clinton

I second this motion thank you

I just saw this sm-60 not much time left and he has a reserve price but will take 25 lb little giant in partial trade http://cgi.ebay.com/Sahinler-Power-Hammer-Blacksmith-Damascus-Knives-/270645174073?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f03b59f39

Looks like you guys had a great time out there, and a productive demo as well, thanks LDW for the pictures. We had a great time at octoberfest last weekend, but there was not much in the way of smithing at the demo, good info but not much forging.

There are other sources for babbit materials try hit N miss http://www.hitnmiss.com/index.html this is a good source for flat belts also stewartthesmith- I would like to see your article as I need to pour babbit in my mechanical hammer, I like the idea of using window putty I can get that right here locally

I used 4130 for my dies and they are holding up nicely. You can get it in a heat treated condition, 53 RC is what I ended up with. It can be machined with no problems

A slack belt system would be much easier to build. You just need an idler pulley that is controlled by your foot treadle, when it applies pressure to the belt your hammer will rotate. This is a very simple set up and it gives good control, here is a picture of my hammer

Nice score on the belt sander and the air cylinders, I have one of those air pumps also but I am not sure what it is good for, came with a compressor that I bought the guy told me that he was using it to paint houses with

I do not have a V-6 but it is a little more than stock,, it has a 2000cc motor with dual Weber carburetors the v-6 sounds like fun I would like to see how they set that up

Heading out at o-darkhundred if you are going I will see you there, if you are not going I will post some pics when I return home. Here are a couple of pics of my ride getting loaded, this is a 1971 VW bus and it will haul 2000 pounds payload, built like a tank.

Looks like a nice set up there, should give you enough room to work and stay out of the elements. That is indeed some creative rigging around the joists, I believe that they are strong enough to support that treadle hammer, I would however suggest that you take Mainely Bob's advise and use a chain or cable in the future

Here is my Commonsense Powerhammer, about the only commonsense I have. It is a 75 pound hammer, they were popular on the west coast made in Berkley CA. I got this thing running with some help from Chuck ( Ifi member) on the jackshaft set up. This hammer hits pretty hard it will forge 1 1/2 inch no problem and with the slack belt set up it has good control, I still need to pour new babbit, and no I will not be painting it or any other clean up, it works and that is all I need

That is a nice looking vise, and clean. Nice job an the stand also I am going to set one up like this no doubt, thanks Brian and Lyle for this design. I just need to find a vise with the leg cut off, I can not bring myself to cutting one off, sometimes you can find one with no leg for cheap as no one wants them like that, I will be watching the tailgate sales this weekend

I found a few this morning may be worth checking out if you are in the market columbian for $2.75/ lb http://sfbay.craigslist.org/nby/tls/1972080642.html I am not sure what this is but it does look nice I like the horn edges look good http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/atq/1972030564.html Then there is this one no picture and this guy must have learned anvil pricing from "our buddy" (good luck dude) http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/tls/1970945945.html

Build a tripod and build it heavy, one inch plate for the anvil to sit on, 2 inch x 4 inch tubing for legs 1/4 inch wall, no light gauge, cap the feet with flat plate at least 1/4 inch thick. You can build this in the same time it take to prep a stump. It should look something like this

Thanks for the positive comments guys, it does take some time to build one of these, it is a simple design but there is lots of cutting and drilling involved. I think that it would be more efficient to build more than one at a time, have one guy cutting and another drilling and assembling parts. If two or three guys got together to build it would be quicker and easier, also more eyes watching for mistakes along the way (I went though a few zip wheels during this build) I want to get this thing mounted this week and I need to make a coal run (200 mile round trip) then I can try it out. Mark- I am planning to try using this to slit the eye for hammers I think it will hit hard enough, and with the bottom tools I can do the fullering and cupping as well. Hopefully with the knowledge that Brian Brazeal has shared with me I can make a hammer on my own, "just put the material between the dies, it practically makes its self" Is what Brian said, I will see how much of this I retained. Greg- here is a link to the web site lots of good stuff there http://saber.net/jere/

Wow that looks like a nice group of tools, and other goodies as well. It looks like you were busy, time spent with Brian is time well spent. I was able to spend a few days down there with Brian before the Abana conference (thank you Brian and Karen) I learned many things in that time also. His straight forward approach is very effective, "Just put it between the dies" (quote from Brian) "It practically makes its self" when you work with him it seems so easy. And yes Karen is great as well, she will be sure that you get some food, Brian will just keep going, and going and going, It sounds like you learned alot in the time you were there, thanks for sharing also I would like to put in a plug for Lyle- great guy very helpful and knowledgeable

Looks good Kevan, keeping away from the smoke is a good thing. Be careful with that ladder a safe way to set it is a 4:1 ratio http://www.wernerladder.com/catalog/files/rc109.pdf You have a nice looking shop there have a great day and be safe

I have seen them set up with a wheel that spins on the outside of the container, the ends are anchored to pillow blocks or some type of bearing, this leaves the inside open with no shaft in there

My mama prefers the look of rusty steel- I did grind off the rust for welding but the rest of the parts I plan to just leave rusty. My shop is outside and I am not a big fan of fancy paint jobs. I finished up the few welds that were lacking yesterday and went to round up some 9/16 diameter bolts for the final assembly and I found that my local hardware store no longer stocks 9/16 bolts, they have the nuts and the washers but no bolts (duh) so I spent 3 hours running around trying to find 3 bolts. I needed two that were 4 1/2 inches long and one at 8 inches. I did find the 4 1/2 bolts $17.00 for five bolts (sold in packs of five only). They did not have anything over 5 inches, so I went to a large fab shop and asked for a piece of cold rolled .562 and I made my own bolt, it just 1018 but it should do the job. It looks like this hammer is going to hit pretty hard, the plans call for a few pounds of lead in the upper die, but I am not sure that I need it. I need to clear out a spot and mount the hammer then I can see what it will do.

People that do not respect good tools- that chaps my hide. No respect, come on man! I am sure you gave him a good ol NY tounge lashing huh. Gitoutahere (I think that is one word in NY)

After years of planning to build a treadle hammer I finally got around to doing it. I collected some of the parts with plans to build the hammer years ago, the bottom anvil is a 2 inch thick piece 10 inches square, I had a hole cut by my buddy with the water jet machine for hardy tooling, I made it 1 1/4 inch to match my anvil tooling. I have a set of plans that I got from Jere Kirtpatrick, Valley forge and Welding. The plans are very well detailed and easy to follow. I did however change a few things along the way, due to material that I had available, stuff that I salvaged off jobs over the years. The hammer is pretty much finished now, I just need to get a few bolts and get it adjusted and this thing will be ready to pound some iron. This is recycling at it's best, the only thing that I had to pay for was the 2 inch plate for the anvil, everything else was salvaged or given to me. The leaf spring I saved from my last truck, and the return springs were given to me from the guy that I bought my band saw from.

Nice looking scrolls and the whole thing is well proportioned, good balance, nice clean lines

Better put in my 2 cents worth before glenn locks this thread- Grant I draw the line at garlic ice cream I- just can't get behind the jalapeno, avacodo, hmmmm leme think, oh ya we do get artichoke ice cream down here also

I have the Ozark pattern anvil by Tom Clark, and I would recommend it, yes it is a big chunk of change but when you forge on one you will know that it was money well spent. The desing of the anvil was well thought out, the feet are upsetting blocks, three pritchel holes, double bick, the list goes on. There is another supplier that I did not see mentioned Reffinghaus anvils, they look sweet lots of different options to chose from http://www.blksmth.com/Refflinghaus_Anvils.htm

nice score there Divermike, I picked up a set last year the Yater blocks are real nice, Jere Kirkpatrick told me that Wally used old wrecking balls to make them, I don't know if that is true but they are pretty hard not cast iron like some that I have seen. I was sitting right next to Wally on Lyle's tailgate in Memphis and did not know who it was until later on (bummer I would have liked to pick his brain some) I would like to see what you come up with for a stand as I have not built one yet, the blocks are heavy and they will smash your fingers quite well I Can assure you of that