David Gaddis

Great idea for the compressor drain. Make it similar to water heater pressure venting outside the building, using hydraulic hose because it can withstand the vibration. If the compressor breathes from inside the shop then there will be noise and if it breathes from outside the building there will be a substantial amount greater condensate. Now you might as well add a lean-to for a forge, because all that insulation and few windows / doors will not be cool. Here in Mississippi we start with where the windows are located, or doors. We awaken each day to forging temperature and then it warms up! SO ventilation is very important. Carry on

RE-machining the bottom for new bolts is a very good idea. But I am not in to the stainless bolt replacement. If I am ever going to replace those bolts I want them to be of the softess grade possible to be easily re-drilled and tapped. But here I differ with the other ideas as I am not opposed to brazing a new ring and mount to the bottom of the fire pot. This is not a newbee type project by any means. Look around and there should be some old time welders from the past that had experience in doing such a repair. WARNING: This is a very hot project like you may never again see and the casting must be brought up to operational welding temp evenly without a whisper of wind or breeze. A slight wind stir will render this project useless quickly and a tinging sound will show a great crack! When through welding another person should apply a weed burner to the project to evenly heat the remainder of the piece right nicely and place in hydrated lime or vermiculite until tomorrow afternoon! Then you can drill the bronze or brass easily and apply neverseize to the screw threads. I would bet on a 95 plus percent success rate. BTW cast iron can be married to many other products with the use of brazing. In the past we used real cast iron rods...triangular in shape...and almost extinct today. Carry on

Wayne I have used copper welding via tig torch...to steel. That is the process I think you were referring to. Routinely I used phos-copper welding rod in the 36 inch length to attach copper products....via oxy-acetylene or oxy/propane. I suggest using the longer rods instead of the ones that are about 18 inches long, as they have less waste. copper tig is unusual process that can offer some unusual appearance. SOmetime it can be completely fused into the base metal but can also welded "cold" offering a less complete fusion with a fully copperous color onto the steel. There is a copper wire product for the mig machines but I have no experience with that. And copper tig welding can use lots of power, as the copper really soaks up the heat. Good luck on your most-interesting project. Please post some pics for us to see. Carry on

I think he is referring to viewable evidence. What goes on at Stan's....stays at Stan's.....except the lies, and confusion. Carry on

There has been several statements about a tight shop and smoking. What is being said has to do with "make-up" air. That is the air that fuels the flame/heat. If your shop is not allowing in fresh air to feed the fire then nothing is going to work properly. It is a matter of physics. There must be a renewed amount of air to fuel the fire, then any type chimney might be able to work. A side draft does not require a venture ...but may work better with one. To "prime" a chimney, ie. start it to drawing upward, some people must burn a paper bag or similar object inside the chimney. An almost instantaneous gush of updraft is felt as the drawing effect is operational. I do not have a supersucker but a sidedraft. If redoing my project I would like to have my sidedraft a few inches above my forge so that I could easily work a plate under the edge of the sidedraft. And YES I would highly suggest a sidedraft if: 1) Chimney support may be a problem 2)Overhead access is a problem 3)looking across the forge would be a problem because of low straight tube chimney like Brian Brazeal has. And BTW...Brian does not have a chimney on all his forges, while we all know that his forges get a very good workout without complaints from users. That should be a situation to consider too. Cary on

Where did you get that funny gadget to lay out the center line? Just funning around...Have a great day Carry on

I posted some side draft pics a while back...very interesting for those who have never seen a side draft work. Carry on

Oh yeah...It was a great time for me too. So nice to reaquaint with past friends and meet new ones. Lyle and I made another hammer late saturday evening to sweeten the pot for the Iron in the Hat stuff and a new guy from (Minnesota, I think) ended with it ...Yep it was Dean. He is the luckiest man around so try to always be near him! Several of the returning folk did not see the creation of the hammer on friday for Steve so they got to help watching Saturday as the sun was was setting. For some it was a first time to see the beginning to end creation of the hammer from a piece of steel. That made the hammer even more important as we had everyone there strike their initials for the memorable event. Oh...the hospitality was good ...no it was great. The only thing we forgot to bring along was a shotgun. It could be were useful to scare away some of those animals that doing all that snoring. thanks for having us back again this year. carry on

Throw away that 4140 and replace it with 1045. It forges 4x easier and heat treats easier with probably better end results. The highly experienced heat treating guys may disagree but from the failures I am seeing with 4140 and 4150 compared to 1045...well good luck. Stay away from hammers larger than 3-1/2 pounds until later, as they are tough on the body. But I use 3, 4, and 5 pound hammers while suffering with the heavier ones if I have to hit out of position. The heavier ones move much more metal easier than the lighter ones but here again there is going to be disagreement by some. Now that is my 2 cents. Carry on

ELECTRICITY It makes great excitement for the Trial and Error community. And it reduces things that can be reduced....like ego....finger prints....hair

Looks very neat-o! Congrats for the good work. Carry on!

If you will have me I would like to return. Plans have been re-arranged so I should have time available. Last year was a real treat to me. Met so many very nice people it was hard to believe they were from "UP YONDER" and "Way above Memphis". LOL carry on

We make a lot of hammer products down here in the South. But I am interested in forging a spring plate onto a face for a tool also. Somewhere in an old manual it was stated that a slot was formed on one piece or the other to help "hold" the other piece steady while performing the forge weld. I am going to try this next week for one project and then I am going to try placing a little bit of a tack weld (electric) on another. Of course that will be after all the prep cleaning is performed. The tack weld is to only hold the two into a common dimension as the forge weld deforms the two pieces into one, allowing the other material to squish out the crack along the side. Maybe there will be a picture or two taken. Carry on

Those bolts along the center make me think the system is like we used in aircraft. That is the rim assembly comes in two separate pieces. But the tire still must have the bead broken away from that rim. Be careful. Carry on

Look up Lyle Wynn. He has a box built by the good fellows down in Bryan Texas. Yep...those brothers. Well they can tell you or Lyle can. His name has been posted all over here for some time. And his box (built by the guys in Tex) is very neat. It has well proportioned hinges, handles, etc, with some being repousse' lettering. Anyway that box always turns some heads when he brings it out. It was given to him as a birthday gift so you may understand that it is of nice quality. Sorry...no pics Carry on

I can see you allowing a newbee to use your scrimshaw handled hammer. Yep...making replacement handles could be everyday. Carry on

The welded flatter: A welded flatter is a good tool for the power hammer. As I was instructed to do, place an appropriate round rod over a smallish flat plate...down the centerline and weld. I have one that gets lots of usage. It is about 2-1/2 square x 1/2 thick 5160. It has a rod attached to allow for control on the power hammer. The power head comes down to hit the rod which in turns transmits energy to the work surface. If turned sideways then a nice taper can be installed with a forged to finish touch. BUT: when I welded a plate onto a repurposed hammer all I got was a very tall cheap tool. It does work for a while and is better than nothing. The walls of the hammer eye are too weak to withstand the required striking energy. Maybe pics will come later. Right now I am totally happy with the flatter project. For the individual I see the 2-1/2 square head the correct size for the individual smith. It takes a little magic work to hold the flatter onto the hot metal onto the anvil while delivering a satisfactory strong strike with the other hand. EASY when a friend is near though. Carry on

Aaron, I hope your commercial business takes off like a jet plane. Good luck. Carry on

Very neat ..indeed! Carry on

We started out with 1-15/16x 4-1/2. On the power hammer it was squared longways, then tapered to fit easily into a 1-1/2 square hole 3-1/2 inched deep (anvil). This allowed for an easily installed set in the shoulders. Cooling was required to un-seize the piece from the anvil, then back for reheating. The top operations were carried out to our desires on each instrument, re-gathering metal on the edges, driving it back into itself. Of course this made an irregular shaped face that was a bit hollowed out. Reheating to a high forging heat and another flatter on the face as the front was flattened to desire, removing the open face area. Regathering again to control the outer shape of the face and re-flattening again. How many "agains" is that? Several if you want the shape square, or octagon. Less if you want it round on the face. Then the eye operation was performed to our desired location. Notice things that were learned, and corrected for. When tapering the bar a considerable amount of bird's mouthing occurs unless you spend a bunch of time gathering the metal and driving it back into itself. We opted to cut that end off with a friction saw. We then determined that the amount of metal chosen was enough for a very large faced flatter, too large for our desires. So we then reduced the tapered shaft length about 1 inch so it was necessary to re-work our taper to fit the anvil / swage if it would not fit. Remember we wanted our stock to reach the floor of our anvil. Today if I was to start the same project I would skip out and go fishing! But if I must do the project I think I would use 1-3/4x4. Using 4150 would be substituted with 1045 until I was convinced otherwise. Why? It requires at least 50% less energy to form. I cannot compare the operation to 4140 as I have not used that yet. Carry on

My initial calculation of what I see should be about 78 rpm carry on

Dang! We have been in the process of the same project too. It seems that your well thought out plan is well deserving of praise. So considered it praised ! Now how about posting some pics on the container you use to transport these tools in. We have been discussing the creation of a wooden ship's box or similar. Carry on

Sometimes a call to the local Chamber of Commerce will bring information to light. Not that it is their job to do so but many times their response was the real answer...and I NEVER liked the answer that was given. It can be a shame to get information that way. Good luck on your project. Carry on

Chris you did a good job on your flatter. But you should have stayed around for the finalle'. For those reading Chris was with us (Lyle Wynn, Stan Bryant, David Gaddis) where we forged 5 flatters by hand Saturday. We ground flatters and hardened them yesterday, tempering to dark straw/ gold. As per Ed Brazeal's instrructions goldish should be just right! But then again we used Ed's flatter making anvil and only part of his instructions. BTW...making a flatter is not for the weak person. It take a lot of heat, lot of beatin', and a lot of sweatin', and then you must be serious. No kidding folks. This is not a regular back yard DIY project. Carry on

STOP RIGHT NOW! Move to the country...no ordinances! Make it 100x60 two story lofted solar powered furnaces wind turbine blower for blowers hand crank drills Carry on and laugh about it