brentwerner

Hey thanks for advice. I got it back together and ended up just cleaning it all out real well and then giving it a liberal amount of oil on final install. Things turned out real well. Bout to make a new topic on my smithy setup.

So there is no need for grease at all? I thought I read somewhere that someone was packing the caps and then letting the squirt keep everything lubed after that.

SReynolds, I did get things out just fine. Made me a little spanner tool that fit around my socket and held the fan. Worked perfectly. The rear and front bearings where pretty pitted so I replaced them with some from a bicycle shop. Got it all back together, just finishing up tuning the bearings. Now that it's back together it seems stiff. I've played with the tension to free it up and the bearings started coming out. I tightened things up enough the bearings stay in but the shaft still has some slack. My questions, I have the bearing caps off, everything snugged and the fan on. Will the tension be different if the caps aren't on and lubed? Will it be quieter with the case all put back together? And are all the caps greased before final install and then just a few drops of lube (ATF) added each time of use?

So I've read 400 disassembly/overhaul topics in depth and thought I had a pretty good grasp before I started disassembling of mine. I took Hayden H's idea of removing the rear bearing cap and putting a socket on the jam nut of the fan and the nut on the back. The rear nut came out and I got the bearings out and thought the fan shaft would slide out the front. No go... Looks like there is a nut holding the shaft in. So now I'm back to trying to get the jam nut and the fan off while everything is still assembled. Anybody got any good ideas on this? Don't feel comfortable jamming the gears because I know how soft the brass gear is and the fan doesn't feel like it will hold as much pressure is needed to break the jam nut loose.

Frosty..... Thanks for the cutting advice. That will same me a huge headache. Glenn... Thanks for the mounting idea. I'm thinking I'll try to fit it in some pipe if I can scrounge some up. Then probably fill it with some sand and pack that in. I'm starting to think two horns is over kill. Probably just go with the round and then the tube far enough away for tools.

My wife has an uncle tha'ts retired from the railroad and I scored some rail off him through my father-in-law over Christmas. I've been coming up with some ideas on how to make it into an anvil. I don't have an anvil yet and want to work the planning out on this one so it might last me a while. It's a little over 3' long and weighs about 130 lbs. So it's one of the heavier rails produced in North America. I went back and forth on building horizontal or vertical.... back and forth. Talk to this guy, read online... call a blacksmith... yada yada. So I've decided to go vertical and since I have over 3' I can cut it to exactly knuckle height and it be tailored to my hammer blow. The question I'm asking myself now is how to secure it. I have enought material to take the stump out of the situation (oh yeah, got a stump when I thought I was going to go horizontal). So here's what I'm thinking... I can fabricate a stand that allows the bottom of the rail to rest on my concrete slab. 2 things, is that solid enough, and will that eventually crack the slab. I can put it in a bucket and fill with concrete... will this lessen the rebound force of the anvil? And how secure do you think it will be? I was also thinking I could get an old spare rim or something and use that as a base, but figured that would lose some of the force. I am up for thoughts and ideas on how to secure it. And if you think a 3' tall railroad anvil is worth it. Should I just cut it down to fit my stump and secure it that way (Stump is about 18" high). Just figured the more mass I can keep the better it would work. Brent p.s this picture is a mock up of how I want to fab it. I plan to have a hot cut, fuller, two horns and weld some square tubing as a hardy hole. If I use some of my drop I can use the top of the rail for the round horn and the base as the square horn. What do you think? Oh, and I was thinking of welding this stick with some 7018. WIth proper preheat and post do you think I will have any problems. I also can MIG or run some flux-core.

Thanks a lot. Nice to have good reference material. Especially free. Brent

Thanks a lot. It seemed like a pretty good deal. Just wanted to bounce it off you guys and see if y'all were on the same page. Can I just get some header duct to connect the blower to the forge for the time being?

I have a buddy trying to sell me this forge. From the little research I've done it looks like a Champion 400 blower but I can't tell much about the force itself. Both are pretty rusted up. The blower cranks fairly easily but sounds like a bearing is about to turn loose. The forge is so rusted nothing is legible and there is a leg broke off, probably rusted off. My questions.... The connecting pieces seem to be there but don't quite line up. It looks like it might have come from a different blower. Does this fit the 400 and this forge? Do I need to get some kind of duct to connect the blower to this piece? And I was wanting to clean this up real well. I have access to a sand blaster. Didn't really want to throw the blower in without disassembly, but I've read some bad posts on here of people bending teeth and I'm afraid the case might crack. Would the sand hurt the guts if cleaned and relubed? Or if I'm careful can I get by? And the forge looks to be missing a firepot. I didn't know if these connected and then a tuyere was used. A lot of questions but I was thinking of building a brake drum forge and this guy wants to sell all this for $80. I figured I'd have about that in constructing on that I'd like. But if I get this for $80 and have to drop a lot more into I don't want to waste my time. Thanks to anyone who can shed some light.