NeatGuy

There are two separate circuits one for steam and one for high pressure water ... at least that is how I read the text of the patent. brad

I was looking around at steam hammer related patents and came across this combination steam hammer forging press. The person who patent this hammer appears to have worked for Niles-Bement-Pond. I wonder if any of these hammers ever went into production? http://www.google.com/patents?id=fNhUAAAAEBAJ&pg=PA1&dq=959094&source=gbs_selected_pages&cad=1#v=onepage&q&f=false brad

I have a 25lb Canadian Giant I would imagine the die angles are the same as the 50#. I could pop the dies out and measure them for you if you would like. brad

The bowl shapes could be roughed out with a gouger then ground with a die grinder. If you have access to a welding positioner would be handy for gouging nicely. brad

I like the cut off tool ... like a pair of scissors.

I made eight then decided to us only four. so I have 4 spares sitting on the concrete brad

Thanks all for the ideas. I have decided to use a hybrid of my original design and gazintas. There are four in a grid pattern. I welded them to the rebar so they are mutually grounded. Frosty the down draft idea is stellar! and I would have loved to implement it but I am dealing with a time constraint ... next time Brad Pull embed.PDF

I think you mean Yoder hammer. Yoder and Pettingell make sheet metal shaping hammers. http://www.faybutler.com/yoder.htm Yoda is a Jedi master... he may be small but you don't want to get on his bad side. brad

Nibblers are very useful machines. I have a trumpf cn900 nibbler that will shear, nibble, dome, shrink, stretch, and much more. I had a large Savage nibbler with a very large flywheel that was better for forging. http://www3.telus.net/public/benowak/IMG_4533.jpg. The Trumpf nibbler has an adjustable stroke length and the upper tool is moved up and down with a foot pedal. There are adjustable stops to limit the length of the tool travel. There is also a variable speed pulley to alter the speed. http://www3.telus.net/public/benowak/IMG_4533.jpg brad

I am building a new shop on my property, 25'x36' I have the foundation poured and am about to pour the floor. I was thinking of embedding some items in the floor and was wondering if anyone else has done this and is it worth the effort ? The items I was going to embed into the floor are a socket for a 5x5 post and 6 plates with threaded holes and a four way slot to insert a chain. The latter embeds would be for pulling objects. brad Pull embed.PDF

I have pipe certs as well and have seen some people prep the pipe with no land and no gap, butt them tightthen run a zip disk or a 3/32 pipefitter disk from tack to tack to create the gap and land. I have tried it and did not like it every ones milage varies. brad

I have experimented a little with accumulators and believe that they would be better suited for hammers then for presses ( In the current context). Since the pressures are higher than with air you can us much smaller cylinders which allow faster cycle times. I have included the basic circuit that have been mucking with. A flow control could placed on the exhaust port to control the discharge rate of the accumulator which would make the system act more like a press. hydraulic-circuit.pdf

In the second picture ... what make of welding gun is that laying on the floor ? Just curious I have not seen a gun like that before. brad

I had a 50 lb Little Giant that had problems with the bottom of the die cavity as well. I wanted to weld it up but was dissuaded by Sid Suedmeier due to potential complications inherent with welding cast iron. Instead I ground and filed it flat, drilled and tapped two holes in the bottom then bolted a steel plate in to shim it back up to the required height. I know that is not what you were asking but I think it is better alternative to welding cast iron. brad

Here is a little info on a very large steam hammer. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creusot_steam_hammer brad

Dragging will give better penetration; although marginal. Pushing will give a wider flatter bead and dragging will narrow more convex bead.

If your storage does not need to be private you could use perforated aluminum sheets which would further reduce your weight. Have you considered using rivets? you have a compressor and a rivet gun is cheaper than a new welder or a spool gun ... just a thought. brad

Why not use the waste heat to pre-heat the air blast for you forge making it more efficient ? brad

A very simple way that I have used is to draw, in your case, a 19" square on a piece of sheet metal and use an opaque projector to project the desired scroll. I move the projector forward or backward until the scroll fits into the square. Once the scroll fits the square then trace it with soapstone. Now you can use the tried and true method of using a wire etc to find the length. An opaque projector is handy for making full sized drawings I bought mine at a swap meet fro $10. brad

Would not the spiral shape of the drill bit make difficult to make a sound weld to begin with ? brad

I have a small 7" atlas shaper. Shapers are great for cutting dovetails. I think that the price for the shaper you are looking at is a little steep given the size; if you look around you can find a larger one for much less or free. brad

I do not know the origin of this lock. Most of the parts appear to be forged except the levers which are cast brass. The whole lock is a bit crude. I would guess it is from India as there is a large population of Indians in the area where it was acquired. An interesting aside ...I left the disassembled lock on my desk and my three year old son reassemble it with out my help or even seeing the drawing. I asked him how he knew about the placement and orientation of the parts and he said it was obvious. Maybe I should get him to help out when I have to model other complex devices. brad

A friend of mine gave me an old padlock which the shackle had been cut off. I have wanted to make some padlocks for some time, so I opened it up to have a look at what makes it tick. It is quite different from modern locks. Anyhow I digitized the parts and made a model with Solidworks and thought I would share it and perhaps get some comments from anyone who has made or has had experience with these sort of locks. There is also an interesting design etched into the cover that some one may know the origin. I would be happy to supply scale drawings of all the parts and assemblies to anyone that would like make one. brad PadLock.PDF

The yellow colour at the end of the bar looks like it might be galvanized. I guess they want to spread the joy around their shop. brad

To make drawings full size I have an opaque projector. I project the drawing on to a piece of masonite with the boundaries marked out and trace it by hand. Opaque projectors can be found, cheap, at swap meets etc. brad