SLOB

I bought some recently at the local ace hardware. it was located in the paint/finishing department right next to the boiled linseed oil.

before building or purchasing a helve hammer I would recommend checking out the book "pounding out the profits" by Douglas Freund. it has alot of info on helve hammers and other types of power hammers. the different types and innovations shown are mind blowing.

you will be in shock Aaron, its unreal all the stuff to see (and buy)...I've been waiting on quadstate since I left last year. I'm hoping to get there sometime friday afternoon and stay till sunday sometime.

Quenchcrack, I hope you recover fully and soon. I'm pretty sure my dad will soon be undergoing a similar operation. i think its L3 through L5 thats messed up on him. he could sit all day without pain but standing or laying down is impossible for him (at least without pain shooting down his legs) is that similar to what you went through? he's about to turn 71 and refuses to listen to anyone including the Dr's telling him to slow down.

not specifically a closeup of the burner but you can see it in this picture. if you go to the gallery and click on it there is a larger image

I had it easy when I tuned my burners....Jay actually did the fine tuning. we kept adjusting in the choke until it would burn smooth at less than a half of a psi. (guage barely moves off the stop) my choke plate is really close to being closed.....when adjusting it in you might need to adjust the burner jet back out some as it is moving along with the choke plate. do you have the idle circuit plumbed into your forge?I have some dragons breath from my forge....but not to bad.....but mine is only a single burner forge though.

I wouldn't worry about making a second forge with the bottom in it. I just stuff a piece of extra kaowool in the back to block off the opening. mine is smaller in diameter than yours and has 2" of kaowool.....I wish I had made it bigger and added another inch of insulation. with 2 inches the outside still gets really hot. I have about a 1" air space on the bottom of my forge and then another sheet of thin steel. this keeps anything from rolling under it and hitting the hot outer surface. I also used the HF tool cart but turned the forge perpendicular to how yours is sitting. the lenth just fits inside and the door opening on mine is just higher than the edge of the cart. another thing I did with my cart is put a bent piece of round rod (1/4" I think) into the rolled edge of the cart for another rack to hold tongs, hammers, pliers...etc

Jay and I were using his forge to play around this weekend. we used his 3 burner forge (alot larger volume than my 1 burner) to weld up a timing chain out of my jeep......it welded fine with just one burner going. I dont think we turned it up over 6 psi either. Aaron, cant wait to read your write up.

I'm not sure what the price is now....but looking at the price list I have from last year I could buy a Jay Hayes single burner forge kit for 7$ more than the price of one of the "super" chilli burners. my current forge is using his burners and a shell made from a scrap of sheet metal rolled around an argon tank I had. all my future will be from him. (my next forge is already being built now) Jay's email is jay@hrea.coop

Mike, I dont have any info on the building of that hammer. there is a little more info on another forum located here Power Hammers - Bladesmith's Forum Board look for the posts from Ted Banning. you could contact him and ask him directly for any info. Rob

I didnt use any of Ted's hammers. I'm not even sure if they used the air hammer that day. I think they fired it up for a little while but I am not positive. mainly they used the press and the rusty style hammer that day. Ted is a great guy and if I was in the market for something along those lines I wouldnt hesitate to deal with him or ask him any questions. I was hesitant to do anything other than look and take pictures at his hammer in. (still a newbie and I prefer to make my scrap in private) the last time I saw him he was trying to get me to drive out again to his shop to play with his toys in private. I'll take him up on the offer sometime and will deffinatly give all his power hammers a workout.

Jose, I think that hammer is one made by Ted Banning. I know he had some for sale before. here's a picture of the one he has in use at his place. I added some pictures in my gallery of his other toys. pictures were taken at his hammer in held this spring.

I'm really happy with how both my stands kill the ring of my anvils. both of them were fairly easy to make. the one on the mousehole is stacked 2x10s and isnt quite as stable as the wide footprint of the hay budden stand. the hay budden stand is hollow but still feels solid. its made from 2x10s also with the sides made from 3/4" plywood. I thought I might add silicone under the anvils if the still rang, but after mounting them I havent had any problems so I didn't bother with it.

when I was younger and played guitar I had half stack amplifier that I quieted down with old carpeting I found. if you could rig up curtains with carpeting or heavy painters drop cloths around your work area it would greatly reduce the noise level. multiple curtain levels with space between them would help also. here is a couple pictures of my anvil stand I just made. my anvil rang VERY loudly before mounting it. its truely amazing the difference.....although hammering out on the horn and on the tail is alot louder its at a reasonable level. I might try a layer of silicone calking under the anvil at a later time. I just wanted to try it out and didnt want to wait to run out and get a tube of calking until I knew I needed it. (I'm still undecided if I need it or not) depending on the block of steel your using as an anvil, it could possibly be drilled and tapped for an eye bolt to chain it down to a stump or maybe tabs welded on to lag bolt it to a stump. that should quiet things also.