What the heck is (was) this?

[Pete O]

I took a couple of tandem trailer loads of metal to the local scrap merchant the other day. I have been on the lookout for a piece of plate at least 40mm thick for part of the mounting setup for my frankenmill project- my last couple of visits to the scrapyard have been fruitless. This time he tells me there's a big piece of plate on the front of an old tractor at the back of the yard that I can have if I can get it into my trailer. Needless to say, I got it into my trailer.
   
18" square by 3" thick and a chisel test showed to to be grey cast iron- quite suitable for my purpose. I need to cut a piece just a little smaller than the size of an A4 page to start with. I decided that I could probably cut it in half with a little creative use of my horizontal bandsaw.
   
   
The first cut managed to get very slightly over halfway through before bottoming out in the throat of the saw, that means the second cut should get right through.
I did not expect this kind of accuracy out of my bandsaw over this length of cut.
   
The two cuts met with around ten thou of misalignment. I'll accept that.

I was half expecting to find some voids inside the block. What I was not expecting was this.
   
   
Cleaning the holes out with my shop vac, I discovered they are actually one continuous zigzagging bore that communicates with a threaded port at each end, like some kind of heating or cooling matrix.
   

I have not yet decided whether this renders it useless for my purpose or not. I'm very curious to know what the heck it was for. There are several stamped markings including a date in 1953.
   
   
   

Glory awaits whoever can identify it.

[f350ca]

No idea what it was in its former life, but getting those cuts to line up like that would prompt me to go buy a lottery ticket.

[Pete O]

(08-29-2018, 08:58 AM)f350ca Wrote: No idea what it was in its former life, but getting those cuts to line up like that would prompt me to go buy a lottery ticket.

C'mon Greg, are you suggesting that it was just luck?

[Mike E.]

A device to slow down an accelerated rate of flow ?

[Pete O]

I've been informed elsewhere that it was likely a heated platen for a press used for some kind of process like vulcanising rubber, maybe shoe soles or something of that nature. Wish I'd known it was full of holes before I went to the trouble of cutting it in half. I don't think it will work for my original purpose. Might end up as a couple of fixture plates or something. I'll consider it to have been a test of whether I've finally got my bandsaw cutting true.

[awemawson]

Cut it into slices and surface grind top and bottom to make several sets of parallels

[Pete O]

(08-31-2018, 12:54 AM)awemawson Wrote: Cut it into slices and surface grind top and bottom to make several sets of parallels

I think I'd rather find an application that takes advantage of the fact that it is a great big chunk. Such as an inclinable fixture plate, either with t-slots or lots-o-holes.
Still looking for a thick piece of plate for the frankenmill part, I might have to make my first foray into iron melting and cast the part if I can't find a billet big enough.

[terrywerm]

I worked for a few months in a rubber products manufacturing plant many years ago, and I can say for certain that what you have there is exactly that: a heating platen for a molding press. I've got one here that I cut up into pieces to use as small suitcase weights for a compact tractor.

Each press has two platens, bottom and top. Steam is circulated through them as a heat source. The two halves of the mold are then attached to the platens. Once the press is hot, you load your raw rubber into the mold cavities, then close the mold and wait for the appropriate period of time before opening and extracting the finished parts.

[Pete O]

Thanks Terry. I knew someone would know exactly what it was. I've decided I'd never be any use as a scrap metal merchant, I'd spend all my time trying to figure out what everything was, also I'd be too sentimental to scrap anything that was cool fifty years ago.

[Clifford B.]

We used the same type of process for hot gluing plywood panels.
4x8 ft. panels and 5x10' 25 panels in a stack and massive multi hydraulic cylinders to
press from underneath......