Geoff

I bought a brand new cast steel anvil on ebay.com.au. It arrived during this week and I just finished making a stand out of 8"x2". It has a very nice ring. The hardy hole is 22mm and the pritchel hole is 20 mm cast through. I had to strip the paint off the beak which I did with a flap disk in my baby grinder. I am very happy. Here are some pictures,

Thank you all for your responses. I will be able to make the changes as planned and still be usable.

I am rebuilding my treadle hammer to an inline version. As it was a junk yard hammer first time round I have some constraints to work within. I am only going to get about 44cm(17in) between the anvil and the hammer. Will this be OK or will I just get too frustrated? What do other people have in their hammers? Thanks for the help and comments in advance. I am planning on using a version of a Hoekens linkage. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoekens_linkage I used some parameters found in one of the links on that page to give final dimensions. I am trying to have to do any drastic remodelling so that if it cannot work then I will go back to my Gade Marx current design.

I never done any demo myself. Only a hobby. I went to two shows nearby where I moved to and met the same smith at both shows. He gets paid to demo. Won't do it for free and won't do it if he has to pay. Says it is not worth it. He also commented that he needs to change what he makes as chinese imports are killing the fire tools amrket. Not a lot of artistic stuff either. Just good camp tools. Also mentioned that candle sticks are not selling either.

Having just built a treadle hammer and previously built a Rusty power hammer. I can see that I will use my treadle hammer more than I ever used the power hammer(sold it). The level of control is greater for the TH than the PH that I built. I don't doubt that other people have versatility with PH's that I did not, For ease of use and simplicity I think a TH is a better purchase for the hobbiest and beginner than a PH. It is also a lot quieter and so will annoy the neighbours far less. IMHO YMMV

I did not realise there was such a wealth of experience with treadle hammers. Mine is the second one I have ever seen other than on the net. The treadle height for me puts my knee about level. My brother visited today and used it for drawing out a rail road psike to make a knife and did struggle with the height more than I do. I have tensioned the spring so that there is not a lot of force required and that makes it easy to control the return of the ram so if I want short gentle taps I can do that easily. I can also deliver significant hits if I want to. I also made up some fullers today. I am blown away by how useful the hammer is for forging. It was one heat and I had spread out the end of 1/4x1" and then one more heat and necked it down, with almost no effort. I also necked down 0.9 mm thick tube for a candle. That was a bit more of a challenge as just a little too much and you have flattened it. But I could get very gentle hits and managed to neck it down. The versatility of this hammer is wonderful. Thank you to all for the advice and for those who have put plans and ideas on the web.

Thanks Frosty What are the benefits of not lifting it so high? I left it like it was as I wanted to keep the head out of the way when or if I wanted to use the anvil for some thing else. Blessed Christmas to all.

Well Finally after many interruptions here is a picture of the completed treadle hammer. I did some quick forging with it today and I like it. I like the flexibility that I have for soft and hard hits. I can see that I will use it a lot. My wife says I have to make sure that I use both legs so one does not get stronger than another. I am sure that I will want to make improvements as I go along. Mainly making more tooling for it. It has one problem I have some play in the linkages and I will have to solve that one way or another, but that is going to be worked around for now. Here is a picture of it.

I have managed to get a front wheel hub in process of accumulating (scrounging) stuff for my tire hammer. I would like to know if anyone has used a front wheel hub or has any good reason to not use it. It has lots of holes to bolt things to and that will make building easier. I already have some ideas on how I will do it. Thanks for any help.

Hi ApprenticeMan I have no idea how high I lift my leg. It is not uncomfortable for the little bit I have played. I may tune it so that it is a little lower when I am using it. How high do you have to fit your leg? I'll take more pictures on the weekend if I get there. I still want to give it a coat of paint and finish the tooling. It is not entirely pretty as I bought a new welding machine and need to get it tuned in to get good welds. The paint will also cover the scrounged aspect so that it does not look as if I found the whole thing on a scrap yard.

Here is a picture of the hammer. Took a lot of scrounging through my store (junk pile) for all the bits and pieces for the linkages. There is still some finishing to do. I have to make the tools for it as well but the hammer is basically finished. Took about 20 hours to build. If I had used new materials it would have taken less time. It was a fun project.

Hi Marc I am already on the scrounge for the parts for the pare timre hammer. I have the anvil and some other bits. Lots more scrounging to do. Thank you for the comments on the treadle hammer. I am happier now with what I am going to finish. The lighter hammer will be better for the stuff that I want to use it for. I'll build the tire hammer when I need something bigger for production type work. Not there yet only get a few hours in the workshop on weekends these days.

Thanks ApprenticeMan The anvil and ram are solid. I'll take some picture on the weekend. I am going to do a variety of stuff with it but will try add some weight to the anvil to get the ratio up. All of the material is scrounged except for the bushings and nuts and bolts.

Hello All I am building a teadle hammer. The anvil is about 75kg and the hammer is about 15 kg. From browsing around the internet there seems to be a big variety to the weight of the hammer. Simple Gade-Marx look-a-like. Can those who have built and or worked with a treadle hammer please comment of the relative advantages of a lighter or heavier hammer. I know that the heavier the anvil the better the performance and that the ratio anvil to hammer should be as high as possible. Marc Godbout mentions that his hammer is only about 30lbs (13.5kg) and that gives him faster return on the hammer and so a faster strike rate. What do the rest of you think? Thanks Geoff