Shop Tour
Courtesy of John Buchtenkirch
Written by Rick Mammel

Since Wray volunteered me as roving reporter I better start taking the position seriously.
Below you will find a photo of John Buchtenkirck demonstrating his Pullmax P21
with Erco Shrinking dies installed. He pulls the shrink into that part in around 18-20 seconds.

Admittedly he had the machine set up pretty tight but it easily took it in stride.
He was running it at around 400SPM.

One of the things stopping the use of shrinking dies in most Pullmaxes is the space limitation
between the toolholders to stack "off the shelf "kicker dies and the speed they run at.
Stroke too is an issue. If you have everything tight on the work and stroke it further that the dies capacity,
the dies will blow up. Ask anyone who has missed a setting on a Erco 476 mechanical power shrinker.
Anyway John has solved these issues simply by the choice of his machine.
The P21 has a greater throat height, infinitely variable speed, plenty of stroke settings, and to
make a perfect application an air tool lift. This feature allows you to
engage and disengage the work to the dies with a foot pedal. Perfect!!!! --MORE INFO --

The second photo is of my buddy Carl Morton trying it out. Mounting shrinking dies in a Pullmax
has been on Carl's mind for years and I know he appreciated John's input on the application..

BTW , The door in the background is to John's Hammer Room. Vault is the
proper term. I am guessing but everything around that door along with that door is at least 14ga.
I guess John figured at the cost of hammers these days he better keep the locked in a safe place.
You guys in Kansas better get one of these for a tornado shelter.

The brake is a 812 Whitney Jensen and you will not find a better
condition unit NOT even new. The blades in it are beyond perfect.
It is rumored to be for sale!!!!!

Notice the 33 on a rotisserie that has casters worth $500 ea.
Though it is stacked everywhere there is not a thing or piece of
material that is not set up with a device for it's retrieval. John has
mechanized his space limitations.
As I said before it is not a small shop just lots of stuff.

Pullmax and tooling