knots

If the tup is still off the machine, why not try to ice it down in a cooler chest with ice or dry ice. Could be that every thing would shrink down enough to make a difference.

Cool . I bet you could use bronze or silver brazing rod to do the same thing hot.

I have a theory of what might have contributed this type of damage. Look at the texture of the anvils core. There appears to be a difference between the core and the outer inch or so of WI. Looking at the break there is a distinct appearance change from facing to the core. What if the core were muck iron faced with a higher grade of WI, and the weld between the two did not take. It appears that the anvil table may have been faced with the higher grade WI and then the plate welded to that surface. The steel plate and the WI stayed together held when the anvil failed. If the weld between the good quality WI held to the plate while the weld failed between the WI and the muck iron I could see this kind of result. On second look it does not look as if the top of the anvil core was capped with WI but that the steel plate as welded directly to the muck core. The plate held at the edges to the good WI before the whole thing failed.

As a bit of help for the uninitiated - Describe the process for injecting the epoxy into the tube around the rods ? Thank you for this interesting tid-bit.

Back in February in post no. 25 of this thread I posted about making power hammer dies using a radial arm saw with a grinding wheel. I just located the jig used to hold the hammer die during dovetail grinding process. I used this plywood fixture to hold two sets of dies while grinding the dovetails. The process, although not elegant, produced accurate dovetails . The die in the jig is a commercial die for a different hammer just to show how it all fitted up. The trick is to take light cuts and PUSH the grinder through from the front of the machine otherwise the grinder will climb up onto the work piece and stall. I call the re-purposed saw a redneck surface grinder. Grinding is best performed out of doors since the spark stream is robust and constitutes a fire hazard.

There is one point that needs to be made. That point is that unlike a six pound sledge, which may have some utility, the idea of an ergonomic six pound forging hammer is an oxymoron. There is a reason that six pound hammers are not found in abundance.

One thing to keep your eye peeled for are old used up machine shop tooling like reamers. A couple of years ago I bought a bucket of 3/4" and 5/8" HSS reamers that had been scrapped by a machine shop. I have made a few punches out of those and they seem to hold up well. On the long ones I usually cut and discard the working end but have also just forged the flutes down and used them as the held end . I have been known to reforge steel salvaged from pick axes for tooling. But if you do order up some steel go with H13 or S7 and buy less if necessary to suppliment the tools made from salvaged materials. If I were to order, I would go with 3/4"and forge the working end to whatever size you need. The advantage of a larger stock is that when your tool is struck the larger stock feels more solid in the hand giving less vibration . However these steels are hard to forge by hand so get a sample and try it out before commiting to a bunch if it.

I used my PW sitting on a couple of disks of 1/2" plywood and all sitting on sand for about 12 years. The main drawbacks that I found was that the anvil shifted under use and had to be rotated so that it would shift back into position under use. I am a convert to Z clamps. My personal conviction is that if the rim of the largest bell at St Peters were z clamped down to a firmly padded, flat surface, it would not ring. Like wise neither will your anvil. This hypothesis should be easily proved ( for your anvil :) if not the St Peters bell ) if you were to make a couple of Z clips and they were used to secure the anvil to a reasonably rigid horizontal surface, such a barn floor or a couple of pieces of waste 3/4" plywood. Use the two pieces of 30 pound roofing felt act as a gasket that will compress and assure that the entire perimeter of the anvil base is in contact with the surface to which the anvil is being mounted. Two of my anvils are Z clipped. Both were loud before but now basically go clunk. I see no reason this method will not work for your Brooks and that you can have your desired three leg stand. Give it a go and report back the results.

I like the way you have located your anvil. You have 360 deg access around your anvil. I would preserve the opposite edge - as is - so that you will always have the option of working either way. If you want either sharp edge or rounded edge on the far side all you need to do is walk around and hammer away. Most smiths wouldn't think of grinding an edge other than maybe just softening the edge very slightly. However since one is already rounded enjoy it but keep the other as is. Just my 2cents.

Called a Mash hammer. I have one for stone work. Thought about using it for iron but it is to heavy for use as a hand hammer, at least for me.

Easy enough to try it both ways. As it sits is steel to concrete. Forge a few sessions to get a feel for that configuration then try the wood blocks. Nothing lost if you can feel the difference. I suspect you won't.

Thanks. I did leave myself a bit of plausible deniability (wiggle room). What I believe is not necessarily so. :rolleyes: Since you likely know about these things, is the motor mount of the Bradley similar to the featured original Fairbanks motor mount. Which I assume from previous discussion to be a direct drive. The clutch is the wild card.

Wood blocks cut from a 2 x 4 would work as well. How level is your floor ? If wood is used you easily could fit it level to a specific location. That would make it a half inch shy of 32" but should be close enough. I think I would go ahead and do it. A couple of small screw holes in each foot and you are ready to go. You could use some of that 30# felt as shim material if leveling is needed.

How do you use a 6 lb hammer. For striking ? Sounds a little light for striking. Are you inquireing about a hand hammer or a sledge hammer ? Sort of sounds like you want a 6lb hand hammer.

Might try a double thickness of roofing felt between the anvil and stand. With that as padding, and the z clips tightened down good and tight, you may not need the sikaflex to deaden the sound. Nice anvil, nice stand . A very pretty picture indeed.

Thanks Dave - Let us know if progress is made.

Dave, was a sloution to this interesting question found ?

There is a good picture of what the motor mounting looks like on, what I believe to be, another Fairbanks in this thread.

A few years ago I converted a wood cutting vertical band saw to VFD powered 3 phase motor. I use it for rough shaping with closely spaced cuts down to the pattern line from the side then knock the remaining nib off gentle side pressure. Then clean the cut up with hand file. it is surprising how close you can get using that technique. Actually I have a second older geared vertical band saw for which I plan to buy narrow pattern makers blades. So I will soon be running two widths of blades on separate machines. I have high hopes for this combination. Both saws are good old american iron . I have never seen that particular saw before. But it looks like a killer deal that you got.

Giving it a try in this configuration might be worth the effort just to see it run and help with the decision of how to approach the remounting and new drive configuration. BTW the more I look at this machine in it's current configuration, the more it looks like some one had it set up to run on this special pallet as mounted ! Maybe to be used occasionally for light work. If so it might have been fun to see it dance when used. :)

I always cut a chip off of my brazing rod for the braze and use V joints . It is also important to use the correct alloy. Not all silver braze alloys are equal. Jacues said that the joint life for his applications is max 7 days. What is the life expectancy of yours ?

It just occurred to me that this might be one of those saws with a self contained motor. How about a picture, and some information about the motor . If the motor is built in and drives the bottom wheel directly then there is not much you can do to control the saw speed .

Some of the folks on the craftsman lathe forum use the motor and controls from tread mills which can be found curbside or on CL cheap,

I just caught up with this new series of postings. My KO with two sets of dies and shipping cost cost around $8,000 in1992-93. Can't remember the actual date or amount but that is close. These are powerful little hammers. Unless that hammer was used as a production hammer I would think that it would hold it's value, especially considering the fact that a 1992-93 dollar was worth a lot more than today's dollar. I dreamed up a quick change die system that adds the flexibility that I need . I know that a lot of folks say flat dies are the only way to go but believe that this hammer offers an opportunity to work another way. The strike pattern is always precisely the same. That is to say that the dies always hit the same spot to within a few thousanths of an inch every time. This allows a bit more freedon in using a variety of tool shapes in lieu and with standard dies. Since most of my work involves relatively small work pieces, mainly up to an inch square, lighter more flexable dies work fine where they would not if forging in a production type environment . Of course I have the flat and drawing dies as well, and the quick change dies are built around a set of commercial flat dies that I modified. Thers base dies stay in the hammer the QC dies are in and out of the base dies. Hammer has to be stopped to change dies by loosening two allen head cap screws per die. Very fast

I have an old 4" diam x 4 1/4" long flat belt pulley bored for a 3/4 " hole . It was used to drive my first hammer a 25 lb moluch. Worked for that hammer but yours is in a different weight league. It is currently mounted on a small countershaft assembly which allowed using a fractional HP motor with a smaller shaft. Would a four inch pulley work for you ?