monstermetal

I like that huge faceplate as a table... Thats cool! Ok I'll try a couple other photos... a couple of these are from the "Metalheads" party we had at my shop this summer...

off topic, But how do you do the attached thumbnail so the whole picture doesn't have to load? I thought it must just do that... sorry for posting the big picture files in the thread

Hey Grant-Ruby looks happy in her natural environment See if I can post a few pictures of my mess... These are about a year ago... The 3B is now back by the little hammer and everything else has been shuffled about. This one is with the Nazel but ive shuffled things around since this one too.

Cool.... .Yeah I bet that is a very aggressive hammer when forging. Alot of forward weight.. I might just have to give that a try. Nice Job!

The Nazel is home and poundin iron.... So far so good. I need to build some sort of base for it to sit on and get it off the floor. This is the only one peice hammer I have ever run (this big anyway) and its kind of strange to have a 250lb plus air hammer ( 3B ) running on a cart. I can tell it needs the mass under it to solidify the blow.. Anyway its sure fun to have a big hammer! I have been upseting random chunks of square and round and setting "tea" candle holes in them... and breaking down a bunch of 4140 bar that i have then used to make hand tools.... The only bad thing is its hard to work on "paying" work with that hammer sitting there calling me all day!!!

Ive had two #1's.... Best little mechanical hammer I have ever owned (ok well Ive only owned those two.. but I still think they are great hammers) I ran mine with a 1.5HP as well and it seemed to have plenty of power to do the job. Mine used a relocated jack pulley and the motor mounted below.. the drive pulley moved outside the rear bearing on a longer shaft. Had excellent control and with tuning of the factory crank wheel brake you could get single blows. I think the #1 will do about one and a half times the work of a 50lb LG... The leaf spring gives a snappy blow and the little extra weight doesn't hurt either

Boy there are a wide range of views represented in this thread. I can give my two cents but thats all its worth (maybe not even that) I quit what most guys would consider a dream job.. I was in charge of buying tools and equipment for a large surplus equipment company. I made good money and had a future with the company... but I hated it. I sat at a desk and had to deal with a phone that rang a few hundred times a day.. I also understood that If I was ever going to be the metalworker that I aspired to be that I would need to invest more than a couple hours a week learning the trade.. So I made a huge jump.. From a 70K plus a year desk job to working out of my garage doing metal work that was really barely equipped to be a hobby shop. The day I left my job I had saved up enough money to pay my mortgage and bills for 6 months.. I figured if I could'nt support my self in half a year Id have to go find another job.. That was about 6 years ago.. I have out grown my shop three times... Am now in a 7000 sq foot that is really to small, have bought about a hundred and fifty grand worth of equipment (that is all paid for) and have been doing about 250K a year as a one man shop.. I can tell you I am a slave to the shop.. I work 10-16 hours a day 6 or 7 days a week.... I really dont have a "income" as every penny goes back into the shop. I dont have near enough time to do the things I would really like to (personal projects) But I can tell you that I almost always find joy in the work I do. I have done my share of crappy work. Lately that seems to be about all there is to do (its been months since I had a paying forge job... its all been fabrication) But I still am doing the things I love.. In every aspect of any metal work there is the opportunity to learn or improve. At some level it all interrelates and increases your ability.. When people ask about what I do... I give them the whole run down and range of work I do and then always finish with "it beats having a job" which I truly believe Maybe I will feel diffrent in 20 years but for now I couldn't imagine doing anything else...

Yep.. I'll vote with the crowd. I have sold 6 small mechanical hammers in the last three years... So I have a feel for the market at least in the Northwest. And $3000 for a nice condition hammer is about the going rate. I sold a 50lb LG that was running but in dire need of some cleaning and maintenance (30 years of old grease and dirt) for $2500 this last fall.

I know two smiths out here who use the Off Center induction forge (the one Grant Sarvers sells through Kayne & sons/ Blacksmith Depot) They really work well for certain things. Making a local heat to bend something, Doing detail chisel work such as animal heads. Even heat treating tools and blades. I would guess that with a good assortment of coils you could do most things with it. If your serious contact me off list and I'll get you in touch with someone who is running one and could really answer some real world questions.

Well come on by Frosty We are pretty spoiled here in the Puget region with so many great smiths in close proximity... When I travel I always try to seek out other blacksmiths an usually am surprised at how few I can find... There are at least 50 full time smiths within a 100 miles of me here....

Just an update.... Last July I sent the 3B back to Bob at the Postville Blacksmith shop... Its been an interesting tail and I have learned a bit along the way. The hammer is running and has been for about a month. ( I ask Bob to put it to work for a bit before sending it home to make sure everything was up to snuff) I couldn't say enough nice things about Bob Bergman... A great guy who is easy to deal with and really goes the extra mile... On the other hand I could say some mean and hateful things about the guy who I bought the new ram from.. and who originally sold the hammer... But its done and I just hope I never have a reason to deal with him again... Anyway My hope is to have the hammer back in the shop sometime in April and have a Welcome Home hammer in for any NWBA members who would like to come.

I made a pair and they where quite fun. Always interesting to hand them to someone and see there reaction... The weight difference is enough that's noticeable but not dramatic... One of those "something is strange here but Im not sure what" kind of feelings. I eventually broke mine at the jaw. I think the problem was that I did to much twisting/forging and the oxidation finely weakened the material past the point of no return. My recommendation would be know what your going to do and do it deliberately and with intent. Ti does not lend itself well to "Tuning" I have planed on building some others and have bought some random chunks of Ti off ebay for this purpose. I bought a slug of 3" round about 4" long that drew out to about 5/8 X 34".... so buy what scraps you can find cheap and work with what you find.... And yes the forging window is very small.... there is only a few hundred degree range where the metal moves well... Its strange to see stuff that is still red hot but wont move under a heavy hammer blow... It has to be worked in the orange to white range... but its oxidizing and damaging the material when its white... so you have to be careful or you make an expensive chunk of scrap... As far as reasons why? Because they are cool... And its just plain fun...

Will do..... Its already a losing proposition, shipping is about $3500 round trip... $500 less than what I paid for the hammer... But I figure it I can have a good running hammer for less than about 12 grand I wont be in too bad of shape. Thanks

Well... I am breaking down and sending the hammer back to the Postville blacksmith shop. I hope Terry and Bob can fix her up right.

Yes I am a member and have spoke to quite a few helpful people. Grant Sarvers probably has forgot more about powerhammers than I'll ever know and I have picked his brain on several occasions. He has has done a bit of work on this hammer for the previous owner but does not really have any interest in working on it now ( I think he would help with any info he could but done not want to actually put his hands on it) Don Kemper talked with me about it a bit and so have several others. What the biggest hang up is (in my opinion) is that there is some critical stuff going on the front end of the hammer and some not so critical stuff. Someone who knows a bit about whats really happening would be able to say "this is going to give you problems or This is not a big deal" My fear is that since I am neither an expert on air hammers nor a machinist that If I just take the part to someone and tell them "Do this" that I might do irreparable damage. The guy who's shop its at now is a air cylinder guy and know a ton about how pneumatics work. I was hoping that was enough but I think one of the reasons its sat for so long in his shop is he has fears about how it will work. The front cylinder of my hammer has been sleeved and is not truly round (its as much as .020 out in places). The plunger has some scaring. The ram has been machined for a cast iron ring (it originally only had oil grooves to seal) The inside of the ram has been bored and sleeved and now the sleeve has been welded into the ram. What affects are all these things going to have on operation? How good does the seal need to be in order to have good control over the hammer? In my opinion if the hammer does not have superb control then its not worth even putting back together. If it wont do what you will it to do then you might as well have a drop hammer.. My other big issue is I have plenty of paying work to do. Its hard to set aside time to work on my own projects when I am so far behind. I really feel like I am better off to pay someone to work on it. If I am billing $100/ hour to do what Im good at then it seems reasonable to me that paying someone $100/hr to work on the hammer is a good trade. They are going to get allot more done in an hour's time than I could hope too (they should anyway.. since 80% of the time I spend is just spent second guessing myself and trying to figure out what the heck it is Im trying to do) And I really don't have the capacity to do the machining and such even if I did have the skill and the time... My problem has been that there just does not seem to be "that guy" who is knowledgeable AND willing to do the work that is with in a 1000 miles... Anyway... Its sad to see such a beautiful piece of machinery that is almost usable sit out under a tarp. I would guess its been 6-7 years since the thing last ran and most of the people I talked to when I bought it said that buying a torn apart hammer was something that almost never ends well. Well I'm stubborn and maybe a little slow but I am bound and determined to see this thing workin iron before I die.

Well...... My understanding is that the two really need to be fit together in order to get the clearances right and thus the maximum control. Maybe that's something I should investigate. I talked to Bob several times about the hammer a couple of years ago when I bought it. At that point I was trying to locate a used ram. I couldn't say enough nice things about Bob. He was more than helpful, sent me Nazel shop drawings of a ram free of charge. Anyway I have not spoke to him since getting the ram back in one piece. I'll put that on my list of things to do on Monday.

I know this is a long shot but thought I would throw it out there. I have a Nazel 3b that I bought as a basket case. Its really pretty solid but had a broken ram that I have welded back together. Really all it needs is the ram checked to maker sure its still concentric and re machined a bit if its not, a new ring and put back together. I took it in to a hydraulic shop that said they could do the work 8 months ago and it is still yet to be touched. Its not an easy task just to move the thing around and I really don't want to move it very far. (its sitting on my equipment trailer at the moment). Anyway I want to make the thing whole again and would be willing to pay someone who knew what they where doing. Any help out there? I am just south of Seattle. If money was no object Id sent the thing back to Bob Bergman but I could just about buy another hammer for what mine is worth in scrap plus the shipping both ways! Thanks much Larry the blacksmith