wheeled handle for long heavy stock

[ironman186]

Hi Wondered if any one had any ideas for a wheeled cart to move stock from forge to air hammer .

Doing a lot of 1-1/2 lately and its wiping me out .Any ideas ?

I do have an overhead hoist ,just not in that area of the shop thanks 

[Jim Coke]

Greetings Ironman,

I found a simple fold up engine crain or what some call a cherry picker serves many functions in the blacksmith shop. Just weld up a round ring with a hoop as a support. Good luck
Forge on and make beautiful things
Jim

[njanvilman]

Could you fab up a simple gantry that would be mounted midway between the forge and hammer.  Put it on a heavy plate, perhaps with wheels to add a bit of movement too.

 

Or some kind of support chain hanging from the ceiling?  Maybe a pipe mounted up there with a ring on it to provide for more movement?   Hard to add more without knowing how your shop is set-up and what you have overhead.

[Jim Coke]

Greetings again Ironman,
I forgot to add that you can add 2 simple step type floor lock downs to the cherry picker Which will assist as a guide while forging larger stock.
Jim

[Bob S]

 

Doing a lot of 1-1/2 lately and its wiping me out .

 

 

what are you making Ironman?

[Stormcrow]

A shop I used to work at that did big stuff had a jib crane mounted directly on top of their middle-sized self-contained hammer.  There was a forge set up where the crane could support stock in it, then be rotated around and fed into the hammer.  It was set up where it could be run either by foot loop or hand lever by an assistant.

 

Depending on how your hammer is built, perhaps attaching a crane directly to it would be possible.

[Charles R. Stevens]

A peice of sliding barn dore rail mounted to the celing between the two, one doore trolley is rated for over 300#

[plain ol Bill]

Look up a pipefitters grasshopper on Google.

[Dodge]

Something I use on long stock keeps it all on the ground. Forge is at anvil(insert powerhammer) level. the stock rests on....well... a stock stand. With a roller to roll in and out of the forge set at just over balance, I can roll stock out of the forge and swing it over to the anvil(insert powerhammer). This is all based on the forge and anvil(again, insert powerhammer here) being the same distance from the stand and you still have to hoist heavier stock onto the stand My plan is to replace the roller with a pivoting stand with a Vee shaped with ball type rollers as currently, the stock wants to roll off the horizontal roller without having to add a couple pair of vicegrips or some other kind off up-rights. Hopes this all makes as much sense as as my mental picture, becauseI dont have photos and I don't draw that well. Otherwise, never mind :ph34r:

 

Scott

[Alan Evans]

What length of workpiece are you dealing with and where along the length is the heat, or is does that vary?

 

What distance are you carrying it? Can you move the heat source and hammer closer together?

 

I often use a hook to carry the hot end so it is not a cantilevered load and requires less energy to handle. It is in the form of an "S" hook so that the weight hangs vertically from the grip without rotation, on one of them there is a heat shield  which can be a blessing on the larger bars.

 

I find with anything below 50mm (2") square and a couple of metres in length it is more effort to overcome the inertia of the beam crane than handle it manually.

 

I have a swivelling crane the post of which is mounted above the tup cylinder of the 3cwt hammer. That enables you to present the workpiece from any direction.

 

Charles suggests a door track. I use a sliding door track jib with a trolley with power and air supplies and hooks to hold the angle grinders which swings over half the shop and bench. If you used something like that combined with the hammer mounted post crane you could carry it from the forge and work it all on the same device. If you work it from the crane you will need a spring or rubber buffered snatch block and loop chain to take the shock.

 

I have seen a dolley used in industrial forges which has a two wheeled single axle with a steel sheet tray fixed at furnace floor height. The billets were slid out onto the sheet then wheeled around to the hammer and tipped onto the anvil which was pretty well at floor level. Overkill for your 40mm (1 1/2") though I would think. You might find running the hot end along on a skateboard or roller skate bogey with a steel shoe to catch the tip may work…though using a wheeled device is not a good solution unless your floor surface is flat smooth and clear.

 

Best bet try a hook first….KISS….seek a more time consuming and complex solution only if the simple ones fail!

 

Alan

 

p.s. If you look on the left hand front corner of the hearth in image number five in this post you can see a couple of hooks hanging (upside down) in case you could not envisage them. The nearest one has the sheet metal heat shield. Some of the hammer shots have the post crane mounted.

 

Edited December 21, 2014 by Alan Evans

[VaughnT]

Here's a dandy of an idea......

 

http://www.homemetalshopclub.org/projects/crane/crane.html

 

 

[JNewman]

if you are just forging the end of the bar another way to go is use a big  rosebud torch to heat the steel.  I have a repeat job where I have to forge the end of a 1" 12' bar rather than maneuvering the hot bar through the shop I just heat the end with a torch.  I did the same on a 22' long job of 5/8" round.  I support the end on a stationary stock stand or multiple stands on the 22' job.  A gas saver on the torch really helps with this.  The extra cost of heating with oxy propane is offset by the time savings.

[Charles R. Stevens]

Vaughn, Looks allot like the doore track setup I'm familiar with.
J, at the price of acetylene these days I'd move the darn forge, lol.

[JNewman]

Vaughn, Looks allot like the doore track setup I'm familure with.
J, at the price of accetilie these days I'd move the darn forge, lol.

That is why I don't use acetylene for my torch anymore.  Oxy propane is way cheaper for heating and works just as well for cutting.  I don't use the torches for welding and rarely for brazing. With the gas saver and a 250,000btu rosebud it heats the steel up quickly and only where I need the heat so it probably uses about the same amount or less propane than if I were using a gas forge the extra cost is in the oxygen use. If I were using acetylene with this size torch I would need at least 3 tanks manifolded together

 

1"  or the 1.5" of the OP is not heavy enough that it holds the heat for a long time so using a torch allows the forging to be done while the steel is still at peak forging temperature.  If it takes a minute or 2 to get the steel from the forge to the hammer it can be the difference between 1 heat or multiple heats.   i use forges for most of my heating but a torch can be the best tool for certain jobs.   it may not be the best solution for the OP but it might be depending on the circumstances.  Sometimes thinking outside of the box is the answer rather than better ways to lift the bar maybe the answer is not to have to lift the bar.

 

I would love to have tons of room to swing a 12' bar around the forge and when I get my bigger dies finished I can forge these off the end of the hammer dies I may switch to heating these in the coal forge but if I find it a hassle I will continue to use the torch.

[Charles R. Stevens]

I was thinking of a gas forge on the other side of the hammer. Pass the bar threw the hammer, heat the bar and pull the bar back to forge. Use the hammer as a rest.

[forgemaster]

We use what the guys call the drinks trolley, (mainly when we cant be bothered to put the grab onto the forklift).  If you have had the fore thought to make your forge/furnace the same height as your anvil/powerhammer bottom blocks it makes it all pretty easy.  If you need to manage long rolly stock onto the trolley it sometimes helps to tack/weld some little plate V blocks onto the surface of it.  We mainly use it for lumps of stock over 30KG as these are getting to heavy for my poor old body to lift up and down all day.

 

Photo attached

[ianinsa]

Surely you jest man, that thing seems far too small for a drinks trolley :)

 

Seriously though that's a neat trolley, so obvious yet so ingenious!

[Alan Evans]

We use what the guys call the drinks trolley, (mainly when we cant be bothered to put the grab onto the forklift).  If you have had the fore thought to make your forge/furnace the same height as your anvil/powerhammer bottom blocks it makes it all pretty easy.  If you need to manage long rolly stock onto the trolley it sometimes helps to tack/weld some little plate V blocks onto the surface of it.  We mainly use it for lumps of stock over 30KG as these are getting to heavy for my poor old body to lift up and down all day.

 

Photo attached

Ah yes that is the thing I was trying to describe in post number 10, single axle, steel tray...

 

They were using a very similar device at Hill Foot Forge in Sheffield when I visited a few years ago now I guess (20? :( ). I took the then current work force on a works outing. We were hosted by friend/colleague Richard Lewis the industrial 'smith who used to work in Rotherham and he organised the trip to Hill Foot Forge for us. A great day out. The smallest hammer Hill Foot had was a 10cwt/500kg which was the biggest Massey that Richard had. The largest I seem to remember was a 1tonne. All Massey and all converted from steam to air. They had a huge bank of compressors supplying air to the old Lancashire boiler which they were using as an air receiver / plenum chamber.

 

Alan

 

Alan

[billyO]

Hello all.  I was part of a crew that used a shop cart with a hydraulic lift to move approx 90 pounds of wrought iron at a welding heat across a shop.