Ric Furrer

Owen, I sent you an email (and others) on this..guess it did not get through. As I work stock with random/variable sizes and use drop in tooling and such I find the fast speed of the low pressure to be an advantage. I'm building a larger press with a 12" cylinder and it will have about 40 ton on the low pressure and then kick to 160 ton with the slower high pressure action of the two stage pump....should be interesting...though nothing like the 210 ton Williams and white Monster has. The oilgear pump on that unit is $4,000 on the used market. Ric

The speed calculations on that link seem to be way off to me.... I prefer this one: http://www.baumhydraulics.com/calculators/cyl_speed.htm Ric

Owen, my press 5hp motor at 1725rpm to a 22gpm two stage pump..so the flow is actually 11gpm minus efficiency. A 10Hp 3600 rpm motor would run at full 22gpm. two 5" double acting cylinders. I run at 2800PSI for max so about 43 ton give or take. Moves at 0.6 inches per second and maybe 0.2 per second under full load. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FypNcOI96Tg and close up http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmBLvirHJCU I do the same operation under the 3B Nazel now though. Ric

Hello All, I thought you may enjoy this rather long video (in two p[arts) of what six students accomplished at a five day wootz making class I taught at the New England School of Metalworking in October, 2010. They all did very well in unfamiliar circumstances. http://www.doorcountyforgeworks.com/Wootz.html the video is not meant to be instructional....but rather informative. Ric

I have one in wootz..as does Owen Bush in London. Vince Evans has done several. Search for the Topkapi Palace Museum in Istanbul..they have several nice ones. The Wallace Collection in London as well. Ric

777, There are several youtube videos on grinding and forging knives. Like other hand skills it take practice and time. I know there is a knife group in Australia...have you looked for them to see if you could spend time with one of them? Wait till you try a sword...one with a curve like a saber or a reverse curve like a yataghan...few reference points while working as the edge drops out of line of sight. A long blade will show you how you pronate when forging (like your show tells you how you walk by its wear). Ric

Jacob, Did this involve a trip to the hospital for a pulseOx reading on your blood or did you just feel real bad? All things being equal it may be something else. Without a monoxide monitor or pulseOx reading on your blood its hard to say if it were CO, a bad taco or something else lurking in the shop environment or your body. Do you ever get the same feeling when doing other activities away from flames? My CO monitor rarely goes off...been using them for some ten years now and I burn all manner of fuels. Ric

Kray, I think you need a hydraulic press..full hydraulic. Anything from 16-24 ton would be more than enough for what you say you do. Go to a blacksmith gathering where you can see them being used and use them yourself. Failing that have a look around youtube. I have a few videos of my 45 ton unit on my site as well. I am a firm believer in hydraulics (and hammers and fly presses), but the specifications you have put out seem to lead to hydraulics as the solution. They are small, powerful,relatively quiet for the work they do (some machines depending upon the pumps and couplings between the motor and pump can be anything from whisper quite to a full scream). All things being equal I do not think any other machine puts a range of work into the hands of the average smith as well as hydraulic presses. That said there are several ways to build and power the cylinder movement and the choices you make can give speed and silence at a price. As a general suggestion I say go use someone's set-up. Note the ram diameter and stroke length as well as pressure, speed (usually in inches per minute), motor Hp and rpm and the pump gallons per minute. I'd rather have a smaller press running faster inches per minute of travel than a large press moving slowly. Anything less than about 0.3 inches per second is not a forging tool and some have presses running at a bit over one inch per second. There are booklets out on building these tools and several folk who make them for sale. I have a 3B Nazel pneumatic hammer and a 50 weight Molach mechanical hammer as well as 45 ton and 25 ton hydraulic presses. I would like to get a large friction screw press (150-300 ton) and am building a 140 ton hydraulic press this Winter. Each tool has its uses and within those uses there is cross-over...two machines may do the same job equally well, but at some point one proves better at one thing vs another. Sometimes this comes down to wear and tear on you (arms from concussion, ears from noise, lower back from lifting..whatever) and sometimes it is the neighbors being angry from sound or vibration. Ric

They are about three hours from me and I took a tour maybe ten years ago. I have a 1600 band saw and like it. A friend has the mill/drill they sell as well as a 1300 saw and likes them both. I know nothing about the sanders. Ric

I have a lathe (9" southbend) and two milling machines..I can count on two hands the number of times I have used them. This may change,but more often than not the job can be solved several ways. That said I may get a lathe just to turn some rolls next year as finding a reasonable quote for such is proving troublesome..9" solid round x 48" long roll stock. It all depends upon what job you have to do and the best use of the tools (and skills) you have. In general I tell folk that if you have the room and the funds then get all the tools you want. Like many here I have tools I have not used because I thought I would use them when they came into the shop. Ric

Hello All, I'm doing some larger work now and could use a crane. I could just move the piece with the overhead gantry I have, but I saw some with chain and springs in photos and would like to try that for the long term. Anyone have plans for such? Basically I'd like to leave the part in the crane during forging rather than just use it as a transport to/from the hammer. Ric

Just found this discussion. JPH is correct about Watson's techo whatever...not wootz to be sure. ToBig: The nano-tube thing is a bit of an odd deal. It began with a few articles by a German scientist and made the rounds about a year ago in the wootz circle..pretty much discounted by most of us. One immediate question is ...Did they use the same tools to view pure charcoal or coal or other steel or carbon fiber or other organic materials to see if maybe the nano-tubes are naturally occurring in many things? I would think that many interesting structures exist in many materials if we bothered to look. Now then..finding and exploiting are two different things. I do not knowingly do anything with or regarding nano anything....in point of fact I have enough trouble with the macro world I inhabit. Ric

Assuming it is unaltered...I can take you down town and show you a guy who talks into his shoe....and he does not work with Agent 99. Assuming it is a woman talking on a futuristic device..why ain't it a bluetooth with an ear bud or something better than what we have today?...why a phone the size we have today if not to appeal to the viewers of today? Now...this Velcro thing..THAT is from the future. Ric

Kerry...got a link to Krause's facebook page? Ric

Cranes are wonderful things..to rent with an operator..I'd not own one if you paid me. My 50 weight mechanical is bolted to a 2" plate (48x48") with the plate on 4x4's so I can get a pallet jack under it to move around. I do not use the tool much, but it works. The plate is heavier than the machine, yet even at 3,300 pounds or so its portable. Ric

When I called Yoder I was told that the dies fell off in transit. I don't know about you, but I'm sure my hammer dies could survive the hammer falling off the truck, rolling down a hill and being hit my a train without falling out. The treadle counter weight was off as well yes? I would think that they pulled them when they painted it and just never put them in. probably got scrapped at Yoder. Ric

I have used two of the Ebay Chinese units for hot and liquid metal and returned them both. Measuring hot metal is not a simple thing, but if you wish to read the furnace wall then they are OK. Like Big Gun says the emissivity needs to be calibrated...the factory was not able to help me dial in the $300 units from Ebay so I sent them back. I have seen the $2,000 units work well, but they much have a different sensor or something. Now I have a "K" type thermocouple and let the furnace settle on a temp for five minutes before I put in the blade...when the blade matches the color of the thermocouple then I soak a bit more and quench. Ric

I believe that was the additive. The local concrete company knew exactly what I was after and delivered two trucks with the load and we had it in the hole in about an hour. I had a box form taking the space of the anvil as on the two piece I needed to sink the anvil into the concrete two foot (about 24" deep and 2x4 foot). The only thing I would really did different is load the box with more weight. I made the box of plywood and reinforced it and secured it to the floor with angle iron and tapcons...when the concrete reached about 5" up the box it began to lift it. I stopped the pour, added a thousand pounds of stuff from the shop into and on top of the box and continued the pour. The displacement of the form was something I had thought about, but not calculated. an aside: I made the drill pattern for the hammer by setting the hammer on a plywood sheet when it was taken off the truck with the crane. I pray painted around the holes and such so I had an outline of the hammer and then had the crane lift again so I could get the plywood out....instant pattern. Ric

My 3B Nazel is set on 6 bag mix formed to 8" slump and cut back with some product to a 3" slump (or is it the other way round?) at any rate I used what Patrick Nowack said an engineer at his company speced out. I poured it all with rebar and left it to cure for 30 days. Drilled 1 1/8" holes 15" deep and set 1" B7 threaded rod in the holes using a two part epoxy. PROPOXY 300. The holes were vacuumed and then blasted with my power washer as water is not an issue with this epoxy, but dust is. I tripple nutted with locktite and a pin though the top nut. been OK for four years now and I use the 265 weight hammer heavy from time to time. Videos on youtube under 3B Nazel. I was on the fence for a more labor intensive mounting plan, but this worked well. Ric

So what you are saying is that the factory has been defunct for some time, but for some unknown reason it makes the news now? Odd, but it would still be nice to see what the place looks like inside now. If the building is on the National registrar/register? then I assume the interior will be gutted of all "scrap" and be left a husk. Ric

Go visit now or see if the local historical society or photographer for the local newspaper will document the site as it sits now. My little power hammer was made in Kaukauna, Wisconsin just down the road a bit....nothing remains of the site and scant little information. It closed better than a two generations ago. Had some photos been taken I would have liked to have seen them. All that remains are the tools they made and the advertising. Folk in that area have a chance to save it for posterity on paper and digital media... if nothing else. Interviews with the workers and such would be nice. I have a video from England of a hand rolling mill which closed days after the filming...it is quite good to have such a record. Ric

No problem Gentleman...Patrick Hastings is a good friend...he will be coming out to my shop in 2011 to teach a class on that type of work. It is not everyone's "bag", but if you just focus on the hot work you can miss the other wonderful techniques of metalworking which are out there. So much to see so little time..... Ric

Thank you for posting this Glenn...so many go under without any word being spread. I think paragraphs five and 11 sum it up, but then paragraph nine sets the trend we will continue to see.....decline for a while now. Philip, Do your students take non Chinese names for business? I spoke to one graduate from a program and he said they were encouraged to do so....his name was "Jack". Ric

Grant is the one to answer that question with a friction press. I have a 45 ton hydraulic press..you can see some videos on my site (lower down on the "videos to watch" section) if you wish to have a look. With a 1" fuller I can pinch in half 2" square mild steel at welding heat. It will not do much to thinner material though as it takes about 8 ton per square inch to really "move" something..more is better. Ric