monstermetal

Howdy Kirk from a Buhl native. :) I am a full time smith living in Seattle but was born and raised in Buhl. My pop is also into blacksmithing and I would recommend you stop in and say hi. His name is Lauren and you can find his shop at 223 S broadway (LL Langdons) Welcome to the site and be sure to ask lots of questions. There are a lot of great folks here (and a few curmudgeons)

Well I hate to be the guy to tell you... But Grant didn't build those hammers.... He imported them and sold them through Blacksmith Depot.. There where two styles the Swedish and the Hofi and he only brought in one batch (so there is not that many around) Not to say its not a fine hammer, just that it wasn't actuality part of his production line.... Almost everything else stamped OCP was made by him in Graham....

The bike is a 2009 Kawasaki Versys 650 and no I didnt build the side car.... the rig is built by Dauntless Motors or DMC which is the largest sidecar manufacture in the states and just happens to be right up the road from me. I let them use one of my machines once in a while to roll tubing and know the owner quite well and he had offered many times to sell me a rig cheap if I ever made my mind up on what I wanted... So last winter/spring I made the deal for this, only put a 1000 miles on it this summer but enjoyed every minute of it... My dog Sadie goes with me everyplace and everybody smiles when they see her in the hack... Its good for my attitude to ride it when the weather is good (which is not often enough in Seattle)

cool! looks like some of those Japanese knife makers hammers....

Most of you have seen my big metal working toys... So here is a couple of my other big boy toys... A Military M35A3 project.... I took an axle out and shortened it 3 and a half feet and am building a flat bed.. Next is a mount for the 18K warn winch... Then I also put a sidecar on my skooter last summer

Its a cute little thing... I do have a picture of my 8" Wilton with a 4" Wilton in its Jaws.... http://www.flickr.com/photos/28780485@N08/8191687507/

Phil I am aware of several nazel hammers with irregular blows that Mark has repaired by building new bushings/bearings fixing the issue, I think most of the time its the wrist pin and bushing that is the culprit. maybe because of the design of the hammer this is a Nazel specific issue but I am aware of several situations where this was the solution... It might not be my issue but I need to replace the bearing regardless... Mine had pretty excessive wear in the front bearing, I would guess I could get .125 of movement if you pushed with a bar on the end of the crank which I would guess translates to .025-.045 slop in the bearing. This bearing wasnt getting the oil it should because they had used a chain rather than a cast iron ring to loop around the shaft and carry the oil and the chain was broke and laying in the bottom of the bearing... I also think there is a good chance that this bearing was built for the "other" 4B that the outfit I got it from had and when they broke the ram in it they swapped the new bearing into this hammer after the expense of having it made, I think this because the thrust tolerance was very excessive too, I would say as much as .040 that the shaft would move back and forth plus you had the up and down... Overall the bearing just needs replaced... The tap miss is actually the least of my issues at the moment. The greater issue is the lack of the short stroke.... I have been talking to Mark Krause via email and the only thing he has suggested that I haven't tried or fixed is the valve blow by... I have advance and retarded the valve timing, I have tried softer/harder springs in the bypass check... and of course all the mechanical fixes, new wrist pin and bushing, new spur gear to slow down the hammer, new cushion plug, new rings and leather seals... On a side note I did not have the tap miss issue until I replaced all the seals and rings in the front end of the hammer... It is really air tight around the ram now, so much so that the ram sucks up and parks in about 3 or 4 cycles and when the hammer is shutting down even when the flywheel is almost stopped moving it is still picking up the ram and cycling... and the seals are tight enough that when you shut the hammer down it takes quite some time for the ram to fall back to the lower die... I feel really good about the front part of the hammer, I know the air is going to good use once it makes it into the front bore.... To me that is also compelling to think that small variations in the compressor side caused by different loading during diffrent parts of the compression cycle could lead to small variations in the ram stroke, we are only talking a difference of a 1/16 of stroke length to tap or miss and I can see the small amount of play definitely making that much difference in the up VS down compression cycle air production... Hey I got to hope that all this work yields some positive result... John N also suggested checking the con rod length as a small variation could cause issues. the folks I got this hammer from had two 4B's (sequential serial numbers (304 and 305) At some point they had pulled the compressor piston and con rod from the other hammer and put it in this hammer, I know this because the "spare" con rod and piston I got where stamped with "305" which is the serial number for this hammer... I was told by the previous owners that they could not get the other compressor piston to go back in this hammer because of peening on the top from something getting above the piston.... I spent several days hand fitting the correct piston and reinstalling the original and corresponding con rod. I know which rod went with each piston because both had diffrent wrist pin sizes (only .0020 or so but still obvious which went together. Also with the other con rod and piston the compressor side was gettin hot and sticking, which was the issue that resulted in the sale of the hammer to me as they couldn't solve that (simple fix, put the right parts back in the hammer) So I dont know... If the new bearing does not fix the tap miss that is a issue that I'll have to live with, it needs a bearing anyway... The main concern is the lack of the soft short blows as without those there is just to much energy under light treadle to do fine work.... Once its back together with the new bearing the next thing Ill have to look at is rebuilding the valves which sounds like a ugly time consuming project.... Ive had the valves out and there does not seem to be excessive wear but I suppose it doesn't take much for air to get were its not suppose to be, According to Mark there is no real good way to check tolerance in the valves either as feeler gauges and such dont tell much about what is going on down in the belly of the bore...

Harold there is a list of everyone involved at the end of the video, I dont remember the count but its over a dozen all said..

Kai Lee, his oldest daughter, is updating/checking his Facebook from time to time I think. I have lost track of Wah and Patty since they sold the house in Graham, Kai is still in Australia I believe.... I miss the gumpy ol fart and its just not the same around here without him...

Come on now, thats a little litty chunk of metal.... Not to say its not better than nothing but I would think you could find a better chunk of steel to put to use as an anvil.... If you cant find something better come see me and I'll give you a chunk that's at least 4-6" thick

A great group of some of the best smiths around these parts come together in my shop to build a gate for a local school as a donation in memory of my son Andrew.. http://youtu.be/UcWECeLrx_w

I dont think there is a way to get the oil out, mine where full of gunk and grime but it did not seem to damage or be an issue... The front one had a chain instead of a ring to fling the oil around and at some point the chain broke and was laying in chunks in the bottom of the bearing... still the shaft looks beautiful....

Yep.... I would bet a $100 the tap miss issue is slop in the rotating bits ( I would have lost the last $100 bet but what the heck, I am a betting guy) I got the bronze ordered for the bearing this morning... If anyone ever needs to buy bushing stock I highly recommend National Bronze, talk to Chris... I paid $80 for the chunk for the wrist pin and cushion plug (I got both from the same chunk) and the bit for the main bearing was $255 shipped Enco was $495 and my local outfit was $750 so $255 shipped I think is a great price (the slug was 45 pounds so about $5.60/lb shipped)

This mornings damage...

Talking with Mark Krause I think the tap miss tap miss is almost always a worn out bushing issue.. Here is some video, you can see the obvious tap miss towards the end of the video.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLg992q_C78&feature=plcp

Hey Bill... Yep Grant helped me tear down this hammer before he left us... I wish he was around to help too.. Well.... New ring in place, new cushion plug bushing, new wrist pin and bushing and new seals and I still have the same issues... I also rebuilt all the linkage today to get the loose rods tightened up... The only outstanding issue that I am aware of on this hammer is excessive play in the front main bearing... Still no short stroke... now that everything is tighter I have a tap miss tap miss which is probably a result of the sloppy bearing..... I am getting frustrated, I have been chasing things for almost two years now and still have yet to forge some steel and its now important to get this thing up since I sold the 3B

I know for the Nazel they consider a one peice a "light duty" hammer. They made 1,2's and 3's as one peice and I was told that the lower section was alloy steel, not cast iron. The Navy used one peice hammers on ships for obvious reasons. I have owned a 200lb one peice chambersberg self contained, a 300lb one peice chambersberg steam hammer and both a 2B and 3B one peice Nazel... The 4B I am working on now is my first 2 peice hammer. I dont think there is any question that a two peice is more durable but I also dont think in a smaller hammer (anything under 300lbs) that if its well built a single piece frame is a drawback and its certainly less work to get it up and running. I think in the Anyang because they are patterned after the chambersberg the 165 is the limit for the cast iron (they are physical about the same size as a CH2 Chambersberg which actually has a ram weight of 180lbs) I think the reason Nazel got away with the 3B is because of the two peice one peice frame and the lower section being steel rather than cast iron (the two castings are permanently joined by two steel collars that are heat shrunk in place) The one peice 3B's have a ram weight of 230-250 lbs and some of the two peice hammers are considerably more, I have heard up to 330 lbs which is significant given the ram in my 4B is 290 lbs without the die, about 350 with....

Arnon is a good friend and great guy and a lot of fun to be around... I have several "gifts" A set of Throwing spikes and a beautiful sashimi knife are two that come to mind, he is one of those guys who likes to build you things if you do him a favor. If you get a chance sometime to sit and chat I would highly recommend doing so, he regularly attends conferences in the northwest He wont disappoint you with his humor or knowledge... Thanks for pointing out the interview, I wouldn't have seen it otherwise, I'll have to call and harass him about it :P

I got a local shop that does material analysis, its $80 to do a single sample but $100 for two (if you had anything else you wanted to know what it is) You get certified results..

Personaly I don't enjoy the same enthusiasm for polypak seals Grant had. Reason being is most all the broken rams I have seen failed at a ring groove (unless the whole head broke off) so cutting a sharp edge 3/8 deep slot for a poly seal worries me... My ram as a 1/8" thick by 1" tall nylon wear band that is the seal and I feel pretty good about that. If my ram had nothing and leaked I'd go that route before cutting for a cast iron ring or polypak. My guess is the Califorina outfit only does stock size thin rings that most hydraulic shops use. Rings for these machines have to be custom built so best to go straight to the builder. In the past this meant dealing with Niagera piston ring which where slow and expensive. The ring I just ordered came from Trigon in TX but I have yet to get it so ill have to report back...

I ordered actual seal leather for the 4B... pretty cheap. I think about $60 for two custom cut leather belts http://www.afchydraulics.com/hydraulic-seals.html

I was told to run ISO 100 steam turbine oil (which is just fancy 30wt non detergent air compressor oil) its about 75 bucks for a 5 gallon bucket which lasts me about a year running the hammer about 25 hours a week...

good to hear your making progress.... Keep us posted

Did you notice any change in the operation of the hammer?

I'm on my phone so I can reply to your post... Just wanted to say I discovered a likely culprit for my issues. I went to measuring ring gaps and found the cushion tower ring is ridiculously worn. I would estimate the gap at .150 and it should be something like .010. I'm calling to order one but I am guessing it will be weeks if not months before I see the replacement to verify this is the cause ( I would bet $100 it is though)