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Shoe Turning Quick
and Easy
I have been nursing
a back this last week, and haven’t been able to do anything. So this late
afternoon I was feeling a little better and I thought I should get at that
steel shipment that I received a couple of weeks ago.
Now, I love
hand-making shoes, and end up doing that a lot. I can turn a pair of
shoes average, in about 10-15 minutes, and I am not sure
how accurate that is because I don’t really time myself.
But when I want to
get serious about making a lot of horseshoes, I use equipment.
I have a shoe
turning machine that can turn cold steel into shoe shape in 20 seconds.
It takes 20 more
seconds to reset it for the next shoe, so I can turn a shoe about every
minute.
The
heart of the machine is a gear reduction unit that is about 50:1, and it
is driven by a belt attached to a one horse 110AC motor. The total gear
reduction is 1725:2 and that makes this machine able to turn 3/8x3/4 flat
bar steel, all day long.
Mine you it is a little
easier on it, turning 3/8x3/4 concave steel.
I thought you might
like to see some photos of it in action.
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Insert Concave
steel ground surface towards plate, locking it into the keeper.
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Guide roller holds
concave against die, and exchangeable die on the rotating platter turns
bar steel into horseshoe shape.
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The finished shoe
is turned cold, and the platter is stopped so the shoe can be removed,
and then the platter is reversed resetting it to the start position.
After about an hour
and a half, including cut time, I have have made sixty shoes.
That's 30 pairs. Yes I still need to punch nail holes and cut heels, but
how many pairs can I hammer out in an hour. And how would my arm feel
after that many?
So next I punch those
nail holes, and the shape is not perfect but I leave that for when there
is a horse to compare to.
Some of my clients are
hard riders and will eat through a set of store bought shoes in 5 weeks,
and my handmade shoes, although fair better, may not be reset-able. So in
that case I like to fill the fuller of the concave at the toe and the
heels with weld. More steel is equal to less ware. I may get a reset or
two out of them. Most horses that I nail these shoes to will end up with
to much heel ware on the foot surface of the shoe to reset when the
thickness to the ground surface is still ok.
Next step, I like to
save for when I am at the horse, so when I cut the heels it is done for
that fit rather than cutting the heels at the shop and then needing to do
it a second time, to get that custom fit.
Another benefit of
having weld in the toe and heels of concave, is when screw in studs are
needed. Screw in stud holes need a collar for the threads, and that is
normally achieved by punching the hole while the shoe is hot. This is done
with a tapered punch and care must be taken to ensure a properly sized
hole to facilitate the tap. With weld in the fuller of the shoe we only
need to drill a hole before taping.
I have six
interchangeable dies, three front, and three hind sizes, 00,0,1.
If I need larger sizes,
I just cut the steel longer and stick the end further out of the keeper at
the start, and finish with the second end sticking out further as well. It
looks much like a cowboy shoe that the heels could be made into extended
heels, caulks, or for my use as a larger shoe, I just broaden the toe
some, and shape the branches as I would from scratch.
With this shoe turning
machine I end up with an acceptable shape, and do the final touches at the
horse.
Cost wise, I can buy a
pair of store bought shoes for about $7.
$170.00 worth of
concave steel shipped to my location ends up costing me $1.97 a shoe or
$3.94 a pair. So right off I save $3.06 a pair. Most folks would say, "but
now add in your time. And I say Its winter, and I'm not shoeing horses
anyways, so my time is mine to do with as I please. Some build tiny ships
in bottles, I like to make horseshoes.
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