Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
Largest Manufacturing Technology Community on the Web
Stay Connected:
Daf Motor Works (1971)
- Thread starter Demon69
- Start date
- Replies 7
- Views 1,964
SIP6A
Titanium
- Joined
- May 29, 2003
- Location
- Temperance, Michigan
Limy Sami
Diamond
- Joined
- Jan 7, 2007
- Location
- Norfolk, UK
This is the car they were building DAF 55 DAF 55 - Wikipedia
With the infamous ''Variomatic'' transmission Variomatic - Wikipedia
As I recall - for what they were, the 55's were okay
With the infamous ''Variomatic'' transmission Variomatic - Wikipedia
As I recall - for what they were, the 55's were okay
rustyironism
Cast Iron
- Joined
- Aug 31, 2012
- Location
- Lower Thumb, Michigan
Thanks for posting this, , Demon73,
I was hired as Machine Repair to a shop that had dozens of those deep draw toggle presses, as seen early in the film.
Ours were 2500 ton Verson, making deep auto and truck bumpers.
Half of the press was under the floor, in the basement, where scrap conveyors moved razorblade sharp shards in the dim incandescent light, to all converge to dump into a giant pit, where overhead crane operators used a huge electromagnet to load rail cars.
Extremely filthy, greasy and deadly work.
Nothing like the sanitary conditions of that film!
5 men were killed in various, horrible ways, in the 5 years I was there.
The year before I hired in, they ran the line just as in the film, with two men loading steel by hand into the press, two men taking it out, two more loading the next station, and on, with usually 7 presses in each line.
The line I worked the most once had at least 14 men reaching in and out of the jaws of each monster.
When I got there, there was one guy at the front of the line, watching to make sure only one part went in, and two guys on the end, watching for bad parts.
11 manual labor jobs gone.
They had recently installed DC motors on top of the presses to regulate the speeds, and suction cupped hands on huge mechanical arms, operated by cams, about 2 inches thick, almost three feet tall on the rise, that would reach in and out of the beasts in a coordinated stream.
Working with the electrician, we could get those presses flowing like a symphony.
Stepping back in awe of tons of iron and steel in pure beauty of fluid motion as the parts would CAchonk, slam, rattle, screech and rumble through the line, sending shivers up the mechanic's spine as the cams pulled those arms out of the never stopping dies at the very last second and carrying a new piece in, looking so close to crashing into the arm removing the worked piece out of the die, and at the end, placing a complete bumper on a conveyor to head off to equally automated polishing, and plating lines.....
...until some stupid "manager" wanted to see it push more parts out the back and would turn the knob on the first press, the deep draw toggle, to speed it up and destroy the symmetry of the entire line!
If nothing crashed, it might take several hours to get back to the ballet, and if crashed, as often was the case, days, to repair.
The outer ram would clamp the sheet, with an adjusted pressure to hold just enough to allow the inner ram to form the part.
Too loose, the part would wrinkle, too tight, and the steel would split.
Maybe you can imagine the shimming and adjusting to make good parts on old machines that had cycled hundreds of thousands of times, with little downtime in decades...
Fond memories.
But, back on topic, when my brother found this DAF auto engine, I did some research, and somewhere I read that these cars are relatively rare in their home country, in the Netherlands, because the variable speed drives would go just as fast in reverse as forward and so, many were destroyed as a perfect Demolition Derby car!
Mike
I was hired as Machine Repair to a shop that had dozens of those deep draw toggle presses, as seen early in the film.
Ours were 2500 ton Verson, making deep auto and truck bumpers.
Half of the press was under the floor, in the basement, where scrap conveyors moved razorblade sharp shards in the dim incandescent light, to all converge to dump into a giant pit, where overhead crane operators used a huge electromagnet to load rail cars.
Extremely filthy, greasy and deadly work.
Nothing like the sanitary conditions of that film!
5 men were killed in various, horrible ways, in the 5 years I was there.
The year before I hired in, they ran the line just as in the film, with two men loading steel by hand into the press, two men taking it out, two more loading the next station, and on, with usually 7 presses in each line.
The line I worked the most once had at least 14 men reaching in and out of the jaws of each monster.
When I got there, there was one guy at the front of the line, watching to make sure only one part went in, and two guys on the end, watching for bad parts.
11 manual labor jobs gone.
They had recently installed DC motors on top of the presses to regulate the speeds, and suction cupped hands on huge mechanical arms, operated by cams, about 2 inches thick, almost three feet tall on the rise, that would reach in and out of the beasts in a coordinated stream.
Working with the electrician, we could get those presses flowing like a symphony.
Stepping back in awe of tons of iron and steel in pure beauty of fluid motion as the parts would CAchonk, slam, rattle, screech and rumble through the line, sending shivers up the mechanic's spine as the cams pulled those arms out of the never stopping dies at the very last second and carrying a new piece in, looking so close to crashing into the arm removing the worked piece out of the die, and at the end, placing a complete bumper on a conveyor to head off to equally automated polishing, and plating lines.....
...until some stupid "manager" wanted to see it push more parts out the back and would turn the knob on the first press, the deep draw toggle, to speed it up and destroy the symmetry of the entire line!
If nothing crashed, it might take several hours to get back to the ballet, and if crashed, as often was the case, days, to repair.
The outer ram would clamp the sheet, with an adjusted pressure to hold just enough to allow the inner ram to form the part.
Too loose, the part would wrinkle, too tight, and the steel would split.
Maybe you can imagine the shimming and adjusting to make good parts on old machines that had cycled hundreds of thousands of times, with little downtime in decades...
Fond memories.
But, back on topic, when my brother found this DAF auto engine, I did some research, and somewhere I read that these cars are relatively rare in their home country, in the Netherlands, because the variable speed drives would go just as fast in reverse as forward and so, many were destroyed as a perfect Demolition Derby car!
Mike
Tyrone Shoelaces
Diamond
- Joined
- Apr 19, 2006
- Location
- Manchester, England
An electrician I worked with had one in the early 1970's, he used to give me a lift home in it.
Regards Tyrone.
Regards Tyrone.
Peter S
Diamond
- Joined
- May 6, 2002
- Location
- Auckland, New Zealand
It was interesting to see big diesel engines being machined in the films and also to see DAF trucks being assembled.
As far as I know, currently DAF designs and builds the larger engines for Paccar (who have owned DAF trucks for many years). Having said that, Paccar was building an engine plant in the USA a while back, so perhaps the DAF (Paccar) engines are now US-built for that market?
I think I read recently that DAF was the largest selling truck in the UK, presumably in the larger classes.
As far as I know, currently DAF designs and builds the larger engines for Paccar (who have owned DAF trucks for many years). Having said that, Paccar was building an engine plant in the USA a while back, so perhaps the DAF (Paccar) engines are now US-built for that market?
I think I read recently that DAF was the largest selling truck in the UK, presumably in the larger classes.
Similar threads
