Prototype New Professional Horseshoe Design

[mc-motorsports]

I could probably make a couple of the ductile iron prototypes from the polymer clay master.

That's your best bet right there! Good luck!

[D.L]

Hello Photon713,
My name is Dirk, I used to work at a small toolroom in melbourne's east who were working on the 'gliders' range of urethane overmolded alloy forgings. I took over the overmold design for 8 months while the guy joey went to do tool design in queensland. He came back and i eventually got a s**t sandwich. In my research I discovered there is no industry standard for shoe sizes or nail pitching. Farriers a headstrong about what they require and one should not meddle with their opinions, in fact, ignoring their opinions is what caused the almost failure of the venture. Listen to their every word, they are the key to success. Most of the race shoes are forged alloy with a steel toe insert. Avoid the temptation to putting a soft coating of any description!!!! Farriers see those types of shoes as a treatment for lame horses! There is a huge scope for standardising the horseshoe industry but it would need full backing from the biggest names in the business.
These 'gliders' shoes were a team effort of 5 or so small business' and all lost large sums of money by the way of poor marketing and as i mentioned, ignoring the industries requirements.
Might i suggest laser cutting the shoes from 5mm steel plate, make a stamping tool to coin the tip of the shoe and fold over 90 degrees with a nice radii.
Please avoid the soft coatings idea, it's pure poison with the racing fraternity.

[Photon713]

Thanks, Dirk for responding...

Sorry for any confusion. I am inquiring about professional pitching horseshoes. I have completed my first prototype and sent it off yesterday to one of the members of this forum for casting. I am slowly adding software for design and hardware for the basement shop. After I receive the first cast prototype, I'll be testing for results and modifying as necessary. I soon hope to be able to create CAD files to cut a pattern for casting. I'll be shopping around in the Baltimore metro area for a CNC shop. Regards

[D.L]

Aha, shoe throwing. Have not played that for years.

[madaouk]

Hello Photon713 , its interesting what you r doing with the horse shoes , so is it a new design for better performance or just manufacturing it , and what kind of matirial will it be casted ..

[D.L]

My employer at the time was part of a group of companys being in partnership with a business/salesman gent named 'Ron ', I forget his surname.
The deal was each company produces tooling and parts for free in exchange for a percentage of the future return. Good business sense on everyones part.
Unfortunately, the research was pointing towards a hard shoe, which the market is well catered for.
Everyone kept pushing for success, but the market did not take.
During my 12 months there I designed maybe 10 plastic molds, not very good ones. 4 months the customer work was put on hold for the urethane horseshoe tooling and this hurt my ex boss dramatically in terms of finance.
He sold out just before the whole deal went south.
By chance, I had become a bit switched on to horseshoes, Apple raceplates were the leaders of the market. Good product.

Throwing them might be good therapy for my old boss!

[wihusker]

Good morning, mc-motorsports and Superman...

The National Horseshoe Pitching Association has developed a set of guidelines which I would need to adhere to.
Length no greater than 7.625 inches (7-5/8 in.)
Width no greater than 7.250 inches (7-1/4 in.)
Front opening no greater than 3.50 inches (3-1/2 in.)
Height no greater than 1.0 inches.
Horseshoe cannot exceed 2 lbs 10 ozs. (no minimum)
The horseshoe stake for professional competition is 1 inch in diameter.
Any design must be approved by the NHPA. I am hoping that the members of this forum can recommend a quick way to create a prototype in a material that permits live testing. Further, the ability to modify the design and create a new prototype. My primary concern is the inner design and what happens when the horseshoe strikes the stake. Thus, I would be able to work with a 1/4 inch thick cutout. However, this is a personal venture to help the flip style horseshoe pitcher particularly Elder qualified (70+ years old) pitchers.
Consequently, I am looking to the professionals on this forum to give me some idea as to the best approach as well as the least costly method of creating quick prototypes. I can come up with a master for molding and casting using a polymer clay which hardens when heated. I am hoping to capture the characteristics of impact with high speed video. Any suggestions will be most welcome..Thank You in advance. You can contact me directly at bobrass at verizon dot net .

If you had a 3-D model you could send it to me, and I could have a casting for you tomorrow out of cast Iron. I'm not sure where you are located, but we are in central Iowa. We have people walk in and we make them samples the same day.

[Photon713]

One of your forum members has been kind enough to help me with ductile iron prototypes. He is doing a fantastic job. I am finished with the design and testing phase and now readying a ductile iron version for submission for approval by the NHPA. Cast iron, ZA12 and Silicon Bronze did not work out for various reasons. I am hoping to have one or two versions available for the coming season. Thank you for your kind offer.