flame cutting guide with speed governor

In his book "Shop Savvy" Roy Moungovan of Popular Science describes a flame cutting guide which has a "clockwork governor" which travels a constant speed regardless of irregularities in your pulling action. It is a magnetically mounted device. It's pictured but not named on p. 58 of the edition I have. What a great thing, but unfindable. Said to be a commercial product, I can find no mention of it on the Web or anywhere in the Land of Google.

  1. Anyone know what this device actually is, or where to get one?
  2. How could such a speed governor work?

GWE

Reply to
Grant Erwin
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I once used one once for cutting flanges on beams over twenty years ago. I did one cut and went back to my guide bar. Fiddling around with setting it up and having the torch tip sitting in a bushing style guide did not impress me. The one I used had magnets for holding it in place. Getting everything lined up on the cut line was bothersome. I have also used air motor and electric driven units for cutting circles with a hand torch. I found them handy if you were cutting dozens of holes that were identical.

  1. Anyone know what this device actually is, or where to get one?
  2. How could such a speed governor work?

GWE

Reply to
R. Zimmerman

I have never heard of a clockwork governor much less seen one. But from the description it sounds as if it has small wheels which are geared to an escapment and balance wheel similar to a watch or non-penduleum clock.

The closest thing I can think of that might be adapted would be a childs toy car with a flywheel for power. A flywheel would smooth out my erratic movements when using a cutting torch.

Dan

Reply to
dcaster

Nah... those governors were common on a lot of things that had to control motion smoothly -- even down to revolving doors.

They worked on the principle of a flying-ball governor. Usually, the "balls" were spring-loaded weighted brake shoes rotating inside a fixed brake drum. (like a centrifugal clutch) The system naturally resists spinning above a certain speed. Gear-up trains from the work to the governor provided the correct "work" speed vs. the braking rpm of the governor itself.

(Some modern revolving doors now use eddy-current braking, using permanent magnets and aluminum armatures. Dunno if any of them still have clockwork governors.)

LLoyd

Reply to
Lloyd E. Sponenburgh

I wonder if the governor works like the ones on music boxes. The little fan driven through gears so that it spins much faster that the shaft being governed. Not completely clockwork, but pretty close. ERS

Reply to
Eric R Snow

A very common example was the dial in a dial telephone. You "wound it up" with your finger, then it returned to rest position at a set speed, producing a series of pulses -- about 10 pulses per second.

Reply to
Don Foreman

The dial on rotary telephones was another common use. In those that I've taken apart there was a tiny worm and wheel doing the speed-up.

Ned Simmons

Reply to
Ned Simmons

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