Dillon Sculpture

Because sometimes you feel like a nut! I barter with my tree guy so here is a fun one. Forged iron and bronze, 30"h 37"w, 5/8"x1-1/2" top and 1-3/4" legs textured under the hammer and a tiny bronze bird. It will get a wood top and rust patina.

Thanks for the input, it sounds like the oil burner may be more of an industrial setup. I have no problem with ventilation with two large doors on either end and a hugh exhaust fan at the peak. I would like to be able to store the oil outside and have the forge on wheels so it could be move around as well. It also seems there would be more cost at the front end with oil than gas, but I need something for rugged duty. When I fire up my Niles in the past it pretty much blew through anything I could get hot in the first heat! Some initial calculation that we have done is putting this build at 1,000,000 BTU...

Sweet drill, just watch your hair on the front side :huh: I see you haven't bolted down the Bradley, what the hey <_<

Having some pretty big hammers has cause a dilemma :P How to heat such large stock efficacy enough to keep them running? I have been looking over the threads of both a ribbon burner and a oil burner type forge and could really use some input from those with experience with either. The target size material I would like to heat would be 3pc. 4" square to 2pc. 6" square around 16" long. Thanks,

I have no experience with either, just trying to weigh out the pros and cons. Is the oil burner a mess? Were do you store the oil? Fumes? Pics?

Yea I'm kinda chomping at the bit myself, at the moment I have no choice but to wait for my friends knee to heal so he can haul up the crete. I did finished the wood for under the frame of the Niles, 11" high will bring the die to 35". It was difficult work with the frame mounted at ground level, this should make a big difference. I have been thinking about an XXL forge to feed these beast, I'm kinda split between a ribbon burner and a oil burner?

Very cool! Thanks for posting

If they can't find you how do you get any work? I did some movie props for a guy, he said if I can't reach you immediately I'll move on to the next guy. I would rather know who I'm talking with as well, a little background and a name?

I can hook you up Larry, just remember fall is not only good weather for forging but also riding!

I beg your pardon sir, my glad is in perfect working order. Nothing had to be repacked on the 200, but when I rebuilt the Niles I bought PTFE Teflon rope packing from MSC its not expensive and I never had a problem.

Man your really getting beat up by those steam hammer guys, you best get back there and offer up $25 in cash, you never know.... :P

Hey Woody do you by chance have a dog named Rascal? I would love to drive a choo-choo :P And come on, I showed a picture of some scale messed about! <_< I have my big air compressor piped in the the tank as well but its a bit overkill unless I have enough material hot to keep it busy. I do think 50 cfm would keep up fine, this machine is factory pneumatic, says right on the tag 80-100 psi air pressure. The bore is 5" with 16" stroke, they also built a 250 and 300 on the same frame just changed the size of the ram. It is built to reciprocate, the ram is linked to the motion valve via the sword.

Hey I've only owned 7! My friend Kyle got a fair deal at $3725.00 my guess was $3500-4000 maybe I should go to Vegas! He does get expert loading, hauling and installation included B) He went and checked it out, said it looked to be used very little, I'll post some pic when we move it to his shop.

I'm glad to see Grant showed up to the party, I wonder what witty-sly comment he would have had :( Hey Ken, I might have them broke in by then, come on down. Thanks for all your comments, this has to be my newest favorite hammer! I forged my first doodad today, it started out as a 10" long chunk of 3" square. Two heats to draw, one to knock down the corners. The starting air pressure was 100 and would fall to 60 by the time I needed to reheat I'm using a 32 cfm compressor with around 350 gal reserve tank. Flipped it around a fiddled with getting a nice shape mostly single strikes for another few heats. Look I even got a little scale messed about! My friend took my dies to school and faced them off real nice, I'll break the edges and they will be good to go. Unfortunately my grader/concrete haller blew out his knee, I helped him home from surgery yesterday so my pour will be delayed another couple weeks. Starting to get busy again with a few jobs so play times about up, just when I was on a roll.

Interesting to view from a different perspective, I didn't realize there was so much deflection in the treadle, I will have to do something about that today. I also will have to make a adjustable stop for the throttle to tie to the hammer (I just clamped it off to a beam in the vid). Time to get something HOT!!! [media=]

Maybe someday I'll be up to 100 hammers... :rolleyes:

Hey John, not to belittle the idea at all, my experience with pneumatics is very slim. After settling the treadle modification today I really had a chance to spend some time on the machine, I may just be xxxxxxx in the wind. The response with the treadle to throttle hook up was very good, I could get light cycling blows, hard cycling blows and one good hard smack. I also hooked it up treadle to motion control with the throttle set and I could position the ram anywhere in the stroke with as much force as needed. I video taped all the results and threw in hammer driving as the machine was intended to be used (the most control I have ever had over a hammer). I will try and get some vid loaded soon and you can judge for yourself B) I may go ahead and tap some holes in the Niles since it is apart and if the bleed off is needed it can be installed.

I found my steam hammer along side the road. Severely breaking almost locking it up with a fully loaded trailer I pulled in to Mercers welding shop, an old boy walked out looked at me looking at the hammer and said "Ill sell you dat for $200... :o

Thats what is so cool about IFI, one guy up before the crack of dawn on one side of the world and the other staring at the sunset on the other side of the world both contemplating these ideas! Thanks for your continued support and contribution to the quandary of control. John, the bleed off sounds interesting indeed but I'm not sure I would go to those lengths to solve the locking issue. The biggest reason being if any failure in that system occurred it could possibly damage the hammer by smacking the head. This hammer has a safety cap but up to what point it will work I'm not sure. I do think the Ken Z method has its place and I actually already have a connection in place to do so. In the first and second picture there is a small link on the treadle bar that attaches to the motion control arm. I can detach the adjustment from the treadle to the throttle and by manually setting the air flow I can use the hammer in treadle mode. I used the hammer with both the throttle and motion levers connected to the foot control. I get a single blow from light to hard depending on the throttle adjustment, it a bit spotty and hard to predict. I keep going back to the handle that Grant had set up on the left side of the hammer. Used as a override I can get it out of its locked position but I have to use a hand to grab it, I will try a chain to the foot control and see what happens. (Third pic) I built foot treadle that spans the entire front area yesterday so I can actually use it now. Woody, check out the pics on mine and how the two levers are connected, as I explained above, is this what you are considering in your plan? Not sure that any slop would help deter the lock up.

Woody, that seems to be the same arrangement just upside down, or would they say down under :P Adjustment "P" is how my hammer controls the motion but your drawing has a extra handle to override the setting. I actually had a override hooked up yesterday to jiggle the motion vale and get it cycling again. You sure have gone gang busters on tearing it down, the motion valve looks to be sleeved in brass? Great work!

Thanks John, several approaches is what I'm looking for. Another idea I had was combining the two controls into one foot control. Heel-toe for the throttle and up-down for the motion valve? I found another picture of the inner workings.

Thanks Chris, I have had a young man interested in smithing helping me from time to time, I hope he is able to get a good deal, I'll keep you posted.

Got the 200 running today! Ran ok on my small compressor but it won't keep up at full tilt. I did a mock up of my linkage with some mixed results, maybe a bit more trial and error to get it right. When the ram is given enough air to raise, it becomes paralyze mid-stroke, you have to tickle the motion valve to get it to cycle again. I remember Mr. Larson spoke of overcoming equal pressure on the valve? I did find It has a easier time of overcoming this pressure equality the higher in the stroke the ram is, more study is at hand. I may just have to forge a bit tomorrow and think about it :huh:

Hey John, your advice is most welcome. The best drawing I have found is on Anvil Fire, power hammer page #2, Niles Bement. Your archives are probably a wonderment to all interested in hammers, isn't Massey responsible for the first steam hammer? My skills rendering the inner workings of the hammer are not going to be sufficient but, my first hand experience may have some bearing. As the motion valve lever is lowered the ram cycles lower and lower until becoming basically a clamp, as you raise the lever the stroke becomes higher until the piston smacks the head. The throttle only increases the severity of the motion. As I have studied Grants set-up the advantages I see are, #1 the ram is in the up position when approaching the hammer with the work. #2 a hand activated lever allows him to lower the ram through the motion valve which is also connected to the foot treadle via a chain. In my drawing I am trying to use the existing levers (so the operation of a driver is still possible) and KISS... My worry with the sketch is overcoming the force of two springs instead of one, I really want the action to be light and responsive.

Started pluming the beasts today. Here is a sketch of my linkage ideas. The eccentric would raise the head to attention and the chain would allow some downward movement of the ram position, from a lower cycle to the extreme, it would single blow.