HWooldridge

It's probably around 40-50 lbs so $30 is a good price - less than a buck a pound. Tie it to a big stump and go to work. BTW, I knew a fellow some years ago - now deceased - who had a pristine Peter Wright that weighed 48 lbs on the bathroom scale. It was a little jewel and perfect for him as he was a small man with some physical limitations and could only swing about a 1 lb hammer or so. T'ain't nothing wrong with a nice small anvil so long as ship's anchors aren't on the menu...:-)

I know the type of clutch you are describing but have never seen one up close and personal. It may not be lubed like an LG if it's metal on metal or some sort of synthetic material driving the crank. Can you tell what was on it before? The nice thing about a grease or oil pressure cup is that it should keep a weep of lube in the bearing while it runs. A zerk sends a shot and then nothing until the next one. Beaudry's are famed for their hitting ability - I think their spring arm roller design developed more snap than the toggle machines and they more easily digest changes in die height for tools and different thicknesses of material. In the end, it all boils down to the physics of speed and weight on the ram - I do not know how they rated them but I suspect it was simply by ram weight.

I'm fortunate with regard to winter weather - we have three cold days here a year so I just close the windows. The gaps in the door and at the roof line are sufficient to allow plenty of air to get in.

For the price of the steel, I'd send it out for professional heat treating prior to setting in your block. Under no circumstances should they be dunked if you do it yourself.

The Wooldridge I am related to (John), immigrated from Edinburgh and settled around what it now Midlothian, Virginia in 1697. He was listed as a blacksmith and indentured himself to a woman already in America for two years to pay for the boat ride. He made a good living after his release and sired a bunch of children who eventually built a legacy of mining, logging and tobacco farming in the area. However, the Civil War ruined most of the family's fortunes. My mother's dad was a traveling smith in Central Texas in the 1920's. He claimed he was one of the first people in this area to mount a forge and anvil on a truck and go to the customer. I have his old invoice books and it's pretty fun to see what things went for back then - shoe a horse for $1, stuff like that.

Then they are probably all related to setting saw teeth and/or repairing hand saws. Probably belonged to a long dead tradesman.

#1 is a struck tool (note the mushroomed head) but I can't tell the use. #2 is a chisel with a stop collar. #3 looks like a special spanner wrench but for what we'll probably never know. #4 does look like another special wrench.

I have a #4 or a 100 lb hammer. I oil everything so nothing is binding and turn both tension nuts in until the hammer "chokes" or stops throwing the ram, then I back off until it start making full travel again. Don't loosen them much beyond this point or the ram may start slapping the crank body. The rollers should be at or slightly above midpoint of the ram, where the ellipse is widest. I had new rollers built for mine because the originals had flat spotted due to lack of lubrication. A machinist friend turned them from H13 and heat treated the parts to about 48 Rc. In the last 15 years, they have burnished to a bright polish but are not worn. I also made a new bronze bushing for the crank box shaft because the old one was dry. I have a thread or two mismatch on the tension nuts but they should be close so you may want to crank one in and the other out. I dribble "way oil" into the oil weep holes on the ram and also on the rollers so all bearing surfaces are well lubed. The best thing you can do to one of these hammers is have oil dripping off everywhere. A 200 lb is a banging son-of-a-gun and good sized for serious work. PS - You can see a pic of mine under the "mechanical hammer" thread going on right now.

Buffalo factory forge with large rectangular firepot - I added the tong rack. Used to have a factory half hood but that rotted away in a few years. I bought it practically unused from a man who had obtained it through government surplus. Apparently, the local military bases had scores of forges from WW2 that were sold off in the 1970's. The motor was 220v and he had it wired 110v. Since it would not come up to speed at that voltage, he simply set it in the corner until I found it in 1987. The factory rheostat and motor will create a great fire on the lowest setting with the damper barely cracked - I believe these blowers were designed to run several forges at the higher settings so it has no trouble with a single firepot.

100 lb Beaudry - fully functional and tooled. Has been in regular use (by me) for about 15 years. It was not running when I bought it and needed some TLC. I built the jackshaft and motor arrangement. Motor is a 3 hp Century which translates to about 275 bpm. Dies are 4x7 flat-top made from heat treated H13.

McMaster-Carr Look at the "Gravity-Feed Oilers", page 2109.

My Beaudry hammer has a little glass oiler on the main bearing, which has a needle valve that I can set to drip or flow. I'd bet most are 1/8 pipe fittings or something similar and you may have some luck finding one at a flea market or antique show.

Mine had a spring loaded dust cap but oiling was done with a can - I think McMaster Carr may carry something that will work for you.

There are several things you can do but in all cases, I suggest you sandblast the work before applying the finish. Scale has a tendency to loosen and pop off from normal thermal changes in the weather. 1. I often cold blue pieces, then clear coat with satin urethane. This works well outside and will last several years if it's not scratched. It has no "cover effect" and completely shows the nature of the forged surface. I use this process exclusively for interior work but it looks great on external stuff if you take the time to do it. I use "Varithane" brand urethane in the rattle can. 2. I sometimes will spray a piece with the cheapest black paint on the market (Home Depot sells their house brand for $.99 a can). Let sit a few seconds and then wipe off the excess. A few layers of this will color nicely. Apply the clear coat and you get a similar look to #1 above with slightly more cover. If the customer wants, I also will provide metallic patinas to enhance the highlights. 3. You can sand blast, wire brush the whole thing and use the torch to color it from a brown to a nice peacock blue. After it cools, apply clear coat. 4. You can flash rust the work after sand blast. Obviously, it will be a shade of brown but that color can range to almost black if the reaction is pushed. You can make a very nice mottled surface or have the entire thing close to the same color. Instructions to do this can be found here in the archives as I was the one who asked how to do it and received several responses. The peroxide/salt/vinegar mix coarsely sprayed and followed by bleach works quite well - but you need to apply heat in the form of a torch or something else. About 200-300 degrees is right to have it sizzle. 5. Sherwin Williams will make any color you want and their house brand of synthetic enamel is very durable but slow to dry. However, if you can apply it under the right conditions (either bake or let air dry for a few days), it will be quite tough and resistant to damage. Use your imagination - basic black is fine but there are many options available these days.

A lot of old nails were clinched through two or more boards - just like on a horseshoe (but I don't think Hofi's example was). Drive fairly tight but not enough to split the wood then bend over the protrusion. Makes for a strong joint.

Too soft and no rebound. You work twice as hard on a cast iron anvil vs one with a hardened face plus you leave a plethora of marks - even if you are careful and never hit cold steel...

This is a small pic of my coal forge. I apologize for the vise blocking the view but it's the only pic I have as I sit here at the PC. The nice thing about this is that it is a complete Buffalo forge with original blower, rheostat, firepot, etc., so you can see how much flame there is from an average fire with a factory forge. I can't tell a lot from your pics but will make some comments: 1. I assume the coal is a coking type. If you don't know for sure, crush some into about pea-sized pieces and heat the pile with a propane torch. It should coke into a "button" which means it sort of flows together in a mass. The volatiles will make a yellow flame and with a little air, the coke should burn yellow or white. There are some other variables but let's stop there for now. 2. I don't think you are getting enough air. A typical blast without a damper in place should be capable of blowing fuel or a ball of burning paper out of the firepot. Anything less will not give you much of a fire. Light a ball of paper (no lighter fluid) and put it over the grate then give it full blast. If you don't get a raging flame pretty quickly, you don't have enough blast. 3. Some people can get by with grates but I have never liked them. A better way IMHO is one slot in the bottom of the pot about 1/2"x3". This can be poked out with one stroke of a poker - multiple holes cannot be cleaned effectively while you have a fire going. Once you do get going, you'll probably want to work longer than the few heats you get until a clinker forms. 4. Once a fire is going, it will typically be usable in less than 10 minutes. Some of this is based on how the coal is prepared (with or without water) but don't worry about that at this point. The average fire will have a ball of burning coke about the size of a grapefruit with a slightly cooler area toward the outer edges. Yours might be a little smaller but should be able to heat at least 1/2" stock. Hope this helps...H

I have a cubic yard of concrete under my Beaudry and it is solid as a rock. A 25 lb hammer isn't bad on a 4" slab but anything bigger is marginal.

Ok - this is what I meant to convey in the first note. The fitup of the two pieces has to be pretty close with square edges. This one welded up in one try. The second one (not shown) was not fitted so closely so it pulled away when I tried to bring the legs back to 90 degrees. In other words, it stuck good enough that the seam disappeared but still pulled loose. After the first stick, I hit a welding heat four more times and it pulled loose every time. I quit for the night and will complete a second one tomorrow. My conclusion is that you need to get this dry fitted pretty close before taking the welding heat or you may wind up frustrated like I was.

The Spanish priests had smithies in the San Antonio missions back to the 1500's. They taught the local Indians how to do ironwork and some of the church ironwork was made by them. The Balcones Forge blacksmith's group in Central Texas has restored Mission Espada's forge and it has two single lung bellows and a small, square, stake anvil. It's perfectly suited to horseshoes on down to nails and/or gun parts and you can get to welding temps using lump charcoal. My list is about like everyone else's but I would definitely have a vise if I had a pack animal to tote it. A mule will carry 150 lbs or so and you could get a small vise and a small anvil in that size load.

Yes, but cast iron will also last a long time and it runs 3-6% carbon so fire resistance is related to overall corrosion resistance. Neither wrought or cast iron rust away as readily as mild steel. With all that said, I'd still probably use rebar for a grate and call it good - then simply make another one when that one dies.

I normally make andirons with a glut weld. Cut almost thru a bar (3/4" square in this case), fold the inside to a 90 and weld a separate block into the outside corner. I have an order to make a pair so I went at it tonight but had a heckuva time. Now, I typically knock the corners off the glut piece but this time, I left it square so it could only touch on one side or the other - not both at the same time because the cut on the parent stock is never square so the open angle is about 120 degrees. What happened was that it would stick on one side and then pull loose on the other. I fought this all night and finally got everything to close up and stick but only after about 6-7 welding heats per leg! I can usually do it in one welding heat. They look OK but I may remake them just because I'm a bit PO'd and want to figure out what I did wrong. What I think happened is that the filler piece had too far to move and I should have made the pieces fit closer before welding. Does anybody here make a similar weld and how do you do it?

I have the biggest single phase, two-stage that I-R offers. 220v, 7.5 hp and around 20 scfm at 175 psi. I can run the sandblaster cabinet, air tools, etc. with no problem. Unit cost $1600 but is worth every penny to me.

An oliver is a treadle hammer. They are quite useful (see Clay Spencer's work), especially for the lone smith.

Very well written, Rich... Y'all will laugh at my analogy but I used to bowl at a competitive level in high school and college. Out of several hundred bowlers in my skill class, I would usually finish in the top 10 in the state - best I ever did was 2nd. I'm not tootin' my horn in any way but what I want to say is that I never did as well as when I was in good competitive company. The natural juices of friendly competition are necessary to drive you to the next level. There is a great deal of info here and a little occasional foot race once in a while is enjoyable for both participants and spectators.