Awalker

Drill through the tubing then drive a square drift through it. Or look on Kings site and see if the sell something like that.

I have a roper whitney hand puch that is capable of that as well. You might consider buying one on ebay, I have seen used ones go for a reasonable amount. 1/8" hole are not much to drill though, likely take you 20 minutes to drill. Of course it will take you and hour to lay out and center puch though.

I looked at a couple of pictures of some little giants and they appear to have the opposite angle. Also just curious but, how use their tong hand when using a power hammer versus their hammer hand. I have been at a couple of workshops and used some different power hammers and it seems I am feeding the power hammer with my dominant (right) hammer hand, not my tong hand. That could be a function of how the hammers are set up though not my handedness.

That Star 50 pounder is identical to mine, except I just finished converting mine to an electric motor. Interesting thing about them, and I speak from inexperience here, is that they seem to be set up for left handers due to the angle of the anvil. I'll have to look at some other hammers now to see what their angle is.

Picture is worth a thousand words!

Exactly how much is it worth, where do you live and what time do you go to bed?:o

I just read through the link and if you really gave a blacksmith a car 200 years ago he'd likley run from it thinking it was an alien ship! I did run across an interesting artifact recently on a defunct ranch near here that was made out of a car. It was a windmill for pumping water. The hub of the mill was one of the rear hubs of the car, the sails were cut out of the body panel, the steeing gear was used to change direction at the top (certainly not a recirc ball system) the drive shaft went down to the ground level, parts of the frame were used as the uprights. It was an interesting structure to say the least. The one question that hasn't been asked is what kind of car is it? It may have value beyond the price of its metal, so you may look into selling the car instead of trashing it.

I have a 150# anvil that is stamped "American". It has a cast body and forged top, with a tool steel top. No appreciable damage. Has good rebound and nice ring. 3/4" hardy 1/2" pritchel. I will leave it posted here first but will post it on craigslist next week. Reply here or PM me. I am north of Phoenix Az.

Hey SGropp, would you mind posting a picture of your manual hammer, I havn't seen but a few of them and have often wondered about their usefulness.

With the price of Borax being what it is I'd say it wouldn't be worth the effort.

Look for a BP on a lizard, shouldn't be too different than a barbie, few more fingers and no tail.

Regional, good to see a fellow SFTer here. I was a little afraid of the leaves as far as time/quality were concerned and the premade ones were cheap and quick. Now that I have seen the premade ones and found a print on making them I wish I had spent more time and made them myself. If I have a chance over the next few months I'll likley make a few for grins before the next time I need them.

I have been doing fabricated steel pieces for years and had been adding in forged details now and again. I recently got this job for a pair of gates that I forged everything for. Then the customer came back and wanted acanthus leaves on it and I did't forge them but modified some bought ones. It is the only piece of the gate I am not happy with, should have made them myself. I also made the french curve, handle, and latch.

Unless you are looking for a relatively complex project that may get pricier than buying a welder ten just buy one. You can TIG weld off of any DC arc welder for steel and SS. You can even do so with aluminum but it is a bit trickier. A basic DC buzz box will run you between free and $100, figure another $100 for the torch. another $100 for the bottle of straight argon, $50 for a regulator and you are in business. With the microwave welder you still need to buy the torch, gas, and regulator, so in my opinion it is cheaper to buy than build. If you need high freq keep an eye on e-bay for a dayton, or miller unit as they pop up regularly.

I picked up the hammer today. A little oil here and there and everything spins nicely. The springs are a little slack, causing the hammer to hit hard even when rotated by hand. I suppose I'll now need to get a book on these type of hammers to help in adjustment and repair. I'll see if I can get a picture of it up on monday.

Tyranasaurus wrench??? I'd like to see that if you wouldn't mind.

I'd be curious to have a poll to see what size orifice every one is using for blown and atmospheric burners. From what I have seen here the atmospheric guys are using from #72 to #62 and not manually throttling the orifice. The blown burner guys are using any where from 1/16" to 1/4" and are manually throttling the orifice, and so don't really know what their orifice size is. You can, in theory figure the orifice size with the pressure and total btus consumed over time. You are right about the gages though. After years of calibrating and using very accurate gages (.25% )I tend to forget that not everybody has them. Back to one of the original problems with the tank freezing is that the withdrawl rate is too high. One way around that is to manifold two tanks toether, and you have then increased by a factor of 2 the amount of gas you can take out with freezing and can then empty both tanks. TP, after re-reading my first post it sounds a bit facetious and was not meant that way. I was simply stating that it could be figured out and that pressure is not meaningless. Pressure is one of the three factors that are needed in calculating btus consumed, the other two being orifice size and time. Without all three you cannot calculate btus consumed, but with pressure, time and total btus, you can calculate orifice (but like you said you need accuracey in your readings). Andy

Good thoughts on that. I wonder what is the ideal RPM for that pulley. I would imagine it would be somwhere around 200rpm, but that is just a guess on my part. Has anyone seen Star hammers for sale, and is this a good price for one in workable condition, but still needing converted to an electric motor?

So, you assume TP that he is running a 6" orifice in his forge as opposed to the standard #72- 1/16" orifice. I'd agree that it is no as much information as is needed to do the calculation easily but since with the orifice size and pressure you can figure out how many gallons (or BTUs, whatever you are comfortable with) he is using, then if he gave you the pressure and gallons, then you can figure out the orifice size. The only variable that is under question is if he is throttling the LP between the reg and the orifice.

Ahh, I didn't realize that it was that simple. If that is the case then I don't think I would need to fix the pulley as the broken area is not part of the clutch.

I have a neighbor selling a Star 50 pound trip hammer for $1200. The only problem I see is that the belt pulley, for the wide flat belt drive has a chunk about 1" deep and 3" long taken out of the side. Are these pulleys avaiable to buy or will I needto repair it? Also, how do you convert a wide (3 or 4 inch) belt drive to an electric motor? Thanks

A Hossfeld will make eyes in flat bar, no problem, but the eye is 3/4" round (or maybe 7/8", I can't remeber for sure). This is for the #2 bender, you might check the #1 to see what size the main pivot pin is, which is what the eye is bent around. If you don't mind the big pin size I'd use a #2, they are good for many other different tasks as well. If you want to make your own, or adapt one, you could look at how the Hossfeld, etc are made and make a frame quickly and cheap, or just buy a HF bender and make the insert to bend the flat bar (check out the hossfeld piece, or look closer at BP152). Good luck.

You could forge old cars into big swords, in one heat!!

That is interesting. Essentially it is a venturi, so it is the same theory. The one thing I notice about all the "venturi" burners is that they only use half of the venturi. That is they only use the bell reducer half and not the exit taper. I have found a couple of venturi calculators online, but none that will let me play without a credit card! So I would like to do some pressure calculations to see what the best design would be on paper. From what I have seen the inlet side needs to have an angle of 60*ish then the outlet side should be 30*ish. It would be interesting to build a few different designs and play with a water manometer, or a flow table (like in the carburetor shops) to see what designs producer what pressures in the inlet, the vena contracta, and the outlet of the burner to have some real data on what burner is the best.

I hace about 6 55 gallon drums full right now, to me they are scrap and will go to the scrap yard. I generally use new steel for all projects as that is what my customers are paying for. I do keep usable lengths of new steel in some 8" pieces of cut off pipe. I will keep and use 2", and 4" pipe that is used on corral fence and use the odd used scap around the house. On another note if there is any one in the north Phoenix area interested in the scrap in these barrels let me know before I haul it the the recycler in a week or so.