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I Forge Iron

Trip

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Posts posted by Trip

  1. What kind of hammer?  What ram weight?

     

    If it's a 50lb tire hammer like the Clay Spencer design then a 1 horse 1750rpm is all you need.  After running a quick weld and brace on the motor to keep the light duty spot welds on the base from breaking off.

    It is a "Sam Stoner" style tire hammer.  Sam Stoner is a local Mennonite blacksmith that I have recently become friends with.  He operates his entire shop from 2 horses walking on a treadmill that turns a shaft through his entire shop.  It is amazing to see, and so is his work!!!!   

    Anyway's he also makes his own style power hammer. He started off with the Clay Spencer style power hammer, and wasn't extremely impressed with it.  So after he was finished designing his own, the head has 10Lbs more weight, and a full inch of more stroke.

     

    I will post photo's of it when I get it.

     

    I had a 1HP motor, but Sam said that it needed to at least needed to be 1.5- 2 HP (he said 2 would be best if I could afford it).

  2. Hey y'all!!!!!

     

    MY POWER HAMMER WILL  BE FINISHED SOON!!!!!!!

     

    I ended up finding a Mennonite blacksmith just down the road, and he actually makes power hammers.  I worked out a deal where we traded blacksmithing tools in exchange for finishing my hammer.

     

    It should be finished this week, and now I am looking for a motor to put on it.  I found one that I like, but I'm not sure if it will work.   Could any one tell me if it would?

     

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    Drip-proof design prevents water and other contaminants from entering the machine
    Steel frame with ball bearing construction and a rigid base for secure mounting
    Wired for counter clockwise rotation
    60 Hz, 3,450 rated RPM
    Delivers up to 15 Amps @ 120V; 7.5 Amps @ 240V

    Thanks!!!! God bless!!

     

    Chase & Holly Saxton

  3. well I 

     

    Rutland is another of the many import names.  You might get a good one and you might not - it's tough to make generic recommendations or otherwise because quality varies on all of the imported tools.

     

    Since it's already set up, take a cut on a piece of tubing or pipe and see if it cuts squarely.  You can tell a lot from how it behaves.

     

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  4. Hey Yall!!!!

     

    Its been way to long since I have been on here, but I just got married 2 weeks ago and the bride and I are settling down in our new apartment (aka my old blacksmith shop office!!), along with building a house, getting my online business going better, and dealing with my Dad going legally blind after a stroke behind his eye.

     

    Anyhoo, I got a question, Have any of you ever heard of a Rutland brand metal cutting horizontal bandsaw?  If so, what problems do they have?  Are they good quality?

     

    My Black Bull 4X6 saw just went down after 4 years of heavy use, and I purchased the same type of saw from Harbor Freight Tools, and took it back the next day, because it broke 5 blades!!!!!   My wife wanted me to buy the BIG bandsaw from harbor freight, but I don't want to sink 900 bucks in a piece of junk.

     

    This rutland I am looking seems in good condition for $500 obo  He said it cuts 14 inch steel and is single phase.

     

    Thanks!!!!!

            Trip!!

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  5. You just can't beat a good used industrial horizontal bandsaw for general fabricating. 

     

    Some good names; Kalamazoo (the best) Wells, Johnson, Ellis. 

     

    Some "good" machines have come out of Taiwan with the Dayton tag on them. 

     

    I wouldn't take a Grizzly anything for free but that is just the proud American in me. (I know the Taiwan is OK but not the Grizzly, what can I say?)

     

    A Marvel Roll in is the ultimate saw, but too big for a farm shop and usually very expensive unless very worn, in which case it will be very expensive (to repair). 

     

     

    Nothing wrong with a Power Hacksaw either, just no longer a production tool. 

     

    I have a very old Marvel #1, I can't quit it, even though I also have a large modern wet Kalamazoo. 

     

    Don't disdain the 4x6 Taiwans too much either. It takes very little work to make them cut true; sometimes as little as 1 washer slipped in somewhere, 

    though more than once I have gotten one out of a dumpster and had to recut the wheels to keep them from casting the blade off. 

    Is a Ramco RS90P a good bandsaw?

  6. I think you are going to have a very hard time making any entry level type band saw give you good straight cuts for doing things like the table legs you mentioned. The guides and frames are not ridged enough to keep the blade tensioned and square. The blade tracking guides are rarely square to begin with. They are really meant to be used for cutting stock to length which then would have further operations like facing in a lathe or mill to get it square and to the correct size. There are several sites dedicated to these types of saws and how to tune them to make good cuts. A Google search for tuning a 4x6 bandsaw will yield some results showing what can be done to improve them.

     

    If you are looking to upgrade you Black Bull bandsaw I hardly see how a portaband will help. It seems to me to be the completely opposite direction on how to cut structural steel and pipe at accurate angles. If that is your goal and you want to stay with a bandsaw you will need to look for something like a used Ellis or other industrial saw.

     

    Another option, in addition to the two I have already listed, would be a dry cut cold saw. They are in the $500 - $600 range and can make good miter cuts. If used sparingly for things that need cut accurately the blade should last a long time. Use in conjunction with your current bandsaw for stock cutoff would make a good combination.

     

    I have a power hacksaw and bought is to replace the cheap 4x6 bandsaw I started out with. For me it has been very usefull. I cut all my large stock and anything that needs and accurate cut with it. It is slow but makes a very good cut. The blades for it are much thicker than a bandsaw blade and held under a high tension. This combined with the large powerful table clamp make for an accurate cut. Another thing I like about it is that the blades are inexpensive and can be changed quickly so is make using the correct blade much easier than on the bandsaw. For bar stock smaller than 3/4” I use a bar sheer.

    I was kinda thinking the same thing on the porta bandsaw

     

    I found a Ramco RS90P  bandsaw on Craigslist for $850. Are these good saws?  I will know after today if this will be a option for me (waiting to see how I'm gonna fare on taxes  :blink:

     

    I am also looking at the hand sheers for the smaller rod stock.  I found one on ebay I kinda like http://www.ebay.com/itm/12-HAND-SHEAR-Cutter-Cutting-Sheet-Metal-Steel-Plastic-Brass-FREE-SHIPPING/360884732332?_trksid=p2050601.c100085.m2372&_trkparms=aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20140211132617%26meid%3D5877141190998607082%26pid%3D100085%26prg%3D20140211132617%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D4%26sd%3D360884732332%26clkid%3D5877143995777722567&_qi=RTM1562569

  7. What are you fabricating that requires a miter joint ?  Is ther one particular typ of material, such as angle iron, or several different variatons of that joint type ?

    Mostly stuff for the farm. Mostly pipe steel.  I'm also having a issue with straight cuts. my saw keeps cutting at a slant, so when I am welding table legs, the tend to lean to much to one side, and mess me up at times.

  8. hey everyone.

     

    So I've been pretty busy in the shop blacksmithing, welding, and building new shop tools and equipment. I'm gearing up the shop to go from light duty blacksmithing and welding to tool, and equipment building. one of the steps i'm taking is getting a new metal saw for the shop.

     

    I currently have a Black Bull 4.5" bandsaw, and have had it for 4 years. It has been a great saw, but I have had to jerry rig parts, and now the motor is now over heating and is making a weird noise.

     

    I am looking at 3 different types of saws the Dewalt DW872 multi cutter, abrasive chop saw, and a larger band saw.

     

    I will be cutting small stock metal (1/4", 3/8",1/2", 3/4" round and square stock),  larger tool steel (3" round is the biggest I see cutting), and pipe steel.

     

    Now I cant be spending no 1K on a saw of any kind, just can't afford that.  I would like to stay around the $500.00 range, but would stretch to $800.00

     

    Trip

  9. I don't own a tire hammer, but I have used one several times and they are great machines!!!!

    I am/ have been (as some of yall know) been building a tire hammer (no it's not finished yet  :( ), and some of the plans are a little hard to understand if you haven't been around a tire hammer. I would suggest trying to find someone in your area that has one, and go look at it, compare parts with the plans, and take photo's, a LOT of photo's.  It will make the building a lot easier.

     

    Good luck on the build!!!!

  10. Nice work. I have made some small basket froes from rasps. I cannot get leaf spring to forge weld. Do I see the tell tale signs of mr Lincoln on your weld? You may find you use it more than you think. I rive all my tool handles before heading to the shave horse or lathe.

    Leaf spring is a little more difficult to forge weld, but I've done it when I make small hip hatchets. When I forge weld leaf spring, I use 40 mule team borax, it seems to work better than EZ weld or Iron Mountain flux.  Actually Mr. Miller   :)

  11. Hey everyone,

    Inspired by the work of John Neeman tools, I have been wanting to shift my iron work to wood working tools.

    Having some spare time in the shop, I decided to try my hand at forging a Froe. 

    For those of you who do not know what a froe is, I'll explain. A froe is a tool used by old time frontiersmen to make wooden shingles, or short boards. The edge of the froe is set on top of  a log sitting on it's end, and then the top edge of the froe is struck by a wooden mallet. When the wood starts to split, you can pull backwards or forwards on the wooden handle to control the direction of the split in the wood.

    I forged this froe out of a piece of leaf spring, and then hand carved the handle using a draw knife and spoke shave. The handle it's self is made of a piece of Cherry, harvested off of my farm.

     

     

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  12. Hey yall,

     

    ok, some of yall are probably going to be like "your STILL working on that thing???!!!??" LOL   

     

    Yep, I'm still working on my power hammer, I did a little work on it yesterday.  My hammer frame (anvil post, base, and back bone) vary from what's called for in Ron Kinyon's new hammer design. So I'm concerned that the top spring helve thats called for in the plans won't work. so I was wondering if I could substitute the spring for a piece of HEAVY pipe steel.  Would that work, would it be harder on the air cylinder?

     

    Thanks,

           Trip

  13. Greetings to all blacksmith's located in and around the Comonwealth of Kentucky.

    This letter is to inform you that Chase Saxton of "Blacksmith of the Bluegrass" is holding a "hammer-in" at his shop in Scottsville Ky, on the third Saturday of March at 9:00 am. Scottsville is a short drive off of the I-65 exit #2 for those coming from Northern Ky, or Tn

    We will have demo's by Chase Saxton, & Dave Custer of "Fiery Furnace Forge LLC", and after which we will have lunch, and then just some good ol'e forging and talking. We will have several forges, but we encourage smith's, who have a small portable forge/work station of their own, to please bring it, also if anyone has a shade tent, please bring that as well. Thank you.

    For lunch, we will be serving pizza, Coke, and good ole southern sweet tea, but if you would like something besides pizza, you are welcome to bring your own lunch. For those who will be having pizza, the cost is $6.00, and please let Chase know, so that we know how many pizza's to get.

    If you plan on attending, please email me back, let me know if you will be having pizza, and if you have your own portable forge/work station.

    Hope to see you all soon!!!!!


    if you would like to contact me about attending the hammer-in, you can email me at (270)618-1325

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