Neaves

No, I never got anything back. For awhile I was thinking about turning it into an air hammer, even collected some parts. The problem I had was that every time I looked at it I got angry. Really angry. So I sold it to another smith, he can turn it into an air hammer. I bought a beaudry #4 a couple years ago for $1500 that had been sitting outside for 20 years, I've been working on that. I think it was well treated for most of its life but I think someone who had no clue whatsoever beat it to hell for the last couple years it was in service. Whoever he was was actually trying to hold the lower die in with a rough-forged wedge... when that didn't work he just started hammering in bits of metal. One little piece he actually hammered in UNDER the die. I don't wonder why the sow block is cracked. Gotta get the lathe and shaper set up. I think the only part I have left now from the other one is the throw adjustment screw Steve was asking about. I found it when I went out to look at mine and scratch my head after reading his original post. Maybe I should document my rebuild, people might enjoy that. Oh, and it does look like karma has almost caught up with one of the people that was involved in the theft of parts from my #6, apparently he's looking at 22 years if he gets convicted. I'll send him a nice bar of very slippery soap.

I can't quite make out on your photos how thay had that one set up... Did someone just put a plate and nut on the far end of the bolt that adjusts the throw? Like Mr. Willey said, theres no need for it. You just need to be sure the nut that holds the connecting rod on gets tightened back up after you adjust the throw. If you need the bolt itself, I have a spare one you can have. I think at some point in its life someone forgot to tighten the connecting rod nut back up after adjusting it so it's just a little bent, not too badly to straighten.

Thanks for the warning woody, I promise I won't dump anything the side of the road. The only economical way I've found to dispose of it would be to take it to a residential hazardous waste collection day and then lie about where it came from. That seems like a bad (and dishonest) idea. I've been told theres a local with a lead abatement license, I'll hit him up to see if he has any options for me.

I may get a sandblasting cabinet and just clean it myself in small batches, be easy to keep control of the waste that way. I seem to be swimming in air compressors these days, anyhow.

I know where there are some large sheets of wrought iron plate from an old municipal water tank but they have what I assume is lead based primer (the old red-lead) on one side. I have removed lead paint on machinery with a needle scaler and proper PPE but that was for repainting, not forging. I know that fumes from burning lead based paints pose a severe health hazard but if there is a good way to go about rendering it safe for hot work I may buy a few tons. Does anyone have any recommendations or experience? I know people with lead poisoning from cutting up bridge steel with a torch and that it's not something to take lightly.

It depends mostly on condition... but that being equal, there is a big difference between them. The dupont is a much more rugged, industrial machine and probably has close to twice the weight of the LG, with a stronger guide system and larger bearings and designed to work all day, every day for years in a factory setting doing industrial production work. The LG is a smaller, lighter hammer intended to be used in a small blacksmith shop to enhance the output of a smith. If its a well set up hammer, it should have finer control than the dupont. Thats my view, at least. Restoring the dupont could get alot more involved, I know at least some did not have babbit main bearings and could take alot of machining. I would love to have a 25 pound dupont, excellent hammer.

Can't wait to see how this works, I'm picking uo a new (to me) deisel compressor this spring and your giving me ideas...

Well, I've been staying at a farm/heavy equipment shop/fab & welding shop/junkyard for awhile now... It's been great, the friend who owns the place is helping me build a blacksmith shop there just because he likes the thought of it. I have had a very hard time finding rental space for a shop that isn't absurdly expensive or where the owner doesn't freak out at the thought of an open coal fire. There are several other people that live there also, and one of them brought his new girlfriend with him, but neglected to mention that she had a history of stealing metal to support her drug habit. We all left one morning, in one truck, to go work on a rigging job. She calls him up to find out when he's getting home (we're all in one truck remember) and then calls her other boyfriend/drug dealer and they come up and start grabbing whatever is handy and taking it out the back door of the garage. The very sour icing on the cake is, I found out later, the junkie is banned from the local scrapyards so she had to sell it to reseller so probably got half the scrap value out of the 1000 pounds she stole from me, probably 50 bucks at the very most. I don't know if I'll be able to file a report with the sheriff today, but whats the cost of replacing 25 die sets, each with 2 dies? last I looked nobody was making beaudry dies so 50 custom dies at maybe $1000 each? I'll never find the parts I need used... new sow block made? new springs? The price tag to actually replace what she stole has passed 50k and making a strong run on $100,000.

I bought a nice 150 pound Beaudry this summer, a complete hammer that just needed some TLC that included about 25 die sets and new 7.5 hp motor. I had disassembled the hammer and painted the frame but noticed some uneven wear on the rollers inside the hammer head... they had started pulling to one side as they rolled and begun to wear into the sides of the spring arms a little bit. I left it apart for awhile so I could save up a little extra cash to get them fixed up, i was thinking i would get it them turned down and steel sleeves pressed on. I went to get them the other day and they where gone. Ditto for the block that holds the springs. And the crank. And the sow block. All 25 die sets... And pretty much everything else except the anvil, the frame, the main pulley and a few pieces of linkage. So what now for this hammer? And how much do you think I got knicked for? I still need to file a report with the Sheriff. Replacement cost? Repair? I think the cost to get this hammer running as intended would be rather prohibitive. Unfortunately the parts are probably already on a boat to china. I do think I know exactly what happened and who did it... That story isn't over, nor is it for the internet.

I have the idler pulley, It's just not on the hammer in the pictures. I was also thinking that the belt on the hammer may have been a bit light and too prone to stretching. I have some heavier leather I may use. The idler pulley was set up to tension the slack side but it was pushing the belt out for some reason, not pulling it into the wheel. I have a few different clutches, the one I may be leaning towards can be lined with leather or wood, or I may go do some more hunting in a local junkyard, I saw something promising there the other day but didn't have time to dig it out... If nothing else it will give me a good jack shaft and more rotating mass.

I found it by networking through a friend of mine who is a professional smith in New Hampshire... He introduced me to a friend of his who had this hammer set up in his shop since the mid 70s and was ready to part with it. It seems to be very well maintained except for worn dies but I don't think it was set up optimally, just a leather belt from the motor to the pulley on the back of the hammer with another pulley connected to the treadle to tension the belt and power the hammer. It ran "like an old whore" (that's a quote from the previous owner; apparently it takes awhile to get going but works good once it's up to speed). I did some picking today and got a cone clutch assembly from some old line shaft equipment I'll use as a clutch/jack shaft so it will be a bit more controllable and hopefully be able to do a good solid single blow. I also got an old beaudry champion #4 from the same man but It's a real project as its been outside for decades and has a cracked sow block. If anyone in New England is looking for a hammer I'm thinking this one is for sale... The better I get it running the more expensive it will be I guess I'll go post that in Tailgating.

Does anyone know what make this hammer is? I couldn't find any markings on it at all. It's very similar to Dupont/Fairbanks hammers but isn't identical to any of them that I've seen. It's possible that one of the big mill companies like Amoskeag decided to build a hammer in-house rather than buy one from a competitior, or maybe this is a prototype? It's a 100 pounder and probably weighs about 2000... looks a little light so I'm gonna bolt it to a chunk of 3" plate.

How much of the power feed is missing? I can see the yolk for the drive shaft on the side of the machine but I can't tell if it has the driver on the underside of the table. I could probably send you specs if all you need is the shaft. I have one of these but I upgraded to a P&W 3c that is just a lot more machine. Now I'll be moving into a new shop soon with less space constraints and I'm looking at old bridgeports and 15k pound lathes hehe... It never ends.

If your willing to pay for the really good tools I would recommend GRANSFORS BRUKS. I was recently looking for a good broad axe and this is the only current manufacturer I could find that really made me drool. True Craftsmanship complete with Sticker Shock. An additional word of warning... There are a lot of different places carrying these axes and prices vary wildly, with one outlet charging $300 dollars and another charging $800 for the same axe, a 266% difference. They also have some great PDFs on their download page relating to the history and use of axes.

Here's a pic of my screw press. It has 2 speeds, the top wheel is the (relatively) high speed to bet the press to the desired point of travel while the side wheel drives the worm gear that gives it its low speed. You can't even see it move turning the low speed wheel but someone kindly added a motor to operate the low speed wheel which moves it along fast enough. I haven't had a chance to try forging with it... It's in storage until sometime this winter but it will bend a 90 degree angle in .75 inch plate effortlessly with a V die and crush bowling balls. I saw another one like this on ebay recently with a buyout of 750. I got this one off craigslist for 300 in Rhode Island. I believe it is whats called a die tryout press for injection molding dies. The two piece injection die was put in the press and pressurized to make sure the two sides where mated correctly. I could very well be wrong.