monstermetal

I bought Ralf's video years ago and I think it does have a bit about adjusting the guides... but I lent the video out long ago and never got it back and I dont remember... It seems to me that setting the guide on the ram out of the hammer and then using a indicator to shim the guides till it was dead center of the guide ring is the thing to do.... But that also seems like a pretty time consuming and difficult task.... Getting the guides tight to the ram is easy.... getting them to hold the tup dead center of the bore another thing entirely...

That is some strange looking stuff.... No help from me..

So what is the "right" way to set up the guides on a self contained hammer? My 3B has got issues in that I don't think the ram is centered in the guide, when I pulled it down I can see where it's rubbing on the cushion tower ( inside the ram bore). It looks like it is pushing forward a few thou

I understand your frustration, But trust me there is such a thing as a good usable post vise... I have maybe 6 Wilton machinist vises ranging from 3.5" to 8" ( the good ones) and three post/leg vises in my shop I have the best bench vises made and still very often a post vise is superior for the job at hand, not to mention even the best bench vise will not hold up to a wailing with a sledge hammer for very long..

Very cool... I like your table set up... Nice job!

I think it would be great fun to have a 1000lb mechanical hammer... Maybe someday when I dont have to earn money but can just play I will build one...

My bet is it wasn't a 1200lb Little Giant since there never was such a thing... Little Giant did advertise a 1000 lb hammer but I dont think that one still exists, if even ever built... The biggest ones kicking around are the 500lb'ers and there is only a handful of those... A 500lb'er next to a 25 would be like a toy tonka truck next to the Bigfoot monster truck...

And condition to a collector is everything. I have a arm & hammer farriers clip horn. One of only a handful (Postman had seen one and heard of one other) known to exist but it's rough and has had some repair... Every collector I talked to had no interest at any price because of this. My guess is your anvil has no or very little added "collector value" because of it's size and condition. If it was a 500lb HW in the same condition it might be another story.

She is a little beat. If it were mine I think I'd ask around $225, now keep in mind I wouldn't pay that ;-)

Big? Come on this a baby ;-). I want a big hammer someday..... Anything over 1250 will do...

Where I think a accumulator would shine is not in the rapid jogging or getting to the part but in punching or forming where you needed that "plastic flow" that you only get with a impact style blow. You know how the metal is... when its hot and you can keep it moving it stays hot and keeps moving... but soon as you start to loose the heat to the die surface it changes the flow dynamic and pressure required to do the work in a huge way.. Im not sure but I think with a accumulator set up right you could forge like the press was larger than it really was... do stuff that would take half again more tonnage moving at the "slow & steady"

I think he is dreaming on the forge, but like you say it could happen.

Im with Tim.... In my opinion the value is not that of an "anvil" The value is that of a folk art peice or just the craftsmanship exhibited. Id own it... I probably wouldn't spend $250 on it but If I was going to sell it its in the ballpark of what I would ask.. Also for a jeweler at $250 it would make a very real and usable tool.. Dont forget its in Oz... If you wanted to buy that new anvil for $250 its likely going to cost $250+ to ship it to Oz Its a beautiful peice of work, Just because it doesn't suit you doesn't mean its worthless...

Its true.... I am a sick boy

For the friends of Mark out there his sentencing was today. He received the minimum mandated 24 months for the charge relating to a automatic weapon. All other charges have been dismissed He has over 6 months served that counts towards the 24 and federal time is eligible for good time so he could be out in 14-18 months... I understand that he was in good spirits today. The judge more or less said that if he could impose less time he would but he had to follow the federal mandated minimum.. My feeling is all things considered he is in good shape. I have his current address in Fayetteville if anyone would like to write him but I think they will be moving him to a federal facility soon to start serving his sentence..

It's one of those whirligigs that that are off that one thing, ya know that one thing that has those other things that kinda look that that thing? yeah that's what it is alright....

The c is 16" deep all the way around except where the table notch is. When I said "6" springs" I meant the two three inch side plates do have a little give, but only if you push it right up to 100 ton. I think this design is a good compromise. It would be better to have the opening flat back from the table but I think you would have to have a couple thousand more pounds of plate to make it as rigid as this is this way

Danger.. The thing about moving the center of the C to center of the table is strength... Its easy enough to block up the work if you need all the depth, but at 100 ton this will spring that 6" of steel as it is.. in order to make the opening more square or the table at the center of it you would either loose stroke or capacity.. Of course you can make the spine of the "c" bigger to make up for that but you end up with a spendy frame.. I converted this frame, I bought it on ebay from Reliable tools down in LA about 6 or 7 years ago for $350.. Im not sure what it was being used for but its good and stout...Made a nice press...

Ive got a 100 ton C frame press I built... its got 18" of stroke and 24" of room to the center of the C.. The side plates are 3", the thing weighs almost 5000 lbs.. The table is drilled and tapped for tooling and just bolted to the frame... if you remove the table then you just have the two frame plates with 10" between them... Only thing bad about this system is with the little pump I have and the big cylinder it is really, really slow..

That thing is sweet! snappy little girl.... Looks tight and sharp.... are you running her on your big compressor or shop air?

Good info Bob... I think your on the money... He is not totally green... In my opinion he is a heck of a hand for a 19 year old kid.. He is better than any other helper I have had and he has his head on straight... But he is still a 19 year old kid.. If he wasn't my kid I would forget that is barely out of diapers... He acts more like a guy in his late twenty's than one that's not twenty yet... We will have a sit down in the morning and get back on track.... I'll report back in a month or so B)

All good input... Its a unique situation and I struggle with balance. I'll sit down with him on Monday and work out some sort of a schedule to get him a solid block of time in front of the machine every week

I agree, I can't speak for others but I want to be helpful. Now I can't be much help since even though I am a full time blacksmith with years of experience and hundreds of thousands of dollars worth on machinery I'm don't have the skill or equipment to do what you want. Out of the 10,000 plus members of this site I would guess there are maybe 10 that are actually qualified to give you real input about real world experience production forging automotive grade chrMo parts. The rest of us are just speculating

The other thing is I have told him for now you do only what I tell you. When he has more time under the hammer he can do it his own way. But he is a 19 year old kid. With very little big machinery experience running machines that can kill him.... I told him priority one is don't hurt yourself , two don't hurt the machine and three is the job.... I agree with you Bob... There is just a lot more to the big picture

Your right but it's not that simple. If I just walked away at this point at his current rate he would need to put in 7 12 hour days to do what I can do In two 10 hour days. And at the end of that 80 hour week there is another pile just as big waiting... He needs practice to improve but he can only put in so many practice hours before it creates major work flow problems....