My late father worked at Kropp Forge for about 25 years, starting back in the mid-50’s. He ran the largest drop hammer they had. My 2 brothers also worked there for 20+ years. I grew up hearing workplace stories about this place.
@@imreboldis like any and all jobs thats probably true. Especially like today when they make jobs harder than they need to be with stupid rules from college educated folks who never made anything in their life nor were ever made to run a forge like they made them do before ever being in charge back in the day.
Company I retired from used to sink and repair dies for Kropp Forge. I recognize the part and I’m sure we worked on these many times. They always let their tooling go to shit, then we were expected to make it right again.
i remember in 1979 ,Reisner metal there i wrked when i was 20 years old in L.A california,in a steam forgin hammer , thanks for sharing this video , nice memory.
This hammer is the 5051 at kropp forge in cicero ill. Its on 54th ave. U can watch when they got the big hammershop door open. The 40 is at the other end. My daddy retired from there in 2002.
I used to live just a half mile from this monster in Cicero. When I was a kid I used to ride my bike there to watch them forge parts like this, it was awesome to see. The ground shook with each blow, the video can't do it justice. My dad worked at the plant next door to Kropp called National castings. It's now an Amazon warehouse.
when the hammer rebounds, it losses some energy by not being perfectly in sinc with the rebound, it rebounds, drops a bit, then goes up. This probably losses some energy.
I ran steam hammers at Rockford Drop Forge... mine was a 5000pd ram...these hammers hit with authority and they were tricky for me at first, I come from a different forge shop..we had hydraulic Lasco hammers which I liked alot better. I also ran those old Board hammers, those things could be a nightmare.
My father worked there for 30 years this was my destiny but instead I decided to kill fish the rest of my life seeing that brings back some memories I will never forget the smell wasn't allowed but I would snuck in there to run a hammer one of the best parts of growing up
its an insane survivor, most companies like it were gone in the 80s and 90s when i was growing up but what it can make and where its located kept it alive. they forge titanium plane parts now
What are they making there? And what are those dangling chains up above on the steam gland and bolts used for? Are they there to warn that it’s falling apart and needs attention?
Интересно кузнечно штамповочный цех что на видео ещё работает?Я в таком цехе мастером проработал семь лет после института а завод назвался Донецкий экскаваторный завод ,находился в Ростовской области
My uncle and father worked a forge plant named " Cornell forging",,,In chicago ( late 60' s early70's) Is this " Cornell",,,???or renamed,,??? Once named " Cornell",,,???
Worked in a forging operation just like this for Ford Motor Co. back in the day. Same type of vertical drop stem hammer. This job gave you a sense of pride mainly because it was seriously dangerous physically demanding work. New guys starting out were sent packing if they couldn't cut it. No women were allowed to work in these operations. We were only a few in the company work force cut out to do this day in and day out. It took a special kind of guy to "make it"in these operations. Our work crew could achieve the company's daily production quota in as little as 5 hours, from that point you were headed out the door getting paid for 8 hours of labor. It was a good deal
I mean it looks like a death trap, but also like it does all the heavy lifting, what was the physically demanding part and why were women not allowed in the job? Was it that long "back in the days"? I am asking out of curiosity, as a woman who has worked hard physical industrial labor before, it wasnt that bad, actually it was a special kind of awesome and paid fitness if you ask me, heavy and exhausting but I just got healthier from it than a desk job and the people there were much more interesting to hold smoke breaks than any other job I have had.
@@homeopathicfossil-fuels4789 each forging operation varies depending on what is being produced. In this operation the forging is large requiring a forklift to handle it. In our operation at Ford, steel bars were heated in a furnace directly behind the drop hammer. Workers pulled these heavy orange hot bars out the furnace by hand using kevlar pads and grippers and then walk the heated steel to the hammerman to forge. The danger existed in various ways: the first obvious way is the 2000+ degree burns you get just handling the heated bars, your then being hit and burned by the flying steel particles from the orange hot steel being hammered on. Sometimes the whole fuel oil fed furnace would malfunction and completely burst in to flames while your working and your back is turned and you are unaware of what just happened directly behind you!! (those out of control furnace fires were spectacular to see as the intensity of the flames would collapse the plant roof overhead) Sometimes it took the fire department to come out and put these furnace fires out. Ford did try to implement women into these jobs at one time but it didn't work out because the women didn't have the upper body strength to carry the heavy steel bars and swing the sledge hammers required for the job.(if you couldn't adequately swing the sledge hammer with power behind it in the probationary period of being hired, management let you go) It was a big enough challenge for a man to do alone
@@kevins5011 The additional detail absolutely clarifies that! This is very interesting to read about, I can definitely see it not just being a "culture of the times" decision there. The experience working there as you relay sounds, for the lack of a "cheaper word" absolutely hadean. Must have taken a major toll on your body with those conditions. Did Ford ever compensate for any health related issues among workers at that plant?
@@homeopathicfossil-fuels4789 Ford and the union had good relations when i started in 1993, since i only worked at the Vulcan Forge plant in Dearborn my first 3 years at Ford i didn't have any long term adverse health problems. Ford generally moved workers on to better /easier jobs as they became available.I believe the company knew that workers longevity at that level of physical demand was limited. and looking back i appreciate the company was looking out for us because no one could be swinging sledge hammers at 50 or 60 years old. My long journey with Ford will be over in oct. of this year
@@kevins5011 That is really good to hear, I always carry a bit of worry for my fellow industrial laborers across the Atlantic. Wishing you the best of times in your otium/retirement! Thanks for telling me your story!
The man on the left side of the screen is blowing scale off the dies and the forging. Usually compressed air is used for this, but it looks like they might be using steam. At 0:15, the forging is lifted out of the bottom die, and he blows a ton of scale out of the bottom die cavity. You can see it all blowing over the guy's head and landing on the frame of the hammer and the floor. If the scale is not blown off, it will embed itself into the forging causing a pockmarked surface after the scale is cleaned off. The scale is also very abrasive and contributes to die wear, so you want to get it out of there if you can. At 0:30, after the scale is blown out, the other operator applies a lubricant to the bottom die. This whole process is repeated at 1:10. It looks like they are using graphite suspended in oil. The flare-up is the oil burning off, leaving a coating of graphite on the die surface. The forging would be at somewhere around 2200° F - 2300° F, so the oil ignites when it contacts the forging. There is someone else off-screen toward the right spraying water on the forging from a hose. I have no idea why they are doing this.
@@danjo64 great answer. I also know they liked to use sawdust and wood chips. More of an art than science. I was told the moisture and oils in the wood would explode on impact and blow the scale away.
$30 to $40\hr while they are in production making rate on a standard, time studied for piecework. I used to do the time studies at Interstate Drop Forge in Milwaukee Wisconsin, 1919-2002. RIP IDF!
Die steel is tough, resilient, dense, and impressions sunk in them will be re-flood welded, in the cavity, planed smooth, re-traced, and re sunk. The dies are stamped with numerical Identities, as re sinking is done over and over. That die block is a badass, and loves it's job, trust me.
This is my kind of ASMR
Friend: Hey dude - what kind of Music are you listening to?
Me: Oh, you know, Industrial.
I'm definitely into heavy metal!
I'm in NC, now I know where that damn knocking sound is coming from.
That's your friendly neighborhood subway train going bump in the night.
Cool to see rammstein making progress on the new album
Bro, do you even forge?
My late father worked at Kropp Forge for about 25 years, starting back in the mid-50’s. He ran the largest drop hammer they had. My 2 brothers also worked there for 20+ years. I grew up hearing workplace stories about this place.
Glad to hear Sherry!!! All the best to you
Completely deaf by age 32
What?
Brandon Roach The sound that the hammer is making is loud.
@@erikthechosenone I think you missed the joke Brandon was making
I would like this comment if not for my love of consistency
Ear plugs!!!
Love these old steam forges!! Totally awesome. What a kool job
I have a feeling that it is not really cool after 20-30 years.
@@imreboldis like any and all jobs thats probably true. Especially like today when they make jobs harder than they need to be with stupid rules from college educated folks who never made anything in their life nor were ever made to run a forge like they made them do before ever being in charge back in the day.
@@imreboldissadly I would probably have to agree not from personal experience but from logic the noise and vibration will take its toll
Company I retired from used to sink and repair dies for Kropp Forge. I recognize the part and I’m sure we worked on these many times. They always let their tooling go to shit, then we were expected to make it right again.
How long does it take to EDM sink one of those dies?
Yep of course repair and grind is always cheaper than do the machine do the work
i remember in 1979 ,Reisner metal there i wrked when i was 20 years old in L.A california,in a steam forgin hammer , thanks for sharing this video , nice memory.
This hammer is the 5051 at kropp forge in cicero ill. Its on 54th ave. U can watch when they got the big hammershop door open. The 40 is at the other end. My daddy retired from there in 2002.
I used to live just a half mile from this monster in Cicero. When I was a kid I used to ride my bike there to watch them forge parts like this, it was awesome to see. The ground shook with each blow, the video can't do it justice. My dad worked at the plant next door to Kropp called National castings. It's now an Amazon warehouse.
Is it still in use?
does it exist or it is now taco bell place??
@@toshockamazeandamuze8531 Yeah, now they forge out steel tacos.
@@codprawn no the place closed a few months ago and was bulldozed
A British announcer once exclaimed that Mike Tyson "hits like a steam hammer".
I now know what he meant by that.
I worked in a factory where deep tiller cultivator shovels were made using drop hammers very noisy and hot.
Dad did this for so long he would go to sleep right arm and right foot would keep going
I run a 40k pound Ceco Hammer.. they are so much fun!
That one is a 2500 weight hammer.
when the hammer rebounds, it losses some energy by not being perfectly in sinc with the rebound, it rebounds, drops a bit, then goes up. This probably losses some energy.
It is a drop hammer not a forging hammer like you would have in a blacksmith shop. There is nothing wrong with it.
@@Kunstsmed You did not understand me. I know what it is. Im talking about the way it comes back up, not about the way it goes down.
Sounds like gunfire. Forging like that is probably on S/E part of Chicago, close to Indiana Harbor and the steel mills.
It's in Cicero
Not Krupp, but Kropp.. weird. Is thus just coincidence?
Btw, as huge as this old girl is, she's by no means the largest in use.
"Why do I have pounding headaches?"
Does anyone have any idea how much the hammer weighed and how much force it produced?
A lot
Awesome!
I grew up a few kilometers from this facility
It seems that parts of this unit were reused at the canton drop forge
I ran steam hammers at Rockford Drop Forge... mine was a 5000pd ram...these hammers hit with authority and they were tricky for me at first, I come from a different forge shop..we had hydraulic Lasco hammers which I liked alot better. I also ran those old Board hammers, those things could be a nightmare.
is that at KROPP FORGE ????? in chicago??
yes it is.
My father worked there for 30 years this was my destiny but instead I decided to kill fish the rest of my life seeing that brings back some memories I will never forget the smell wasn't allowed but I would snuck in there to run a hammer one of the best parts of growing up
I would like to hear some memories from the old timers probably all rubbed out
it still exists but its aerospace forgings so im pretty sure industrial secrecy applies.
its an insane survivor, most companies like it were gone in the 80s and 90s when i was growing up but what it can make and where its located kept it alive. they forge titanium plane parts now
Le meilleur ami de l’homme ! Mais en très grand !!!
I used to work on repairing one of them when I started working as a millwright in mid 90s
What are they making there?
And what are those dangling chains up above on the steam gland and bolts used for? Are they there to warn that it’s falling apart and needs attention?
They are attached to the packing plate bolts around the rod in case they brake so they don’t fall on your head.
@@carljacobson8903 Thanks!
My father worked there for 30 years this was my destiny
Интересно кузнечно штамповочный цех что на видео ещё работает?Я в таком цехе мастером проработал семь лет после института а завод назвался Донецкий экскаваторный завод ,находился в Ростовской области
I loved this Work.All done By Hand No Hi'lo's.
How would you like to listen to that for about 20 years
Can't see what the forging is but it will sure be tough after all that forging!
Это не ковка,это штамповка в закрытых штампах,ковка выполняется плоскими бойками.На видео молот с массой падающих частей примерно 16 т
Looks like a part from a Boeing plane
Chicago Steel and Boiler? made bridges, reactors and parts for the Manhatten Project
You mean Chicago Bridge & Iron?
There was one on tata steel you can hear that thing 1000 meter from there it qas really loudth
you can hear that one two miles down Roosevelt Road
That thing could probably make your thumbnail turn purple.
Why water?
If that is the 50 my father broke it more than once
worked on the "chambersburg" next to the 50 (erie) 35000, and the 50000. that looks like the 35000.
I want one! Just to hammer anything for the fun of it.
Costs kropp forge 35000 dollars a year just to maintain it
Anyone know an experienced 50k Hammer operator? I’m looking to hire
المشكلة كيف نجيب المكابس الكبيرة والخولب وماكينات الخراطة الحديث
Warhammer 40k?
Kitna ton ka haymer hai
А у нас такой на заводе в металлолом порезали наши идиоты.
Этому молоту наверное 1000 лет... 😁
50000#?
Now I have anxiety and new fascination
My uncle and father worked a forge plant named " Cornell forging",,,In chicago ( late 60' s early70's) Is this " Cornell",,,???or renamed,,??? Once named " Cornell",,,???
Cornell Forge is still operating. This is not Cornell.
Worked in a forging operation just like this for Ford Motor Co. back in the day. Same type of vertical drop stem hammer. This job gave you a sense of pride mainly because it was seriously dangerous physically demanding work. New guys starting out were sent packing if they couldn't cut it. No women were allowed to work in these operations.
We were only a few in the company work force cut out to do this day in and day out. It took a special kind of guy to "make it"in these operations.
Our work crew could achieve the company's daily production quota in as little as 5 hours, from that point you were headed out the door getting paid for 8 hours of labor. It was a good deal
I mean it looks like a death trap, but also like it does all the heavy lifting, what was the physically demanding part and why were women not allowed in the job? Was it that long "back in the days"? I am asking out of curiosity, as a woman who has worked hard physical industrial labor before, it wasnt that bad, actually it was a special kind of awesome and paid fitness if you ask me, heavy and exhausting but I just got healthier from it than a desk job and the people there were much more interesting to hold smoke breaks than any other job I have had.
@@homeopathicfossil-fuels4789 each forging operation varies depending on what is being produced.
In this operation the forging is large requiring a forklift to handle it.
In our operation at Ford, steel bars were heated in a furnace directly behind the drop hammer. Workers pulled these heavy orange hot bars out the furnace by hand using kevlar pads and grippers and then walk the heated steel to the hammerman to forge.
The danger existed in various ways: the first obvious way is the 2000+ degree burns you get just handling the heated bars, your then being hit and burned by the flying steel particles from the orange hot steel being hammered on.
Sometimes the whole fuel oil fed furnace would malfunction and completely burst in to flames while your working and your back is turned and you are unaware of what just happened directly behind you!! (those out of control furnace fires were spectacular to see as the intensity of the flames would collapse the plant roof overhead)
Sometimes it took the fire department to come out and put these furnace fires out.
Ford did try to implement women into these jobs at one time but it didn't work out because the women didn't have the upper body strength to carry the heavy steel bars and swing the sledge hammers required for the job.(if you couldn't adequately swing the sledge hammer with power behind it in the probationary period of being hired, management let you go)
It was a big enough challenge for a man to do alone
@@kevins5011 The additional detail absolutely clarifies that! This is very interesting to read about, I can definitely see it not just being a "culture of the times" decision there. The experience working there as you relay sounds, for the lack of a "cheaper word" absolutely hadean. Must have taken a major toll on your body with those conditions. Did Ford ever compensate for any health related issues among workers at that plant?
@@homeopathicfossil-fuels4789 Ford and the union had good relations when i started in 1993, since i only worked at the Vulcan Forge plant in Dearborn my first 3 years at Ford i didn't have any long term adverse health problems. Ford generally moved workers on to better /easier jobs as they became available.I believe the company knew that workers longevity at that level of physical demand was limited. and looking back i appreciate the company was looking out for us because no one could be swinging sledge hammers at 50 or 60 years old. My long journey with Ford will be over in oct. of this year
@@kevins5011 That is really good to hear, I always carry a bit of worry for my fellow industrial laborers across the Atlantic. Wishing you the best of times in your otium/retirement! Thanks for telling me your story!
Would anyone be able to explain to me why they have the hose of water spraying on the item they're forging?
The man on the left side of the screen is blowing scale off the dies and the forging. Usually compressed air is used for this, but it looks like they might be using steam. At 0:15, the forging is lifted out of the bottom die, and he blows a ton of scale out of the bottom die cavity. You can see it all blowing over the guy's head and landing on the frame of the hammer and the floor. If the scale is not blown off, it will embed itself into the forging causing a pockmarked surface after the scale is cleaned off. The scale is also very abrasive and contributes to die wear, so you want to get it out of there if you can. At 0:30, after the scale is blown out, the other operator applies a lubricant to the bottom die. This whole process is repeated at 1:10. It looks like they are using graphite suspended in oil. The flare-up is the oil burning off, leaving a coating of graphite on the die surface. The forging would be at somewhere around 2200° F - 2300° F, so the oil ignites when it contacts the forging. There is someone else off-screen toward the right spraying water on the forging from a hose. I have no idea why they are doing this.
Breaks up the scale as the water boils and bursts after spraying out of the hose
@@danjo64 great answer. I also know they liked to use sawdust and wood chips. More of an art than science. I was told the moisture and oils in the wood would explode on impact and blow the scale away.
مثل هذه المطرقة مهم في صناعة
This is a musical instrument
هذه الصناعات مهمة جدا لدول لتقوية اقتصاده
I ran one of those in tennesee.ours had been converted to from steam to air.i lost my thumb cause of that dam thing
It took your thumb because you got stupid. Be honest.
ان مويد توفير مطرقة الكهرباية والهيدرليك حتي لو بمشاركة شركات متخصص ويكون متوفر في السوق هو وماكينات الخراطة الحديث مرطبة بجهاز كمبيوتر
If the car scrapyards use these it wil save alot of diezel cars wil flatten in one go
Be gentle it's my first time.
Also her...
The Hammer Should Swing.Up & Down Always For Maximum Hitting Power! The Workspace Would Take Less Hits To To Finish The Forging.
Did board drop hammer for 4yrs
Hello timekeeper this is Hammer 10 punch me out on change boards!
this job must pay good
$30 to $40\hr while they are in production making rate on a standard, time studied for piecework. I used to do the time studies at Interstate Drop Forge in Milwaukee Wisconsin, 1919-2002.
RIP IDF!
Is that the 50
nope the 50 is hydraulic in cleveland
@@ronblack7870 there was a 50 in Cicero in the 60s and 70,s
Badass! That's having fun making real man stuff!
this is got to be what hell is like.
That was MY first thought also when I saw it in person
его бы модернизировать, еще 100 лет проработает
It's either been moved to canton castings or parts from it or been cut up
Where are the feminists to do these jobs?
this will be perfect for squishing the most communism out of the most communists at once. like tomatos.
QUE MARTELO EMMMMMM
Why steam?
Better than cream.
More powerful than compressed air
Bu hava lı çekiç kaç binlik 30000 mi müthiş makina
50,000 pounds ram weight
Money!!!
9 tonnes el halouf
Video call kar
That's the inspiration behind Thor Hammer.
0:39 me knocking on my girlfriends door after she kicks me out
*2:03* *T* *O* *Y* *O* *T* *A*
That,s the fork lift used by thousands of companies in the USA Look at the workers(large Chicago men)
Believe it was called a manipulator
Poor dies
Die steel is tough, resilient, dense, and impressions sunk in them will be re-flood welded, in the cavity, planed smooth, re-traced, and re sunk. The dies are stamped with numerical Identities, as re sinking is done over and over. That die block is a badass, and loves it's job, trust me.
А что в итоге получилось - хрен его знает!
Какая электроника? Не не слышали)