Jim Coke

Greetings Farm, Nicely proportioned .. The elements are spaced well and the overall look is stunning... I made allot of gates in my time and yours is similar. Picture a forged circle in the center to break up the vertical lines... Sometimes an oval is cool.... I think you have enough balls.... I built one for a customer that had a thing for circles.. Yep he drove a Audi.. What do you use for a final finish ? Forge on Jim

Greetings Windancer, How many TPI are you using?... I found a finer tooth and less pressure extends the blade life... Do you use coolant ? If not I found a little bees wax works nice.... Been using it with my hack saw for years... Hope this helps Jim

Greetings again Keith, Log on to vintagemachines.org and under Champion blower forge it will show you the hub that you are missing on your drill... Easy to make and the chuck installation is as I said before.... The 1/2 shaft fits in and locks... easy fix.. Jim

Greetings R, Nice work.. I'm sure your customer will be happy. Look up rope twist they are fun to do... Keep up the great work.. I make quite a few handles . The flick is one over the top made from square tube... Jim

Greetings Keith, Normally a Champion drill has a I/2 hole for a chuck... If so its simple they make a tapered shaft that fits in the chuck and a 1/ 2/inch male shaft that fits the drill with a set screw.. If you had a picture I could help you more... Jim

Greetings Frank, If you fill in your location on your profile or give your basic location the guys are more than willing to direct you to a local blacksmith group that I'm sure would give you direction and a fair price ... If you take pictures and post them in the tailgating section of this forum you will get plenty of advice and a possible customer.. I hope this helps Jim

Greetings All, Normally I use tongs for short punch hot work... Many are all fitted with there own handles... I do allot of treadle hammer work and found a simple set up . A short piece of rough leather about 1in wide and 7 LW vice grips... I also use this when doing vice punch work.. Hot or cold and they work well.. Carry on. Jim

Greetings DK, Now your talkin.. All you need is candy and they will sell like crazy... Good to see you got things going your way.. Keep a nockin. Jim

Greetings DK, Now you talkin.. All you need is candy and they will sell like crazy... Good to see you got things going your way.. Keep a nockin. Jim

Greetings all, I did not have the heart to make my old Hawkeye beam hammer into a mail box so I built this one... Keeps mama happy... Jim

Greetings Dan, It's a simple problem... I have several and all I do is use a old hack saw blade as a shim on one side of the bolt.. Works fine... See my post on vice spacers under solving problems... Good luck Jim

Greetings Ultra, I have the same Champion blower and use a simple wall switch rheostat . It's worked fine for years... I don't like the open contact style.. Dirt dust and sparks.... Good luck Jim

Wayne, Yep next year I'm coming to Tennessee to be with you .... We can summer in Michigan July that is... Keep safe Jim

Greetings Bryan, I'm lucky I built a winter shop in the city with limited equipment but I can forge and do the things I want... I'm retired and have no schedules BUTTT. I still miss working in coal at my small studio at my farm.. Last month I got the itches and just had to do it... I know just hoe you feel.... Hurry summer.... Michigan has two seasons winter and July... Enjoy.. Jim

Greetings Waylon, I think I would set that puppy aside for parts on your next find.,.. Sometimes you find vises that people have cut off and now you have the parts... Patience a good one will come along Jim

Greetings Ironsmith, Put it down in your memory that you have just spent time with one of the finest teachers and person that you will ever run into.. I too have taken Clays classes years ago a few times and look forward to more.... Pass on your experience with pride.... Jim

Just think if it is leaking now.. It could have leaked when you brought it home in you car the first time.... Your lucky.... Call the dealer and make them aware of the problem.... Put it outside out of harms way for a week..... Do not transport in your car.... Borrow a trailer or pickup... Be smart Jim

MY WIFE CRAZY... Otherwise a Toyota Tacoma pickup .... And my scoot is a Honda.... Not too bad for 69 eh.... Jim

Well done.... Can I order a set.... Jim

Greetings Tom, I think you will have a blast at Lances hammer in.. All you need is an open mind and energy... I have been a member of MABA for many years . There is a good chance I to will be there.. You have joined a great group with a lot of fine folks.. Jim From the Golden Bell Forge AKA blacksmiths heaven..

Greetings Oddtodd, Welcome.. I think if you fill out your profile you will find a lot of helpful smiths in your area... Sounds like ya got a good start... I wish you well, Jim

Greetings again Justin, I don't think a lot of people understand that the only control that you have over your hammer is the tension on the idler... You have no clutch like LG or others... Now we get down to what I would do... See that you said you can mount it overhead.... I would mount your motor to twin belt reducing v pulleys on a jack shaft with at least a 100 pound flywheel and than to at least a 8 inch final drive pulley to your hammer... You can figure the ratios.. The reason I would do it that way is to have inertia for initial starts and overall control... Old time line shafts have many pulleys on the shaft and have the inertia required... That's just my way to skin this cat.. Let me know your progress... I wish you well Jim

Greetings again Waylon, Now I understand.. The small red wheel is designed to be removable so that you can remove the small gear under the lever .... Put the small wheel back on and you can now use the small wheel for drilling without flywheel inertia.. ( very small drills at low speed ) That's the best guess I have... I hope this helps. Jim

Greetings again, I still think that your crank arm belongs where the small red wheel is... Otherwise the crank arm would hit the wall.. I think if you took off the wheel you might be able to remove the no. 3 lever.. We will figure it out.... Jim

Greetings Waylon, I have a lot of post drills and have never seen one like yours.... I don't understand the use of the second small red wheel... If I had to guess.. The crank arm would fit on that shaft and the lever would allow you to remove the gear so you could operate the unit without flywheel action.. Does the feeder work off a cam ? Does it work?? I hope this helps... I look forward to see what comes up. Good luck Jim