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Death of a Tech 1

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Brown Thumb

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If it does not work out for you Let me know.
I met a guy that retired from Martin Sprocket the other day, nice guy. He ran every machine in the Place.
I could call him and show him the gears on mine and see if they can make it.
Martin sprocket is only a few miles from me.
The worm drive gear looks easy to make. I was a machinest for a few yrs.
The big roller gear looks time consuming.
 

Knucklehead

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There appears to be a businessman in our midst....:) !!
Actually, quite a good idea. I've been looking on the internet, and studying about worms - the worm 'gear' on the Teck 1 is different than what I'm seeing.....most worm gears look like, well actual gears with teeth on them where the teeth run out flat from the circular gear, whereas on the Tech 1, the teeth 'stand up' from the circular gear, if you know what I mean. There is a whole bunch of math involved in making the worm - so far, all I have accomplished is defining that the worm gear has 50 teeth. Hope to bring the whole machine down to the machine shop tomorrow, and will report back as to whether or not this guy will (or can) do this. Fingers crossed......

If you want to change the ratio between how fast the tobacco is fed into the machine, versus how fast you turn the crank, this is the time to do it. Talk to your machinist about whether you want that slowed down or sped up. A slower leaf advance should yield thinner shreds that would be better for cigarettes. (Hell, that could be backwards, you know I'm a knucklehead :))
 

leverhead

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If you want to change the ratio between how fast the tobacco is fed into the machine, versus how fast you turn the crank, this is the time to do it. Talk to your machinist about whether you want that slowed down or sped up. A slower leaf advance should yield thinner shreds that would be better for cigarettes. (Hell, that could be backwards, you know I'm a knucklehead :))

That wouldn't work too well, the distance from crest to crest on the worm is pretty much set by the teeth on the gear. You could speed up the advance per revolution to 2X, 3X, 4X, by making the new worm a multi start worm. Slowing down the feed would a much bigger project, it would probably be easier to make a wheel with more blades.
 

Bex

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The worm gear is on the shaft of the cutting blades, the main tooth gear is called a pinion gear( moves your leaf towards the cutter) Any machine shop should be able to build one. This is something like what you will need. http://www.amazon.com/Attias-Esquire-Jade-Hickory-Vulcan-Hart/dp/B00CMMYFM8

That looks pretty much like what I'm looking for, so I imagine this is pretty doable. And thanks for the further info (pinion gear, etc) - I never realized there were so many types until I started researching this yesterday, and my head is spinning.
 

Bex

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I'm hoping to get down to the machine shop sometime today - will report back and let you know the result. Will ask for him to make this in steel, if possible, and hopefully it will cost less than the $54 on the Amazon link above....:)
 

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hopefully it does not cost to much, the origional brass lasted about 80 to 100 years. I think I would be more worried about the steel worm on the brass pinion gear. The machinist will know what he is doing and probably make some suggestions
 

Bex

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Thanks for all the info - particularly the bit about taking the whole machine down to the machinists with me. Doing so saved me an extra trip, as he needs to put the machine back together in order to figure out how to make the worm. He advised that the gear (pinion?) is well worn, and would be a PIA to do, but that the worm will be easy enough to make. I didn't ask about what kind of material he was going to use to make it. He is also going to sharpen my blades for me (I understand at 22 degrees, thanks to the info on this forum, as well). Sadly, they are in the midst of a project, so he said it would take about a week to get to this. I'll be smoking flaked tobacco next week (ugh), unless I can come up with another way to shred my weeks supply. I also asked him if he would make more than one of these gears, but he laughed and advised that he was not really interested in mass producing them. Anyway, fingers crossed, and will post back and let you know how I get on. Thanks again for all the info.
 

deluxestogie

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For hand shredding, roll a tight cigar of your leaf, then flatten it. Cut thin slices with a knife or scissors, then slice the flattened disks in half. Rub.

Bob
 

Brown Thumb

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Good Luck. The Germans used another measuring system as posted by Amex, when he has playing with his teck1.
I think it was measured in fuss back then. I forgot to grab my tpi gauge to check it out.
I hope he gave you a ball park price to make it.
BT
 

Bex

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For hand shredding, roll a tight cigar of your leaf, then flatten it. Cut thin slices with a knife or scissors, then slice the flattened disks in half. Rub.

Bob

Thanks for the suggestion. I will certainly try this, as I do hate smoking flake. I was looking at my old food processor last night, with the slicing disc....wondering how I could do this without slicing fingers. Your cigar method sounds a lot better.

Regarding fuss - it's too bad that I didn't see Amex' post before I brought the Teck 1 to the machinist - I never heard of fuss before, and chances are, the machinist hasn't either. Anyway, I think this guy is doing this job for me more as an 'artist' than as a machinist, if you know what I mean. He has given me sheets of aluminum in the past, for free, when I was pop riveting panels in my car (my welding skills are horrid, but I'm still trying), so I hope that he is kind to me with the 'repair'. In my 'dreams', I see him getting overwhelmed with the history and simplicity of this old machine, and totally refurbishing it for me as an 'artist's project'. That would be nice.....Actually, better than nice as when I asked him for a price, he wouldn't give me one other than say it wouldn't be 'too expensive'.
 

Chicken

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it sounds like a solid built machine,,,

especially if you were going to use a FLYWHEEL puller on it,,,lol
 

leverhead

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Thanks for the suggestion. I will certainly try this, as I do hate smoking flake. I was looking at my old food processor last night, with the slicing disc....wondering how I could do this without slicing fingers. Your cigar method sounds a lot better.

Regarding fuss - it's too bad that I didn't see Amex' post before I brought the Teck 1 to the machinist - I never heard of fuss before, and chances are, the machinist hasn't either. Anyway, I think this guy is doing this job for me more as an 'artist' than as a machinist, if you know what I mean. He has given me sheets of aluminum in the past, for free, when I was pop riveting panels in my car (my welding skills are horrid, but I'm still trying), so I hope that he is kind to me with the 'repair'. In my 'dreams', I see him getting overwhelmed with the history and simplicity of this old machine, and totally refurbishing it for me as an 'artist's project'. That would be nice.....Actually, better than nice as when I asked him for a price, he wouldn't give me one other than say it wouldn't be 'too expensive'.

Slicing from a "cigar" isn't too bad for a week or so. I've used a couple of dog brushes for separating the shredded tobacco, it breaks the shreds to a reasonable length at the same time.

It sounds like you ran into a nice guy, be patient, he'll probably take good care of you. A good running shop needs a back log to keep everybody working and keep the lights on. I have a soft spot for old machinery, it's like a time capsule. It can show you how much things have or haven't changed and it's probably all that's left of the people that made it. If you bake, bring a batch of cookies or something when you go to pick it up. Go early in the day, it might affect the final price more than you'd figure.
 

Jitterbugdude

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If you bake, bring a batch of cookies or something when you go to pick it up. Go early in the day, it might affect the final price more than you'd figure.

Excellent suggestion. I routinely work with our machine shop here at work. The standard procedure is to bring in a drawing, have the supervisor tell you how busy everyone is, wait 1 or 2 weeks for an estimate then another 2 weeks to get the work done. One time I had some stuff that needed to machined NOW. I walked up to a machinist (by passed the supervisor) and said. Hey, if I bring you in a dozen of donuts tomorrow can you machine a couple of parts for me? He said yes and he had them done and waiting for me the next morning!
 

deluxestogie

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Slicing from a "cigar" isn't too bad for a week or so. I've used a couple of dog brushes for separating the shredded tobacco, it breaks the shreds to a reasonable length at the same time.
Slicing the disks in half or into thirds limits the length of the shred, eliminating the need for a dog or dog brushes.

Bob
 

ChinaVoodoo

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Good Luck. The Germans used another measuring system as posted by Amex, when he has playing with his teck1.
I think it was measured in fuss back then. I forgot to grab my tpi gauge to check it out.
I hope he gave you a ball park price to make it.
BT

Isn't fuß just the German word for foot?
 

leverhead

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Slicing the disks in half or into thirds limits the length of the shred, eliminating the need for a dog or dog brushes.

Bob

I still use a "cigar" to cut from, but it's about 1 1/2" in diameter. It cuts better when it's very tight, the Viginia's get pretty sticky. The brushing gets nearly all the shreds separated as well as breaking the length of shred. I think it's the stretching before the break that does the separating. Cut tobacco, rolled between the hands and teased out by hand will make a king sized cigarette with a little more than 1 g of tobacco in it. If I brush it out, a cigarette of about the same firmness will have less than 0.9 g in it. The burn rate goes up and becomes more even, to me it tastes better too.
 
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