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I Forge Iron

kpotter

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Everything posted by kpotter

  1. I have a small machine shop and I make my own products, I joke that my shop is ground hog day the movie. I make the same things everyday. I am very good at it and efficient. I used to be in my garage and I couldnt grow any bigger which meant I was only going to make 15 bucks an hour forever. I rented a shop for 1500 a month plus utilities and my business grew alot in the first year out of the garage. I bought a building with a blacksmith friend of mine and now my overhead is very very low and it has changed my life. Having low overhead allows me to hire people, I am lucky in that I live in a town with low realistate costs compared to seattle. I was at larrys shop and it is pretty sweet. there is a price to pay for low overhead, I cant sell anything in my own town because people are dead XXX broke. I ship world wide and in the past 5 years I have sold less than 1500 dollars in Tucson. I have sold at least 20 grand worth of stuff into seattle.
  2. get both I had a power hammer and sold it because I use my presses but then I suddenly needed the power hammer so I had to go to my friends shop. I should have kept it.
  3. I cant imagine summer in a place like that. The heat from the forge and the steam would make it damm near impossible. I would still love that job though nothing like massive power hammers to make a guy smile. How long have you worked there?
  4. I have made a mini forging press with a HF air jack. I have a video on you tube mini forging press it should come up. they work fine on smaller material like under 1 inch.
  5. I figured the world needs a table top 100 ton press. I doubt I will sell it I like it too much. I have made quite a few 50 ton models and lots of 20 toners but this is my first go around at the table top 100. I plan on using it for coining my own money.
  6. I have built several air hydraulic forging presses and they work fine, they are not as fast as full size machine but they work great for small stuff. I have a video on youtube of mine in operation, it can squeeze a 1 in bar in half no problem. I build hydraulic presses for a living and I just converted one of them to air over hydraulic and made a set of forging dies. I am building a 50 ton forging press with an enerpac cylinder and pump right now, it will be a table top version, I have also made some 100 ton coining presses using enerpac stuff. The only problem is they cost lots more than 200 bucks.
  7. There is a foundry in Phoenix called dolphin cast and they are doing some anvils their prices were reasonable. I have looked into having some of my tools cast there. I have had trouble getting s7 hard enough in thick cross sestions. I wish it was easier to get good results with a hard face plate, that would make the whole problem go away.
  8. I have been real busy making the silversmithing stakes and have not had a chance to finish them. I pulled it out the other day to show my friend Harlold who does all my welding. We are going to weld an AR400 plate to it. I want it to be 100% welded so we will have to mess with it a bit. I will post some pics when it is done.
  9. Shipping was only 90 bucks, lucky for me my wife doesnt hold a grudge she is over it and has moved on. I dont think this is an anvil that I am worthy of hitting so I will just keep it safe for the next generation. I have a 200lbs buddin in the living room right now that is perfect I dont think it was ever used. I will put this one on a nice stand and it will sit on the other side of the room kinda to balance things out. If any one know how to post a pic of it that would be cool since I have no clue.
  10. I have always wanted a church window anvil and last week I was browsing ebay and there just happened to be a sweet one. I sat an oggeled the thing for an hour or so and for some reason I decided to place a bid. It is kinda like buying a lotto ticket it lets you dream that maybe you will be the big winner. I went to bed that night thinking of where in the living room to put this thing and then I forgot about it. I didnt now I won until my loving wife screamed what the hell did you just buy. She saw the email come in, Her screams jogged my memory and it was all I could do not to jump around the living room like a 6 year old boy at christmas. I had to restrain my joy and fein regret and remorse but inside I bursting, I cant believe I have one and it will be here in about a week, it is coming from michigan. I will post some pics when it gets here. It is stamped with a date of 1817 and has decorations on it.
  11. I have bought stuff from Gold but it is alot of work. I got an engine turning machine from them 10 years ago. has it gotten any easier are the prices any better. They have the coolest stuff but it is expensive.
  12. I am so sad to hear this I never met him but I learned so much from him. I changed the way I make some of my tools from watching one of his videos. At least we still have his words and videos to remember him by. I will miss you Grant, my prayers go out to your family.
  13. I think I WANT a bigger hammer to do some coaxing.
  14. I sit up at night alone watching nazel power hammer videos, I cant hardly stand it I want one so bad. I have been looking all over the place but I see all these guys having trouble fixing them and it worries me. I could probably make any of the parts that might be needed and if stuff needs welding, I have gods welder {harold} to give me a hand. The only other problem would be the money.
  15. I have been agonizing over this now that I have seen all the cool controll systems for air hammers, I was pretty sold on a mech hammer build. Now I have no clue.
  16. I have 2 presses up and running right now one is a 100 ton h frame and the other is a 100 ton 4 post I use the 4 post for die forging and the h frame is used for stamping and bending. I am building a 50 ton 2 cylinder press right now I started it before I got the 100 ton 4 post. I have had a kinyon style hammer that I built, it worked fine but I need more power. I would like something in the 200lbs range give or take. I make tools, I machine them right now but I want to forge them to shape it is faster and you get a better tool.
  17. I wasnt expecting to get it cheaper, I like to build stuff. I know that by the time I get all the steel cut I will be into it for a couple thousand. On that note though how much does he want for the 250lbs little giant. I am in AZ so not that far away. I have tried to find shop built self contained hammers to look at but there are only a couple of pics on the net and very little info about how to build one. I might see if my friend harold will let me pull some covers off of his saymak, it looks pretty simple. I was planing on having the frame cut on a cnc plasma out of 2 inch plate with the same profile as a little giant and then building from that.
  18. I have built a kinyon style air hammer I used it a few times and sold it recently. I beefed it up it was about 100lbs and had a 2.5 inch ram and about 18inches of stroke. The hammer worked well. I have watched my friend Harold run his Saymak and there is no comparison to a kinyon style hammer, his hammer hits hard and gets the work done fast. I have been thinking of building a 200lbs mech hammer based on the little giant design, simply because I think it will hit harder than any air hammer that I can build. I do have a complete machine shop so making either one is very doable just want to hear some opinions. Or should I just figure out how to get some cash together and buy a Saymak.
  19. I thought a 100 ton press was cool, that is going to be sweet. Make some videos with that thing, nothin like a little profesionaly produced machine porn to brighten my day.
  20. I hand carve the graphite electrodes and take them to an edm shop here in town and they will sink them for about 100 bucks, I supply the steel and they set it up and let it go. I have thought of closed die forging but it gets real complicated. I am just heating 1-2 inch long 1 inch round bars and placing them in the die and squishing them into it. I then trim the excess off and toss in the tumbler. They are simple shapes, but it is faster than machining them. 200 tons is probably a long way short of doing a whole stake but I could do some hammers. I will get some pics of it tomorrow when I go to check it out.
  21. I got the press up and running last weekend and have been forging with it. It works great plenty of speed and lots of power. I got a call yesterday while I was using it. I have a friend in the machinerey business and he wanted to know if I needed a 200 ton 4 post dake. XXXX yes I need more power. I am going to see it on monday. I was told it is in excellent shape and that it has a 20hp motor. I was real happy with 100 tons so I am sure 200 will make me xstatic. or something like that.
  22. There are lots of books on metalurgy just about every thing that can be mixed together has been, there is a book by oppi untract that lists alloys and properties. Lots of jewelers have played around with alloys of gold, I used to sit at my bench and melt scarps of stuff together to see what would happen. Sometimes you get something cool but most of the time the stuff wont go together. Steven kretchemer has done lots of crazy alloys with gold and platinum. Look up his work he is a very famous contempory jeweler he died a few years ago but his writings on alloys are still around.
  23. It is that simple? what if you hold on to long or is it just a quick tug and the thing goes up. I would be using it with closed dies I make some small tools for jewelers. I have been forging them in my press but it is way slow and over kill.
  24. Thanks for the pics. Is the strap sandwiched between two wheels? By releasing the wheel the strap is no longer griped and the weight falls? This looks like a simple machine and it would be handy for some of the work I do.
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