Steve Shimanek

Ausfire, that is a crazy sculpture, where did you find that? I have been working on some tongs, reforging an old cutter into a hammer eye punch, and got an old axle to forge into  another punch. My mower deck self destructed yesterday, good thing i bought a replacement a while back....I was getting too good at welding up the old one.

Looks like a nice chopper/slicer.

So I did some more testing, while forging down and old cold or hot cut into a hammer eye punch; when the hammer was playing nice, it was doing a good job off knocking down the stock.  I somewhere misplaced my tripod, so no video yet.  Still have some issues with the control mechanism to work out, as the "button" on the rod that goes up and down with the ram to act on the solenoid switches keeps messing up the upper switch.

Nice work there Jennifer, congrats on the wins!

As long as the whole welded top doesn't come off, and no shrapnel occurs, I do not see the problem.

Break Free

Nice looking anvil, welcome and forge on.

So earlier there was a discussion about the orientation of my leaf spring helve; after some tests, I did see the need to place a strap around the leaves to keep them together on the side closest to the ram. Thanks to Buzzkill and JLP Svcs....the strap lets more of the input to be output, thus a harder hit and less flex. This necessitated some changes in the arrangement of the switches and actuation arm thingy; will do more testing today and maybe video.

I don't know what brand it is, but it looks like mine. Good tool to have.

There are some tech terms that are also known by nicknames, such as SMAW shielded metal arc welding (stick), GMAW gas metal arc welding (MIG), GTAW gas tungsten arc welding (TIG), FCAW flux core arc welding (MIG minus gas, wire feed) could be some more as well......

An AC only welder will do the job just fine with appropriate rod; those machines are nearly bulletproof. Nice score.

When I first read Steve Sell's response, I thought it accurate but potentially abrupt to the point of potential rudeness; after studying his response for some time, i realized that the way he put the matter was entirely correct and actually showed concern for the OP. Well done.

Good points; I will try a chunk just to see how it works, to at least see what i might use it for. Thanks for your response.

Good stuff, was glad to see Grant Sarver mentioned.

I have a 7 foot SS hex shaft about 2.5 inches across that looks to have been used as a drive shaft for some kind of machinery, probably from the tuna packing plant here, that broke and was found in the local scrap yard. It is non magnetic and i have not tested it yet for hardenability, but will cut off a piece and see how it works as a dive knife. Are there any field tests beyond the magnet and hardenabilty to try to ID SS series?

Mayhew was produced domestically as far as I remember, so no need to go about naturalizing, checking passports, etc. However, it will probably be too short for hot cutting, unless you hold it with tongs.

Ferrous, Marines are tough, so i know you will be healing with enough time. Glad you are on the mend....hang in there....from an old Army guy.

Good idea.

What is going on with your hoses...they look lumpy which could indicate failure. Pressurized hydraulic fluid is dangerous.

Don't forget the excavator hammer bits....they are designed for impact. I hauled mine from Kauai, where I used it for a bladesmithing anvil mounted in the ground, to American Samoa, where it became the anvil for the power hammer I recently completed. They come in various sizes; there were 4 of them in the scrap yard, and I took the 2 I could move by hand.

Nicely done. Have fun!

If you reach out to Tom Trozak, he may be able to help.

Arftist, no question that mechanical hammers can hit hard...I was speaking more generally about home made hammers...I answered a question from another poster who asked why i did what i did.....basically because it was what i could do. Others can do other things. Lots of ways to skin a cat. Not sure what geometry problem you think i had; i worked that out in the design stage by observation. I am happy with how the hammer hits; i will post another video when i forge with it. BTW, James Helms' "Gunnhilda" home made mechanical hammer hits pretty impressively, but the die arrangement takes up more space than i would prefer.

That is a lot of progress in a short time, looking good.

Cannon Cocker, please rescue that poor thing!