Jim Kehler

I believe Brent Bailey uses or used shop air for his forge. A fancy regulator isn't needed, a regular gate valve as used for water piping would work fine.

Lee Sauder has a technique that should work well for you. I t should be findable on-line .

Talk to John Nicholson at Massey, they are in the UK. That's the first Massey mechanical hammer I've seen.

This sounds like a job for an Upset Forging Machine or "Upsetter". These come in sizes from 1/2" to 7". They are rated as to what size round bar they will put a rivet head on in one blow.

I've seen a Star, but not run one. I would think it would be similar to a Little Giant. Mine has 1 1/2 HP motor set up to turn the hammer at somewhere around 300 to 350 rpm.

Nice looking hammer!

My Buffalo 1/2 weighs around 4000 lbs. this one is probably similar.

If you want some hard firebrick, I'll sell you some for cheap, close to Steinbach. PM me for my phone #.

Hi John, it's been awhile but what I remember from using polymer quench was that it was messier than oil, I think most of the maintenance was from drag-out, and I didn't care for the smell.

To prevent scaling.

In his book; "the hand forged knife" Karl Schroen describes using a saturated borax solution to lightly coat his blades before heat treatment.

That is very similar to what I have been using on my press for quite a few years, mine came off a truck with a hydraulic dump box.

Good looking hammer, how does she hit?

Nice looking machine, Love those old mechanicals.

I've repaired a fair number of couplers, we used FCAW (flux core gas shield) with a 9018 equivalent wire. The couplers were quenched and tempered after the welding and grinding was done.