jason0012

My grandfather was an insurance agent. I pestered him for years about getting insurance, but he was tremendously evasive, and gave the impression that I was un insurable.

I have been considering offering some classes at my shop. I am concerned about the potential issues that could arise from inviting the untrained public into a place as hazardous as a blacksmith shop. So for those of you that teach, what sort of insurance do you carry to cover the unforeseen? Am I just being paranoid?

Clifton's break seemed overly complicated to me, until I started looking for ponts to attach a spring. It makes sense now. I got the posts on the hammer today. Just a bit of assembly to go.

Probably meant to be feet, tabs, or shims under feet. ASTM codes are a pia but it looks pretty near 4130 from what I see. All the sites I found on Google want like $80 for a composition break down and I am not that curious. I could go look it up, but I am in for the night and dont feel like hiking back to the shop to look it up. If you dont have a composition by morning I will find it for you. Alloy aside, it really shouldn't matter. For an anvil you just need the mass. I would put them together with some big dowel pins then drill and tap the sides for threaded clamps and not bother with welding. That or use them as is for anvils and fond something else for a power hammer

As for making axes, the bigger hammer will have more stroke/daylight. That is precisely what is needed for operations like punching and drifting eyes.

I made a new knuckle, and replaced the t bolt. I still need to do the other side but the old one was kind of iffy. It was a 1 1/2 inch wrought iron bolt, cleft welded to a 1 1/4 steel pin. The pin was worn quite badly. The new arm would not seat correctly in the ram. I found a ridge of nearly 1/4 inch raised in the seat holding the arm out. After some grinding it is where it should be and looking better...

I collected parts for my treadle hammer for 5-6 years, then built it in a day. I realized after the fact that I had really over thought the whole thing a lot.

How do they always loose the anvil??????

Welding the eye is faster and easier. It allows a better bearing and is quite strong enoigh- Clay has built a LOT of these. To my memory, nothing was heat trested short of normalizing the spring eyes after welding, but it has been nearly 20 years so something may have slipped my memory. I am pretty sure I just used cold rolled for the arm axels.

I got this hammer because the Bradley just doesn't seem to like punching holes. It is great for everything else, but it's short stroke and soft first blow just dont make for good results with tall tools. So today I punched the first hole on the 250. I definately need to upgrade all my tooling. My tongs aren't the right size, I dont have punches or drifts really, and seem to have lost at least half of my power hammer tools somewhere on my journeys...

A 25 will work the same steel you can work by hand. It will move the work from your arm to a motor, which is a big improvement. A huge advantage, is nearly all parts are available from the company, and all work on these little hammers is pretty easy. A 25 is easy to move and install and will run on a 110 volt light circut if you dont have a lot of power available. Prices vary a lot, but an equivalent little Anyang air hammer runs around $5k so keep that in mind.

I know of a few Smith's who have built modern barrels for modern cartridges. The process is to wrap a pattern welded skin over a 4140 core and weld solid, then drill like a modern barrel. The Damascus is purely decorative and has no real effect on the barrel. Damascus barrels fell out of common use when powders started generating higher pressures, steel got better and finally, high pressure rifle rounds came into use. The cost/safety issue was the end of them. Black powder in a traditional muzzle loader would represent a technology that Damascus has the capability to function with, but I dont think a straight up Damascus barrel could handle the 50,000+ cup most modern barrels are subjected to.

I have run rotary converters over the years a 3 originally, replaced with a 10, then traded off with the last of my 3 phase equipment, and more recently replaced with a 7.5. They are really easy and cheap to build, and way more reasonable than the $100,000+ that LG&E wanted to power up my shed.

I tried to get 3 phase from my previous utility. It would have required all the wiring on my end of course, but the transformers were 40 yards from the building. They wanted something like $60,000 just to connect to it, and wanted me to sign a contract to buy a minimum of something like 30-40 thousand worth per year, regardless of usage. Here the rural co-op charges me $40 a month, and whatever I use. The 3 phase was a big selling point here.

Playing with the hammer this morning, and had a humorous problem. Drawing down tong reins. This hammer breaks down stock quick, and while it can be a tad wild it is controllable.my problem arose when I tried to round up the taper. It forged out square and fairly smooth easy enough, and took the corners to octagon, no problem. But knocking the octagon down to round, just squared it back up. Clifton said you should get used to turning as fast as the hammer runs, but for the last 27 yrs I have been running a 75 pound Bradley. It runs around 300-350 bpm. I am turning twice every time the hammer comes down !

I am having noise issues in my new building. It is all metal and rattles like a snare drum when grinding, forging or even welding. I am currently experimenting with welding curtains as noise baffles, in the hopes that I can at least isolate sound before it sets up reverb throughout the building...

Who is currently selling these? Clifton used to sell them himself, and I wore out a VHS copy. I would like to get it on digital...

If someone finds these they should be archived

Right here...

No idea just yet. For the moment still working a day job ( well night shift). The 250 got to hit steel tonight. Definately an entirely different animal from the Bradley. Slow and deliberate is the best I can describe it. I do have some bad habits from the Bradley that definately won't fly with the little giant. I am used to setting tools in the frame of the Bradley right behind the guides. It is very convenient. That motion puts your tools straight into the arms and spring on this beast...I definately need the gaurd and break.

Rural. Former CNC machine shop. Has 4- 3 foot deep 8 foot square pads for the Mazak machining centers that were formerly here. I went from a 400 sq ft garage to a 4800 sq ft industrial building

Yeah. I went from running on an extension cord to being way over powered. This is the "I am tired of screwing around" shop. I have 3 600 amp 240 v 3 phase panels and the 250 is all I have plugged into that at the moment. The concrete floor is also way overkill.

Clifton ran his 250 on a 5, but said it should have been larger. I have a 7.5 sitting here, but that gear motor came with the hammer and apparently ran it for many years. Everyone's option of how a hammer should run is not the same. I thought I would give it a shot and dont think it will stay. I will upgrade in the not too distant future. An induction heater would be awsome, but they aren't cheap. I do have a 100 amp drop right behind the hammer and no clue what I would ever use it for

Tonight I put some attention into the treadle and its linkage , cleaned up the dies and did make shift repairs to the old die keys. The treadle spring seems kind of weak so I gave it some counter weight. The treadle linkage is odd on this one. The clutch fork operates from a rod that runs inside the frame. The treadle axel is connected to this by a split clamp, held with a single bolt. Of course, mine had worn its seat to the point that it doesn't really clamp. Much to my shame I must confess to tack welding it rather than do a proper repair. The dies are leveled out, just look at those dies! 4x9 1/2! The top die key was too short and shimmied in its slot so I tacked a piece of 3/16 key stock to the top edge. Now it is trapped in its slot. I also added a centering pin which was missing. The bottom die is too narrow so I gave it a single 3/16 thick shim. They only have to hold long enough to for me to forge new, better keys. Playing with it, it has tamed considerably but the motor is stalling on me now. While I am not surprised that a 3 hp motor would stall on a 250 pound hammer, it is stalling at idle and not under load. I suspect it may be dropping a phase... I have some 2 1/2 inch 4140 waiting to become die keys, but alas, I am out of propane... I think I am going to need a bigger forge

Removed the zerk for the clutch and no new grease was present. I cleaned out the grease passage and installed a new fitting and found that the frozen fitting had forced half a tube of grease the wrong way into the grease gun- yuck. Grease gun cleaned up, new tube of grease and greased the daylights out of the beast, fired it up and guess what? Now the clutch pops right out. I may just be able to use it like this. At least until I get the Bradley home.