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Hydraulic cylinder pin driver tool

SARuger

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Aug 6, 2017
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52
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Blue Ridge Mountains
Okay, I have used one of these before but I have googled until my fingers are bleeding! Can't find it.

It looks like a mallet but with a long snout on one end, a large head on the other, wooden handle to cut down on vibrating the holders hands. One tech puts the snout against the pin, while another tech swings the sledge hammer.

Where can I find one? In fact I remember having 3 sizes of these.

I would love to have a slide sledge but no money for that right now.
 

SARuger

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Aug 6, 2017
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Blue Ridge Mountains
Yep, thats it! This tech i was training under, had them in 3 sizes from that one and up to one that was 2" on the punch end. They were bronze if i remember correctly. A couple of solid sledge hits and stubborn pins just gave up!
 

DIYDAVE

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Feb 18, 2007
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MD
Lots of times I see them on surplus sale sites. I gots 3 of em, don't think I paid more than $5 for any 1. Also used by RR's to align track bolts, and drive rivets...
 

SARuger

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Aug 6, 2017
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Blue Ridge Mountains
You know, i think i remember these having "N&W" on them. N&W, now NS, was based in my home town of Roanoke VA, i bet that's where he got them.

I need these tools. I cant carry a oxy-acetlyne into some of the buisnesses i service. I have to grunt stuff out.
 

Delmer

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the 1 1/2" and 2" ones are probably railroad spike drivers.
 

crane operator

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sw missouri
The one I have was a railroad spike driver. Have also head them called pin drivers. I bought it on the side of the road from a "antique"/ junk dealer. I told him it wasn't done working. mine is steel.
 

Delmer

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So the railroad spike drivers are 1 1/4" and 1 5/8", and the pin drivers come up to 1". I'm thinking the pin drivers were made mostly for rivets and similar smaller diameters. No way I'd use a 3/4" punch on any heavy equipment pin, it would peen out the head much more than a punch the same size. You might as well pound away with a one pound ball peen hammer and expect to be able to drive the pin through.

If you need them that bad, what about making your own, obtain the section of old hydraulic cylinder rod, cut one end flat, grind the corners smooth on the striking end, use a piece of strap or plate with an appropriate sized hole for a holder that you can strap to the joint. Finding the fool to hold the punch, or trusting somebody to hit it while you hold it is usually the toughest part.
 

crane operator

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sw missouri
I think the danger of old cylinder rod would be the chrome peeling off from impact. Not that steel couldn't/ doesn't do that also. I've made one from just a big piece of steel shaft and welded pipe on it for a handle, the pipe handles don't absorb much vibration.
 

Delmer

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That's why you grind the corners just like any tool that gets hit. Those mushrooms can and do kill people when they fly off and hit something important, usually a artery in the leg in the fatal cases. Reminds me, never cut on the side of the blade of a concrete saw, the blade can come apart and kill you the same way.
 

SARuger

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Aug 6, 2017
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Blue Ridge Mountains
In 95% of my repairs, the spike drivers will work fine.

Just need to source them locally. This is a railroad town, should be some laying around somewhere
 

sled dog

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Apr 6, 2014
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334
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Hartdford City, In.
I think the danger of old cylinder rod would be the chrome peeling off from impact. Not that steel couldn't/ doesn't do that also. I've made one from just a big piece of steel shaft and welded pipe on it for a handle, the pipe handles don't absorb much vibration.
C O, I welded short stub shafts, 'bout 4" long to the side of my pin. Then connect the longer handles to the stubs with 2 wire hydraulic hose. The short section of hose absorbs all the vibration, and the hose is stiff enough to still control the pin. You still need someone to hit it though...
 

crane operator

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sw missouri
C O, I welded short stub shafts, 'bout 4" long to the side of my pin. Then connect the longer handles to the stubs with 2 wire hydraulic hose. The short section of hose absorbs all the vibration, and the hose is stiff enough to still control the pin. You still need someone to hit it though...

That makes great sense sled dog, probably why I didn't think of it at the time. As far as someone hitting it, I'll never forget the mechanic at a shop I used to work at. We had to drop a 3rd member on a rockwell axle, and one of the axle shafts was stuck. Still had the tires on, and he grabbed his little 3 lb hammer and held it in there on the shaft. I didn't think that looked like such a great idea and told him so. "shut up and swing the hammer, don't hit me". Third or fourth hard whack, I slipped off after the hit, he hopped around yowling and cussing me to no end. Long handles are great.
 

DIYDAVE

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That makes great sense sled dog, probably why I didn't think of it at the time. As far as someone hitting it, I'll never forget the mechanic at a shop I used to work at. We had to drop a 3rd member on a rockwell axle, and one of the axle shafts was stuck. Still had the tires on, and he grabbed his little 3 lb hammer and held it in there on the shaft. I didn't think that looked like such a great idea and told him so. "shut up and swing the hammer, don't hit me". Third or fourth hard whack, I slipped off after the hit, he hopped around yowling and cussing me to no end. Long handles are great.


That reminds me of one of my stories. Paul Dorr was a long time mechanic in the neighborhood. Bout 10 years ago, I hadda change the tires on my dually isuzu NPR, I tried every which way, to, but 3 or 4 studs just wouldn't budge. Called Paul up, and asked him if he had any ideers about how to get them moving. He said yeah, I got this ole contraption we usedta use on the busses that they service fer the county. So, I hopped in the truck, and brought the 3/4" drive 40 mm socket I told him I had. He pulls out this contraption, that looked like a combination of a jack stand, and 4-way wrench... Had a 3/4 drive extension, extending through the center of the 4way looking part, and instead of being 4 ends, with various size wrenches, it had 2 ends, one that looks like an egg shaped weight of about maybe a a half pound, or so. The other end was a striking surface, 180º away from the egg. The jack lookin part was a little 3 legged affair, , that the 3/4" extension, fixed in the top, and the general ideer is to whack the strikin surface of the contraption, downward, and the weight would act like a flywheel, and help turn the nut in question, off.

Now a word about Paul's shop, well worn cinderblock building, with small bays. I had backed in, as much to get out of the july sun, as well as to get closer to the tools. Paul was prolly 65ish, at the time, getting ready to retire soon.

As to condition of the tool, it was prolly close to paul's age, only it had spent its career bein hit with a sledge hammer. To say pretty rickety was optimistic. There was another piece to it, that had been busted off'n it, making it a 2 man job, and guess who the other man was?

So here I am, holding a shop rag, applying a slight upward pressure to the egg, while Paul swings a 10 lb hammer that looks like a circus tent stake driver about a foot from my head. As we we finished up on the right side (last swing), I said to Paul, "Paul if you hit me on the head wif that hammer, strike me dead center, I don't wanna be no demmycrat!"

He busted out laughin so hard along wif me, we hadda take a 10 minnit break, afore tryin t'other side...;)
 

willie59

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Dec 21, 2008
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Knoxville TN
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Interesting thread, and a topic I'm familiar with, that is, whacking a drift of some sort with a sledge to knock out a pin. A process I've never been fond of and even despise. Moreover, one day I was walking through the shop to my office and a good 10 feet away from me was two co-workers doing the above knocking out a bucket pin. All of a sudden I felt a burning pain in my right elbow, just out of nowhere, a dang good ouch. Upon further investigation (with a magnet) we determined that a fragment came off the drift pin and shot me in the elbow. My co-worker said "are you going to the clinic?" I said, "hell no, you put it in there, you get it out!" So I had him make a small incision with a razor blade and use the magnet to pluck out the little projectile. After that we quit using the sledge/drift method and went with the Slide Sledge, been using it for years now and love it, very very rarely do I now hit a drift with a sledge. > https://slidesledge.com/
 

sled dog

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Joined
Apr 6, 2014
Messages
334
Location
Hartdford City, In.
Interesting thread, and a topic I'm familiar with, that is, whacking a drift of some sort with a sledge to knock out a pin. A process I've never been fond of and even despise. Moreover, one day I was walking through the shop to my office and a good 10 feet away from me was two co-workers doing the above knocking out a bucket pin. All of a sudden I felt a burning pain in my right elbow, just out of nowhere, a dang good ouch. Upon further investigation (with a magnet) we determined that a fragment came off the drift pin and shot me in the elbow. My co-worker said "are you going to the clinic?" I said, "hell no, you put it in there, you get it out!" So I had him make a small incision with a razor blade and use the magnet to pluck out the little projectile. After that we quit using the sledge/drift method and went with the Slide Sledge, been using it for years now and love it, very very rarely do I now hit a drift with a sledge. > https://slidesledge.com/
Willie, you're not the only one that that scares. And it doesn't have to be a drift pin. Was putting a master back in a 345, links up top of the idler. Was standing on the track, pin started fine, swinging a 16. Picture it, pin just below toe level, just in front of my feet. A good smack and a chunk of the pin spalled off and shot straight up. Jumped down, ripped the shirt open, saw lots of dark blood. Slapped a rag on it grabbed a young co-worker and said E R, NOW ! They probed the hole with a 4" probe then straight to x ray when they didn't feel it. The chunk is almost the exact size of a .22 long rifle bullet. Travelled near 6" from entrance hole to where it still lies. Because of the way I was standing it didn't go straight in, more straight up. I was so lucky. Could have been straight up to throat or eye or heart. I told my wife my rock hard abs saved my life. 'course she said it was my fat belly!!! I bought a press the next day...
 

John C.

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The photo shows a little jewel from a stuck ripper tooth that went half way through my right leg. The tooth was jammed on the shank and I hit it with a twenty pound hammer. Doctor said leave it in there and see if it would be OK. About two weeks later my foot would go numb at night and I would get up in the morning and fall down because I couldn't feel my foot. This went on for a couple of months when I finally got fed up with it and went back to the doctor. They put me under and cut my leg open real careful for blood vessels and nerves. I kept the piece to remind myself of what can happen.
 

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sled dog

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 6, 2014
Messages
334
Location
Hartdford City, In.
The photo shows a little jewel from a stuck ripper tooth that went half way through my right leg. The tooth was jammed on the shank and I hit it with a twenty pound hammer. Doctor said leave it in there and see if it would be OK. About two weeks later my foot would go numb at night and I would get up in the morning and fall down because I couldn't feel my foot. This went on for a couple of months when I finally got fed up with it and went back to the doctor. They put me under and cut my leg open real careful for blood vessels and nerves. I kept the piece to remind myself of what can happen.
FACK !!!!! Makes mine look like nothing !!!
 

JD955SC

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Joined
Mar 13, 2011
Messages
1,349
Location
The South
Interesting thread, and a topic I'm familiar with, that is, whacking a drift of some sort with a sledge to knock out a pin. A process I've never been fond of and even despise. Moreover, one day I was walking through the shop to my office and a good 10 feet away from me was two co-workers doing the above knocking out a bucket pin. All of a sudden I felt a burning pain in my right elbow, just out of nowhere, a dang good ouch. Upon further investigation (with a magnet) we determined that a fragment came off the drift pin and shot me in the elbow. My co-worker said "are you going to the clinic?" I said, "hell no, you put it in there, you get it out!" So I had him make a small incision with a razor blade and use the magnet to pluck out the little projectile. After that we quit using the sledge/drift method and went with the Slide Sledge, been using it for years now and love it, very very rarely do I now hit a drift with a sledge. > https://slidesledge.com/

Our company policy is slide sledge, brass drifts, or thermal lance before striking hardened metal to hardened metal, and then you have to be armored up with welding leathers and face shield and clear the bays around you, due to several spalling instances

I would like some big drifts made of brass to use in the shop
 
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