cwilliams

Love your tooling and the feathers turned out great. Thanks for sharing your technique. CW

Well I finally got the foundation done and poured for my Big Blue. I decided to go the truck route on the concrete, and very glad I did. The pics tell the story far better than I can. Thanks Phil (Forgemaster) for the advice on the pockets for the imbedded nuts. It worked very well and allowed me to not have to pickup the hammer to place on foundation. THis is a very slick setup and I see using it again if I ever have to pour an isolated foundation. Chris

Thanks so much everyone for the advice, it is truly appreciated. Its alot to absorb so I will ensure to take photos and post here so others can see the direction I took. I like the idea of attaching the welded rod to the rebar structure, which I had not considered before. Thats why I asked, but the pipe with welded in coupling nut sounds appealing also. I will ensure to keep my concrete wet, and will also now call my local concrete company. It might save me the trouble of renting a mixer and getting a pallet of bagged concrete. Bryanwillman No not really, the main reason people use a separate deep foundation is to isolate their power hammers thumping from the main shop slab. Therefore hopefully keeping the slab from cracking and or knocking things off shelves and or abusing the structure. Chris

Hello everyone, I am in need of alittle advice. I have recently purchased a big-blu 155 and felt the working height could be alittle higher than it was compared to my other power hammmer. So I decided to cut my concrete and dig a foundation and in the end have a concrete platform sticking out of my slab 5 inches tall to place my big blue on. I will probably dig down about 36 inches or so and will also emplace bolts in the concrete to bolt the hammer onto. Does anyone see any problems so far with my plan? Now onto my questions. Does anyone have any photos of the rebar structure they created when creating a power hammer foundation? If not how close to the surface should I allow the rebar to be? I appreciate any advice offered on this subject as I am terribly ignorant in this area. Also any advice on what concrete to purchase, I plan to mix it myself with a rented mixer. Attaching two pics of where I currently am at on this project. PS Yes I used the long drill bit to break up the clay, Its a cheapo harbour freight bit and it worked very well with my cordless drill.

Curly george Looking good, You will be real pleased with your hammy I have a feeling. I love mine, pictures on my website at www.blindhogg.com Let me know if you ever need any photos, or dimension checks. Would be happy to help if i can. Chris

First off I would not make it so tight that the forge could not expand to some degree. I one time built a welded angle iron frame that contained firebrick when making my first forge. I just made sure it was not so tight, I probably had about 1/8 slop. Now heres the bad news I could never reach welding heats with the firebrick forge, so I rebuilt it with some round pipe and 2inches of K wool w a satanite wash and now easily reach welding heat. Good luck with your forge. Chris

Super impressive, Do you mig the stainless or Tig it. So realistic looking, If you dont post over at www.artmetal.com you should. They would love you over there. Chris

Feukair I am just finishing a grinder myself, Yours looks really good. You can always upgrade your motor later after you use it for awhile. Chris

I got my nickel last year from Admiral steel, a online steel store. Worked great for damascus. Although I now use 15n20. Chris

15n20 is not something you are going to find in most metal shops as its a specialty steel. Best to get some from Kelly cupples or Admiral steel. I personally use Kelly and am always pleased, upside is he will shear it to the sizes you need. Chris

Gun cold blue does not wear well, I personally hot blue. Pain in the U know what to setup for that though, if you are still considering paint you might want to try KG Gunkote. Its a paint that is airbrushed on then baked in a oven. Far far more durable than regular paint, I use a $10 airbrush from Harbour freight and it applies it quite well. Chris

Just a guess but sand blasting might work, or have you tried that? Chris

Nelson Most stay away from Stainless when making damascus. I would instead try different types of high carbon steel. I personally use 1084 and 15n20 although I have also used 1095 and pure nickel for my damascus. I dont think you are going to have alot of luck attempting to weld stainless and non stainless unless you can find a way to do it in a oxygen free environment. Chris

Never mind. Figured it out

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I just caded this cube a couple days ago, I plan to use it as office art. The black part is steel. The other colors are brass, aluminum and copper. I plan to imbed the non ferrous parts with magnets to allow it to stick to the steel part. Hopfully it turns out as nice as I imagine it will. Chris

I agree with Hammerjoe, I was in the army and we always packed our gear in the Pelican boxes. I never saw one break and they went through alot of abuse, They are alittle heavy but you could use one as a suitcase and hold the tools. Get one with the wheels on it to make moving it around easier. Chris

I am in East Fayetteville, right off of Hwy 95. Let me know if you ever make it this way. I mostly bladesmith but also do alittle bit of everything. Blindhogg custom gunworks Chris

Now thats a power hammer. Chris

Read this awhile back and just thought of it today while sitting in my shop. I printed it and will hang it in my shop, Thanks for sharing it John Chris

Yep you need a burner flare, you can buy a stainless burner flare for your 3/4 pipe off of either Ron Reils site or maybe it was Ellis knifeworks. Without it you will just keep chasing your tail. I had the exact same problems you are having until my flares came in. Chris

Phil Glad to hear you got through the billet, While its not pertinant to this conversation I thought I might mention how I cut titanium in case you get in some thin .100 thick Ti that needs cutting. I turn the blade backwards on my woodcutting bandsaw and friction cut with it. I can usually cut about 1 inch a second and mostly cut straight lines, sounds crazy but works very well. Chris

I got a finish not to unlike that one time, what I did was wire brush the piece then spray with a acid in a spray bottle. The acid rapidly rusted the piece, I every 24 hours would hand wire brush the piece then spray more acid on it. After about a week I had a beautifull multi colored rusted piece, at this point I go one of two directions, if the piece is small I put it in boiling water which will turn the orange rust black then clearcoat. or if I want the orange in it I rinse very well with water and let it dry and clearcoat. I use permalac for my clearcoat. Chris

First off let me say I love it. Looks functional and best of all it looks home-made. I love it when I see people using tools they made themselves, usually better than store bought nowadays. Now I would love to see a few more pics maybe a side shot, is the part that swings around adjustable for different sized stock or pretty much set. Thanks for sharing. Chris

WHen I want a nice black finish I usually heat up to just above black heat and put in a 5 gallon bucket of used motor oil, I usually keep in for about 10 or 20 seconds and if you time it right the excess heat in the piece will burn off the excess oil as you remove your work from the bucket. I get a super nice black that many ask how I did it when I do this to my art pieces, I have also rusted pieces and boiled in water to turn the rust oxide black and that looks good too but the first way is the easiest. Chris