youngdylan

well said

Hi Grant Good to be back, looks like I might be moving the hammock out of the workshop. Flypresses and foam just seem to be made for each other. Note the liitle spacer between the top of the ram and the swivel. When I first rigged it up without it, it meant you couldn't lift the arm up to change the location of the handle. You guys seem to have flywheels and screw in handles rather than flyballs Yeah, definetly not something to quickly lash up with that unseen unwatched silent "lump" of damaclese hanging up there. Hey everybody with a flypress, you HAVE to try this. Flypress are wonderful wonderful wonderful tools in their own right but this makes them so sweet to use. As Grant says there's no real downside... they use inertia rather than gravity and inertia don't suck.

Hi Larry Kinda got sucked into a black hole of a job and kinda got out of the habit of posting. I've been following some of your posts and kinda suspect you guys have 36 hours in a day up there. How on earth do you get time to hunt down all those wonderful toys tools you keep finding (was very impressed by the hammer die sized 4340 you found) and play with the power hammers and run a business!!!!!!

gotta say this is a real useful idea (amongst his many) from Grant. It reallly makes it so much easier to use the press. No more throwing the handle away, rushing to change the work before the ram come down again .... and usually getting smacked in the head by the balls as you're bending down to look at the work. Only thing was when I first rigged it up I had the counterweight on the "user" side. Kinda got a bit nervous about 65kg of steel right above my head

Hi Danger The gates are a few years old now I just posted them to show a job with loads of big (3/4") rivets. Them guns just EAT them up The last job just seemed to go on and on. Photos give an indication. Now I've got more time I'll start a thread about it and start posting again. Nearly moved into a new workshop. Why are estae agents such slimy ****ers and tell you what you want to hear. He assured me there was 3 phase next door I could hook upto. Guess what .... there wasn't. Looks like it'll be next year before I get chance to move now cos of ongoing work. Your bronze wings sure are looking good!

Good advice there Bob ... as ever! Yeah, got I've got real healthy respect for them and only use them infrequently in small doses Kinda got an early waring a few years back using a 7x aircraft fitters gun doing 1/4 stainless rivets COLD and holding a few kg bucking bar in the other hand. Arm muscles just ACHED for weeks afterwards. That said I just love all air tools .... their power to weight ratio never fails to impress me.

That'll be these beasties you're talking about Bob. They sure do attack you back, but boy are they useful for a one man band workshop when doing big rivets etc, especially one with no room to swing a cat let alone a sledge. They're definitely in my top tens tools

I'm sure that what my mother said about some of the girlfriends I took home

so what is it I usually preach to others ...... "suck it and see" methinks...... almost literally in this case! Planning on having a major revamp on my standard Kinyon. There's been plenty of recent meaty discussion on new/old Kinyon styles recently with quite a few ideas/ configurations to try out. I do absolutely love what I do for a living, most of the time, but I do wish I could find more time to play/experiment with my toys tools. I'll have a good old play with the standard Kinyon but I think my KA75ish is more or less as evolved as it can be, well maybe try and shoehorn longer cylinders into. Speaking of KA's Grant, how come you designed the KA75 a striker only and didn't make it auto cycle? Is it just me or is there something about air hammers that gets under your skin?

For a good balance of simplicity and versatility you could use a long stroke cylinder, say 320mm, maybe even 400mm for the small extra cost and the standard Kinyon valving with an adjustable pilot height. The long cylinder length does not mean the hammer will have a long stroke when stroking but it does mean you can maintain stroke length when working with tall work or tooling (by lifting the pilot). Lowering the pilot should give you shorter hopepully faster strokes for planishing. Air flow on any air hammer is important, big spool valve and short fat internal and supply air lines help, avoid restrictions in the exhaust. For a more versatile sytem it might be worth looking at two pilot sytem described by ciladog/doc in this thread http://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/16172-increase-the-control-of-your-pneumatic-hammers/

sound of Ti being forged?

David Thanks for the information; much appreciated. Three times is three time more than I have! I guess England is a awfull lot wetter than West Coast US. I once nearly very nearly puruaded a customer to go for a rusty gate using very large sections of "normal " steel. They got cold feet in the end. Like a lot of smiths I'm no fan of paint and am always trying to steer customers to bronze and/or electropolished stainless steel. I guess I'll do some experimenting with corten nand make a small sample gate to show them. As you say the word "rust" really is a four letter word. Gates or stair railings in anodized titanium anyone?????

Now that is pretty cool. From the pictures is does look like it will wipe off. I really wanna have a go a using cor-ten now, guess this will make is easier to "sell" the idea of a "rusty gate" to customers. Kinda the "anti stainless steel" Is it available in a good choice of sections or is it mainly plate. How does it compare cost wise to "normal" steel Over here we've got quite a famous piece of sculpture made from cor-ten that gets a lot of publicity; "The Angel of the North"

about 5 years ago I went on a power hammer course taken by Terry Clerk. We were using a Blacker and a 50kg Sahinler. Till then I'd only ever used my Kinyon. Of the two hammers I used, one I just couldn't get on with .... at all... but I just had to have something like the other. Which one was it? well a month or so later I bought an Anyang 40kg. They were £3000 at the time .... probably just about the best value for money of any tool I've ever bought.

I like the combined kiss block/taper tool .... pretty neat.

Even better seeing them in situ. Great stuff David I love the colours on the Corten, does do they stay that vivid or do they develop into more of a dark chocolate colour

First one I'd used was the first Kinyon I built. Before that, the first and only hammer I'd seen was a Wallace and Grommit style Blacker. For ages I thought all hammer looked liked that .... then I discovered the internet.

So do I ritually slaughter a chicken and spread the entrails in a symbolic way whilst looking at said sun. What do I do if it's March?

Thanks Grant Sadly it does control the exhaust. Shame really because these valves really piqued my curiousity. That said, on mine, the tup usually "parks" with the main valve set to sned down pressure and exhaust the "up" chamber. Kinda wondering if it might be worth trying one on just the top chamber or would this loose a bit of control?

And the sweet spot, in degrees or colours is?

Danger Definetly interested ....but not this year! One of my dreams is to hire a hog (or ship mine) and drive across (or up down or round in a big loop) the US (other is a 5cwt Massey) but for now all my energys and moneys gotta go into getting a new workshop/shop/studio ... I just can't live in 20' x 20' no more. I've regularly rode across Europe but am kinda looking for something new ... we don't have deserts over here, or alligators...and don't start me off on how cheap your petrol is compared to ours. Good thing about this forum is making contact with like minded individuals spead across the states. What more could I want if theres a blacksmith/bike focused event as well .... apart from an induction heater, bigger milling machine, friction screw press ....... Maybe next summer for me|?

SPACE!!!! space? in my workshop/studio (delete as appropriate) ??? The punching was done before I started using this forum so I dont have too many photos. Press is tooled up for another job at moment but will do a tutorial when it's next used for bad boy punching. Nothing special about the press, home brewed H frame with 15Ton (120mm O.D.) ram. As with everything in my "workstudio" its on wheels. Even my anyang and one of the kinyons have space under so I can move them with a pallet truck Aligmnent is important. Because the "strip" is being punched edge on it does have a tendancy to rock over sideways if punch move off centre if the side of the bar are not flat and square. Usually they are not! I've got adjustable side guides that hold the bar loosely up right and keep the punch central. I never go in "all the way" from one side because if the punch wanders off, it will be quite badly off when it gets to the other side; hence punch (slit or slot punch or whatever it's called) half way from each side. When "slug" is knocked out, press the tooling in to drift the hole. It is really just a scaled up version of hand punching. I've got an "eye" punch drift that make making a hammer almost trivial. Because I'm a one man band and the bars are bulky and difficult to man(woman .... beth)handle when there's a yellow hot patch right where your hands want to be, it can be awkward moving the bar out of the (gas) forge and into the punching set up. Two rollers on stands either side of the press help, as does a swing jib crane. A second pair of hand swould be a such a luxury. Room to swing a cat would be good too. Pictures will definitely help but bear with me. No punching for a while. Current job is a different direction, 38metre of railings using electropolished forged stainless "buds"mixed with blown glass versions and a textured steel band. Gates will be interesting, they're my "no frame" thing but will wave in out looking down on plan. Will post photos in a few weeks when I've got a head of steam going with it. Meantime theres some photos on this page on my site

Don't have a watch or second hand on the clock so counting : one and two and three........it takes "8" to stroke 300mm. It's only a single stage pump so it should do this speed under pressure.

.. back relief, them's the words I was looking for. I'll try to remember to to measure/time it tomorrrow but from memory it does about a 300mm stroke in around 5 seconds. Having typed that it seems very fast! Will let you know. I remember having a discussion with Terry Clark and he kinda thought 15T wasn't enough ... it is when shifting! Kinda think it's all about keeping the heat in the workpiece and away from the tooling. Goes without saying some sorta graphite lubricant makes a big difference as well.