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I Forge Iron

Wroughtnharv

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    Harveylacey.com

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    Wylie, Texas
  • Interests
    Metal, wood, stone

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  1. Alright, we are going to the TMI dept for a minute. It was about the time of this discussion that we, best thing about me and myself, purchased an older motorhome and did some traveling. My wife is NED (no evidence of disease) concerning the breast cancer we discovered a year earlier. In May of 2015 she had her well woman exam and the mammogram showed nothing, they double checked it after September of that year she had 4 cm tumor in her right breast. Bi-lateral mastectomy, chemo, Herceptin regimen with the possible heart hiccups etc. My position is that cancer might take my wife but when it does all it's going to get is a shell. Her list bucket will be empty, nada, vapors only. Blacksmithing isn't in the same room as the list bucket. The older motor home is the number one priority at this time. We bought the two hammers together. My bud wanted the shorter one because it fit better in his shop area. So before we head out for our great RV adventuring one oh one I'm going to make sure the shorter hammer functions well enough for bud to enjoy it. The old spring set up is at THE spring shop in Dallas according to reputation. The master spring guy has a full plate with normal vehicle spring stuff, even though they are basically a blacksmith shop for custom leaf springs he told me he will make me what I want because he doesn't have a clue about what we need. Here's my plan: multi leaf assembly based upon the tall hammer with five springs 2 1/2" wide and 5/16ths thick. The biggest difference is the overall length, 38" vs 40" and the shorter springs will be longer by a couple of inches. The connecting rod will be made from a tractor three point top link so we get the adjustments we need when using tooling. I've modified the anvil portion of the hammer and will go over that in a couple of days. Monday I will call the spring master and give him the above instructions. Concerns and advice is appreciated. One of the issues I'm having fun with is the memory comes and goes. After bud called me with the information that the spring master would make what we wanted I went to google for some discussions on the topic. This thread came up number one. I make jokes about the safety glasses with the readers is because there are a bunch of us old guys who need the readers and safety glasses these days. Now I appreciate Google even more, and the young people think it's for them..........
  2. Man I understand about the rotator cuff surgery, but your third? One was enough for me. I stumbled and fell so I intinctively tucked and turned. I caught an ear on a three point seed spreader and instantly ripped out the rotator cuff tendon along with the statuawhatever one too, the one the pitchers always lose. It was instantly very limited use of the left arm. They spent 6+ hours in there and then I broke most of the rules for rehab and I still have 100% range of motion and use of arm almost six years later. The right one however is a different story, throw like a girl for years now. They want to go in and scrape and clean and then reattach but I haven't found the time or inclination to go through the event one more time. Most of the blacksmiths I know are like me. I wanted the kewel tools to make things but now it is different for me. I have the kewel things to make and find that I need the tools.. The most amazing new tool that I have found is the flypress. It doesn't have the brute force of a hydraulic press but man is it fun to work. There's almost the zen one gets moving metal with a hammer and the control, it's total. The two hammers we picked up were grabbed because we knew that we were going to need power hammers and had set our hearts to have tire hammers because of cost and the customization potential. Right now I'm up to my butt in alligators with other projects but am seeing these hammers as being much more than a way to smash hot iron. I can see one seeing these hammers the way I see the fly press. It's not the end all of do alls but it can be something slick enough to make WD40 look like glue.
  3. What would we do without the internet???? Okay guys, here's the plan. I've got a scrap yard that treats me good (ten to fifteen cents per pound) and they are searching high and low, other scrapyards as well, for me some 6" diameter round or square solid stock for anvil material. I've already grabbed three point top link for the pitman arm. And in the next day or three I'm going to cut out the anvil on the first machine. If the heavy stock is located and picked up then I will go back with it. If it isn't then I will box in the 3 1/2" round stock with 1 1/2" X 4" bar stock to give it some substance. The first machine will end up looking like a squatty body second machine.
  4. This is the second hammer. It will go in my shop. The first hammer will go to another shop and we want it working as well as possible before we install it.
  5. If you look at the hammer head on you will see that the anvil is welded to the channel and then another piece of the same material is welded in between the channel and the heavy angle base. There are two pieces of heavy wall tubing on each side of the anvil between the channel and the base, one on each side. The total of the anvil is 32" of 3 / 1/2" solid bar. I am going to pull the piece of round bar out between the channel and the new base plate on the frame. I will build a new section between the channel and the new base plate out of half inch plate. This will make the main beam solid from the new base plate to the hinge point at the top. I will remove the rear legs because they aren't needed with the modification. The main spring leaf is 1/4" X 2 1/2" X 38" and where the additional leaf contacts it there are Knicks in the main leaf. I see this as a problem. So Vaughn based upon your photos and what you said I understand that too much spring rate is better than not enough, right? I can order a new flat spring that is thicker and then add to the connecting rod so that the new spring will be straight when at rest, right? Thanks again for your patience.
  6. Thank you for your patience with me Vaughn. I'm in the autistic spectrum which means I am luckier than most people when it comes to figuring things out, I just have to convert it into my way of thinking to get it to sink in. The way I see it the anvil on this hammer weighs about 90 lb according to the calculator. The original hammer weighs about 18 1/2 lbs and the add on is about 17 3/4 lbs more total of 36 1/4 pounds, less than 1 to 2 in your formula. Using the 927 lb chunk of steel is out because it serves as down pressure on the box blade, works like a fire hose in a water fight with the kiddos for that. I have a great working relationship with two scrap yards. One of them will sell me bulk at $.10 lb so I can probably find a block or cylinder of solid that weighs about 400 lbs for the anvil, this is doable. If you can double check my math. Back in the day I was pretty good at it in my head but that was then and this is now, dyslexia is coming out of nowhere occasionally and I have to triple check the math and sometimes still come up with four different answers.
  7. Vaughn you are a heckuva a lot smarter'n than you look. What you said makes a ton of sense. As for the anvil, they've got a piece under the anvil that is a direct shot straight down to the base, there are three legs under the anvil, one in the middle. BTW I have a 927 lb chunk of steel that I used to use for my anvil stand, claimed I had a 1,000 lb anvil, didn't work that way though. I have some 4" tubing with 3/4" wall thickness that I can use for the anvil, let me think about it. One other thing, the bow in the spring bothers me, do you think I should change the connecting rod length to have it straight when sitting at TDC on the flywheel and resting on the anvil? Thanks again I'm the wrong one to be asking those kind of questions. The hammers were available at a price that we thought reasonable and picked them up. The motor came with a couple of different pulleys and I chose the smallest to make it easier on the motor and slow down the operation.
  8. We picked up a couple of the Applachian style hammers the other day. Each one had some issues and I'm trying to work my way through one of issues on this one. It hits really hard and there is no way I can see to feather it for light hits. If you look at the head you will see they added some weight because they said it didn't hit hard enough. I'm thinking this might be the problem because it appears they almost doubled the head weight and didn't alter the spring to accommodate it. The spring has an arc when the head is resting on the anvil and the cam pin on the wheel is at TDC. The belt grabs the motor pulley when the motor is rocked forward. It's a very direct connection and I don't see where the use of an idler pulley system would change anything. This is the first experience with this kind of power hammer and any advice would be very much appreciated. I had a fifty pound Litlle Giant about twenty years ago but sold it because I didn't use it enough to justify having it. This hammer hits about the same from the get go as the LG did when asked to hit hard. I've got to finish the foot linkage assembly. I wanted to have a foot pedal that could be operated from about a range of 120 degrees. I also want the linkage to be tucked back out of the way so it won't be as easy to accidentally engage the hammer, I don't need a potato chip instead of a finger. In the next day or so I will do a video with it working on some hot bar so the learned here and have some information to work with. I appreciate the help and will have the phone with the camera and service available if someone needs photos to see details.
  9. My father just had his 90th birthday, I'll be 68 next month. I learned to weld on hot dipped galvanized fence tubing .065 wall over forty years ago. My dad worked in the gate shop and that was where I learned to weld. I don't weld it every day but I don't avoid it either. I've had zinc poisoning maybe four times in my life. The symptoms for me was like having a bad case of body aches caused by the flu. It was pretty miserable for about three hours and then I would be fine. I take precautions, well, one, I'm always in a well ventilated area and I try to not inhale fumes. If the material is heavy galvanized like large beams and angles I will grind the area first. The biggest thing I have learned is all of us are different and our bodies react differently to chemicals. I've known a lot of welders who could and would weld galvanized. I've also seen people who got deathly ill just getting down wind from the welding operation. The most memorable was a neighbor who wanted a bird cage, 8' X 8' X 18'. Nothing but a thing. I picked up some 1 5/8" 16 gauge galvanized fence tube and he helped one evening cutting it out while I was welding it up. Three days later I went over to see what had happened to him because he had missed our scheduled after work work. He was in bed sicker than a dog with the "flu". If you do get a harsh reaction to the welding fumes I would recommend being checked out for asthma or COPD. The fumes can irritate an existing issue. I'm not recommending for anyone to weld galvanized if they feel threatened. But I do know that there are a lot of other things out there that present a much greater threat to us welders. Some of the plastics used in coating outside and or inside of tubing are a lot more toxic. If you want to have your breath taken away cut into some drill stem with a plastic liner. You will only do it once intentionally. http://www.weldmyworld.com/blog/2011/12/side-effects-of-welding-galvanized-steel.html
  10. Mig welding with silicon bronze wire is the thing to do when welding galvanized materials. It is brazing and the advantage is the minimizing of the zinc fumes created. Production manufacturing of galvanized gates etc is so much easier and safer with the silicon bronze wire. The hiccup is the cost, wire cost more and argon has to be used. Cor-ten is some pretty cool stuff. It's what shipping containers are made of.
  11. Dorthy Steigler is a master of silicon bronze. Google her and hold on. I love the bronze because it is to forging what TIG welding aluminum is to welding.
  12. Uh, great idea. I had a punch fall into the hole when changing it out and it took some real work to get it out. I barely fit going in and didn't want to fit coming out. I was ready to get the tractor to lift the press when I tried one more time with the .035 mig wire noose with success.
  13. Someone somewhere said something very appropriate here, "know your limitations." I don't think anyone appreciates the beauty of your shop and work more than me. But I can't imagine working under those circumstances. I used to believe I was a slob but years of thinking about it have helped me understand the clutter. It's about the creative process. If getting from point A to B in the shop takes creativity then the process is in play, mind is ready to make something out of nothing. That said, I love your work and place.
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