kubiack

Do you need evidence? As long as you have been here and as active as you are you either don’t use social media or are being obtuse. You can see my post as trolling if you like but I see it as one more reason people will chose to use an outlet besides IFI.

What part was acting like a newbie? First, I linked to where the rule the OP was asking about can be found. Second, I expressed my observations and a different point of view, which were fresh on my mind after seeing the original post and then this one. Third, I made a suggestion as to where he could post it with a link. I never made any demands that Glen make any changes. I have read my post again several times and still don’t see it as trolling.

Charles first off if you will check I joined this site before you did, you are mistaken by calling me a new member trying to find my place. I have contributed several worthwhile threads over the years with content that I believe will be of help to someone. In addition, through this site I have also helped several new member in my area find other smiths and equipment.

Hum, I see advertising here on the IFI site. Unless I have missed the point of advertising, I was under the impression that advertisers pay to put their ads here. The more viewers, content, and traffic a site has the more they pay. In turn, the more content I add to the site and the more times I view the site the more value I add to it, both of which I have done. So how exactly have I been generous with other people’s money? It seems to me like I have added to this sight instead of being a drain on it as you imply. Joel, I'd certainly ready anything you would care to post about using a OBI or toggle press in blacksmithing applications. I did enjoy seeing what you posted for making the flower and other dies.

See Glen's second post in this post, Rules For Tailgating https://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/160-read-this-before-posting-the-rules-for-tailgating/ Not allowing posts to equipment for sale that could be very beneficial to other blacksmith just because IFI does not benefit from it monetarily - perhaps its one reason why a lot of users have migrated from IFI to Facebook and Instagram. If you want to help someone get this press perhaps you should post it on Facebook instead.

I think I went with 24"x36" for the pan, I'll have to measure to be sure. I can see see 30"x60" being a nice size. I think 30"-32" is just about right for the width and then however long you want to make the length that would fit well in your shop with somewhere around 40" being the minimum I would go. In addition to being a spot to set hot work any extra length on the front would be nice for supporting longer bars that were being heated on the end.

I saw Charles recent thread about side blast forges and read this one again. I see there were a few questions I never responded to and I thought I would give an update as I have been using this forge for several years now. As to the questions of the depth of the side cutouts in relation to the height of the tue. First, I like the height of the top of the sides of the forge in relation to the tue. It works well for getting smaller work down into the fire. However if you want to heat the middle of a long bar and need to run the bar out both sides of the forge then the cutouts are not deep enough for the bar to get to the hottest part of the fire. It would be easy enough to fix however, I do not heat of long bars often so I have just been building the fire up a bit. The other change I would make to this forge is that I would like the pan to be a bit larges. When I clean the forge in between fires, I rake back all of the unused coke to get to the clinker and ash. The pan of the forge is not large enough to rake it all out with some of it falling off the sides onto the floor. This does not affect the usefulness for the forge but it is annoying that every time I use the forge I have to deal with it. I would like it to be another 8” wider and longer.

I do not know if you came across my thread while you were doing you research but it has a lot of discussion on side blast forges. Unfortunately, most of the pictures have been lost but I re-posted my pictures and the plans on the second page. I ended up building a side blast forge based on the plans Mark Aspery put out. It has been in use for several years now and I am very happy with it. I have a good friend who uses a bottom blast fire pot, which I use regularly. Both types have their strengths and weakness but I have come to prefer using the side blast more as I find it to be a more versatile forge. You can find my thread here https://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/26716-side-blast-forge/

Nice looking hammer. It appears to run really well. I'd like to see more video of it hitting hot steel once you get all the adjusting finished.

I once filed a hardy hole on a Peter Wright anvil that was about ¾” to 1”. All of my hardy tooling is 1” and I wanted to use it in this anvil so I enlarged the hole. The top was hard but it not as hard as a high quality file. It did take a while to file though. Only the top of an anvil is usually hard and your only needs 1/16” taken out. The part that swells to ¾” below the top sounds like it is probably below the hardened material. I’d just get a new large square file and enlarge the hole.

Well you defiantly are expert when it comes to all this. I’m just relating the trouble I have had finding an acceptable industrial style swage block and how I use mine. I for one am really excited for this new block to come to market. Not wishing your good paying work to slow down but I hope we see it for sale soon. What kind of price do you expect it to sell for in the American market? I know your distributors here will have a say but can you give us a ball park estimate? I can only image that making that mold, a core box, and the cores for each block it will not be cheap.

Any chance you are going to have these cast out of steel? I looked at a lot of old industrial blocks while trying to find one to buy and never found one I was really satisfied with. All of the block had chipping and deformation around the edge of the holes. Being that they were made of cast iron there is not really a satisfactory way to repair this damage. However if they were made of steel they could be. One other suggestion I would make is to have some smaller size holes than was typically found on the older blocks. I would think if you left off two of the largest holes you could substitute several smaller one and that most people using this type or block would find that more useful. OK one more suggestion make the block small enough to be useful. I had a block that was 18"x18"x6" and weighed about 325 pounds. It was never moved to use any of the sides. It was just more convenient to make hardy tools instead. Now I have a much smaller block that I can actually move around by hand and it does get rotated to the side and used much more than the big one. I think it is around 14"x14"x4".

I recently got to try one of the Outlaw grinders and it would be well worth your consideration. I have not used a Bader but have used a KMG, Squarewheel, Coote, as well as several others and I really thing the Outlaw was the best for the bunch.

I think between the personality conflicts with administrators and the several forum software changes that led to long periods of errors, lost pictures, lost posts, and lost content a lot of people have gone elsewhere. It seems they have mostly gone to Facebook and Instagram. I think it's a shame as I'm not really into social media. I prefer a forum where people can post a lot of detail and have discussions. I really enjoined this site several years ago when there were multiple professionals posting on a regular basis. With the lack of professionals posting this site is mostly the same rehash of beginner questions over and over ad nauseam. Don't get me wrong I still like this site and there are still good post once in a while but it's just not the same place it used to be.

Thanks for documenting this. I have enjoyed watching the progress and results.

There is a thread somewhere on this site that showed cutting the lower dovetails off the frame, machining a new dovetail, and building a sow block. That seems like it would be the best way to fix it. I think the person who made the repair was Phil Cox. Little Giant lists this repair under services that they preform for a pretty reasonable amount. If you are close to them that may be the best option.

All I can say is buy a bigger one. You sure don't want to be spend that much on one and then in 4 or 5 years wish you had spent another $500 to get the next size up. If this is truly your lifetime anvil save a few more months and get a bigger one. If it were me I would get the 275 lb or larger #58.

I have visited the collection and have a few of his business card somewhere. I'll see if I can find one for you Farmall. He is a really nice guy and was happy to show me around. I did buy a nice swage block from him while i was there. People say his prices are high but he has a lot of stuff that is not being made anymore and in our area getting hard to find. I thought he had that stuff priced fair, high but fair. No one is making any of the industrial style swage blocks, large vises, large cones, and large London pattern anvils. If they were I know they would cost more than what he had them priced at. Stuff like normal sized anvil, tongs, tooling, and even power hammers which are readily available I though I could find a better deal elsewhere. I see the New Mexico Artist Blacksmith Association had an add listed with his phone number. http://nm-artist-blacksmiths.org

Nice video John. I always enjoy seeing your stuff.

You can still buy the steel NATO style Jerrycans made by Wavian from several online vendors. The are pretty expensive as far as gas cans go but they work so much better than any of the plastic junk being sold today. I bought 2 of them a few years ago and have been very happy with them. They have a rubber seal which keeps anything from evaporating and the pour spout is excellent. There is still one gas station in town which sells gas without alcohol and when I keep it in the sealed Jerrycan it lasts a long time. I don't think there is a better option available than these.

I had the owner send me some pictures of it and some of the other hammer he has for sale. However the Beaudry is a bit of a mystery. The model number that is cast into the frame appears to be NO 45 which does not match any of the models that they made. I was really hoping the owner was wrong and it was a 100 or 150 pound hammer but he is certain that it weighs over 9000 pounds which would make it a 500 pound hammer. At any rate I'm going to go see the hammers sometime in the next few weeks.

The SWABA site has a Mayer Brothers hammer listed for sale for around $3500. It says it was rebuilt by Little Giant and sold to one of their members.

In that size range I’d look at an Anyang 33 or the MZ75. You should also call Roger at Little Giant and see if he has a rebuilt hammer for sale. One more thing the Little Giant rebuild video also has a section on evaluating a used hammer. It would be well worth buying if you decided to go with a Little Giant style hammer.

That would be too much for me for a hammer that had not been rebuilt. I don’t think you are going to find an original specimen that does not need rebuilt. Sure you might find one that still runs and can do some work but more than likely the toggle linkage and clutch are going to be sloppy and the bearing nearing the end of their life. If you buy a hammer like that and then need to pour new bearings, buy some new parts, and possibly pay for some machine work you could easily end up spending another few grand plus you time and labor. Once the total investment to have a good running hammer gets to that range I’d start looking at the price of comparable sized new hammer or one that has been rebuilt by Little Giant. The value really depends on the condition and the hammer and the tooling and dies that come with it. However for a hammer needs rebuilt I’d pay no more than $1500. Do a search here on IFI because Black Frog has a thread where he documented a rebuild and all the work that it took. He shows a lot of the machine work and welding that is involved, it’s a pretty good reference. If you are serious about spend $3000 on a hammer I think it would be prudent to spend $100 on the Little Giant rebuilding video. They show a complete tear down, rebuild, and adjustment of a hammer. If nothing else you will be a lot more educated when you go to buy one.

The hammer in your first 3 pictures is not a Little Giant it is a Mayor Brothers and I don't think you will be able to order parts for it. It is also in bad shape, the frame has a corner of the dove tail broken out and the wrap around guide has been repaired several times. I'd stay away from that one. The red one it the last 2 pictures looks to be in OK shape. I don't see any major issues, all of the pieces seem to be there and the dies look fairly new. The bearing shims look fairly thin so be sure and check how much adjustment is left when you go to see it.