An ad in Engineering News-Record, 8 October 1931, for the Vulcan Pile Extractor. It was used to extract arch web Lackawanna sheeting by the P.J. Kennedy & Co. of Holyoke, MA. Vulcan touted the advantages of a "single purpose machine" (as opposed to MKT's multipurpose hammer/extractors. MKT must have gotten the message, they developed the … Continue reading “Much Favorable Comment” for the Vulcan Extractor
Another of Vulcan's long time employees has passed away: Curtis Harmon, age 83, of Wellington, FL, passed away on February 26, 2020. Curtis was born in Chattanooga, TN on May 22, 1936. Curtis is survived by his wife of 40 years, Cynthia C. Harmon; his children, Mel Harmon, Terri (Sam) Alavi and Robert (Julie) North. … Continue reading RIP E. Curtis Harmon
This site, as it says in the masthead, is to chronicle "Vulcan Iron Works Inc. and the pile hammers it made." Every now and then, we feature new things about this old product line from Vulcan Foundation Equipment, which currently supports the line with new and used hammers, service and parts. The Vulcan 5150, first … Continue reading Vulcan 5150, Now With a Revised Design
It's a little late, but this, the 1971 Christmas card from Vulcan Iron Works. Above shows the Australian Avenue office; below is the greeting:
When Vulcan opened it's Australian Avenue office in West Palm Beach in 1966, it wasn't long after that Vulcan acquired one of those continuous loop background music tape players (as depicted below) that graced many offices, department stores and malls of the era. https://youtu.be/d2tx5NHDcHA Background "easy listening" music was pretty much a fixture at the … Continue reading Christmas Music at the Australian Avenue Office (Maybe)
Above is a job comparison from 1926, put together by the firm Proctor and Cleghorn of Santa Rosa, CA, showing the Vulcan #2--to say nothing of the #1 also--significantly outperforming the MKT 9B2 (which they superseded with the 9B3) driving concrete piles. Vulcan obtained this data from Harron, Rickard & McCone, Vulcan's dealer in California. … Continue reading When the Vulcan #2 Beat the MKT 9B2
One of the many "characters" in Vulcan's long (144 year) history was Jesse H. Perry, Vulcan's senior field service representative right up until his sudden death. As I mention elsewhere, it took a very special kind of person to do what Jess did. Construction is a high risk activity, and that's especially true with offshore … Continue reading When God Threw His Wallet on the Table
In an earlier post we presented the clearance dimensions for Vulcan onshore hammers. Above are those for the offshore hammers as well.
Vulcan was generally not hesitant to include information on the cycle workings of its air/steam hammers, but for some reason never included similar information on its extractors. Above is a diagram from 1940 which shows how this is done. Basically we start with the view on the left. Air or steam is admitted through inlet … Continue reading How Vulcan Extractors Work
Above is a clearance chart from 1979 of Vulcan's onshore air/steam hammers. The clearance chart is helpful in that it can show whether your Vulcan hammer can fit into a given set of leaders. One thing to keep in mind is that, if your leaders have a low distance from the front to the back … Continue reading Onshore Hammer Clearance Dimensions
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