Where to locate the powerhammer?

[Valentin]

Nope...it's a russian copy of a beche...i think it's nothing written on it and the guy who soled it to me found it on a bar at his newly bought property and had no ideea about it.Very similar 2 a Beche thow but it has a manual oil pump.

[ThomasPowers]

Image dude since all your work is being done with 20' long lengths of steel you need to put the powerhammer by an open door so you can work the whole piece

Ooops: since all your work is billet welding and no billet over 3' long you can put it right by the wall and make a port hole for it.

Or since you didn't tell us what you are going to be using for it it's just a waste of time for us to guess.

[HWooldridge]

Mine is in the middle of one end of the shop about 10 feet from three walls on that end. That way, I can get all around it as necessary.

[imagedude]

Originally Posted by ThomasPowers

Image dude since all your work is being done with 20' long lengths of steel you need to put the powerhammer by an open door so you can work the whole piece

Ooops: since all your work is billet welding and no billet over 3' long you can put it right by the wall and make a port hole for it.

Or since you didn't tell us what you are going to be using for it it's just a waste of time for us to guess.

Interesting that you know what work you will be doing in the future. Personally I have no idea what work I may pick up, I'm sure both of the above examples are possibilities.

[jeremy k]

Imagedude - I find that working 10ft lengths is about all I want to deal with, course I work alone. A heat in the middle and traveling to the hammer is always interesting, having a helper will or would be better if you need to work full 20ft lengths. Depending on what lengths you want to deal with will determine your parameters of hammer placement. I did orient my 25lb LG so that if I was to work a 20ft stick I could open the office door and run through the door opening - never have had to do that yet though. - JK

[ThomasPowers]

Well since you don't know what you will be doing you will be building a 100' by 100' building with a 40' ceiling with a rolling crane right? Just in case?

Generally you build for what you expect to be doing and modify as that changes.

If you expect to be doing knife/sword work; best to set up for that. If you expect you will be doing large ornamental work best to set up for that.

So what do you see yourself doing in the near term?

Thomas

[imagedude]

Originally Posted by ThomasPowers

So what do you see yourself doing in the near term?

Thomas

Making gates, ornamental furniture and damascus billets.

[Frosty]

Originally Posted by ThomasPowers

Well since you don't know what you will be doing you will be building a 100' by 100' building with a 40' ceiling with a rolling crane right? Just in case?

Generally you build for what you expect to be doing and modify as that changes.

If you expect to be doing knife/sword work; best to set up for that. If you expect you will be doing large ornamental work best to set up for that.

So what do you see yourself doing in the near term?

Thomas

You know Thomas we think so much alike sometimes it's almost scary. That or we've run into some of the same problems and solutions? . . .NAW.

It's not so hard to build for future expansion and modification. It's almost a must unless you're on your second or third shop and have an established clientele and or specialty.

Myself I'm a generalist in metal so my (under construction still!) shop reflects that. It's a 30' x 40' x 14' red iron steel building on a 24" sq footing and 6" slab.

I didn't know where I wanted to put my power hammer when I got or built one so I planned the shop for it. The general area I want the power hammer has an 8" floor with doubled ebar. It's positioned pretty central to the shop on the west wall. It's going in that general location because that's where the jib crane is going.

The swing and capacity of the jib crane will allow me to lift and move 500 lbs. from the forge to the hammer easily. It'll have a chain sling on a hoist as seen in old timey movies of smiths working heavy stock under power hammers.

I don't know if I'll set it up so I can service a full 21' from either direction but may. Texturing and otherwise working long stock full length is a possibility I'm not going to ignore.

If I build my own hammer which is the most likely probability I'll design the dies for quick change and make them easy to rotate 90*. In this case positioning the hammer will be easy. If on the other hand I find a hammer locally for affordable I MAY have to figure a way to get 21' either way. This will take up a lot more room though.

So Imagedude, we're sort of in the same boat. Neither of us know exactly what we're going to be doing in our shops. Where we differ is, I've been at it for enough decades to know how to set myself up with a reasonably adaptable shop and keep my options open without crippling (figuratively speaking) myself in the process.

One of the best lessons my Father taught me is: You better have a "darned" (Dad didn't say "darned") good reason to turn down a profitable job. He was also well known for thinking things through thoroughly whenever possible.

Researching and asking questions is good.

Frosty

Frosty

[Pault17]

I know this probably doesn't pertain, but, while I was scootin thru the net looking for evermore instructional smithing video clips, I found this one that is scary. where would you put this?
(sorry for bugging somebodies thread, but It felt like it pertained)
Just eyeballing the metal this guy is throwing around, it looks really heavy. would hat to "accidentally" let slip

YouTube - fireballs - drop forging

[Frosty]

I have a neighbor who deserves it right on our property line. <evil grin>

Frosty