mike-hr

Looks like a pile of fun! Where's your hound dog going to sit?

Mark is an old school, tough individual. I'm confident of his recovery, but, haven't heard anything about the shape of the scooter... Thinking happy thoughts, Mark.

What a great idea! I love the homework assignments, that will give the coaches positive re-enforcement that folks are actually doing something, and, progressing.. Count me in. Is chewing gum in class okay?

It's difficult finding a foundry that would spend the time to make nice square holes that wouldn't need broached after casting. Personally, I think a nifty stand that holds 3x3 blocks one inch thick, and individual holes per plate, waterjetted right to shape, might make more sense for budget minded buyers. They could buy the shapes they need as demand dictates.

Wonder when the last time the toggles got oiled..

If you're not using outside energy (air, electricity), then you're adding calories from your body to move the metal. I guess I would ask if your legs wear out faster than your arms. I can break a sweat pretty fast kicking my motorcycle to life when it's in a bad mood.

I always get raised hackles whenever someone says 'who's the best', or, 'what are the top ten...', etc. I postulate that 50 percent of what you're asking involves you! I started smithing when Mark Aspery was coming to many hammer-ins on the west coast and demonstrating, and bringing masters from the UK as guest demonstrators. Whilst I feel that Aspery is the person that I've learned the most from, I couldn't fully grasp his demos and workshops until I'd grabbed 3 years of making mistakes and getting my own cadence down. When I was beginning, the best blacksmith I could name was whomever had the patience to stand beside me all afternoon and ding me on form, pre-planning, fire management, etc. After I'd made a pick-up load of mistakes, the classes i took from Aspery and Nelson were influential and very well worth the price. If you want a good show, go to a movie. If you want to learn, find 28 ways not to do something, and get a better realization on why the instructor does a move the way they do. There's not one way to do anything. There is, what works best for you, with the tools, technology, and knowledge that you posess at that moment.

Large drill bits are easier to sharpen by hand than small ones. I'll echo what Sir Frosty said, a fair shop hand doesn't need a machine to do this. A $3 gauge with a 118 degree angle and some numbers stamped into it is all you need, plus a week of practice..even if you did get the machine, it's handy to go to the side of the wheel and thin the web a bit by hand without dinging the cutting edge as the bit wears down. My first week of tech school was nothing but sharpening drill bits. I got bored as all getout, but the move is now hardwired into my brain. If I was to hire anybody to work in my shop, one of the first moves in the interview would be to hand him a 3/4" drill bit and see what kind of mess he makes...

That's real pretty.. Might cause a problem in elk camp when the camp assistant is quested to wash the knives after skinning. "Hey dad, the blood just won't wipe off the handle on this one!"

John, could you firm up on this check a bit? You want us to block the treadle down, and then turn on the air? I don't know if I want to whang on my dies dry just to see if they start whanging or not....Is there a stopwatch involved? What are we looking for?

I'll keep smithing professionally for as long as my wife keeps making enough money to support the both of us....(no joke). I've got this big picture mentality, if a job doesn't challenge me to the point of pulling out my hair, I'll pass it on to another shop. I keep feeling that if I take the hard road for just another 5 years, and another 5 years, I'll be a good enough problem solver and creative force to be able to make whatever the voices in my head tell me to. I truly enjoy what I do. I seem to be the repository of useless information around town. The steel yard calls me and hands the phone off so I can help their customer figure out what he actally needs. Contractors call me with trig questions when a roof pitch won't lay in right. On the upside, if I need a free backhoe for a couple days, or need a good deal on remnant steel, it just happens. I guess it comes down to living within your means, lay off the credit cards, clean up the kitchen if the wife is working late, and feel good about making something work that nobody else even wants to bid on. If the voices in your head tell you that this is turning into too much hassle, listen to them. I've known a couple of folks that were very influential in my life. I've seen them expand to the point that all they do is carry a clipboard around, and stress out at how slow the hired folks are going. I'm not going down that road, If the lake thaws out and the fish are biting, the kid just got sick at school, and we're recovering in the boat..

That's good news! I can't see any set screws in your pictures, how did you back the uhmw out .003"?

CH, The head blocks were welded as one piece, then line bored. We had that farmed out and I'm sad we did. They should have line bored, then pressed the bushings in, then took a clean up cut thru the bushings since the machine was already set up. We got back the head block that was line bored, and had to press in our own bushings, which meant several episodes with a large brake hone to get things a'sliding back and forth. It wasn't a huge ordeal, but one of the reasons we didn't want to weld anything on the head, was to prevent any more warping of the shafts. A good argument for bronze bushings over linear bearings is the ability to hone the parts to working tolerances. Backwoods, Another thing to look for, is, little bits of stray teflon tape or plumbing goo that might have slipped past the fitting and wedged into the master valve body. We ended up taking the push-on hose fittings apart a time or two, I was carefull about taking a wooden match and digging out the tape chaff that was laying in the threads. mh

Kevin, the hammer behind is a 1909-ish Perfect brand 80# mechanical. It's a fine machine for what it is. I'm actually fairly proficient at getting it to make stuff. I got spoiled visiting friends with air hammers and marveled at the light blow control. The ability to make differing amounts of thump, at different heights started me to thinking about the new hammer. Steve, Thanks. We all had a blast at your place, most likely return around new years, I ain't forgot we owe you guys dinner... Backwoods, I guess I would start off making sure the ram is free to go up and down with no tight spots or mechanical jams (bolt heads, etc). Next I would start moving the shuttle bracket in 1/4 inch increments one way or the other. There were some folks in Oregon that got some wrong info, and bought dual air feed master valves instead of single air feed type, and hijinks ensued. If you got the one in the Kinyon book, that shouldn't be a problem.

video #3

Video #2

Howdy, Mike Limb and I worked together and built 2 hammers at the same time so we'd each have one. We bribed Keane Randall to come down and help with the assembly, Thanks Keane. Here's 3 video clips, #1 is me talking about how it works, #2 is isolating a cube and tapering back in 1 inch square, #3 is forging a faceted ball from the cube. #1 mh

Loaded question. By definition, 'welded' means as strong or better than the parent parts. Are you hoping that less than that will be okay? I'd like to give myself a lobotmy from time to time, do you think a couple beers and a 110 buck knife would work?

That's a pretty thin baseplate. I'd do some test pieces before the real one. I'd also consider drilling a through hole in the base, countersinking and chamfering both chunks from the underside, and welding it from the underside. the warp will work for you, setting the edges on the ground, slightly raising the center when it's finished.

Don't know if this is on topic or not.. Last summer I aquired a 3ph 240v 2hp compressor. I called my sparky friend, Crazy Dave, and told him to put an appropriate starter, on/off switch to it. He had a used magic box he turned me on to. Anyway, it has a little set screw that sets the internal breaker to trip at anything more than normal in-use power. He said that if it starts to trip all the time, check for bad bearings or low oil level, etc. It's supposed to alert me to maintainence issues before the whole motor or pump burns out or frys..Seems like a good idea, I love this compressor, anything to keep it working hard and happy is a good thing.

Howdy. Sorry I can't contribute more to your process yet, you're about 2 weeks ahead of me.. I and a buddy are machining parts to make 2 of these hammers currently. The processes i'm doing different, not better, just different, are concerning the 2 inch round rods. We're using 1inch nc tapped threads on both ends of the round rods. Where the round rods connect with the upper tup plate, we're tapping the plate and using 4140 all thread to make the lower connection. We're thinking the threaded connection will save the rods from linear distortion that weldments would cause. Maybe a dot of TIG weld in 2 places to act as threadlock. We're also thinking of tapping the holes, after the upper tup plate is welded to the upper anvil round, again, to reduce distortion. We're making the lower anvil mass from 1x8 flatbar laminate, similair to KZiturs hammer. We thought up some mods to this also, we'll see if it's worth the trouble. Each hammer uses a full 20' stick of flatbar, cut into 8 pieces, machined both ends, and drilled with an 8-hole pattern to suck the laminate together with 3/4 alloy allthread. We're going to rotate the block into orientation with the pass-thru dies, to facilitate getting close to the dies at a steep angle for making balls, etc. i'll try to post pictures as it progresses, If I can figure out how to post pictures...

Your post mentioned using digger chain for this project. Most all digger chain is most likely 1070-1090-ish spring steel, it has a fairly small heat window of happiness, and doesn't react kindly to water quenching or even forging down below a bright red. If you want to explore the ball forging further, I'd recommend using mild steel.

Hi Ken, I like the story. It's always one of the high points of a hammer-in, working with your high energy bordering on the edge of over-amperage self. Does the exclusive sales statement mean you won't be doing your sales booth at meeting anymore? I'm sure your passion for the craft has drawn more than a couple of passers-by into the addiction. mh

I taught myself spinning a couple years ago, to make an element for a project I was doing. I'm a firm believer in the attitude of 'it's the journey, not the destination'. Taking this craft on almost made me question my faith.. I made a scissor tool setup with rollers on a platen that bolted to the carriage of my 1924 South Bend flatbelt lathe. I laminated hard maple and turned it to the bell shape I wanted, had the waterjet guy cut me a bunch of blank discs from 20ga sheet, and went after it. I'm still using my scrapped pieces for shooting gongs 2 yrs later. I messed up dozens of pieces. The addiction came from getting just a little farther along every few times before it folded up. When I finally got the piece I wanted, months later, I found I could sucessfully complete a piece 4 out of 5 times. It seemed like analyzing the issues wasn't working out like it does in normal problem solving. Sucess evolved into having a weird hippy-like semi-cognative state of consience, and the less I thought about it, the better it worked. I haven't set it up in over a year, but I'm sure I will again. Spinning is hard on my old lathe, the rear headstock bearing isn't as wide as I'd like it to be. I had to keep oiling the headstock every few minutes to keep it from heating up and choking out the lathe.

Search 'flameless candles'. There's a pile of 'em out there.