Jim Kehler

Thanks for posting that, nice teamwork, you can tell that you've done that before.

I agree, well worth watching.

Great video!!!

I love the video you posted in a different thread, I would like to see the equipment demonstrated as in that video but realize that the overhead involved in maintaining large presses and hammers is daunting never mind the cost of heating up big pieces of steel. Maybe occasional demonstrations would be viable with an addmission charge, Im not paying the bills but if I were in Austalia I'd have that on my things to do list.

Have you done any kind of welding before, if so 7018 s will tend to stick even on DC, IMHO get some 6011's and start welding, it won't look as pretty but its a good place to start.

In my opinion this would be too slow for forging operations, but that said there are a lot of cold working operations that it could be used for such as punching,notching and shearing thinner material. In Donald Streeter's book "Professional Smithing" he shows a lot of tooling that he used with a small press.

I'm sorry but that isn't a trip hammer, it is a punch press. It would still be useful when repaired although its more of a production kind of machine than making one or two of something kind of machine.

Thanks for the compliment, I love working in my shop. We are close to the transition from boreal forest to prairie so there is lots of bush east of us. I'm not sure how long the plastering took, maybe a month, too long anyways. The only thing I might have done different would be to have budgeted for more hired help so that I didn't do so much by myself. I heat with a small woodstove. I paid 1.50 a bale and used about 900 bales.

You can call me Jim :) The shop is a post and beam structure from spruce and tamarack that was done by a timberframer friend of mine. It sits on a concrete slab 5" floor with a 16" thickedge. It has regular truss rafters with blown cellulose in the attic. The roof is metal and the ceiling is metal as well. I put the bales up myself and stuccoed it inside and out. The bales took a fair bit of time but the most time was spent on the stucco (almost wrecked my shoulder by the end of it). I'm attaching two progress photos and one interior shot that is fairly recent.

I am working in a staw bale shop I built just over three years ago. I put up a post and beam and wrapped it with bales, high lime content stucco inside and out. It is 39' x 39' with a 12' ceiling. To say I am happy with it would be a huge under-statement.

I can't help you but I have to say, that's a nice lookin hammer!

I think that it would be too dense to easily catch fire, but this is from a blacksmith with a straw bale smithy :)

I'll check to see if this would be at all feasible and I'm sure the bottom die is there somewhere.

Hi Ken, I know some of the guys that do smithing at Rolag, if you would volunteer to drive the hammer we might be able to get some steel hot and smoosh it.

I wonder if that Nasmyth hammer was built before he came up with the simpler throttle valve / motion valve set-up that everybody ended up using, kind of a infinitely variable prototype?

I have one that is almost its twin, I use it for sharpening with a 15 micron belt I got at Lee Valley Tools, I think it was 30" long. It doesn't have enough power to do any major knife grinding.

Wow! I really like that.

Luck

Very cool hammer! What did you do for guides?

Hi, and welcome, if your part of the prairie is close to mine, come on by.

I think the question was why would screw presses and hydraulic presses be rated differently, I am curious as well, I thought that a 30 ton screw press would out perform a slow 30 ton hydraulic on forging. Cold and confused in Manitoba :huh:

The "Northern Minnesota Metalsmiths" are about the closest to you I think. They get in coal for their members at a much better price than that. I think the coal is stockpiled at a members place close to Bemidji.

My treadle hammer base is similar and I filled it with all the old rusty bolts and cut-offs that accumulate then filled the voids with sand, steel is a lot denser than sand.

I use mine all the time, call it my idiot with a sledgehammer. It makes things like punching holes or cutting in grooves much easier and you don't have to resort to holding your workpiece between your legs.(Sorry there isn't any way to word that, that sounds polite :huh: )

That looks really sweet Bruce!