kubiack

My hammer is a Transitional 50 and has most of the original green paint still on it. I'm also in the middle of rebuilding it and will be pouring the main bearing soon. Well see what the paint looks like once the bearings are done but I'm hoping to leave it as original as possible.

The Old and Transitional style hammers were green from the factory and the New style hammers were gray.

On most two speed post drills the high speed is used for smaller bits and the low for larger bits. You will have to experiment a bit to find what bits to use in what range. For example 1/4" and under are going to need more RPMs than the low speed will provide and the 1" and above will need less than the high.

I have been following this thread off and on so this might have been answered if I missed it. However the last time I checked the Magtech 15KW machine was $2950 set up and ready to run as a forge. That was a year ago or more so they might have gone up since. In a previous post you said you are shooting for around $2000 which would be a kit that the user has to put together. To me $950 does not seem like a lot extra for something that has been tested and is know to work well, is ready to do work out of the box, and has a warrantee. What is the benefit to buying your unit? Will it consist of better components or have more bells and whistles? I applaud your efforts to build an induction heater however I don’t really see the benefit in buying it over the Magtech, please enlighten me.

It says 1/2" capacity rod in the details. Grizzly has one that lists up to 1/2" rod for $89.00. https://www.grizzly.com/products/T23100 I'm not sure I'd trust either to work at maximum capacity for long but the Grizzly one will probably have better customer support for blades and returns. If you want this style of shear I would look for used Roper Whitney #39 bench shear. You could probably find one for what you will pay for one of the new import modles.

Ill let someone else respond on the Ramco saw, I don't have any experence with them. Someone here bought a smiular shear you might PM them and see if they still like it. '?do=embed' frameborder='0' data-embedContent>>

Emmerson and TFS have blacksmith anvils in addition to their farrier anvils. The Emmersons are made from 4140 steel not ductile iron. I think the Emmerson in the Traditional patter would made a fine anvil for blacksmithing. Howerver I would save for a larger on that what you can get in the $500 price range.

I think you are going to have a very hard time making any entry level type band saw give you good straight cuts for doing things like the table legs you mentioned. The guides and frames are not ridged enough to keep the blade tensioned and square. The blade tracking guides are rarely square to begin with. They are really meant to be used for cutting stock to length which then would have further operations like facing in a lathe or mill to get it square and to the correct size. There are several sites dedicated to these types of saws and how to tune them to make good cuts. A Google search for tuning a 4x6 bandsaw will yield some results showing what can be done to improve them. If you are looking to upgrade you Black Bull bandsaw I hardly see how a portaband will help. It seems to me to be the completely opposite direction on how to cut structural steel and pipe at accurate angles. If that is your goal and you want to stay with a bandsaw you will need to look for something like a used Ellis or other industrial saw. Another option, in addition to the two I have already listed, would be a dry cut cold saw. They are in the $500 - $600 range and can make good miter cuts. If used sparingly for things that need cut accurately the blade should last a long time. Use in conjunction with your current bandsaw for stock cutoff would make a good combination. I have a power hacksaw and bought is to replace the cheap 4x6 bandsaw I started out with. For me it has been very usefull. I cut all my large stock and anything that needs and accurate cut with it. It is slow but makes a very good cut. The blades for it are much thicker than a bandsaw blade and held under a high tension. This combined with the large powerful table clamp make for an accurate cut. Another thing I like about it is that the blades are inexpensive and can be changed quickly so is make using the correct blade much easier than on the bandsaw. For bar stock smaller than 3/4” I use a bar sheer.

I believe this method is taught to beginners so that they can learn to make a forge weld with as few variables as possible. When the stock is simply folded over on itself and welded there is only one piece to hold, is self aligning, and does not need to be held with tongs. The student has only to worry about the heat and hammer blow. At the end of the exercise they have also made something usually a fire poker that they can take home with them. Generally scarf welds are taught after this.

I have two sugestions for you. The first if the majority of what you will be doing it the 3/4" and under you could get a large manual bar shear. They will be the fastest in the sizes you listed and require no motor. Something like an Edwards #5 shear or larger. They can be found used for $200 or less. They are not listed on Edwards site but you can still buy them new for $875. The second if you will be cutting much of the larger size listed and pipe an old power hacksaw would work well. Power hacksaws are heavy, ridged, cut square, and inexpensive; also around the $200 mark. They also cut slowly compared to a bandsaw so not that good for a production environment. They do self feed and shutoff after the cut so you can do other stuff while it cuts.

Next time, once you have punched you eye and before you drift it look at the hole. If it is off center you can heat up the thick side more than the thin side and when you drift the hole the hot side will stretch faster than the cool side and help to even the eye out.

In reading the ad it states that the horn is forged steel. How was the horn attached to the body? I have read in your other posts how the face was welded on through a special mold which preheated the plate but nothing of how the horn was attached.

I looked into it some but it seemed more touble than it was worth at the time. I only had a few firearm parts to refinish so it was just not worths the effort and expense to get set up. Other than the cost my two main issues were the metal finishing requirements and disposing of the chemicals once the are spent. The finish of the plating is directly related to how well the metal being plated is finished. At the time I did not have any metal sanding and buffing equipment. Most of the chemicals used are considered hazardas and must be disposed of properly. The kits from http://www.caswellplating.com/ looked like a pretty good place to start.

I built one a year and a half ago and have come to like it very much. It has no problems mantaining welding heat. Once you get used to the fire you have more control over its shape than in a bottom blast. I also get to use a bottom blast forge with a firepot regularly at a friends shop and like the side blast better. In a bottom blast the fire pot diticates the size and shape of the fire. In a side blast you shape the fire to suite the job at hand. It is more of a blank canvas and the hollow or bowl holding the fuel can be shaped any way you like. It takes more work to maintain the fire so it is bit of trade off as to versatility and ease of use. In the side blast clinkers tend to build up beneath the blast instead of in it and the fire stays cleaner. I built my forge based on Mark Asprey's plans. I used his design for the water cooled blast pipe and his side draft flue, they both work very well. The blast pipe is up a bit off the floor of the forge. My build thread is here and contains some more disscusion on the subject as well as links to the plans. '?do=embed' frameborder='0' data-embedContent>>

Here is a 250lb from 1939 Fisher I owned for a while. It was in fine shape but never found its way into use in my shop. I sold it to a good friend and now I use it more when I visit his shop than I every did in mine. I do have first right of refusal if he ever sells it.

In West Texas my biggest issue with chimney caps is the sound of the wind blowing across it. With the damper closed in the firebox it still gets louder than I would like. I would like to change my existing cap to one of the ones you can close from the top like these. I’m not sure if the wind is a problem where you live or not. http://www.homesaver.com/locktop_fireplace_damper.aspx

If you see any wobbling or sideways movement it may or may not reall be a problem. If it is a drill bit wobbling it may just be the chuck or how it was mounted. If it is movemnt of the spindle above the chuck it may be worn bearings or a bent spindle. If the problem is in the chuck or how it was mounted then it is an easy fix. If the play is in the bearings it will also be a realitivly easy fix. If it is a problem is a bent spindle then it will be more costly to fix. It would be hard to tell where the problem lies without a dial indicator.

Brent Bailey lists one his website. It's more than the one for Blacksmith's Depot but forged from tool steel.

They have Parks listed under salt baths. I don't remember if they had Parks listed under oil when I ordered from them a year or so ago but they did have it. At any rate I orderd their Duratherm G and it has been working fine for my uses. I think I paid around $80 with shipping.

Try these guys http://www.maximoil.com. They sell Parks as well as there own blends, ship small quantites, and the prices are very reasonalbe. I think 5 gallons was less than $100 with shipping.

What scrap yard did you find these at? Most of the scrap yards around Lubbock don't sell to the public and won't let you in without a load to drop off. I would love to find a yard where I can find cheap materials. I have not found any flap disks that last long. I would do the bulk of the grinding with a hard grinding disk and just use the flap disk for final cleanup.

I have been using coke with an electric blower 3 nights a week past year. For me it depends on what size stock I am working and how hot my anvil is to determine if I leave the blower running while I am at the anvil. If I am working small stock say under and inch I will run out of heat in the bar before the fire has lost a significant amount of heat. At that size I switch the blower on while taking a heat and turn it off right before take the stock from the fire. If I am working something larger or my anvil is hot and not taking heat from the stock as fast I will slide my air gate almost closed before moving to the anvil. Instead of playing with the air gate I have also tried turning the blower off every other hear which works almost as good and is a lot less trouble. When the blower is turned off it still spins for 20 or 30 seconds and keeps the fire hot part of the time I am at the anvil. I have used a hand crank blower with my forge and coke before and while it did work I much prefer the electric blower.

250# 1939 with lugs

I know where one of these hammers is being used as a mailbox. '?do=embed' frameborder='0' data-embedContent>>

Herb is more qualified to answer than I am since he has actually built one and uses it on a regualr basis. I almost always use coke to forge with and have not used a gas in several years. However the few times I used/watched a recuperative it was built to the Sandia design. I would like to see some hard numbers as well but even without them I can say that I was very impressed with the amount of heat they generated and the lack of dragons breath and noise. I don't think it would be hard to build either but if you follow the plan you will have to cut and bend sheet metal, forge and weld stainless, and cast a floor. In my mind its a lot more work then the typical pipe lined with blanket forge. What temperate is the air in the pipe after it passes through the exhaust? That would give some indication to the effecency of your forge. A few things to note about the Sandia design opposed to yours. The heat exchanges are insulated after they pass throught the ehaust and before they enter the forge. The Standia forge has two tubes that pass through the exhaust and they are forged into an oval shape so the exhaust takes longer to pass over them. The Sandia forge is also naturally asperated. I remember reading a post where, I think, HWooldridge said he had built one and was not very pleased with the preformance. It would be nice if he would weigh in on the subject.