danguite

I really liked your small table, so I decided to make myself one.

WOOOooO! After many hours of work, breaking a 3lb mini sledge, lots of Liquid Wrench, and almost breaking my hand I have finally got the keys and dies out.

Now I am left trying to best fit the new dies.




I assume the most important thing is that they are parallel to each other and hit flat against each other. There seems to be a lot of play behind the dies when I put them to the front. I have read the instructions from LG, but this seems to be more room than the document suggests.



The old dies had two keys each, should I do that or use larger keys?

New to the group. Picked a Hay Budden a couple of weeks ago. It's a 104#, in pretty good shape except the edges are pretty rounded. Serial Number is 73488, I would appreciate it if someone with the Anvils in America book could let me know the year of manufacture.

Ray

 

It looks like 1901 for that anvil according to my copy.

After a bit of tuning and remaking the motor mount I have this hammer running great, so I ordered a set of new dies from Roger at Little Giant.  I've got the top die out, but I am having trouble getting out the bottom die.

 

I've tried a bit of heat and penetrating oil, but I haven't got the key to budge.  I thought I remember seeing a puller or something similar that someone made, but I can't find it by searching.

 

Any other ideas on getting getting the key to budge?

Hay Budden #13517 150lb
Cost $450. i drove seven hours through bad Michigan weather to get this anvil!!! But I love it! Does anybody know any information about this anvil? I would like to know if you do!image.jpgimage.jpgimage.jpg

 

 

According to Anvils in America it was produced around 1894 +/- 2 years.

Note that that fellow's great grandfather was a *building*!

 

"Under a spreading chestnut tree the village smithy stands

The SMITH a mighty man is he..."

 

One of the first things we went over during my beginners class with Dan Nauman was the proper terms.

 

Smithy = Building

Smith = Person

Blacksmithing isn't a word.

Forging is a word.

Hah, that is just where I had it sitting before building the actual stand for it.

I bought my Trenton anvil last year from an anvil hunter in a town in Wisconsin called Little Chute. He had found it at a local estate sale where he was told that it used to be in a blacksmith shop a long time ago. I didn't think much of the story, but kept it in the back of my head.

This morning while browsing the Reddit blacksmith section, I came across this gallery of pictures,

http://imgur.com/a/46ZTY

which mentioned that it was about a blacksmith shop in Little Chute which was tore down in 1959. While looking at the pictures( fourth in particular ) I had a funny thought that I should look at any anvils in the pictures and I saw what looks quite a bit like my anvil.

What does everyone think? Coincidence? I figure with all the different manufacturers, styles, sizes, location, etc it would have to be a pretty big chance it could be a match.

Here in central Wisconsin I've been working in the shop every day!  Of course it is heated...

 

But that 20 feet between the house and shop are pretty chilly!

I have combination flat / drawing dies. I do not like them and would much prefer flat dies only. I will probably replace with flat dies then grind the combination dies to full drawing dies.

With the combination dies I never seem to be hitting the metal in the center of the die. It feels like it helps to cause the hammer head to tilt side to side.

Just my opinion

I am glad to see another slappy mechanical hammer saved from the scrap pile

 

Is that a fairly common opinion of the combination dies?  I thought I had read that they are pretty slick.  

 

Do the flat dies still do a good job of drawing out the materials?

Once I figured out the keys for the die it made more sense. These dies are pretty worn according to the specs from Little Giant's website and I want to get a new set of combination flat/drawing ones.

It is running! A new 30 amp circuit for the 2hp motor, multiple tries to get the upper die reinstalled after removing it foolishly.

Forgive the shakey video, I'll probably get some decent video after doing a little more work securing it, etc.

Also, not sure exactly what those fire bricks are sitting on, but I had a similar setup with some 4x6 wood under firebricks for some extra support and after about four hours of forging the heat from the forge had gotten things so hot that the wood was smoldering pretty good. The heat had got through the tiny little gaps in the firebrick and scorched the wood.

That is when I learned that saving a couple pennies by using wood instead of spending a little time fabricating something out of steel for the forge could have burned down my shop. Definitely going to be much more vigilant in the future.

Finally got my vise mounted. Looks like it is going to work pretty well now that I've cleaned up the vise and lubed things nicely.

I just bought a 25# on Oct. 24th.  It's still laying in the woods, but I only paid $300 for it.  She looks like an oldie.  This guy was in his 70's, a machinist and it had passed down from his father.  I'll pick it up this week and see what it needs to run.
 

Nice find! Hopefully the buried parts haven't rotted, not sure how long it has been down.

An update on mine is that I've finally made a deal on a motor and should have it this week, hopefully.

The two I'm aware of up here are Big Horn Forge in Kewaskum, WI which is Dan Nauman, or North House Folk School in Grand Marais, MN. Both are a bit of a drive, but I've taken a workshop with Dan and it was worth every penny.

Not sure if that would work up here. Snowplows usually hit the mailbox once every couple years. Wouldn't want to damage the plows.

Nothing on the spine, however I believe I've found it on the guide block. It is all part of the main piece so I'm fairly sure this is it. From what I can see it is No 283.

How far down the spine will the serial number be? I'm still not seeing it. Does anyone have a picture?

Is it deep or shallow? Looks like my hammer was painted at some point, I'm assuming it will show up through paint?

I'm also having some issues deciding what motor to put on this thing. The guy I bought it from said to use 1hp, Sid's site says 2hp, and multiple other sources recommend a 3hp. I'm fairly sure I'll go with the recommendation from Little Giant, but what do you guys use?

Also, I can't find the serial number anywhere. Where would it be on this style?

The guy explained its position by saying that it was used mostly for thinner flat stock that his wife worked with.

Is the middle the recommended sweet spot for general purpose?

Tested the gauge, looks good. I've never cranked it above 10psi, so I'll search for the perfect number next time I'm out there.

I paid $1750, located in central WI, put away five years ago running. I feel really good about that price after finding nothing under $3k for the past couple months.

I think people search ebay and find completely restored hammers and assume theirs can sell for that too.

I just picked up this new trip hammer.  This thing was a bear to move.  Though with some effort and some smarts we were able to load it, drive it the hour and a half home and get it loaded and placed.

 

In the pictures I do not have to top die in place, I decided to remove them for the trip because it looked like it might have been a bit loose.  It looks to me like it is in pretty good shape.  It was running great when it was put away about five years ago.  The dies appear to be the right height and in pretty good shape.  Babbits looked good.  I could see no cracks in the cast iron parts either.

 

 

Yeah I figured they were for moving it, I was just wondering what sizes would work best. PVC will break most likely, those look to be maybe two inch OD black pipe?

I think if I had three of them about 30" long each that might be enough.