todoned

Nimba Gladiator is 450 pounds and made in the USA. I like mine though perhaps it is a bit softer than others.

Nobody has mentioned what I did with my first anvil in the back of a truck... instead of a ramp, simply build a platform consisting of a lot of scrap lumber. Slide anvil onto platform. You can then "walk" the anvil down to ground level by removing alternating pieces of the platform. The key is that the platform isn't single pieces of wood, but multiple. In other words, the anvil at all times is sitting on two pieces of wood. You can't lift a big anvil, but you can easily tilt it enough to slide out a piece of wood from underneath one side or the other. Once on the ground, the dolly works great. Then you reverse the process to get it back up high, so you can slide it onto your stand. Of course Thomas is right -- an Engine hoist made that technique a fond memory! :-) -Tod

I recently bought one of Brent Bailey's hammers. When I got it I thought it was probably too much weight for me but it was too pretty to pass up -- I'm used to a smaller hammer... luckily some of Brent's magic was contained in the hammer -- I can swing it no problem and it is now my favorite hammer! http://www.brentbaileyforge.com/miscphotos/toolofweek1711b.jpg -Tod

What types of coolers are people who have the 25kva unit using? -Tod

I have it wired directly to a 60 amp breaker right now (mine is 15KW from Grant)... I'm curious what others do. I suppose I could get a 50amp plug and just plug it in and unplug, and figure the plug can take 60amps from time to time... not a bad suggestion... -Tod

Anyone using a surge protector for your induction forge? I'm worried about lightning taking out my much beloved but very expensive forge! -Tod

Heard back from Grant -- you need a 30 hp converter to run the 25kw heater.

Hi Nick, I am also interested in the hammer, send me a PM. -Tod

Grant, How big of a phase converter is needed to run the 25KW 3-phase unit? Do you need your 40HP converter or can you get by with something smaller? -Tod

It seems in theory that those of us with 220v might be able to run something larger than 15 using a step up transformer -- but I don't know. With 220v and 200amp service, I would love to dedicate about 180 of those amps to a large induction!

I am not convinced that linear bearings would not work. Perhaps they need to be correctly sized for side loads, but why wouldn't this work? My power hammer uses a linear slide - integrated cylinder and bearings -- its not particularly beefy -- 3/4" rod for the bearings, hammer weight is 30+ pounds. No problems, several years of use. Might not be able to justify the cost when building to sell, but if building for yourself, and you can purchase the bearings used on E-bay, it seems feasible to me. -Tod

I'm making a gift, the item is a frost-pin/bull-prick, its blunt, and you hammer it into the ground to create a hole. The receiver told me 'The top must take hard blows and not mushroom. The bottom must penetrate small rocks but not be brittle.' Any suggestions for how to heat treat this? Its 18" long, about 3/4" thick, blunt at the bottom. I can make a few. I have a lot of O1, so one will definitely be O1. I also have some motorcycle axles, and some D2. Its been a while since I've heat treated anything... I do have quenching oil and a bucket of ash for annealing... Thanks, -Tod

Here is what John Crouchet emailed me when I asked him what size he recommends with regards to Old World Anvils... "I had worked with that model number five a lot at flypress seminars I taught and it seems to be a well made, well machined, general purpose press for the professional blacksmith shop. The number six is a fine press, but pushing that big wheel all day --like when you are veining or doing tenons or other repetitive work-- will just wreck your body after five or six hours. I had a really big guy in my last class who mostly worked 1 1/4 inch stock and needed to do a lot of cold bending and I advised him to get a number six. For most guys, though,it is just too much press and they wind up not using it much. I would get the smaller press that will do 98% of what you need and just go to the powerhammer with the rest. Most of the time, you are just "bumping" anyway. Also, remember, a well anchored really heavy flypress table will do a lot to make a small press perform like a big press." I still don't have one, should have bought one from a local auction, it sold on the floor for $60 even though I had a proxy bid in with the auctioneer for $300! Local auction company not known for being very well run... -Tod

I agree its a different way of working. I was working (guess) 3/8" round in the smallest coil. I found I could do quite a lot by passing the bar through the coil, even when I had it all coiled or scrolled up. I guess I'm just wondering what others are doing to try and avoid coil changes. Tightening the coil at one end is probably a good solution if the only thing I was doing was tapering -- even there though, you might find that you need more length than you have. I have not built my pancake coil -- something I should do soon. I did try reciprocating, rotating, etc., the tip...all to no avail. Once these things come way down in price, I predict blacksmiths will own several of them, just to run different coils... Thanks for the ideas, -Tod

My new induction heater is great! Many thanks to Grant! The speed is something you have to experience to really get how this will change the way you work forever. At least that's how I feel after using it for three or four hours, :-) One problem I am having, is when I go to taper a bar, the tip becomes very difficult to heat... now this is partly a good thing (it is easy to burn a piece in half as I discovered) but kind of a pain...I find myself sticking the tip of the taper in the coil and waiting...waiting... it just doesn't get hot -- too far away from the coil I guess... mostly it gets hot by proximity. I have considered setting up my gas-saver and torch for just the purpose of heating the tip, and that might be a decent solution..but I wonder if there is another way? Either a technique to get the tip hot, or... and here's the crazy idea, running two coils in parallel...one very small used just for heating very small sections (e.g., the tip of a taper) alongside the regular one. I'm imaging some sort of machined "T" in copper that splits the current and the coolant...maybe give up a bit of the high end speed, but gain flexibility. Anyone tried this? Or have a solution to heating the end of the taper in the coil that was ideally sized at the start, but not so good now that its been pointed. Thanks! -Tod

I have a Kinyon style hammer I built and it is what it is. One thing that continues to surprise me, is there seem to be a large number of variables that result in a well performing or poor performing hammer. It seems as if there are some foundations that cause a lot of problems (I would have thought arftist's 1" rubber would be fine), or mysterious tuning that has to be done, etc. Everybody raves about the Iron Kiss and I may buy one some day, it looks great...but the one time I had a chance to see one in person (2008 Ashokan in NY) it was bouncing around like crazy on a concrete foundation and my perception (could be wrong) was that John left early because his hammer was not performing well (quite poor actually). I have seen Little Giants that awe me with how much metal they can move, others that are quite anemic. Maybe the mystery is why we are all so fascinated with the subject! I've attached a photo of my hammer -- one thing I haven't heard discussed much before, is the approach I used -- purchasing a linear slide used off of Ebay. There was a time when I didn't want any competition from others looking for such slides (they don't come up that often) but at this point I don't think I'll be building another one anytime soon. Have others tried this? Maybe it won't hold up, I don't know -- I hope it does! So far so good, after about 5 years of somewhat infrequent usage. -Tod

I did post the links... if you look at my post carefully, and move your mouse over "link" that's the link...there are 3 links in my post, but for whatever reason they don't really show up as obvious links! -Tod

Very impressive. I want one. While waiting patiently for Grant to return my PM regarding costs, etc., I spent some time cruising ebay. All the units look the same, though there is one with a "separate head unit" that claims some benefit from this ( 15KW on ebay ) so I guess there are some differences. Here's a link where the claim is 3000 sets made a year, and a price of only $1200! Also of interest, one of the sellers has a user's manual available for download. The more I google though, the more I think I should just wait to hear from Grant, :-) -Tod

It's like some kind of dream... a very nice dream!