peacock

Thanks guys. After I did the twist I off set the die on power hammer and flattened the ends. Then drill 5/16 holes. The rosettes are 5/16 hex head bolts 2 1/2 in. long. had a bolster centered in flypress & flattened the head to 1/8 in. on all 8. Next stil in press took heat chiseled 3 lines across corners. next heat with ball end punch once in center once between each chisel line. power brushed while hot burned on bees wax. spacers are 5/8 in. of 1/4 in black pipe, look close you can see spacers in pic. Took 1 1/2 hours to make all 4 sets.

Eric I got the pics up but somehow I did it on a new thread. Sorry bout that. Maybe I get it figured out someday

One and a half times a second is 90 blows a minute. you want more like 240 bpm

Made these on 25# little giant. The smaller ones started with 1 1/4 cube. Face is 1/2 wide.

Maybe this time I got it

I finally got time to make some tooling for a flypress project. I had a new desk made for my wife and it needed drawer pulls. this is what I came up with. Took 5 heats for each pull and 3 for each bolt. Whole thing took 1 1/2 hours. PS I made 4 sets in 1 1/2 hours

Bradley helve hammers have a good set up on the helve to ram conection. If you would like to see it go to my profile page and click on gallery. This design has worked well for 100 years.

Monstermetal, I agree with your theory. For me that is about 34 inches. All of my hammers lower dies are from 331/2 to 34 inches. My hand anvil is 33. Back straight, arms nearly extended. I Guess everyone is built different, it seems to work for me.

Hey just forget the set screw thing just a thought. don't worry about filling the hole make the die big enough to bridge over it. It won't hurt a thing and you may want to use it later. Sorry for all the grief I caused you.

When I need a centered chisel cut I put the cold stock in a vise that has nice striaght, square jaws. Then I take a cold chisel that has a single bevel and use the vise jaw as a guide. Hold the chisel level and hit easy, as others have said that will leave a groove you can feel when the steel is hot.

i am not an expert but I do have some expierence. You may have popped a capicitor. Sounds much like your description. If that is true that would be an easy fix. I am not a fan of imports but if you can fix if for $10 it's better than the loss.

I like my lower die the same height as my anvil. I am used to looking at things at that distance ( I know where my bifocals focus). Also if I am forging heavy steel my arms are not bent at the elbow very much this helps to not hold the the work below center which will cause the work beyond the die to bend down. also if the work is large or a little too cool holding it low will cause the work to kick up toward your head. Another advantage is I some times support the end of long stock on the hammer lower die while working the other end on my anvil with a hand hammer. I would think about cutting the anvil short so I could make a sow block about 6 inches thick. This will allow you to be able to remove the sow block if you need to use tooling or other wise need more room between the dies. Much easier now than later.

The LG anvils are holow. I drilled a 1 1/4 hole thru to the hollow in the bottom of the dovetail on a 50lber one time so I can forge the tee bolts. If I had it I would drill and tap a hole in from the side then make my dies with a round shank that fits the hole & hold them in with a big set screw. You could grind/mill flats on the side of the shank to index the die. might put the same design on the ram. Just a thought.

If a worn out clutch is the problem you can find that by puting a feeler gauge between the clutch cone and clutch lining 180 degrees from the motor if there is no clearance on that side and a large amount 180 from that your bearing needs help. With that being said this hammer doesn't have this problem when warmed up so I suspect the bearing maybe too tight. My experience is a worn clutch bearing don't change much with warm up.

You said it don't do this after it warmed up good. Most likely thing is the grease in the clutch bearing is acting as a torque converter and keeps driving the hammer. Try using a thinner grease. It may take a while to work the old grease out. Also when greasing when you feel the grease gun handle start to pump harder quit or you will pack too much grease in there. The clutch bearing is probably a little tight. This is one reason I put a brake on all my hammers. It will stop as soon as you release the treadle.

Not answering your question, but why don't you heat em up and punch them hot.

Those dies are aready to short to work. If you look you can see where the ram guide has been relieved to clear the toggle bolts. This condition only happens when the total die stack is too short. If you want drawing dies you may be able to replace the lower die with a new taller die and grind the upper to match the radius of the new die. If this condition is not fixed you will wreck your hammer and it could cause the hammer to break and injure the operator. I have rebuilt many of these hammers and I don't know of any other suitable repair. A 1 hp 1750 rpm motor will run it fine. I mount the motor on the right side as you face the hammer. Bottom of the drive pully about even with the bottom of the clutch pully. Thanks, Thomas for the kind words but I think guru is a bit of an over statement. I really do enjoy getting the best from these hammers.

Yesterday I used a diamondback and a chili forge. i was able to easily weld in both. I own an NC as welll as 2 other home built all of those also reach welding temp with ease. But in my opinion my Swan forge is the best you can buy. I have owned it 12 years still on the first liner very easy on gas, has pass thru, large door for chunkier stuff, heats quickly. Now the down side it takes alot of money to get one, but it has paid for it's self many times over. If you are on a tight budget it may not be for you. If want a great forge that you can use for years with no trouble, easy on gas, and a pleasure to use, my vote is the Swan Euro-fitter. P.S. mine has the flame trimmer but will run fine without it. The trimmer lets you tune for a netural flame (almost no scale)

I have a Warren Tool Quickwerk vise Warren Ohio. 6 inch nice vise belonged to the wifes father for 50 years I have had 10 years. Never heard of another one till now.

I have a 125# just like it great hammer. I paid $2000 for mine complete with slow speed motor and pulley. You will need a motor stand if it is not with it. Treadle is not bad to build, also a belt about $40. I would try $1000 if the wear on the crank excentric is not bad. If you don't buy I would like a shot at it. It will need a 5hp motor.

Make your own. Get about 3 inches of something like car axle weld a rod handle in the middle. heat it up and upset both ends rounding them as you go. If you have a power hammer maybe 1 heat. Normalize, heat treat, draw and use it. I have 2 or 3 different sizes.

Locust will last for sure I have post in the ground that my grandfather put in and he died in 1925. Also some that I helped my Dad put in (locust) we have tried to remove one and can,t get it out. Dad would build a fire put the log on it when fresh cut the heat would cause the sap to boil which would loosen the bark so it could be pealed off easily. We then put tar on the end grain in the ground and another band of tar about 1 foot wide statring at ground level down Dad said it keeps the water and bugs out. Some of these have a 1/2 mile of fence stretched on them. Been in the ground outside for 50 plus years and still solid

No it is not a good steel for this project. If you really want a gun barrel from a railroad spike go buy a chunk of 4140, forge that into a rr spike then make your barrel from that. you can make a lot of 4140 rr spikes for the price of one trip to the emergency room. BE SAFE.

Fosterob you are correct. the guage will not tell you volume of the tank. every tank has a tare wt. stamped on it. Make a simple scale out of a picec of tubing with 3 holes. drill one hole near each end, drill a hole betwwen the 2 end holes with a ratio of 10 to 1. hang it up by the middle hole, hang the tank on the short side, hang a weight 1/10 of the tare weight on the other hole, it should come close to balance. Now as you use the gas you can pull down on the long end to get an idea how much gas is left. If you add about one pound of weight to the long end the tank will come off the floor with about 2 gal. of gas left. P.S. ioo# tanks tare weight run from 64 to 72 (about) depends on when they were made.

Mud dauber nest pounded into a fine power will work here in my area.