress or die punch are the first thoughts.

The top mounting looks like a duplication of effort as it has a dovetail also a fitting to slide a bar into. Shirley only 1 is needed??
Estimating the stroke and the pressure at the jaws might point you at other applications.

I've used brake re-lining machines in the past and what you have would have been a good base for riviting linings on shoes without the very physical "stamp hard on the pedal" the way the old machines worked. There maybe a niche market if you want to ask around the vintage car restorers?

Try emailing a photo to the company and ask what they used it for and would they have the "missing" bits available for scrap value? Point out they have a *very* limited pool of potential buyers, likely only you + 3 others in the UK