jason0012

Most blades I have made were from simple carbon steel. I make tools also and have run into issues with H-13. Grinding 4140,5160,6150 I can hog into a forged punch or drift no problem and the ceramic belts I am using ( blaze and shredder) seem to last quite a long time. Throwing in H-13 though I have to throw my weight into it to just scrape the scale off. I like H-13, but grinding it is eating belts. Are there better belts for higher alloy steels? Would zirconia or carbide be better?

Yes. The clutch rod runs inside and is near impossible to adjust without turning the whole machine on its side. As inconvenient as that would be I circumvented it by adding a new external rod.

As far as I am aware the 25 and 50 pound hammers never had them. I have seen them in some 100# hammers ( 2 of them but may have been added by an end user) My Bradley and multiple other Bradley hammers I have gotten to work on did not have them. The beaudrys , Fairbanks and chambersburgs did have them. I am curious if it was an age issue or just a manufacturer quirk. Wondering if it is even worth putting one in, and if so, how big?

A question for anyone familiar with 250# little giants. Should there there be a centering pin here? This hammer has none. My dovetails do need some attention but have OK contact with die and key. I still get a tendency for the dies to shake loose from time to time. I am making better keys. But am wondering if I need centering pins.

A three phase starter will work with a single phase motor. You just leave one leg open.

I am pretty well familiar with ferrous metallurgy. I understand pretty well how to heat treat steel to get soft, tough, or hard states. But aluminum…about two years ago I forged some parts for a neighbor from some extrusion grade aluminum I had laying around ( 2024 I think) the stuff forged beautifully. It moved like copper and working down two inch material meant I got to play with for a bit. Now machining was not the same story. The parts had to finish with a 1/2-13 thread. The stuff cut like cold peanut butter. It was soft- too soft. Material would tear out, deform, chips welding back to the parts causing big halls to form. I know there are alloys for different applications. I just obtained a mig welder for aluminum. A pulse mig set up for aluminum. Playing with it, the idea of branching into aluminum fence occurs to me, but I don’t know which variety would be best for this kind of fabricating. Is there a good book on this anyone can recommend?

This one is an important reference book to have. I have gone through a few copies. Two remain. The shop copy is oil soaked, acid stained and full of burn holes. The clean copy stays in the clean side of the shop. I have given away a few ragged copies over the years. Jim Hrisoulas’ other two books are important too, but if you are starting you NEED “the complete blade smith”. I do wonder what happened to book four? I am guessing Palladian press going under threw a wrench in its release?

Frosty is correct, I have been at this far too long to expect anything but his sort of response. Not sure why I bother here anymore. Oh, snd a thank you to those who actually responded. It sounds like more normal price fluctuation than apocalyptic price hikes that seem to be on the news.

Usefull as always

I last bought steel in early 2020. I am due for another big purchase. I know prices have gone up, my question is how much? I know what my order would have cost but am curious to hear from those of you who have kept up. Is it like 20 or 30% or a whole 100%+ more now? I know this isn’t a question with a precise answer, just trying to get an idea before they shock me with that invoice with way too many zeros on it…

Nice! Bradley’s can run pretty fast they don’t mind and it’s something that makes them exceptional at drawing tapers. You need more space between your dies, it’s stalling on the down stroke. It will hit harder with more gap (probably 2 inches or so) you figure out it’s quirks as you use it. They are great hammers, don’t really compare to anything else.

Yes. We have meetings at my shop. Not sure when the next will be as I am working out of town for a bit

I have wondered what was the factory color on Bradley’s? Were they originally green? Mine had the vestiges of by black over. A stubborn red lead primer, but it was an 1897 model and colors might have changed.

My spring is ok but I would like to have a fresh one in the hammer. Does anyone know where Clifton got his oversized springs made? I will probably make different arms for it. If nothing else I can get one from little giant…

My notes from paleys shop have the twisting machine at 15 hp. Sadly I did not get good pictures or drawings. He had so many wonderful toys…

I used 5/8 B-7 grade all thread for my 100 pound hammer. Cut 18” long I get two out of each stick of all thread (bought from Mc master carr) This is epoxied into 3/4 inch holes in the concrete. For my 250 I used 3/4”. The B-7 grade is equivilent to grade 8 bolts. I don’t know if ordinary all thread would be a problem, but the added cost of B-7 is pretty minimal compared to the aggravation of digging a broken bolt out.

Good hammers but rarely up for sale. Look at what is on line for sale for and then add a bit. Tom Trozak built some of the best utility hammers made in recent years. It is really a shame that things did not work out for him getting them into larger production.

I like the cut out in the front plate. This green hammer looks to have suffered far less abuse than mine.

I had a 25#little giant quite a few years ago. I had 2x3” flat does that seemed a tad small, and 1 1/4”x4” crowned dies that were more effective when drawing out. A hammer that size has pretty limited power so a big die can rob some forging force, but small dies make using tools difficult. My 100# has 3x8” combo does and the 250 has 4 1/2”x9” dies. Bigger is better as it gives you more space, but has to fit the hammer. For a 30#, a 2 inch 3-4” would be my first try. If it seems small go up to a 2 1/2x4 or so- if you have room. If you want to draw faster make some skinny dies that are 1” or3/4” wide with a generous radius. Sometimes you have to pull a few tricks to get what you need out of a small hammer

I think an E was a 150 pound, but can't guarantee that is correct

I dont know if it helps any, but this little blade was a piece of Billy's steel he left at my shop.

Here is a bradley die arrangement. Little Giant is a different dovetail. My top die dovetail is about a half inch wider than the factory. The ends sticking out are the skinny end, the flush are the fat end. Both keys have equal tapers. The dies are cut parallel. You will have to fit them, regardless of the source. The top/ bottom edges need proper contact as well as the taper faces. There is a possibility that you could find factory keys from Cortland Machine. I think Cortland sold the bradley parts and drawings a while back and don't have a number off hand. When they were making hammer parts they were not particularly helpfull.

Even a soft key can crack the dovetail. You will gain a smidge of crush value with a soft key, but it is pretty minimal. Any deformation of the key in the slot tends to lock it in place immovably. I have seen wavy keys used in hammers that would not behave, they are impossible to remove without destroying the key and/ or the die. A really good solution in my case would be to mill 3/8" off the dovetail and make thicker keys, and some day I might. I made these dies just guessing what size the dovetails should be. After finding a factory set I see how wrong I got the top dovetail. Factory is almost a half inch narrower

Er-32 collets. Cat 40 tools fit the nmtb 40 spindle, which is convenient since cnc machines are pretty common now. There are lots of surplus tool holders on the market. I had to fabricate a drawbar as this machine uses an oddball arbor with 7/16 rather than 5/8 threads. They were originally sold with one of each.

I recently came across this funky horizontal mill. Yet another project. I did buy a collet set for it, but have yet to put power to the little guy. It is a " hand miller" in that the x axis is controlled through a rack gear rather than a screw. I have never used one of these and may just convert to screw feed (there are instructions in the manual and on several user groups online) no real question on it though if anyone has experience with one I would be curious to hear thoughts on the rack feed vs screw feed.