Torin

Well, I don't know about "super", but I like 15n20 and 1095 for that reason. Both high-carbon steels, so the heat treating is a bit easier.

Latest batch of seam rippers turned out pretty nice.

I had no problems forge welding with my Mifco/McEnglvan crucible forge. Ran on normal low pressure line natural gas. Orifices were about 3/8" and it had a blower.

I'm back after being off for a bit. Jan, I wouldn't go too much from that video. I was trying to get back into learning how to use a power hammer. It still needs tuning and a better set of dies. Plus I'm not really working the hammer that hard. It hits harder that what I was doing. Once I get back into production the season and have more than 10 hours in on it, I'll post another video. Ian, you are definately making a good point. And yeah, as menioned above, I'm more trying to make sure I have a good feel on how to use my hammer before cranking up the power on it. I do plan on eventually getting a self contained hammer. That way I will be running without the 15 hp compressor and directly running a 5 hp motor. But I need to have enough production to justify the expense. I'm hoping to get there in the next 2 or 3 years. In the meantime, this will get me going, and building up my skills. But yes, doing more work in less heats will make this a more profitable (as in less likely to fail) enterprise.

Well, they changed a bit. The first run through, they were working on 'chip/break/explode'. The second time through, they got a clue, but they changed the 'myth' from 'chip/break/explode' to 'explode'. So they could still say 'busted' but then they warned that pieces really could fly off. Don't mind me, I had a nice video rebuttal to their first run through, and then they changed the parameters on it right after I'd gotten it done. Making my work mostly moot.

I finally got the treadle installed and everything working right. So I spent a few hours drawing out billets I'd made up last year. Even repaired a few delaminations that happened on reheating. Nice to see I can forge weld under the hammer. Anyway, here is a short video of the hammer and it running. YouTube - Kinyon style air hammer

Here she is. I got her to cycle for about a minute before calling it a night. It still need some tweaking, the treadle built, and some more reinforcement.

Where I live, the back yard (and garage) runs up against a church parking lot. On the plus side, any day but Sunday and we have absolutely no parking problems. :D

And here is welding on the ram guide, and pretty much finished execpt for the plumbing.

I didn't get it finshed this weekend like I'd hope, mainly because my wife said I was looking too tired to be safe and told me to stop. It is just a matter of hooking up the plumbing and making the treadle for it. I should still be able to get it finished by today, which is my (self imposed) deadline. Here are the pictures of assembling and welding the hammer.

Well, it turns out that I now have 2 5-way valves due to some miscommunications. Oh well. Here is what they look like. Mounting bracket I made for it is pretty plain, but it works (I did switch out for longer bolts). And here is the air filter / regulator / oiler. However I managed to damage it a bit when installing it in the air line. There are little tabs that it uses to lock in the o-ring based conectors and some of the cracked off when I installed the unit. Good news is I can replace them with short sections of threaded pipe. Annoying but a $3 fix.