Timekiller

So I built more of a box design as the "combustion chamber" And it seems wo work much better. I cannot however get it to hold ignition solely on oil. I think I will change the drip point. And I was able to melt aluminum.

Sweet hammer, nice work! A video would be awesome.

I was bored, and I had a few scrap pieces around, so I tried to build an oil burner. It seems that it will work with a hotter starting flame. Im going to mess around with it this weekend. I hope to use it for an oil fired forge.

That is great! I really like both of the knives you made.

These sorts of stories are why I want to avoid bottled gasses and the like. I'm thinking a good blower and some (filtered) WVO, just like the oil burning forge I linked to.

Yup... that sounds a LOT safer. Good luck, if you decide to build it. I may also give it a try. I have a lot of oil sitting around. The only thing I don't know, is what do you use as a pump for the oil? I assume the oil needs to be pressurized.

One way, you could have a bucket with a siphon tube. Seal the bucket and have a fitting with a valve hooked up to a shop compressor. The more PSI fed into the bucket, the stronger the blast of oil. I just wonder if there is any electric pump alternatives to this, it would be a lot simpler.

Im slowly building my "pile" of RR spikes. I got 11 over the weekend. Used 3.

Congrats... I have 60 more to go. There is just too much great info on IFI.. nothing for me to input, just read, read, read!

Question - What and why are there safety hazards with oil and oxygen?
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Oil is combustible. In pure oxygen, it is flammable. Fire hazards of
many substances are accentuated in oxygen, especially compressed oxygen.
Did you see the beginning of the movie Apollo 13?

So not really a boom, but still hazardous

Just be careful in experimentation, pure oxygen and oil do not like each other (boom)

They do show up on eBay all of the time. Not the cheapest way, but better then buying new ones from McasterCarr

Would you say the HF anvil is worth the $60-$80?? I was going to pick one up as a spare, and also to use as a base, and floor anvil.

Well,the hammer works very well. Obviously it is great for punch work.. and it def. moves more metal than my 2 1/2lb. hammer, but about the same as my new 4lb. Just a LOT less effort. Now my leg is sore instead of my forearm.

Always nice to see forging videos! Sweet!

The spring actually is offset from the pushrod, and unfortunately I think it would take a LOT more to get this thing quiet... haha :)

It seems that, yes a treadle hammer will have extra force... but With a good solid anvil base, the efficiency will be much higher. Basically if you dont have a base around 15X the weight of the hammer your not using the hammer to its full potential. I guess Ill find out this weekend. But I agree that most of the homebuilt hammers do not seem to have a heavy anvil base.

I was thinking that too... I have an "anvil" 8"x10" chunk of steel 85lbs. I may do that.

I think a solid anvil will give you a LOT more efficiency and remember optimum anvil weight should be about 15 times the head weight.

A tube filled with sand just doesn't do it for an anvil.

I figured I would try this for now, I really wanted a piece of 3-4" solid round to use as the base... but Ill just have to wait till that comes along.

...get a peice of steel cable, and extend the spring so that it is maximum extended, then useing a peice of steel cable run it up thorugh the spring,...

Yup... in the last picture, you can see the cable dangling. Thats actually how I got this spring. One on the garage door failed a while ago, without the saftey cable. I belive it put a hole in the wall.

Thanks for the tip though.

Complete:

Here is a cell phone video

Here is the hammer that I completed last night. I based the design on a few hammers I saw on here (IFI) So to those that have a similar hammer, thank you!

The hammer "head" weighs about 40 lbs. It, and the base tube are filled with sand. There is also a stack of "anvil plates" They are 4 pieces of 3/8"x2"x4" welded together. I will take close up pictures later. All of the large beams are 2"X6"-1/8" steel. The pedal, I forged out of 1/2" rebar.

I get to try it out this weekend, but I did crush a few cans last night

Also, if it seems that it needs more weight, I figure I could add a long post mounted vertically on the hammer head, and drop on some weightlifting weights. I can also add an additional spring at that time. When it warms up outside, it will get a sweet paint job too... also, please excuse the poor welds, I was rushing and It was the first time using stick on my new machine Belive it or not, im much better at TIG.

Start of the hammer:

I got a 25$ gift certificate at barnes and noble. I'm thinking of putting that towards a copy of Machinery's Handbook.

I got the machinery's handbook for xmas... I wish I would have had it a long time ago. I received the latest one (2004), but just to let you know the 2008 one should be out in march I believe.

I learned helping my father fix things when I was 7-8yrs old. Then we built a go-cart, and I learned most of my welding from that. A while ago I bought a cheap mig welder, then a couple years ago I bought a miller 180sd Tig/stick and did a whole lot of reading.

Books!! The art of blacksmithing, two ironworking patter and layout. and MACHINERY's HANDBOOK!!! Ive wanted that beast for a while. I also bought myself a present on sat. a 4x6 horiz. bandsaw. And I worked on my treadle hammer all day christmas.

Just received my copy of this book, well written book. Loads of great info! Highly recommended.

I put bricks on the side of my firepot to keep the coal from spreading out. I like a tall fire because my firepot is fairly shallow (4-5" deep)