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SGensh

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  1. Steve, my name is Denny I'm 8 Knives into my New hobby. I'm "ALL IN"  for the investment of a Power Hammer, and ready to build it! I was browsing Info and found your Schematic for the air control system "The Norgen 500" for your hammer you built in 2007? I was wondering if you hammer is still in good running condition? Did you have to make any major changes ? and would you build it the same if you had to start over? I would like to build a life time hammer and do it on the first try. I would like to use the part numbers on the valvedia1.pdf if its tried and true. 

    Thanks for all the Info, and you being willing to share it.

    D.Lo 

  2. Larry, Why not take John's sugggestion and give Ralph a call before you make a decision. I've run his 3b on the steel base and it works fine (though we weren't beating it full out either). He's had it set up that way now for a few years so there's some perspective there. I recently helped him retrieve a very early two piece 2B and I know he plans on mounting that one on a steel plate also. If you know Steve Parker call him for his opinion also. He's run Ralph's and his 4B at work is on a traditional foundation so he'd have a good perspective to advise you from. Steve G
  3. Mac Talis Iron, You will definately want to use two layers of Kaowool or similar insulation. If you would like a guide to the sizes to cut your insulation for the freon bottles you mentioned you can do a quick search on this forum for "freon can furnace dimensions" and you'll find a jpg. attachment of a drawing giving sizes for the pieces needed. Hope it's helpful, Steve G
  4. Kerisman, You may want to take a look at the deburring tools offered by companies like Shaviv and Noga before you decide that the grinder is the best way of deburring your copper. The MSC catalog should show both as well as others. There are lots of unpowered hand tools that work very well and very fast for that purpose, sheet metal companies use them all the time. I've been using the same two Shaviv tools (replaceable blades) for many years myself for hole deburring. I also use a very inexpensive little 1" by 42" belt sander for a lot of edge cleanup on steel sheet metal and cut off parts. Mine happens to be an old Grainger unit I bought about thirty five years ago which is on its second second hand motor. These things are nowhere near as sophisticated as my Bader or some of the other sanders available but they are everywhere in shops and used ones are easily found in flea markets or used tool sales if you don't want to spring the few bucks for a new one. Belts (particularly in this popular size) are far cheaper than good wheels and a snap to change on most machines. Good Luck on the wheel search, Steve G
  5. It seems to me that your method for loading the hammer with the offset gantry is pretty much the most sensible way you could have done it. I've done the same type of loading with mine, sometimes even right into the back of the pickup. I made my gantry so it would just fit inside the eight foot bed. I'm guessing that you've also figured out that when the gantry has wheels like yours does you can use it to move a load over an uneven surface pretty easily by picking it up slightly with the hoist at one end of your beam and gliding it over to the other end on the trolley. Then just set it down and reposition the gantry for the next portion of travel and repeat. If you are working on a soft surface (say a hot ashpalt driveway) with a wheeled gantry you may want to use blocking under the base when picking to spread the load better than the wheels will do- you don't want one sinking in on you especially if you are close to capacity. Thanks for sharing your inventiveness with everybody. Steve G
  6. I don't know the volume of propane your Chile Forge will consume in an hour as it burns as pressure is not a really good indicator of flow just by itself. Let's assume you are using a two burner unit and want to run it at fairly high pressure for a good heat. In most cases of a high withdrawal flow a twenty pound barbecue tank will wind up freezing up on you fairly quickly if you use only one so the idea of using a bulk tank if you have one is appealing. Since your chances of getting any propane company to run a high pressure (anything above 11" water column to them) line into your home or garage are practically nill don't bother fighting it. Go out and buy yourself a manifolding coupler so you can join two small tanks which you can either exchange (twenty pounders) or have filled easily (thirty or forty pounders) and screw the POL fitting on your regulator into that manifold coupling and have at the forging. It's probably a lot safer to have everything indoors where you can see it and reach the tank shutoff valves rather than have them in an inaccesible location if there is any kind of problem. Buy a good quality fire extinguisher at the same time you buy the manifold coupler and keep it handy and up to date. Keep a spray botle of soap solution handy and check every connection every time you use the appliance also. For what it's worth if you do buy a manifold coupler try to avoid using anything with a copper tube connection between the two tanks. Most propane companies will use this type to connect two houshold bulk tanks which they will be filling from a delivery truck and which will not be disturbed once they are connected. Your usage will be different as you will need to disconnect and move the tanks to have them refilled and you could easily kink a copper tube when doing so leading to a weak spot, crack, or leak. A manifold for our type of use should have a flex hose between the two tanks. Good luck with the new forge.
  7. AJ, I'm a big fan of simplicity when it's appropriate. That's why I use a spring return shuttle valve. In my opinion it's more important to achieve overall good control than to have a lot of extra adjustments that need to be fiddled with or extra parts to add complications. (Again just my opinion, no intention of starting any arguments.) I think that one of the bigggest control problems with most Kinyons is the non linear performance of the ball valve and it's usual location way down the line from the shuttle and therefore the cylinder it's trying to control. Along with this is the fact that most hammers seem to be plumbed with air lines of too small a diameter leading to pressure and flow restrictions. All that leads to sluggish performance which costs both power and control. If you look at that PDF I posted you'll notice I suggest relatively large diameter lines (including the pilot valve line). A hammer with good flow and little restriction will be a "snappy" runner- it will accelerate the ram quickly and just as quickly try and turn it around. Any of you who have run one of John Larson's Iron Kiss hammers will recognize exactly what I am talking about. You don't need to do anything special to get a single blow out of those hammers- just stomp the treadle and quickly let off. One Bang; and variable in force once you get the hang of it. My Kinyon style works the same way and everybody elses can too with very simple upgrades to valving and plumbing. Of course like anyhting else you do develop a feeling for how you work the throttle or treadle for consistant control. Most of us aren't going to walk up to an unfamiliar hammer and get it perfect right off. Steve G
  8. Here's a diagram for the simplest form of the Kinyon style hammer. The part numbers are immaterial but it is important to have as much air flow as possible through the valves so be sure whatever you use has the largest CV or flow rate you can find using your rources of supply. If my opinion you have good flow and a properly sized cylinder for your ram weight most of the "improvements" are uneeded. Lots of these hammers have been built with very small diameter cylinders which exagerates the difference between the rod and plain sides of the cylinder, it's better to use one of relatively large diameter and moderate rod diameter for more balanced action. The original Kinyon plans call for a ball valve at the end of a very long tube as the throttle, replace that ball valve with a butterfly valve which is designed for throttling applications instead and mount it as close to the main valve as you can. Use a linkage from your pedal or treadle to the throttle valve. The improvement in control is quite noticable. The hammer these controls are on has a ninety pound ram and uses a three inch (nonstandard) cylinder. It does single blows reliably and runs fast also. Good luck with your project. Steve G valvedia1.pdf
  9. That's a nice looking anvil. I have a 400 pounder also and use it as my main forging anvil. You may not know it yet but there is a very good possibility that the feet of your anvil are tapped with or cored for 5/8-11 threads from underneath. Lay the anvil on its side or lift it on a hoist and look for the holes which may well be full of junk right now and need cleaning out. (Hint, when later style Fisher's (without the v in the back) don't have lugs look for the mounting holes on the bottom. I've seen it on several.) If you really find that you need to fix those cuts on the horn remember that the top of it is not cast iron but a thick tool steel insert. Don't try and weld it like cast iron or with cast iron rods. The best thing in most cases is to not weld at all but if you do just preheat very little and use a mig welder with mild steel wire for a quick pass and sand it to shape with a paper disc on a grinder. I think you will love this anvil the more you use it. I'll add a picture of mine bolted down on it's fabricated stand. The stand has it's hollow center area filled and packed with the chips from my cold saw for extra mass. Good luck with it. Steve G
  10. Nathan does in fact make some beautiful hammers but he also helps folks learn to make their own. He just gave a hmmer making class at my shop this weekend. Two seperate one day sessions of eight students each yielded sixteen happy blacksmiths with hand made heat treated and handled hammers of several designs. If any of you are in an area where he gives a class I highly recomment it. Nathan provided the blanks, handles, and instruction. Each student provided the labor and enthusiasm. Nathan and I struck for some of the participants and others worked as teams taking turns providing striking for each other. Each student at this event paid only seventy five dollars for the instruction and the materials which was a terrific bargain(only because he doesn't charge enough. Here are a couple of pictures of the setup, Nathan instructing, and the eight hammers made by the class on Sunday. Steve G
  11. I've been at a blacksmithing event where an anvil shoot was part of the festivities and found it kind of fun. I don't find myself horrified by the idea or yet understand how Abana overreacted to such an activity. I'm a smith who uses old tools and old anvils in my work and I like to preserve them as well as I can. I wouldn't use one of my own shop anvils for that use but I wouldn't stick one on shelf just to look at either. If proper safety precautions are in place why not shoot an anvil dedicated to that purpose- is it any worse than some other activities we applaud? Not all wrought anvils were made entirely by teams of strikers using no machinery- no sensible manufacturer eschewed water powered trip hammers and later steam hammers when they became available. Does any one remember the composite painting on the jacket of Anvils in America- while several men were shown controlling the anvil being made it was being forged under a steam hammer. The largest anvil I've personally forged is tiny; it only weighed about six pounds and even it was forged under a friends little giant at a demo when the strikers didn't show.
  12. Chuck, Steve Parker forged a new set of arms for Jim Fecteu's Beaudry about two years ago. Jim then had them heat treated by a firm relatively local to him. I don't remember what alloy Steve used but you might contact him to find out and get any tips he has to share. You can probably find Stev'es contact info on the UMBA website or you can contact me and I'll get you in touch. Steve G
  13. I'll add a smaller version of the attachment from the above post. I hope this will help. Steve G
  14. As I was preparing a sheet of dimensions to assist the purchasers of my burners with making their own small forges I thought that some of the readers here might also find this useful. If you use these dimensions for your ceramic fiber lining you will need to roll each layer of batting tightly in order to get it into the furnace body after first placing the two end discs into the chamber. Be sure to place the seams in the area under where the brick (or kiln shelf) will go and stagger the two seams slightly to each side of the center line. Smooth each layer of isulation into place and keep the "ceiling" a smooth arc. You will need to wiggle the brick floor into the the refractory to compress the wool slightly. In a small forge like this no other support is needed under the floor. (I've been traveling one around for over a year with the original brick and lining and no problems.) If you decide to coat the wool with a rigidizer (recommended) it helps to slightly dampen the wool and use a brush whth the handle cut off short to apply it. Steve G When I checked this post I realized that the .jpg image attached comes up too large so I will add a smaller version in another post. More to learn. Steve G
  15. Congratulations George, That looks great. Now let's see that rod with a faggot weld on the end or made into a ring- grin. I'm sure your are going to like it a lot. While you need to maintain a decent size opening for exhaust you may get a slightly faster and more economical heat if you add a half door at the top of the front opening. Just don't close off too much of the area or you'll do more harm than good. Also don't forget about convenience bends when you are are trying to fit bigger stuff into that moderately sized forge (see maddog, I didn't call it small). As an example, you can turn a bigger ring into an oval and weld it in that chamber then take it back to shape later. Have fun, Steve G
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