nonjic

If you can find someone with an 'old school' planer they should be able to make you that 12' stick of dovetailed bar in a shift. Im on the final stages of installing a planer with 12' x 4' table, there are so many jobs on forging machines that a cheap planer can do better than a million bucks worth of Elgamill. Dovetails, and slide 'v's on hammers mainly! especially when there are multiple 'v's on each slide like this.. |VVV| often you could not mill them as there is no cutter clearance on the opposite face from the one you are cutting. If you have access to a mill with a head that can be tilted, and a quill that can be extended I will show you my '10x quicker than using a dovetail cutter method' of cutting dovetails I worked out.

Looks good John, but its a lot of keys and pegs, Alignment might (errm, will) be a nightmare! Could you make one dovetail, but much deeper, and have the die inserts in that, like books in a bookshelf ? the 'end dies' (dead side and key side) would need one taper face, the middle dies could just be rectangular blocks. Just one key per dieholder to contend with, and 2 datum faces to worry about registering (top die holder, and bottom dieholder) You might need a way to tie all the die inserts together, say a 1 1/2" hole through each die insert? you could then 'thread' 3 or 4 dies onto a 1 1/2" dia bar, then key them in as one lump. If you standardise the inserts from the start it should be do-able, The 'middle' inserts might have a tendancy to 'bounce' a little but for qty's like 200 off forgings (say, 1000 blows of varying intensity) it should not be a deal killer, I would have thought much less hastle than lots of individual dovetails, datums and keys.

I would be very suprised if you can get a 35kg to your door direct from china for $1800. (I buy lots of hammers from china) there are lots of potential pitfalls. eg, shipping terms 'CIF' great! freight included in the price :D you need to be aware that the shipping cost for the supplier from china can be zero, its all then lumped into the fees that you have to pay to the shipping agent to release the goods from docks, from the nominated shipping agent, who you are stuck with once the goods are loaded into their container! Over the last few years the trend in shipping for the unwary from china is 'negative cost' to the shipper, ie, they get paid to put the goods in the shippers container, someone pays.......

Mick maxen sells small qtys in the UK. http://www.patternweldingsteels.co.uk/ The carbon content will not have much effect on billet contrast as it tends to even out (migrate) after a few welding heats. Manganese in the steel tends to give a dark etch.

I put about 700kgs of anvils on my former (and cross braced it, bolted to the floor), it diddnt shift :D My 2 cwt is sitting on 5" of old (milled flat) rail sleepers to boost the working height - I cant see them compressing in my lifetime. I worked on the basis its much easier to pour your concrete to existing floor level, and have a shallow pocket for the anvil block, than to make formers to continue the pour above existing floor level. I cut lots of corners putting my 2 cwt in, with the size of the inertia block hold down bolts configuration etc, and from memory I recon there was 100 man hours work untill I hit hot metal (2 guys dug the hole with picks and shovels and a breaker, & with cutting through the existing slab that was 20 hours straight off!) I talked a lot to Owen when I put mine in as he was installing a 2 cwt alldays at the time - his labour time for the install was similar to mine I think ! sounds a lot of hours but it soon goes. If I put another one in for me, and I did not have the time constraints I had putting in the '2' I would go much bigger on the inertia block size (ie, to drawing dims as a minimum). The vibration is very noticable from my light duty foundation when running flat out on thin hard material (ie, stuff falls of shelves!). I knew I was skimping when I did it, butit does not really matter for my use as the hammer is only used once in a blue moon, in the middle of a large industrial zone. edit, 2 things.... 1)make sure the bedplate of the hammer is well bedded on the timbers, they can and do break if you try and pull them down with the foundation bolts, perhaps not straight away but they do sometimes let go! 2)you will love the power and control of the hammer long after the ball ache of installing the thing has passed :D

Rubbish pics! Knife looks good - a bit of critique.... if you sharpen up the deffinition between the blade, ricasso and handle it will 'flow' better, keep an eye on the 'top line' from the tip of the blade to the butt of the handle - a smooth arc is easiest on the eye. I like forge finished, but it looks really purposful if you spend a bit of time honing the edge up to a mirror :D

Still loving this hammer :D

Thanks for the info! One of my customers gets their billets quite..., well, toasty, by heating with oxyhydrogen ! :D They forge billets of iridium and 'top up' the temp after a preheat in open atmosphere with 2 torches - usefull to know there are off the shelf refractories we could make an enclosure from.

Great work Stewart ! sound like karma is doing her job :) I have a slightly different view to anvil collecters than you do though, I just see an anvil going into a collection as a 'pause' in its working life. The anvil will long out live the collector, and in a hundred, or two, or three hundred or more years time future generations of working smiths will benefit when they come back 'on line'

I used to weld anything to anything that was knocking about. Im not proud of the fact that I chopped the back out of a cupboard at work coz it was 1.5mm thick, welded up nice though! cutting your teeth on non compatible steels makes it very easy indeed when you get some 'good stuff' To get steels to weld youve just got to set the mood right for them, they have got to be clean and intimate before you start, gently get them hot in a nice atmosphere (a bit of barry white in the workshop, or some such thing may help, certainly wont do any harm), a few piches of flux when they are starting to get a little red round the edges, a little more when they have had a soak together, then quick! before they realise whats happening gently push them together into one :D A couple of things that ive found usefull are a pair of green shades ( I think a no.3 ) that gas welders use - these let you watch whats going on without burning the backs of your eyes out...., the second (which you can do after procurment of the first!) is to watch the flux. When the billet is nearly at heat the flux (I only use borax) will look smooth and glassy, like melted butter, then it starts to 'run around like kids in a playground *) youll know this when you actually see it. When the 'kids are running' a smooth motion from forge to anvil and tap tap tap. No time for dilly dallying - rehearse before hand if you need to, fractions of seconds count :D Show some pics when you get one to stick! * description thanks to Uncle Col from British Blades.

be sure that the 15n20 is 15n20! I and others I know have used large bandsaw blades for patternwelding and they have etched dark - not a smidge of Ni in them!!

I know one smith that specialises in bondage equipment, and another that makes large piercing 'rings', only suitable for men!

known steel makes it 10x easier, getting shown how to do it in person makes it 10x easier again :D have fun giving it a go, but dont be to disapointed if it does not work out like you hoped. The spring steel is likely a silicon / manganese steel, and will have a different austentising temperature than the mystery 'high carbon' steel, so heat treating will be a crap shoot, the carbon will migrate with the welding, the alloying elements wont..... lots to think about !

:D its very rare I get tool envy, but drool drool drool nice one mate, Im glad you got that one and not a greedy 'send it to the states' coz it will make $5k on ebay over there person (ie, me)!!

I had my first anvil sand blasted, nearly cried when I saw it - a hundred years of pattination removed in seconds. It did show the construction of the anvil nicely though, you could clearly see where the feet and horn were forge welded on as seperate pieces!

oooohhhhh, that looks a tasty anvil :D The biggies are wide in the face (6"+) Ill chuck a tape rule over the ones ive got that are 5cwt+ , im sure they are all well less than 4' long ... from memory the 600lb p.w Ive got is only 42 - 44" congrats ! interestingly it does not look like a big anvil, nicely proportioned.

Nothing wrong with it at all ! a wire brush in a grinder, and a wipe of oil it will look different again ! Price ? If I wanted to buy it (im not buying at the moment) a snipe at a shade over £100/ would probably see it won. Ive bought a few dozen of ebay in the UK last year, and you generally need to pay 75p + a kilo..... that one looks around 3 cwt. I dont know what prices are doing at the moment (to much 'proper' work on to buy them and arrange the collection), they seem to ebb and flow a bit. Sometimes US anvil buyers push the price up when putting a container together. Sometimes very average anvils go high on price, im assuming when 2 people 'local' to the seller want it. If you want it bid a sensible amount in the last seconds. Of all the anvils I have bought there has never been a useable one that is bargain cheap (ie, less than £80). I have occasionally got one for £50 by being very very quick when someone puts a 'buy it now' price on them.

I can prolly add a little to this thread, its not sciencey, just based on experience of running a few hammers over the years, and some idle mullings... Any hammer : anvil ratio will squish a nice juicy big hot piece of steel. Only a hammer with a 'proper' anvil will effectively work thin cooling stock. Not enough anvil and you just bounce off the work piece. I get asked a lot by blacksmiths 'whats the biggest stock you can work under 'x' hammer.' its the wrong question! 'can I work a piece of 1" wide x 3/8" thick stainless to 1/4" thick stainless'? is a real indicator to the effectiveness of a hammer / anvil set up. I think the 'hollow' anvils (L'G's , Chinese 'C-41' series one piece hammers etc) work quite well as the shape of the 'anvil' is basically a cone, with the middle missing. Ie, if you start from the top (pallet) every iron or steel atom is supported solidly by more underneath it - (Think 'house of cards' or Eiffel tower) , I think they would be more effective solid but casting technequies and ecconomics come into play (law of diminishing returns). I think anvils filled with 'filler material', (lead, iron resin, rusty iron shot) with a steel or iron 'anvil cap' are basically worth jack. They might weigh more, & deaden sound and vibration but are not bringing anything to the party anvil wise. If the anvil 'cap' deflects 0.001" with every full blow of the hammer against it, and the anvil filler material has bedded or worn, or pulverised to leave a 0.002" gap under the anvil cap it may as well not be there. Show me a non monolithic " solid " material that I cant wollop down a few thou in a week with a sledge hammer.. To my mind (and, coz I get bored easily) a real out of the box 'anvil' would be a piece of rubber trapped in a solid steel tube, with a plate on the bottom, and a semi floating die holder. You cant compress rubber, only displace it. Or how about an anvil filled with a non newtonian liquid ? spring support under the die holder so it does not sink when not under load. Yup, a custard anvil :D this would give a variable energy absorpion rate depending on the force of the hammers blow... sounds daft, but we use semi-viscous couplings in massive counterblow closed die hammers....... I will build both of these anvils one day, they might work, they might not ? but they will be more effective than a tube filled with sound deadening material im sure!

you can buy EN8 plate flame cut to near size from most profile suppliers. Get it stress relieved so you can mill it easy enough (or draw file it, or angle grind it!) Then get the face flame hardened. lots of 'better' steels out there, but depends how good you need it really :D

Does a locking screw go through the noggin on the side? I think I would grind the noggin off, so the pitman end is round, then turn a steel ring with a 0.020" pinch, heat it up and drop it over. If you make the wall of the steel ring about 1/2" you can then drill and tap it for a locking screw (assuming thats what goes there!)

Ive had a couple of near miss incidents with angle grinders, and the guards have saved me! I had a 9" bosch grab, and due to the poistion I was working in (squated down cutting bolts under a machine) I would have lost the meat, and both veg.... Ive got into a slightly bad habit over the years of resting my thumb on the back of the guard of the grinder. A few years ago somone thoughtfully took the guard off, it was only a quick job so I was carefull, right up to the point I pushed my thumb into a fresh 60 grit flap disk :( it just cut a slot that took months to heal fully! )

Isnt the Beche German though!

ouch :( painfull. Cant be sure of why it happened, but ive seen a couple of other dovetails 'burst' like this when a cold pallet and key are fitted into a hot dovetail. I once saw the steel tup on a 3 ton drop hammer split up the middle due mainly to temperature differential ! A couple of meaty dowels (pinch fit) shrunk in through both parts with some dry ice (or liquid Ni), and a couple of meaty high tensile cap head screws couterbored into the broken off wing should pull all the irregular bits of the casting back into contact with each other and might give a satisfactory repair. Need better pics to offer solid advice though. If you get a decent depth on the tapped holes for the cap heads into the base of the anvil you can really torque them down if you moly the treads. You could then 'cross drill' into the heads of the screws and knock taper pins in to stop them backing out. In my experience 'welding' or braising etc will only even give a cosmetic repair in a high shock loaded piece of cast iron. edit, Fine threads are much less prone to 'backing out' than coarse ones.

Hey John, I think that some poorly valved utility hammers exhaust at high pressure (ie, energy still in the the air as it leaves the system), and have issues with 'top piston air' and 'bottom piston air' fighting each other, slowing ram movement and thus reducing effective forging energy. No free lunch, but more a case of eating whats in the lunch box thats given!

Nice artical, - Its amazing how much 'value added' there is making blades Intersting that they have their grinders set up in the same way as many of the old (and current) Sheffield cutlers, ie, throwing the sparks away from you (over the top of the wheel) - this makes a lot of sense!