peacock

I had it but found a treatment that seems to work. I am down to 2 anvils with no side affects. It is amazing how 10 power hammers has helped. Carefull some times the cure is worse than the disease. have been stricken with sleeplessness as of late. Seems planing a 5lb air hammer build may be causing a fever.

My 100 year old American tool & machine lathe cuts acme and square threads just fine. If you know how to cut standard threads the hardest part is grinding the tool bit. If it is a square thread the compound must be set to 0 degrees instead of 1/2 the thread angle. You must go slow as you will have alot of toolbit contact area. Backup follower rest can also be helpful on smaller sizes

Kinda of hard to know the exact moment that things went south, but I am pretty sure they were welding at the time,but I know they were on and grounds connected. Warranty did cover the first time but not the second when they found out they were hooked up in "series" as they said, I say parallel. We do have seven welding booths made of steel all welded together in a row. They are hooked up and welding at the same time and have been for 15 years. with no problems. All are older stick/TIG machines no solid state. Bobs idea of the quick disconnect sound great. I think that would solve the problem.

I think you will find all stick machines are constant current MIG are constant voltage. If your machine are newer machines with printed circuit boards and solid state equipment I would not chance it. I teach welding in a prison and we have about 40 welders. The older machines with manual switches and controls will take lots of abuse. Solid state circuits are very touchy about stray voltage and current. We lost a couple of expensive circuit boards when stick welders and inverter based migs were used on the same trailer at the same time.

What is your floor made of? My 40# sits on a bed of treated hard yellow pine full 2in. thick on a full 6in. thick concrete floor,7 bag mix with #5 rebar on 12 in. centers both ways. Been there 10 years with no problems other than I cannot do precision machining on my mill 40 feet a way while someone is forging on the hammer. PS concrete is on 25 feet of undisturbed clay on top of 300 feet of solid lime stone. If your floor has fill dirt under it thin concrete floors may not hold upto the pounding.

On one of mine the sow block is from the factory it is 9 1/2 by 11 1/2. It is 5 1/2 inches from the bottom of the block (not the male dove tail) to the bottom of the dove tail for the die. That dove tail is 1 1/2 inches deep. The other one is the same height but one inch bigger each way. The smaller dimension runs parallel to the helve.

Built up anvils are fine. Think about my Bradly cushion helve hammer and many others. It has an anvil sitting on the base with a sow block sitting on top of that and a die on top of that all held together with wedges. That is held in front of the hammer frame with 4, 1 inch bolts with a wood cushion between the frame and anvil. Thats about as built up as you can get. If all the parts sit flat on each other good welds should be all you need. If you are going to put plates on the sides of the anvil think about what is trying to happen when the ram strikes the anvil, the plates on the sides will want to move up (if this correct and I believe it is ) try to design your addition with this in mind. By the way my 40# Bradly anvil sow block and die weights 900#. Thats 22.5 to 1 and it is goooooooooood.

Ozark pattern For me. Went to a BAM meeting sat. and was ask to demo Really missed all the features on my anvil. Big clip on the side is soooo useful. I have had mine for a long time ( first or second ) batch cast, no problems at all and several newbys have hit it pretty hard, Not a mark

It is hard to see this pic but I think it is a leather punch. Set it on the leather hit it with a mallet the leather slug come out thru the hole.

Sounds like the right fix to me. Sid is a great resource and an even better guy. rough grind out of the hammer, then install in the hammer. Grind a little, put a piece of paper on the bottom die take a light blow with the hammer, paper will show where to grind.

STOP DO NOT grind cut or remove any metal from your hammer. you could have many other things causing this problem. Is the bottom of the dovetail in the sow block flat? If it is put the die in and look at it the die from the end. Is the bottom corner of the die hitting the corner of the dovetail on the side opposite the key? If it is take it out and grind the corner off the bottom of the die so it doesn't touch in the corner. If it was hitting the key can rock the die up causing the afore mentioned problem. now make sure the key does not have the same condition. You can also have the same problem where the sow block mounts in the frame. Now go thru the same process with the die in the ram. If this is OK and you still have the problem remove the ram. If you have flat dies you can easily check if the die face is square with the back of the ram surface with a good square. Now with that done use the square to check the top of the bottom die with the front ram guides on the hammer. If you have found a problem in any of these things post again and we will try to come up with a fix.

If these presses are in good shape and adjustment and well oiled the rams should be at the bottom if they are a true flypress. The slow pitch thread makes these what we call a die proofing press around here. When you turn loose of a flypress the ram will start turning for the bottom on it's own, (unless it has Grant's mod).

Judged on the one I have I would say more like 6 to 700 lb. with the stand. also look at the screw the thread is a fairly slow pitch. That does not mean it is not a useful item. only that it will not have the quick impact and rebound as a faster thread pitch. If it is not damaged or worn out the price is good.

The ABANA of today is not the same ABANA of the 70 &80's I have demoed at 2 ABANA conf. I am mainly a power hamer rebuilder/ tooling maker. The artisy types are my best customers. Also the majority at my tent in 2010 would consider themselves artist blacksmith. They are not of a minds set to figure out new tooling but are more than willing to learn about tooling and methods to move metal for they art stuff. When I make a small anvil I am not trying to teach people to make an anvil I am trying to turn them on to tooling to do thing many donot think are doable on a power hammer. I hope you will make an effort to become a part of ABANA. I do like your idea of getting together and I think an ABANA happening is the place to do it. Do you realize that the conference budget is about $250,000, takes 3 years planing and countless hours of volunteers time. I was disappionted to find out after I had returned home from Memphis how many from this site were there that I did not get to meet. Maybe a planned meeting is the place to start (Iforge tent or something). We have 2 years to plan let's not let this be forgotten.

It is a seat wrench. Used to install and remove the fitting on old steam and hot water radiators. the big cast ones that stack togather and have 4 bolts going the lenght of them. The fitting have threads and a tapered seat on the OD that will not seal if damaged. ID is shaped just like the steps on the tool.

Soak it in vinegar over nite, wash of the scale with hot water and a brush. As soon as it's dry treat to prevent rust.

Put your pipe on a 45 degree angle use 1 45 elbow out side. you don't need a hood at all. I had a setup like that for years it worked great if you will burn some newspaper in the mouth of the pipe before you try to start you coal fire. I got this idea from Walt Hull. He had it for a long time. super simple, cheap and it works good. Make sure you have plenty of pipe out side to clear anything within ten feet of the pipe.

All the left handed fittings will have a groove around the hex where the wrench goes.

Little Giant hammers had some with cast iron on cast iron. Sid and I both think they are the best clutch of all. Also Mayer Brothers (Merco Muloch etc ) had cast clutches. I have a 25# and it is great. Phil

If the base for your press is large enough and the press is bolted down solid you could make bar a-c into a fork on the c end letting it extend to the sides then to the rear of the press frame. This would allow to to get a positive ratio working for you. If you can extend the ends of the fork past the piviot point C you could counter weight the back end to keep the center of the bar at point B againts the ram of the press on the upstroke. Please understand I have not done this on my flypress but I have used a similiar set up on my hydraulic press. Really just helping you brainstorm. Phil

I think the upsetting was most likely caused from the hammer being run with the cushions not snug enough. Looks like you have that fixed. If the eccentric is adjusted near the center of adjustment I would put the rest of the hammer togather and run it keep it well oiled and it will much easier to deal with. Mine was stuck also and I could not get it to move. I was afraid I would break it so I used the above method. After month it adjusted easily. Phil

John B and the other Phil have given you good advice. In addtion to hammer control you also need to control the stock on the anvil. When you are tring to form a shoulder as in tong makeing over thr edge of the anvil you must also be able to hold the stock in exactly the same spot till the shoulder is fully formed. Some tips to do this try to get a notch established on the first blow, then slow down make sure to return the stock to the same place don't try to hurry the second blow use your feel and sight to get it in the correct spot before you hit it again. It will take some time and a few more heats but you will soon learn and in the end this will speed you up. Also remember the anvil does the best work, the side on the anvil will have less marks and be flater and more true than the hammer side keep this in mind when you look at your work and you will see what I am talking about. Don't gett discouraged tongs are a very hard thing to make even for some experienced smiths. By the way I always use the side against the anvil for the insideof the hinge it is much easier to get it flat. Phil

Sure way to tell is measure the main shaft diameter. 1 5/8 inch for 25# 2 inch for 50#. Hope this helps. Phil

my favorite method is to draw the out line of your anvil on the base. Then put a lite coat of vasilene on the bottom of the anvil, then a 1/2 inch bead of silicone rubber on the base following the outline, let it skin over a little then set the anvil carefully on top of the silicone. Let it set up do not remove any that comes up around the out side this will keep the anvil in place and deaden the ring. the vasilene will kee p the anvil from sticking. If you don't plan on removing the anvil skip the vasilene you can still pry it off if you need to. Tom Clark did alot of these. Phil

2 cudhioned helve 40# 1 125 upright 1 200# compact(not yet running but complete). There alot of bradleys out there hope lots will respond. Phil