DING-DONG

Rick Berk

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Feb 5, 2013
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I saw this piece of scrap brass at the scrap yard 6 months ago and instantly saw a finished part in it, must have come from a steam plant as it is cast brass and painted Kentucky chrome.


STEAM BELL 001.jpg STEAM BELL 002.jpg
I then turned the neck true, bored and threaded the inside. Rigged a setup for turning a nice radius for transition to facing the flange.,
STEAM BELL 003.jpg
All done, Sorry for the blur,STEAM BELL 004.jpg
Turned it over and faced the the bottom.STEAM BELL 005.jpg
Drilled and pipe tapped an intersection hole, band sawed the extra off and sanded smooth on both edges with my 30" master sander.,STEAM BELL 006.jpgi
I bought these SPAX lag bolts at Menards, trued up the flange and threaded 32 TPI bastard OD. Made 4 custom acorn nuts and polished the brass including the hex flats on a hard felt wheel.STEAM BELL 007.jpg
Cut the other two sides off on the band saw and then milled all 4 sides with a 14 degree patternmaker end mill and polished, drilled 4 mounting holes to the minor diameter of the SPAX lag bolts and then threaded the holes with an extra SPAX bolt and a Milwaukee electric impact wrench.,STEAM BELL 008.jpg
Cleaned up the steam dinger, painted the gong.,STEAM BELL 009.jpg
Mounted all up with hydraulic thread sealant to a 15 inch cast steel locomotive switched bell.,STEAM BELL 011.jpgd
Don't comment about safety procedures, it all worked, the plastic pipe and a few boards held the weight of the bell while getting the 4 lag bolts started in the pre tapped holes.,STEAM BELL 012.jpgo
All done, Acorn nuts look great, note the 3/8 brass tubing supply line to the bell. Several jigs were made to drill and tap the mounting holes good and square, another jig to drill the 3/8 supply line thru the shingles-3/4 plywood and 6 inch red oak post holding up the ridge pole, I then knurled a 3/8 SS rod and reamed the hole out to .381 so the tubing would slip in easily with no clearance. I now have a door bell that can be heard anywhere on the property when someone comes to visit.
 
Great use of materials and beautiful finish.
Well done all around!

-brino
 
That is one finely engineered bell mount Rick. Looks great! Nice work!
 
I've lived to long, had no idea what ding dong ditch was till I googled it. The Bast***s would not stand a chance here, between the rottweilers, motion detectors and Sam colt.

Thanks to all for the great comments sent out.
 
Any chance we can hear it in a little video?

Cheers Phil
 
Sorry, I do not have a camera or a phone line that can download it or I would be glad to. Population density does not justify running fiberoptics where I live, we are still on 1936 "C" wire. The bell has a high pitch and resonates a long time do to the material being cast steel, not the dull sound of a cast iron bell. I have it set on a pneumatic relay so once the button is pushed an electric solenoid open the 1/4" tubing line and rings the bell about 8 times before the pneumatic relay releases. the dinger only hits one side on the bell. I have installed a Watts oiler in the line to keep the ringer lubricated since I'm using 125 PSI compressed air rather than steam.

Regards
 
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