petere76

Green, Nice job...I hope the client is pleased. The symetry and balance works well in the condensed shape. (form and function) More often than not, the toughest task is making the complex seem simple. You did that well. Congrats. Peter Peter

Rock star, Walk before you run, go with the basics. Slit then drift . Slitting chilsels have a very uniform shape. Learn the shape, it does not change. The forumals for the length of the slit vs the finished hole are easy to read up on. The drift tooling has the final hole crosssection and shape along with the expansion factor incorporated into its dimensison. Do "your" homework and read up just a tad so you understand the relationship between the tooling you make and use vs the end result you want. Its important, and once the concept is grasped it will save you a lot of time and make for a better end result. Some research is required and remember to take notes so you have your own journal (notes) to reference. Example, round hole, mild steel = dia (finished) + 40%. Square or rectangular hole = perimiter total x .40. Round hole =round drift . Square hole = square drift. Both have a tapered start and a short tapered finish. Good luck, Peter

It will certainly work for light duty applications....go for it. Nice work. Peter

Chris, Like yourself, I went through the whole build, buy, design decision matrix. The objective is a servicable machine; read safe and functional. Keep in mind that your head is next to this device while it is operational and any miscalculations , design flaws or material defects can and will make your life very difficult. A USMC aircraft machinest, Gunnery Sgt Robert Darnell, frequently told us that "nothing hurts like pain" and it hurts worse if caused by stupidity. Buying is quick and easy and you get a proven product but it is hard on the check book. Building requires a workable and hopefully proven design along with material availability. Building takes time and a shop. Time spent building the hammer is time not spent turning out product. The Tire Hammers are of a proven design but going outside of the design with for example, a bigger tup weight or stroke length entails considerable recalculation of the mecahanics of the mechanism. The reciprocating forces are counterbalanced with both weight and mass. If you miscalculate, you wind up with an oscilating 7 foot tower that would dance about the shop. The tire hammers have the capability of roughly 300 hits a minute. The estimated piston speeds would be somewhere near a medium speed engine. Assuming a 7 inch stroke that yields 5.8 Ft per second at full speed. These are real forces at play so you have to be prudent and careful. The Clay Spencer workshops are hard to beat because the cost is reasonable, the time is minimal and you get a reliable product. The economy comes from the group build labor and the bulk material purchase. There is an entertainment factor as well, because you get to meet a dozen or so like minded individuals, tell bad jokes and exchange sea stories. Good luck with your decison. Peter

Hayden , I agree with the Tire hammer fans. As far as cost, material availability and reliability of the product goes, The tire hammers are hands down the best way to go. If you decide to go this way, you will not be disapointed. I was in on the Maine tire hammer build in May of this year, we built 12 hammers in 4 days and had a great time doing it. Derek Glazer at the New England School of Metalwork orchestrated the build and Clay was the supervisor and QC foreman. The cost excluding your hotel and chow ran about USD $1850.00 . I did mount my own hammer on a piece of steel plate over a stall mat and that will add to your cost if you go that route. I use the hammer a lot in the shop and I make my own tooling based on the AFC web site PDF "Tire hammer Tooling". So far it has performed as advertised and it really puts out. It enables you to do normal tasking very quickly and you can move up in stock dimension without killing yourself. As Dodge said, its quiet when not pounding on iron and you dont need a compressor or 3 Ph power. Good luck. Peter

Very nice work, detailed features over an out of the ordinary backplate. Sweet... Peter

For outside pieces multiple coats of a good spray paint over two coast of primer seems to hold up the best in New England weather. That said, the draw back is you loose the highly prized "forged look" to the paint coverage. Inside and outside protected pieces are well served by the traditional Bees Wax + linseed oil. This techniquue offers reasonable protection against surface rust and alows the forged facets of a piece to remain visible. After all, we forge the iron for its appealing appearance as well as its function. Eating and or cooking utensils are best served by finishing hot with peanut oil, veretable oil or suiet. Think cast iron pan seasoning. In time, you can always clean off any rust and bake the pieces off in your oven. Peter

Naz, Very nice work and and evenly balanced for a free standing piece. I find that the acrylics dont hold up to abrasion and after a period they start to look nicked. If its an interior piece, use the time honored beeswax and linbseed oil combo with a touch of turpentine. Applied to warm iron a few times it is very servicable for many years. In regard outside use, I find you have to paint it. Peter

Phoenix, Original equipage tomahawk makers only had the wood avaialble local to where they were. No kiln dried hickory or home cheapo if you get my drift. Alder and most scrub bushes will supply a reasonable material for a handle. Whittle or draw the handle to fit your forged eye. Oval (eye) is better than square when working in the field because you can always whittle down a reasonable oval with a knife or a rock. Simple is a good thing. Drift your eye in an hour glass shape of sorts. It does not have to be perfect just servicable and the objective is to have the figure 8 hour glass shape. Anything bigger on the top than the bottom will work. After you fit the handle into the eye use some magic...antifreeze. It will swell the wood and never dry out. Quick and dirty 21 st century solution. Water, wedges etc will usually crack but that was the only way in the old days. Both methods work well but keep in mind, it's a weapon not a show piece and it will fail in service when used judically. Your ability to service\repair the weapon in the field (quickly) is part of the big picture. Simple is much better than complicated, for you the intended end user, Be guide accordingly. Good luck. Peter

Thor...telling obummer to get out of town..

In the New Engalnd area I see a lot of old masonary forges that are side draft. Perhaps the smiths and the masons that came from Britan and settled this part of our country favored that particular design. They have a slight taper to the face and a few had eyebrow type hoods attached but it was still a side draft arrangement that went into a standing masonary chimney. I did notice that these forges are closer to the deck than I would prefer but they may have been working heavy stock. Either they were very short or did not mind being bent over all day. There is still one of these working by where I live. Its in the back of a vehicle spring and suspension shop. It was a blacksmiths shop in the day and the family still maintains the forge. Great folks there, they respect the past and have great scrap spring pieces.

Follow your heart my friend, its a great compass. All the best and good luck on your many future ventures. Peter

Nice job.

Arean, I just completed an install on a pot rack system for a home on the Coast of Maine. The client wanted a colonial theme that was simple in design yet functional. it was to be iinstalled in a rather large kitchen space. The post and bean configuration of the building makes it an "open space" and they did not wan the design to be overly busy or bulky. I suggested a rail system that would mount under the overhead beams and be non-intrusive. Previously they had a box like hanger between the beams and the look was not right for them. The two longer rails are 12 Ft and the third rail over a sink is roughly 10 ft. The design utilizes forged hooks of different lengths. I had the client in the space for the design work so I had them reach up with a few pans in hand to get the idea of what would work best for their height. Keep in mind that the end user is what we design for and around. The 90 degree hanger brackets are 1/4 in x 1 1/4 in, forged and then riveted to the rail stock. The screw holes are drilled on opposite sides in two places and couuntersunk. The bracket offsets the rail from the beam by 3/8 in This keeps the rail off the beams. Note that beams sometimes deflect a little so you need a little "reveal" to make everything look right. The railing is 1 1/2 in x 1/4 in flat stock. The edges were cold dressed and them forged hot. The rail ends are slighlty upset to finish the stock ends and keep the hooks from accidently slipping off the respective ends. The rivets are 3/8 in, deco fiinish on the viewing side and upset on the back side. The 13 hooks are 1/4 round stock, identical in shape and they vary in overall length. The finish is multiple coats of Bees Wax and Linseed oil applied hot and buffed out. Avoid the paint if your clients like the look of forged metal. I supplied the client with a few ounces of the wax\oil paste for the occasional touch up. The client was pleased with the finish product and the overall look blended in well with the post and beam design. I picked up another job at the same time designing a plant hanging rail in the adjacent sun room. This particular part of Maine has some serious blacksmiths in the neighborhood, so I made certain all was squared away and ready for inspection before I departed. Photos attached. Good luck with your project. Peter

Sam, The math is a straightforward calculation of the opening square inches. 10 in pipe is @78.5 sq In, knowing the stack opening, you size the opening of the hood face to be slightly less in total square inches (length x width). In so doing you are creating a slight venturi effect at the opening and this aids in maintaining a negative pressure (draft) . This effect combined with the physics of warm gasses of combustion occuping space and moving up the stack as a mass maintains the flow. Its essentially a mass flow device governed by the relationship of mass and acceleration. (F=M x A). In my case I have a cover which slides over the opening so the size is variable but I never really need it because the draft is substantial and consistent. Mostly it keeps the citteres and the -20F winters outside the shop. Elbows, rough pipe and the cap configuration only serve to "reduce" the flow by increasing the overall resitance. These are on the loss side of the flow quation. You are actualy trying to maintain what is called "laminar flow" of the gas. Turbulance is not your friend in these (natural) type systems. Postion of the uptake and its relationship to the roof peak is important. My set up is exterior to the outter wall. I use a 10 in pipe with 3 transitions (two inside and one outside) , a mushroom cap and a relatively short exterior 10 in insulated stack. My set up works great for this location and this particular roof pitch. Its important to design and build for your particular location and building configuration. Do your homework, read up on chimney construction and placement, that will give you the basics and you can move forward from there. Good luck with your project. Peter

Jim, Wrap some chain around the base and lag screw through the links into the stump. Its quick, easy and effective. Also it silences thr ring and gives you places to hook into for spring assist style hold downs.

Hey Sam, the SS hood ia essentially a elbow box transition with a slanted face plate. It connects serves to redirect the smoke and connects to the uptake. the magic, if there is any, is that the opening (square inches) of the front face must be less than the opening of the uptake pipe (square inches). The venturi effect of the larger uptake and the smaller opening combined with the heat of the smoke make it all happen. Measure your pipe and size accordingly. My forge uses a 10 inch pipe with a 3 elbows. The suction is fine in all manners of inclement weather and cold temps. I fitted a sliding closure on the front to keep out the Maine -20 F winters and the critters when the forge is not fired. You may want to consider a similar fitting. The table configuration is really up to you and whatever works in your shop for the sort of work you do. If you work with long stock obviously the corner is not a good idea unless you have a window or door on the other side. I prefere modualr shops so that the equipment can be moved about to accomodate different jobs. You can run stove pipe quite a distance horizontally and still get decent draft. As your table is on wheels you already have a little bit of flexibility going for ya. Dont worry about messing up, thats where we all learn the most. Better to try and fail a few times than never try at all, right. The fellas on here have all sorts of experience in almost anything you want to do. Great ideas are as they say, where you find them. You will do fine. Good luck. Peter

Larry, My prayers are with you and your family. May you find peace. Peter

A good junk hammer stock source is a fork lift service center (Clark or Kalmar). Get a discarded bent\broken fork. Once they are noted as defective they are scrapped and they make great hammer stock. In fact if you can get the big container forks as scrap you can make a decent anvil out of it. I am not certain of the metalurgy but I have made several hammers out of this scrap and they have both turned out fine. Cut to estimated size . Note, if you torch cut it you will have to trim off the burned ends. Anneal the stock overnight (ash bucket or lime) heat to above critical but not to yellow (use the tool steel rules), punch the eye. Normalize, Forge to desired shape and make certain to normalize between working on the ends. Heat it up and let it rest on the bench for a while between stages to relive stress. I heat treated like you would for W1. It seemed to work fine for the faces and no sign of cracks on the eye penetration. Polish to your liking. You can either use a custom set of tongs or lacking same, weld on a porter bar on the face side for the heavy forging on the peen side. Good luck.

Fiery, Thanks for your kind comments. There is two parts to the duct system for the forge. The portion inside the building is just galvy 10 in. ducting. The heat is not an issue so go with whats available at the building supply store. You could use HD stove pipe but its overkill. Once I got to the bulkhead penetration I went with metal-bestos insulated 10 in stove pipe, rated for 2" clearence. The cost is obviously higher but this does protect the building and in some areas it is a code requirement. Additionally, if you have to move the shop, the (expensive) pipe is modular and you can break it down and take it with you to another location. One design consideration worth discussing. Set up the forge so that you can move it around to accomodate long sizes of stock. Right up against the bulkhead or in a corner is convient for a flue connection but it's length limited. I just did a commision for a house on the coast of Maine. It was a hanging pot rack system for a fairly large kitchen. The shortest run of stock was 10 foot. If the forge table is movable you can shift it around as required. The relatively light weight 10 in ducting is quite flexable and this works to your advantage. The best shops I have seen are the ones that are built in a modualr fashon. If you want be able to use floor space, your gear has to be movable. As I recall the forge table stayed clean for about a day. Peter

Sam, I would suggest the "super sucker" design as depicted on Anvil Fire website. It will allow you to use a 10 in pipe and the design is very efficent. Pay attention to the number of elbows you have in the set up , less is better. Make sure you get enough stack height for the building"s configuration. I built this unit depicted below and it works very reliably in all sorts of weather conditons. Good luck. Peter

I used this method a couple times and it works great if you have a mobile shop and have to move anvils, its quick, easy and reliable. Run old chain around the base of the anvil and screw through the chain links with lag bolts & washers into the stump. Makes it easy to move the anvil into your truck or roll the anvil around the shop for different operations. The chain also also deadens the ringing and gives you good places to hook into for a hold downs. The attached pic is a 124 Lb PW on a yellow birch stump in our shop. Peter

KY, I recently built a Clay Spencer hammer as part of the Maine 2011 Tire Hammer Workshop at the New England School of Metalwork. Derek Glazer (School director) was the prime mover behind the project in Maine and he is a great supporter of our craft and trade. It takes folks like Clay and Derek to make hammers like this available to our community and without their efforts I am sure the worksops would be few and far between. My thanks to both these fine gents for their efforts. The hammer works great and I more than pleased with both its reliability and versitility. I find myself making tooling of some sort every day but eventually I will have most of it on hand and things will start to move a little faster. I would recommed mounting the hammer on a seperate steel plate. Look at something in the 1 in range and roughly 4 Ft x 4FT. Should increase the gross weight by 800 Lbs +/-. The plate increases the hammer mass, improves overall efficency and stabilizes the unit. I also added a 1 in thick section of stall mat (tractor supply 40 USD) to reduce floor pounding and shop noise. The plate is not cheap so be preapred to spend in the range of 500+ USD. If you get lucky and can find drops they are cheaper. Good luck to you in your hammer quest and hang in there as you will not be disapponted Peter

You "Key Hole" the root pass over a consistent gap. Hammer wire (rod) to dimension and support the pipe gap equally around the circumference. This action sufficently burns through the bevel and consumes the interior edge of the pipe. The next trick when you stick weld HP is picking the root pass clean so that the weld will pass inspection. This exercise makes the case for TIG root welds but we wind up working with what you have on the work site.

We are with you in Maine. Lt. Will Donnelly, also of the 3-5 was a good friend.