MLMartin

It looks good Rhett, But you might find that it starts to heat the side of the pot up to much. If this becomes a problem I would suggest welding up the two outside holes in the air inlet. The two center air inlets look more than big enough to feed the forge with air. You might have a look at one of the threads ( Moving clinker breaker or stationry grate? ) one of the fellows shows his forge where he uses a pipe cap with little holes drilled in it. This is very much like a old industrial forge that used interchangeable half round air inlets. You could make some drop in half round air inlets. There is no need for them to screw on. They could just slip into the hole in the bottom.

No mild steel! Steve I know the next thing your going to say is that a rail road spike will not make the best knife in the world, one that would surly cut the moon in two if you could reach it! haha I had some one tell me the other day how grand rail road spikes were. He would not believe otherwise. I guess facts are subjective these days with the internet wizards

Danger Dillon runs a 700lb Niles

Yes. First the ring passes through a punched and drifted hole in the legs, then the legs have very small TIG welds from leg to ring on the inside. This prevents the ring from rotating and helps to keep the table steady

I am hoping to sell them. But not really speculative samples. I just built them because it makes me happy to build such things, they were built in my down time.

I have seen a few of them with the crank and arms removed and a air piston attached. The two I saw were pretty poor at best. Slow hitting and wimpy. I am sure it could be done and work well. But it will be more work to redesign and build new parts then to just order the replacement parts for your little giant and rebuilt it to original specks. If you do not want to bother with the little giant I would recommend just selling it and buying a new air hammer. In the south USA I would guess you may get 1000 dollars for a hammer missing major parts. Expect to pay around 5000 to 10000 for a new air hammer. Good luck

I have worked in a number of different coal forges with different ventilation. I will not consider anything other than 12 inch round for a natural draw chimney.Having worked in 5 shops with poor chimneys I can tell you that choking on smoke will make your work day horrible. Even using a fancy professorial made side draft hood with smoke shelf and 10 inch ducting was poor and would smoke up the shop I just set up a chimney in my own shop and I am using 12 inch round with a super sucker hood. I have 18 feet of chimney. I have a fire pot that is similar in size to the many standard fire pots sold in the USA. I burn coal or coke 12 inch is the way to go. I made my super sucker out of stainless steel Good luck and do not ever settle for a smokey shop.

4 foot by 8 foot will probably be pretty hard to find. I would call up the "Real wrought iron company" I think they are in England. They re role plate and bar stock. They might be able to provide you with this. Now if you are looking for 4 inch by 8 inch you can probably buy bar stock or plate from ebay and then forge it to size

Before you get in a hurry to change the steel blocks I would mount the large 1045 block on a stand. I would recommend mounting it with the 4" side up. 4 by 13 or 4 by 18 would be just fine. Just leave the other steel alone for a while. Build, buy, or barrow a forge and start forging on the block, take any chance you two can to work with other blacksmiths for a day. Time spent with a knowledgeable smith will greatly shorten the learning curve of trying to learn by yourself. After a few months of hand forging you will have a much better idea of what you personally want in a anvil. Many smiths around the world use much smaller steel blocks that are just rammed into the dirt and there forge is just a hole dug into the ground with some type of forced air supply. I have watched people make many wonderful items with this a hammer in just two or 3 sets of tongs. If you add in a vise of some type and a hack saw you are ready to start working Good luck

Here are two tables I recently built. The short coffee table has generally the same construction as a fire screen I built for a client a month ago. I think it has just shy of 200 riveted tenons in the top. The bottom of the vertical bars are plug welded in place. It has a black guilders paste finish with gold guilders past on the 6 twisted frame bars. I have clear coated over the top. The wood is red oak. The second table is also black guilders paste coated. The middle ring pass through the legs and the top ring is welded to the legs. Just work I built to show to potential clients Mackenzie Martin Martin Forge Works

Do not quench the mild steel before you try to cold punch through it! Even mild steel will harden some and make punching harder. You can hot punch over end grain wood. It will smoke good, or over the vise. Hot steel will shear and punch much easier than cold.

Metal 1/16 to 1/8 can be punched cold for a small slot hole like 1/8 by 1. I would forge a punch out of tool steel, then file the end crisp and clean. Heat treat the working end nice and hard, maybe 50 Rc. You can try punching over the end grain of hard wood, or make a bottom die with a hole slightly larger than the punch head out of mild steel to punch over.

Metal 1/16 to 1/8 can be punched cold for a small slot hole like 1/8 by 1. I would forge a punch out of tool steel, then file the end crisp and clean. Heat treat the working end nice and hard, maybe 50 Rc. You can try punching over the end grain of hard wood, or make a bottom die with a hole slightly larger than the punch head out of mild steel to punch over.

Looks grand, you must have a good hand with a small saw.

Looks just dandy, like a lolly pop. Do you have a joint in mind for the forge braze, I cant imagine it would be a flat butt braze? Maybe a socket and tennon brazed together? Good luck

You might take a little time to look in the tube and all the connections in the line. It is pretty common for mice, wasp, critters to build nest in any little hole that is open. Last time I tuned on my gas forge after a month away from the shop there was a mouse nest in the blower tube.

Before you hammer any cut nails through fine wood I would highly recommend taking some scrap wood and attempting to nail and clinch in the scrap wood a few times. Many cut nails are made much to hard to clinch. Clinch nails are normally very thin at the tip and soft, A tapered hole is drilled through the wood and then the nail is hammer though. The thin soft tip is then bent over and clinched back into the wood

Are you sure you want rivets? Or are you wanting square headed forged nails that are clinched on the back? I know many of the older buildings in Charleston have heavy wood doors that have hundreds of clinched nails in them. If you are truly wanting rivets then you will need some type of heavy washers on both side of the wood, or you could use iron straps on one or both sides instead of washers. Rivets can be made by hand. But I would recommend buying commercial rivets, If you set them by hand with out a header tool they will look rustic. A lot of rivets can be set cold, This would involve drilling or punching holes in the items you wish to join, placing the rivet in the hole, then resting the formed head on a anvil and hammering the opposite side until it mushrooms out into a rivet head. When I say anvil I am not only talking about a typical american anvil, your anvil can be as simple as a 1/2inch plate of steel laying flat on a concrete floor. McMaster Carr sell boxs of rivets in many sizes, It sounds like you would be looking for solid domed head rivets.

You may be able to get 50 or 100 on ebay, A skilled machinist may buy it as a project. It is pretty common thing to ship items on small pallets these days

You might take a little bit of time and look at all of them. Some times you will find the steel type written on the block with a paint marker. If you you could find a nice 80lb block of tool steel or medium carbon steel it would make a much better anvil than mile steel weighing twice as much. For shape and size I think for general hand forging you would be pretty happy with anything 80lb or heavier. Something at least 3in thick by 5in wide and 10in tall. A 100lb "brick" of steel that was hardened and temper would have about the same forging ability as a English anvil twice its size. Any of the heavy forging is done over the center of the body and the heal and horn mostly for bending, hardy tools, punching, ext. Horn and Heel are very handy things and I would sorely miss them if they were gone, but many smiths have forge wonderful things over just a block of an anvil. Also if you will have to move the anvil every time you want to forge from out of storage to say a drive way I would much rather use a dolly and move a 100lb or 200lb anvil on a stand than trying to move a 600lb anvil back and forth. I personalty have a piece of 6in by 6in by 1ft tall that I use as an anvil in my shop. I have much larger anvils of a more traditional shape but still use the block from time to time. Good luck I am sure most any of those blocks will work well. Mackenzie

Steve I believe your cross head is turned upside down. It makes the distance in between the dies very short and the hammer will run poorly like this. Do the arms ever hit the ram guide? My little giant is a oily mess and the owner before more wore out all the bearing, that is all I know about mine.

Sounds fancy, when ever I have needed layout fluid I have just used a fat tip sharpy to color the surface then scratch into that.

It is not layout fluid. The blue color is "Guilders Paste", color "Iris Blue". This is pigment made for artist. It is the consistency of shoe polish. I thinned it with mineral spirits and painted it on. It seems to hold up fine in a conditioned building. I will clear coat over top of this come times for a more durable finish. The company makes many colors Mackenzie

Sorry Doc I have to disagree. Jim Coke is right, it is a Vulcan. Vulcan's are cast iron with a steel face, they also have a picture of a arm holding a hammer on the side. It looks pretty chewed up. It is worth much less than a wrought iron steel faced anvil. Arm and Hammer brand anvils are forged wrought iron with a steel face.

I am glad both of you were able to come over. I am sorry I am not more knowledgeable about forging hammers. I mostly forge ornamental architectural works. I hope we can all forge again soon. I had a grand time. I do have to stay that punching the eye and swinging that 20lb sledge was a bit taxing Maybe next time you come over I will have a larger hammer that can handle the tool steel better. Mackenzie Martin Forge Works