Adair

I'm tempted to heat the guide in place with a rose bud and clamp it down tight, then convince it a little with some sledge taps. I set the project aside while I debate the path forward, and spent the day building a new treadle and treadle links. -Adair

.045 rolls for .045 wire. Could the rolls be worn out? They've only been through three spools of dual shield. -Adair

Hey all, My Miller 252 is misbehaving. The wire regularly jumps the rolls right before feeding into the whip. I wind up with a tangled mess of wire at the rolls and I've been wasting a lot of dual shield every time I have to re-feed. I can't figure out why it jumps the track. The line seems to be aligned and the gap is tight. The liner is pretty new. If I have the least bit of twist or bend in the whip it will usually cause this to happen. Doe the whip and gun need to be replaced periodically? -Adair

It's been a while. The hammer has sat while I have built a new business. Still trying to shim the wrap-around guide. I made .125 and .025 steel shims for each side and many .005 soft brass shims. When I have the ram pressed snug to the rear guide, my front guide is not aligned properly. I can't seem to correct it with more shims on one side. I'm currently wondering if putting heat on the wrap around guide to shift it is wise or if I am asking for trouble. -Adair

DSW, Thanks for the input. I stopped by a Cat dealership/service facility. They have had them in the past, but they said it's not often they wind up with scrap. I missed a 5" diameter one by a week. I did get a 48" long chunk of shafting that was 4" diameter. I'm sure I'll be able to come up with a project for that. Honestly I'm surprised they were open to me dumpster diving at all. Most places have strict orders from the higher-ups to discourage that. -Adair

I've been wanting to make a tall anvil for forging plate. I've had my eye on large hydraulic demo hammer bits (6" diameter). I've never managed to find one in a scrap yard. They must periodically wear out or fail. Does anyone in the greater Puget Sound area know of a source? -Adair

Oops, my brain is going. S-7 is the steel in question. I must have mislabeled this one on the rack many years ago. -Adair

Hello, I have made dovetail base blanks for a metalshaping power hammer. I made them as blanks for urethane insert dies, but I have extras. I was considering boring and welding an s-9 round insert to make what are called "pin dies" in the metalshaping cirlcles (see image below). I don't know anything about welding such exotic alloys as S-9. Any input? -Adair

Oh what a sad sight. It's hard to determine the scale from the photo. Have you any idea how large that hammer is? -Adair

I'm curious about the fate of this hammer. Any news? It really looks to be quite a cool machine for the right purpose. -Adair

I know I will never be a bladesmith. I love swords, but don't have the passion for the metallurgy or finishing. At the same time, the production swords out there in my price range rarely suit my taste. My solution has been to buy low-end swords or just blades and forge my own guards and pommels. I've attached an example. A Western Martial Arts practitioner may be critical of the blades I use, but they handle well enough and they have a much more authentic look than the production swords out there. It gives me the satisfaction of crafting something I enjoy without the specialized tools and knowledge of a bladesmith. Something you might consider if you would like to dabble in swords.

Decided I would remove the clutch spider to close the gap created between the crank plate and the front journal. It took some soaking and I had to weld on a slide hammer. Now I need to order a new gib key from Little Giant. Belts showed up today just as I broke the spider key loose. Time to build a new treadle and linkage while it is all apart and fit new wood blocks in the spider. -Adair

Update: The Ram ways are absolutely straight: The Wrap-around gude is dead straight on both faces: I received the new sheave and installed that: Still looking for shim material locally. The existing shims were a bit dated: -A.

Does anyone know the thread size for the zerk fittings on the pitman and the clutch spider for a 100# hammer? I can't seem to dig up zerk fittings large enough and i would like to order them. I don't know if they are straight cut or pipe thread or what have you. -Adair

Dave, I have a new 3 groove, 3.75" O.D./3.4" pitch diameter sheave ordered with QD collar. Three B type V belts are on the way. I should be able to have these before the weekend. I have yet to shop for shim material. I've had a straight edge on the V guides of the ram and both Vees are free of visible wear. I've never put a straight edge to the inside of the wrap-around guide. I'll check that when I find some shim material. As far as belt position for clutch disengagement, I imagine the length of these belts will help accommodate the movement better than short belts. I just spent the weekend doing two solid days of constant hand forging for a public demonstration and I have renewed vigor to get my hammer running again. -Adair

Adair; once again let us look at your spring not under compression it should measure 7-1/2 inches long. A new style spring will measure 8 inches. This could cause problems.elow Dave, The spring is shown below. It is 7-1/2" when not under compression. Next question are your shims for the ram guide green paper with white in the middle? If so this is what you want to use. They are from Sid and work well. The shims look like they are original to the 1937 hammer. See photo. Little Giant does not sell a shim set for the 100# hammer. I'll need to make them from a suitable material. Next tight in the middle loose on the top and bottom. Not a problem I have had this problem before and I did not have to see a doctor. This is not new for an old style hammer, but the addition of a brass lined ram guide will cure this as I noted before but we can work with what you have. Your ram guide looks like this )( front to back. All you have to do is straighten it. You will need several tools all are relatively cheap. In your case I'd start with a 1 inch bolt the length of the ram front to back. Grind a Vee on the bolt head to fit in the frame vee or rail. Install a nut and a small plate and put it in the center of the ram guide and loosen the nut so it will stretch out the )( in the center. Oh just the ram guide installed not with the ram in place. You can also put this in place and smack the ram guide in the center top and bottom with a sledge hammer to bring it back in line. Side note tight at the bottom on an old style strike with two hammers on the side of the ram guide toward the top. Does this make since? I can add photo's on the bolt and how to install. The wrap-around guide does not appear to be distorted. The shims had been altered so they are thinner at the top of the guide. I think if I add a couple thousands back in it may alleviate the problem. Next if you have play front of the machine to back of the machine (Grabbing the fly wheel and pulling forward or pushing back you should not have over an 1/8 of an inch.) You will need to fix this. I previously had about 3/8" of play. I added the shaft collar as I mentioned before to alleviate the movement. Next subject pulley diameter. I've been working with Sid and these hammers since 2005. And the discussed subject is the speed at which these hammers run. How to say this with out sounding bad. First off a Little Giant and other mechincal hammer run of centfical force (if I spelled that right). You have to have enough rpm plus hp to pick the ram back up. Next your running a wet clutch (I hope). I've actually stood behind Don's hammer when running and seen the hammer stop when it made a strike. Because or the speed and hp it picked it up without missing a beat. Your caculator can not take this into account. I realize everyone wants exact answers but with these types of hammer you have to take some experience into account. I've found that a 1/4 inch over size pulley work extremely well. I've used 3-1/4 to 3-1/2 outside diameter pulleys on 25's. The larger pulley worked better on new style hammers. Letting them run a little faster. My goal has been to establish a baseline from which to assess and tune this hammer. I assumed that starting with BPM was the most direct path forward. If I have to buy multiple pulleys to get to the bottom of this I will. Yes I am running a wet clutch. The hammer originally had a 3 phase motor and a 4" fiber flat belt pulley. I replaced the motor with a single phase motor of matching RPM with the same size belt pulley. If running Vee belts go for the B belts they are tougher and are oversize to fit in the groove. Me personally I'd run 3 easier to find in this O.D. of pulley. The parts store guy will stop straching his head. Last point for Adair: A serpintine belt is a belt that is wide with notchs in it. Speciality belt with a specialty pulley I'm sure Roger can hook you up for a price$$$. A three Vee belt 3 inch in OD what Don recommend will be a hell of a lot cheaper. Thank you for the tip. Roger at LG had suggested that the serpenting belts might be cheaper. (3) 148" type B V belts are not cheap, but they may well be cheaper than a serpentine. The bottom line here is whether or not three V belts over 55" pulley centers will track on a crowned pulley. I would think they might wander. Dave, Thank you for your assistance. In time I will get to the bottom of this. Hopefully the attached photos help to clarify the state of my hammer. -Adair

Don, That is good to hear. I will start shopping for twin v belt pulleys to fit my motor. Could you provide the O.D. of the drive pulleys on your hammers? I know what I.D. I am after, but not sure about the O.D which is how they are listed. Are twin V belts sufficient? Do you know the belt type (A,B,orC)? (EDIT) It looks like a 3.75" diameter V belt pulley has a 3.43 (3-7/16") pitch diameter. That is as close as I've been able to get so far. Belt length will be 148" I hope those things will track on a 21" crowned pulley. This stuff isn't cheap. (EDIT) Just Spoke with Roger at Little Giant. For the belt length he recommended serpentine belts so they would track on the 21" crown pulley. I can't figure out how to track these down since I don't really know what a serpentine belt is. -Adair

I just ran a pulley calculator and determined that my 1750 motor with a 4" to 21" pulley ratio is running the crank at 330 BPM. How does that compare to other peoples 100 LB Little Giants? (EDIT) I just read somewhere that the recommended speed is 275 BPM. Looks like I need a 3-1/4" - 3-1/2" drive pulley. Now would be the time to switch from flat belt to V belts. My motor is down low, Are there V belts long enough? Must I raise the motor? It's an ancient Fairbanks Morse open frame brush motor that weighs a lot, so I'd like to keep it low if possible. -Adair

Hello again, Sorry to have temporarily disappeared from a thread I started. It's been a busy time. The ears of the crosshead are up again and it is clear that this is the right geometry. The gap in the dies is about 1-7/8" at bottom dead center The spring is new since I cleaned up the hammer. Purchased from Sid 10 years ago. Hammer hasn't been run during that time. I think I may have isolated the problem. It appears that my ram gets sticky in the wrap around guide about half way up the stroke. It can even hang there if I let off of the treadle at the right moment. I'm sure that is slowing the stroke enough to reduce the 'throw'. I should start from scratch with new shims. The ones that came with the hammer are a paper product of sorts. Nicely made, but hard shims are probably desireable. Does anyone have a methodology they would like to share on how to align and shim the wrap around guide? On a side note, My hammer had another anomoly that I discovered during clean up. There was a gap between the forward main bearing and the flywheel when the pitman and linke were hanging plumb from the crankpin. I had to put a shaft collar on the front of the rear bearing so that the action of the clutch didn't slide the entire crankshaft aft. The pitman was new from Sid, but I can't imagine that different pitman geometry would be sufficient to creat so much offset. There was approximately a half inch gap between the rear of the crankplate and the front of the forward bearing. Thanks all for your input. When I manage to get some good hits out of this hammer, it really does hit hard and I 'm reminded of a time when I spent a lot of sweat around these hammers. -Adair

The hammer was nearly complete (missing only the spring and pitman) and appeared to be barely used when I bought it fifteen years ago. I believe I've seen hammers of this style with the same arms. I just looked up the original instructions on the Little Giant website. They recommend a 2" gap for stock varying from nothing up to 3". I guess I remembered that incorrectly. The crosshead ears have to go up. Anyone have a trick for spring compression? I've been using pipe clamps and lashings and it's getting old. -Adair

I have a 100# little giant that I'm setting up in my new shop. I'm trying to adjust the strike currently and have been having some issues. I've tried the crosshead with "ears" up and "ears" down. With them down I can almost get a 1" gap between the dies (See Photo). With the ears up I can't get better than 1-3/4" gap between the dies. A slightly longer pitman arm would solve the problem. I am mostly working 3/4" stock for a project. The performance may or may not be related. I've run 100# Little Giants quite a bit in the past, so I know the heft of the blow possible with this hammer and I haven't been able to achieve it. I can make nice, controlled feathering blows but I haven't been able to really pack a punch. There is no flutter or hula problem. I have eased off and tensioned the spring somewhat, but I haven't really tightened the spring down very far. I'm not sure how much compression I can really put on the spring, so I have been cautious. The photo above show about a 1/2" gap between the toggle arm and the spring carrier. That is about as far as I've tightened the spring adjuster. In my mind, the tighter the spring becomes, the more speed is required to overcome the suspension of the toogle links, making a snappier blow. So by tightening the spring I should improve the punch. How far can I really tighten the spring? (I'm making a guard right now, until then I'm wearing a hard hat) It's frustrating to me that the sweet spot for the gap in the dies is somewhere between the alternate crosshead positions. This is not easy to adjust for different stock. The dies are 4" as specified. The spring is straight from the compnay. The spring carries the toggle arms in a near horizontal position at the current adjustment. Cheers, Adair

Hello all, I am looking for ideas to redesign the treadle and linkage on my 100 LB. Little Giant. It has a rear wood block clutch and the original yoke, link, and treadle on the left of the frame. I'd prefer a much tighter movement with less play in the linkage. A balanced link on both sides of the frame is probably in order. Surely someone has engineered this already and is itching to share their experience and photos. I'd love to see what people have come up with. -Adair

Tommy, That's great. I had considered mounting my 9" south bend on the tail end, but now I can imagine wanting the full length. Now that this new lathe is in my shop, I find I'm not as cramped as I thought I would be. I moved one of my fab tables out so now my platten will have to do double duty. A cabinet below the lathe with tooling for many of the other machines will be a great space saver too. The wall behind the lathe will be great for storing tools that I don't use frequently. -Adair

Thank you all for the input. I did get the lathe. Brought it home this weekend and rolled it into the shop. Looking forward to cleaning it powering it up. It's an attractive old machine and it doesn't hog the shop as much as I thought. I think I have improved the layout dramatically because I was forced to move just about everything but the platten table. http://s43.photobucket.com/user/orracle1/media/Lathe/WP_20140629_001_zps25d20841.jpg.html http://s43.photobucket.com/user/orracle1/media/Lathe/WP_20140629_011_zps9a422533.jpg.html -Adair

This is valuable feedback. Thank you all for taking a moment to post your thoughts. There aren't a lot of lathes that become available around these parts, at least not ones that are so affordable and have all the accoutrements. I hate to do a nice machine a dis-service by keeping it outside under a tarp. In this climate that's machine cruelty. I also have the fear that the lathe may be scrapped if I don't save her. I have fifty other projects that could use the money, time and attention, but there is something so alluring about this piece of old iron. In the end I suspect for the amount of use it makes the most practical sense to shop out any project requiring a big lathe. Why can't I be more pragmatic? -Adair