On Sat, 13 Oct 2012 11:20:02 -0700, Gunner
wrote:

On Wed, 10 Oct 2012 20:13:20 -0400, jeff wrote:

On Tue, 09 Oct 2012 13:42:12 -0500, Ignoramus22161
wrote:

I am thinking of making a set up to drop a heavy weight (old forklift
counterweight) onto objects, such as truck cabs and file cabinets, to
flatten them in preparation for scrapping. That way they will take
less room in the scrap gondola.

To drop that counterweight, it would need to be lifted with a
forklift, and then some sort of a release-under-tension would release
the object and it would fall.

I have compressed air nearby if I wanted to make that mechanism
pneumatic.

Any suggestion for something that could release an appx. 2-3 ton
weight?

i
How high will this two/three ton weight be when you release it? I'm
thinking that the sudden release will cause the carriage to catapult
upwards possibly causing damage to aux hoses, maybe chain sheaves or
even the chains themselvs. Is this the same forklift that had the
worn works a while back?

jeff

Forklifts were never designed for this sort of dynamic loading and
unloading.

You will destroy it inside of a month..and probably within weeks

Shrug

Gunner

Don't think I said anything about this, but if you want to flatten
"little" things like desks and file cabinets, build your own version
of a Car Smasher.

Buy an old Cardboard Baler machine - cheap and easy. Place the file
cabinet or desk inside and hit the button, and it'll turn into a
Latke. I do NOT suggest sour cream or applesauce...

Or make your own and scale it way up, a couple chunks of 1" thick
plate for the mashing surfaces, and a pair of large-bore hydraulic
cylinders one at each end. A hoop of I-Beams between the two halves.

It can go straight up and down, or you can make it hinged - two hinged
leaves to meet in the middle and it can swallow a whole car at once.
Just remove the non-compressible items like the engine block and
transmission first.

And strip aluminum stuff like the radiator and AC cores, it's worth
more as clean aluminum.

Oh, and pull the battery and brake/clutch master cylinders too, or it
gets messy handling the pancake with sulphuric acid and DOT-3 (paint
stripper) dripping all over.

If you give a little pump a few minutes to cycle, it can do a lot of
smashing.

-- Bruce --