Northwest Ironworks Glass Crack Off Machine

[Groundjoints.com]

Hi Everyone,

I will be posting photos and a review of the glass crackoff machine that Northwest Ironworks sells on their website for $6500. I was able to purchase mine brand new in Phoenix over E bay from someone who ordered it and went out of business before it was delivered. Strangely enough it was on eBay for almost 3 months and ebay was the last place I thought to look in my search for a new crackoff.

Some days I cut 2000-3000 pieces of glass. Mostly in the 13mm - 38 mm range.
My cuts are as long as 18" and as short as 1". I require a straight cut and non blistered edge to prevent boiling.

I rented a Dodge Grand Caravan and tool all of the seats out of the back. Sent my driver to Phoenix to pick the machine up.
The machine is mounted to a 9' long solid steel table. Dismounted and left the table in Phoenix and now the machine is at my shop.60829

[Icarus]

Cool. Looking forward to hearing more about this.

[Groundjoints.com]

Here are 2 links to the machine running on youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFt4QF1Ei7c

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCKUICUBrVw

The speed controller suggests 6 for the best performance. It doesn't work below 6.

I have to admit I was pretty bummed when I fired it up.

[Groundjoints.com]

I had to change the drive wheels that came with the machine for 2 reasons:

One, they weren't machined round. As you can see in the youtube video here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcwDgcOFvhg

Two they are too small and you cannot cut and hold anything smaller then 26mm OD.

I replaced the wheels with cast iron V pulley sheaves that were larger in diameter and exactly round.

[Groundjoints.com]

The torch was a 6 jet 12.5mm OD machined torch at 36" long. The mixing chamber for the Hydrogen and Oxygen fuel as seen below was determined to be a hollow aluminum block with threads cut into it. No actual mixing seems to occur anywhere and it makes it difficult to stabilize the flames when cutting tubing over 50mm.

The installed stop allows for cutting tubes as short as 18". You cannot cut anything shorter then 18" with the installed stop.

The motor seems to be a big part of the problem here. I spoke with Vince, who explained that my machine has an "economy" motor which was installed because they don't make the motor he likes anymore and to get a replacement you have to order 25 motors. Vince is not willing to order 25 motors at this time so it is safe to say all of the future models will be shipped with this same motor. It is a DC motor so finding a replacement seems to be really tricky. Plus the recommended max revolutions for this machine is 75. This motor has a base RPM of 1350.


I was really excited to get this machine in my shop. Upon trying to put it into service I was absolutely mortified.

Northwest Ironworks motto is "All of our equipment is built to last a lifetime". I am seriously disappointed in the build here.

[NWIRONWORKS]

Good morning fellow glass workers. This is Vince from Northwest Iron Works.

Recently I came across this thread posted by the guys at Glass Tech and thought I would chime in to protect my good name in the glass industry and try to explain why the guys at Glass Tech are having trouble with one of my machines. The main reason that the guys are having problems is that the used machine they purchased off E-bay was not built for their application. This machine was built for a company out of Arizona to cut 50mm glass pipe for the tube industry. I do not offer a machine that will crack glass tube under 35mm. To crack glass under 35mm in the quantities that Glass Tech is trying to achieve would take a machine that is designed to run glass that small. The machine needed to crack glass as small as 13mm would have to be built to extreme close tolerances. The bed and rollers must be adjusted perfectly to run the glass extremely straight without any movement side to side and up and down, the motor would have to be changed to run the glass at a slower rate to eliminate any unwanted movement from inertia, I would also change the chain drive to belt drive to make the machine run as smooth as possible, the torch would have to be changed to accommodate the smaller diameter glass, I would also recommend changing the mixing style of the torch to a surface mix instead of a pre-mix to achieve such a small flame. The pre-mix torch needs a certain amount of atmospheric air around the torch in the tube or it will extinguish or run erratic , which could also cause flash back in the torch.

I hope the explanation I gave above sums up why I think the recent purchase of this machine does not fit the application Glass Tech needs. I also wanted to point out that nothing was said in the thread if the machine was tested before purchasing. It seems as if the machine was tested the guys would of realized that major modifications would be needed to fit their application.

If you would like to see my Glass Crack-Off Machine in action go to the You Tube links below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcRmDaOVaJk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3drvYuKyPOI

Thanks, and have a Great Day!

Vince
Northwest Iron Works

[Groundjoints.com]

Major modifications were made to the machine in order to make it OPERABLE. Yes it is by it's construction unsuitable for our needs. We looked up the instruction manual for the included controller and turned the speed control adjustment down. Replaced the sticker that said recommended speed 6 with one that said recommended speed 1.


Replaced the out of round drive wheels with cast iron pulley sheaves. Now it cuts down to 22mm tubing.

A perfect cut on a crack off machine should be flat and straight with no feathering or cracks along the outside. This will give you a surface that when heated quickly will not boil.

In the videos Vince shared with us it is evident that the tube cut is not flat or straight, you can see a tooth sticking out of the cut stock. You would have to heat and peel the cut end which we can't do.





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