Francis Trez Cole

Rkm556 as you said you are just getting into it. as your knowledge base grows so will your needs and you have to figure out what style of blacksmithing you want to do. If you are a 1700's traditional smith then you probably never need a welder. The best advice about welding I ever got was to take a class at your local community collage in the evening. Great opportunity to see what type welder you want to buy when the time comes that you want one.

sweet looking hammer. what type of metal did you use?

I down loaded a desibul meter for my phone. Hammering on an anvil is about 80 dbi. One thing that I found to help quiet you anvil is caulk between the anvil and the stand. I just mounted my anvil to a metal stand with straps and bolts and it tool all the ring out of it. Gobae is right the dogs benind my house make more noise than I do even running the power hammer

look up Brian Brazeal's striking anvil you can make one very cheep out of mild steel and you do not have to worrie about damaging your anvil.

nicely done. it would help you if your anvil was more solid (did not wiggle a round).

James I knew I read about it before http://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/29133-a-shop-made-self-contained/?hl=%2Bself+%2Bcontained+%2Bhammer

many tap and die sets have a set of gagues with them.

you will find some information in the post including the patten link http://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/10351-champion-blower-and-forge-power-hammer/?hl=champion Info from other users The only place you should not oil is on the drive belt surface area. One main thing to do. Make sure the toggle arms. The four arms that conect the ram to the spring arm, are drawn up so they are almost level. Not level. About 3/4" slop. you can measure this by holding a straight edge across the pins holding the arms at the spring, and the main pin through the ram should be about 3/4" of an inch below the straight edge. Play with this to find the optimum stroke for your hammer. This will also be affected by how far down you set the whole ram and spring arm assembly. To start tunning I would set that halfway with the double set screw holding the main pin. Going back to the toggle arms. If they are too sloppy, the hammer will skip or double hit. When they are too tight you stand a good chance of snapping the toggle arm at the spring pin junction. One other member recomended not over driving the bottom die wedge. RIGHT ON! (not my hammer) hammer was repaired due to this long before I got it. It is much better to re tighten the wedges every so often than to crack that front piece out. When mine was repaired they set the cracked piece back in place, drilled and tapped for three 3/4" bolts, bolted the 3 bolts after that, then they ground a V all the way around the 3 outside planes and welded it. I have had no problems with it, but I baby it there. As for other suggestions make sure the arm pins fit well in the spring arm holes. Where the spring wraps around the pin. Those pins should be no more than a 1/16" smaller than the spring holes. If they are sloppy the hammer won't hit right. One of the #0's I tunned had like 1 1/4" pins in a 1 3/4" hole. WAY to sloppy. The dovetail ways should be a little looser than you might think. Very scientific sounding, I know. But the best thing to do with them is after you have the hammer up and running. Move them in and out with the set screws until they are snug but not so snug as to stop the ram mid way in its stroke. That Champion is in super shape. The guides are like new in the thing and with that overhead jackshaft it should give very nice control. One thing that was wonky on that hammer was the brake did not engage when the treadle was up, It might return back to where it should be one the motor is in place and under tension. What I would do with that hammer is carfully scribe the outline of the smaller die onto the bigger die and then take them into a machine shop that can mate them up and flatten them out. I would do a combination style die with the fuller at front. if you change the motor its pretty critical to get the speed right so take note of the pulley diameter on that 5 horse. I ran my last one with a 110V 1.5HP motor and it worked perfectly. If it was going to be in severe use I would step up to a 2HP Once you get it timed right, the brake engaging and the toggles adjusted that hammer should give you single blow capability. One thing that will help down the road is make your self up a set of wood blocks to set the working hight of the upper die. at rest you want that die to be about a 1/8 above the thickness your working for the best control and hardest hit. I kept mine adjusted so when you rolled the machine over by hand the upper die would come within about 1/4" of the lower die and I didnt move it up until I got over 3/4 stock unless I was going to do real fine work.. should clarify in the earlier post about setting the die position... that 1/4 clear between the die is with the crank on its lowest possible position on the flywheel and with the toggle arms pulled good and tight on the spring and a very well adjusted hammer... Most hammers with a little slop in them you would need more like 3/4 of a inch to get a solid wack but yet have a light touch... and thats if your forging 1/4 or 3/8 stock... if your forging 1" bar you would need more like 1 3/4 clear at idle and the lowest position... Thats one of those things that really impacts performance and you just need to play with your hammer to see what works best... start with half a dozen 5/8 or 3/4 square bars that are a foot long with a center punch mark at 8" ( if you dont want to hold it with tongs make them as long as you want I guess) get them all up to temp and consistently forge out as long of taper as you can in one heat from the center punch mark... make an adjustment and go to the next one.... listen to how and where in its stroke the hammer hits and how hard of blows it lands... and it it is double tapping or missing a beat (way out of tune) its surprising how drastic of change you can get... also it will show you directly what your adjustments do Also I said I would do combo dies on that hammer and the only reason for that is because unlike a little giant the center of the tup weight is centered in the skinny of the die so working on either end has much less of a negative effect on the hammer.. and since it sounds likely this will be your primary hammer and its relatively small ( but capable ... a 65lb Champion that is well tuned will almost do the work of a run of the mill 100lb little Giant though) its sure nice to have fullering dies to quickly break down material and blend transitions..... If you have any questions Id be happy to help... I have owned two #1's and done some pretty major work on them including pouring new bearings in one.... oiling use SAE 30 for all contact points After doing a lot of research the original dies had three round swedges in the die 1/4”-3/8”-1/2” one of my dies had been refaced with hard facing rod and the swedges were filled in so I opted to fill in the top die as well and make all my tools clamp on to the bottom die. Like Clay Spencers method. Makes changing out fast I use a C clamp with a piece of angle iron as the base to all my tools so far I am pleased with how it works, the hammer was designed to weld a wagon wheel 1" thick x 4" wide and 36" in dia.

nice style Rich

George here is a photo of how I put the metal in the vice with the carving block

when making knives with railroad spikes its better to weld in a piece of file or damascus. Cut the spike in half and forge weld it in great excersize and the plus is you get extra material for the handle

it is interesting to see the work of the father and the sons and each of there style. Is the tong of the dragon an added piece?

this is a great tool for laying out a scroll using the golden rectangle there is a pdf with a set of measured drawing of the proper size parts for the project. http://www.woodworkingformeremortals.com/2011/03/phi-and-golden-rectangle.html One important thing to remember when laying out a scrolling Jig you have to account for the metal you are using to make the scroll other wise you are wrapping it around the out side if your drawing that can make the scrolls that you are make off. The best way is to make one scroll to the proportions you want and then make the jig to fit in it. It is more work but you will see a differences

that is Tobbe he is in charge of the rose project in Norway.

the amount of work will hardly be worth the return unless you can sell the track. As for spiles if you split them and forge weld in a piece of good high carbon steel or damascus steel the knife will have little use.

even with a cup wire brush on an angle grinder safety glasses gloves and leather apron. Had a piece of wire fall off my shoe and I stepped on it with bare feet it was getting the needle nose pliers to pull it out that was no fun. I use wire brushes very spiraling. Not worth the hassle

see you soon keep your head down

drilling is not that hard just do it in passes I did 1/4", 3/8", 1/2",3/4" and then 1" it did not take long at all then I filled mine square took about an hour to file.

Butch I found this through a friend it is made by a Russian blacksmith diffrent approch rooster.doc

nice job looks like it is starting to get cold time to close in the shop and get a wood burning stove. I make mine a little different I form the concaved ball and then file the outside shape that way the eye ball is not elongated. But as with any thing in blacksmithing you are developing you style and that is important. In the future when someone compairs ram heads they will beable to tell the diffrence from who made it.

use the bigger cylinder to compress air for the smaller cylinder you just might have a self contained air hammer

that will give you years of service

you are just starting out I would start with a 1 burner and learn to make your own burners then you can build a multi burner forge as you learn and grow

welcome on board you are going to need some kind of a damper to be able to control the air blast you are not going to run it at 100% all the time

Spent the day doing a demo at the Sugar Cane Festival At Crowley Museum and Nature Center With the help of my friend Travis we made this crane out of 1/2" x 3" steel it stands about 4' tall with 2' under ground. It was a lot of fun and a lot of striking to move that much metal by hand.