New-to-me Wysong 1252 Shear

Recently purchased a Wysong 1252 (12 ga at 4 foot) mechanical shear at a rock-bottom price; previous owner told me it sometimes double cycled and would need to be gone through. I saw it under power and was satisfied seeing it cycle a few times and shear some metal. But it seems the problems go a little deeper than the clutch adjustment I optimistically figured on. Neverthesless, a mechanical shear is a pretty simple device and I am a smart enough cookie to figure it out.

The purpose of this thread is to chronicle my attempts to return it to satisfactory operation and solicit help / comments from the forum.

It is quite an old model, Wysong told me on the phone it was "an obsolete machine" and they had "nothing on it at all". That was a little disappointing after reading their web blurb about how they're "still rebuilding, repairing and upgrading the legendary press brakes and shears that simply refuse to quit producing for their owners." I was told by Wysong it dates to the 1950s based on the serial no. The clutch, gearing and brake assy is much different than the current model 1252 that Wysong has schematics available for. Perhaps someone here was with Wysong and can help?


Some notes to start:

The clutch on this shear is a single-tooth type - there are 4 teeth on the gear which turns with the flywheel and one on the catch which is keyed to the shaft. The catch tooth looks rounded off from wear.

I did some buildup on the part and machined down and threw it back in the shear, it got me through the initial job after acquisition shearing some thin stainless but soon afterward rounded off again... Obviously the part should be hardened for starters. What would be a good grade of tool steel to make this from?

The clutch knocks repeatedly if shear does not reach top of the stroke where it disengages which wears the edge of the tooth, soon the wear is sufficient to make the gear catches not move the clutch which prevents further motion, a vicious cycle.

I notice a few things - one there is an aftermarket 7.5 hp motor on the shear. This is quite a bit more powerful than the 3hp motor that the newer ones have, I assume it is overpowering the shear. The removal of one of the four belts from the flywheel was perhaps an attempt by previous owner to compensate.

Big thing the brake was "repaired" but the repair rendered it inoperable. The brake cracked and the the bar which is supposed to pull and activate the brake was welded to the brake and to the shaft as well so the shaft would not move.

The treadle bar to activate the shear was replaced by a 2x4 which flexes, so the fact that one side does not move to operate the brake would be unnoticed.

It has good sharp blades.

I pulled the brake and want to make a new part for the clutch.

I'd be open to a new clutch assembly if such a thing is available generically for a 2.5" shaft

Many thanks for any insights,

Bob T

wobbernicus said:

The purpose of this thread is to chronicle my attempts to return it to satisfactory operation and solicit help / comments from the forum.


Bob T

Click to expand...

By your comment to return to satisfactory condition one would assume you want to just get it running and stop it from self destructing any further.

If it was mine the first step would be to find out for sure what motor size to use and trade/purchase for the correct motor. This is pretty important on these mechanical shears and press brakes.

Once the power situation is straight it seems you have quite a bit of repair work on your hands starting with fixing and/or adjusting everything needed to get it to make a complete cycle.

I cannot help you on the Wysong particulars but from working on a mechanical press brake I found out quickly that I needed that complete cycle every time in order to evaluate how all the components worked together.

Walter

I have a slightly newer version of that shear. On mine, the brake is outside the frame, opposite the motor. Mine also has a 7 1/2 hp motor and a heavy flywheel. On mine the adjustment of the brake is critical. If its to tight, the dog clutch hammers. If its to loose the shear can double cycle. The foot treadle has been removed from mine, and an air cylinder has been fitted in its place. The air cylinder is controlled by a solenoid and an electric foot switch.

Yours appears to be missing the pipe wrench marks on the crankshaft. They appear on so many of these shears I thought they were installed at the factory.

As for material for the dog clutch, I think A2 or S7 would either work fine provided the heat treatment is proper.

Thanks, folks.

Yes, by "satisfactory operation" I mean I would like to get it working smoothly and reliably, for it to be a productive member of the stable here. The bread and butter of what I do is stainless process equipment for the beer and wine industry, and it's nice to be able to shear sheet in-house for the light stuff at least.

Walter, I am thinking along the same lines as far as finding out the correct motor. It occurred to me that perhaps the motor replacement overpowered the shear and led to a series of cascading failures.

gbent, your shear must be the one with the piston-style holddowns and entire motor / flywheel / clutch / brake assembly hanging off the right hand side of the shear, correct? This Wysong brochure on Sterling lists this shear with a 3HP motor, hence my assumption the 7.5HP was way oversized, however checking ebay I see these with 3HP, 5HP, 7.5HP motors. Absent a hint from Wysong, it's anybody's guess what motor my old-style shear originally shipped with - every shear I see available for sale is the newer style, and all literature available online relates to the new style as well. I'll try calling them back one more time and see who I get on the phone.

A buddy of mine hoards electric motors and he'd be happy to trade me out something for the nice clean Baldor Standard-E which is on the shear, which I may well do.

To get it cycling again the critical thing at this point will be the brake. I'll see if I can salvage what's there and make it work, and if not make or find something else.

I will have some S7 on the way after the holiday, I like what I read about its shock resistance for this application. A local knifemaker can help me get the heat treat right after I machine the part.

Enjoy the holiday!

Bob

I thought the 3hp hydraulic unit for my 54" 16ga was over kill,

I only have a little experience setting up a few foot operated shears after the blades had been sharpened.
Most never had the slides for the upper knife guides lubricated or adjusted between sharpening and were very stiff to operate.
Here are a few thoughts I had about your situation .
You may have already checked your machine to see if the upper blade is not binding anywhere but if not you might want to check out what is going on there ,
My feeling is that you should be able lock the power off and with the clutch engaged , pull the empty shear through one cycle with the belts by hand and not feel it binding anywhere.
Any issues with the gib adjustment , lubrication ,wear , twisting or misalignment of the slides might show up this way .
Loose or unevenly worn guides could cause the upper knife head to bind coming down .
Something like this could be putting excessive pressure on your clutch and motor before any cutting is done.
If you haven’t checked that the machine is properly leveled on the floor there could be an issue with the knife guides being twisted a little out of line with each other and causing the the upper slide to bind as well.

As you may already know the knives should be adjusted to have a small clearance between them according to the thickness and type of material you are working with over the full travel of the knife across the table .
This can affect the power required to make a cut .
If Wysong is unable to advise you about this you may be able to get some information from a knife maker such as this one .
http://www.askoinc.com/

Regards,
Jim

i have a 1

I had the same sort of problem. First off the machine has a few parameters to note providing there is no binding during a cutting cycle. First the is the brake on the main shaft which applies just before the cutting thrust downward. It has to be set at first with only a moderate amount of braking, second the return springs at the top of the moving shear frame has to be set also to a moderate amount of pressure to assure the dog wishing the clutch completes is sub cycle. The spring pushing the dog clutch has to have enough force to penetrate the clutch but not drag on the rest of the material so as not to create ware and assure of it's removal from the clutch after the main cutting cycle. You may have to have one made to assure of the proper pressure. If the motor is oversized it can be compensated in a number of way i.e. applying more breaking, applying more down force on the shear blade holder and lastly removal of a belt. Check the garolite within the ways of the drop to assure there's been no ware. If the dog is warn you need to have a new one fabricated and hardened. sometimes if the ware is minimal it can be cut down to remove any rounding but apparently yours is too worn to use. Bring in the shear plate with the clutch so the machinist can check against it for clearances. The dogs are not case hardened they are though hardened so as to facilitate grinding away any ware. If you wait too long they get ruined.