01tundra

I use 1" square for my hardy tool shanks, My HB hardy hole is somewhere between 1-1/16" to 1-1/8" square . To tighten everything up, I cut a small piece of either 22 or 24 ga. (can't recall) sheet metal to make a shim. I cut it the depth of the hardy hole and bent it to make a right angle, then trimmed it so it would have to be tapped in. It has worked flawlessly for three years now, much to my amazement. I do break the edges of the 1" bar stock and also round off the bottom edges so the hardy tools are easy to install and remove. You can kind of see the shim along the edge closest to the horn and the opposing edge closest to the top of the picture. I used a small hammer and tapped the upper edge outward to match the radius of the hardy hole, which prevents it from slipping downward. I can either thank Frosty or Thomas for the idea.....but now that I've become old and grumpy like them I can no longer remember which one of the coggers suggested it .

I'd guess the overall weight somewhere in the 1,400 - 1,500 lb. range.

You could purchase a brand new 50 lb. tire hammer, a nice 150 lb anvil, a custom rounding hammer and still have cash in your pocket for that kind of money, just something to think about.

Yeah i must've been living right on that day, all of the square, flat and round bar stock are various types of steel and they were all marked with a sharpie pen identifying what type and all still legible.

I was fortunate enough to hit the local scrap yard right after a machine shop had dropped off a load of scrap, wasn't sure what I was going to do with a big tool steel plate and a bunch of round objects and pins, but this is what it eventually turned into and it works great.

I can't remeber the exact measurment off hand, but it's basically at the same height as my anvil, somewhere in the 30" range.

Picked up some various pieces and parts at the local scrap yard a few weeks ago and put them together to make a punch/drift block thing. Just took a little welding and some drilling for the holes, had a friend at a machine shop drill holes from 1/4" to 1" in 1/8" increments, the plate is approximately 2" thick. The post is 6" x 6" x 3/16" and the base plate already had the center cut out so I can drift all the way through material and tilt it over to retrieve the tool. Not perfect, but for about $20 it works.

155 lb. Hay Budden. 1" thick base plate 2" x 4" x 1/4" tube legs with 1" threaded plugs in the feet, legs filled with sand. Two layers of 30# roofing felt between anvil and base plate.

They are available from either www.blacksmithsdepot.com or www.blacksmithbolt.com.

It sounds like I need to accept some amount of this gift, especially since my new stiker friend has been found - thanks guys.

I have access to pretty much as many ASTM A193 B7 threaded studs as I want for free, but I'm not sure if they're worth collecting? They are generally 7/8" to 1-1/8" diameter and usually around 6" long. The best I can tell from online searches is that it's very close, or equal to, treated 4140, but I haven't found much mention of forging with it. They are made from Chromium-Molybdenum Ferritic Alloy Steel with a tensile strength of 125 KSI and a Rockwell Harness of 35 HRC in a plain finish. Looks to me like it wouldn't be very good for knives and such, but maybe OK for general forging? Thanks.

I've always assumed that my 155 Lb. Hay Budden (manuf. 1895) was considered a shop anvil, but I showed a blacksmith with a lot more years under his belt than myself a picture of my anvil and he insisted that it was a farrier anvil? I guess in the end it doesn't really matter because it's been working well as a "shop" anvil for the past three years, but I'm just curious on which it would be considered now and if there's any benefit/drawbacks of one style over another.

Both the top and bottom dies are bolt-on.

Got my new power hammer set yesterday. I did not build it myself, just helped with the design a little for my particular hammer. We went with an 8"x8" anvil with vertical stacked plates and used an 1-1/4" thick base plate. I'd say that the hammer weighs somewhere between 1,400-1,500 lbs. It's powered by a 1-HP motor. I ran a dedicated 30-amp circuit to it using #10 wire. It's sitting on a 5/16" thick rubber vibration isolation pad and bolted down with 7" x 5/8" concrete anchors. My garage slab is 6", 5,000 psi concrete with rebar so I feel like it's going to hold up fine. The mounting is very solid and the hammer does not move a bit. The center portion between the anvil and motor post is filled with about 50 lbs. of sand. It's definitely smooth and hits hard and I can't wait to use it this week. I've got my smithy set up in-line so we can still park vehicles inside, my gas forge rotates so I can angle it toward my anvil or power hammer with a light push, so it all works good for me.

I cut a piece of 1/2" round easily last night without the shear being bolted down (with the short handle). That's as large as I've tried to cut so far.

Just finished fabricating two handles for the shear, one 3' and one 6' long. I used 1-1/4", Sch. 40, A106 seamless pipe for the handles and used 2"x3/4" flat bar 8-1/2" long for the blade that slides into the shear. Notched the pipe 3" deep and welded the flat bar in. All I lack is installing the one 1/2" drop-in concrete anchor......but I'm waiting to do that after I get my power hammer set on Saturday .

I haven't came up with a sequence yet, but I did want to say that your design is wonderful, as is the execution - great work!

Bending 5/16" cold you will likely get a lot of spring back in the stock. I bend hot 5/16" into rings almost daily and have tried it cold before, it sprung really bad. May not matter for your application, just an fyi.

Well....if you would've asked me that two weeks ago I would've answered with "good luck". I found this one on my daily quest of typing "blacksmith" into the search bar on craigslist. I've been doing so for a few years now and it finally paid off - persistence actually does pay afterall I suppose !!!

Thanks Matto. My new cutting blades arrived yesterday, I ordered the notched option and it works really good for keeping round stock from rolling, I can definitely cut metal accurately without an assistant with these blades. I've read where people have said that it takes two people to operate the shear, but I do not believe that is an accurate statement at all.

My new blades arrived yesterday. 3/8" countersunk socket head bolts will work perfect for attaching the blades to the shear.

What kind of bolts are holding your blades on? They had 3/8" carriage bolts in mine and it doesn't appear to be correct.

Here's a few advent wreath candles I've made -

Yes, the #5 & #10 use the same blades, I actually ordered #5 blades yesterday from Edwards. They now have a choice of notched or smooth, so I ordered notched, which apparently has a notch in the upper (I'm guessing) blade in the very back to keep round stock from rolling out.