arftist

Good job Ken! Nice simple clean design.

Appalachian Power Hammers This is the address of the developer of Rusty and Dusty. I bought his plans and built a hammer using these plans as a guide. In some areas, I made significant dparture/improvement. In other areas I utilized Jerry's knowledge. My hammer is bullet proof and a high performer. I would be glad to share the improvements with you, if you buy his plans. They are a good investment, and when I built my hammer, Jerry spent a good amount of time on the phone with me, for example, telling me what size hammer I would need for the work I was doing, and what size springs I would need for that size hammer. Ted T. is trying to help me learn how to post pictures, when I master that I will post some pictures of the changes I made. The beauty of the appalacian power hammer is that you can build it to be what you want. I built my hammer with 75# head. The frame and ALL the other parts were built with a hundred pound head in mind, so some day I can change the springs and add weight to the head.

Thats fine for you you Ken, with forty plus years of experience. The OP wanted to know if he could use a gas ring for heat. Do you think he would know how to shrink bent plates with heat?

I don't think heat alone is going to straighten the plates and certainly not the heat of a gas ring. Getting them hot and then pounding them flat would work though.

I am pretty sure that people in Africa who use manure in their homes as cooking fuel get dreadfull diseases as a result. I would be wary of something which could be readily replaced by charcoal, (a well known excellent forge fuel), which is also free if you make a simple retort.

You may find you can do perfectly adequate work without dressing the face. You can sand the horn all you like, you will not hurt it unless you make it significantly smaller. The hard plate though has only so much thickness...it gets thinner through normal use. To purposely grind away years worth of usefull life in a few minutes is not a good idea. If and when your work becomes so high caliber that those marks are detrimental a new anvil would be apropriate.

Isn't that the truth. In my house hangs exactly one(1) curtain rod made by me, and that took 5 years of threats and begging by the lady of the house.

That is an oriental mill/drill. You can do milling with it readily. These days most milling is done with the aid of a milling vice and a set of hold downs. Small parst are held in the vice, which is bolted to the table slots. Larger parts are clamped to the table slots using the hold down set. I suggest buying a set of cheap endmills which come in a case with both four flute and two flute versions of all the common sizes. As you wear them out, you will know which ones to replace with quality versions. Any book on machine shop practice shop offer info on milling. Lindsay Books has a great selection of machinist books.

The jack of all trades is the master of none.

Burden Sales has blowers for $16.00

Pinjas, DO NOT pressure wash the inside of your TIG welder. I have been a professional welder for over thirty years and have never heard such an idea. Blowing it out would be fine. As to the electrical setup, sounds like you are doing O.K. As far as the air grinders go, you get what you pay for. Good air grinders are very expensive and require a lot of air, which means a large expensive compresor. Get yourself a 5'' Metabo grinder. It will last you for many years even if you use it every day.

Browning, IIRC, is controlled rusting with oil as a preservative.

Burden Sales Corp. also known as Surplus Sales, they are on the web. You want about 200-300 CFM (cubic feet per minute) unless you have a huge forge, which could possibly use up to 500CFM. When you find their website, search for squirell cage blowers. Don't bother with a motor speed controller, make a movable flap to restrict the inlet air (inlet to the blower). This is the best way to regulate blower air for a lot of reasons.

Have not seen your setup, but can throw a couple guesses based on experience. 1. Air leaks. How tight is the seal between the forming machine and the plastic to be shaped? 2. Hole size and placement. 3. Improper vacum pump. While it is called a "vacum", a shop vac is unlikely to create a strong enough vacum. This is just a guess, I could be wrong. Most of the setups I have seen use an actual vacum pump. A quick test would involve a vacum gauge (auto parts store) teed in between the forming machine and the vacum pump. This would also enable you to test for leaks. If this is not enough info, I have a book on the subject and will dig it out for you. We only live about 40 minute away from each other, and I would also be willing to lend you a vacum pump until you find your own.

If you can, yes, by all means, pour an isolated block. The slamming of a big power hammer causes the equivalent vibration of lound low frequency sound waves. If your slab is already strong enough to withstand the strain, you could be OK, but if you have neibors within say 100 feet of your hammer, they may experience startling results whenever you run your hammer, as the large flat slab amplifies the vibrations. If you decide to use a block, Little Giant (also a dupont style hammer) has a chart on their website describing the shape, size, iron content, etc. for a given weight hammer. Remember, Little Giant was in business until 1995, so their information is quite relevant.

I think Frosty answered this already, but I will give it another go. A block shape would be great for making anything that doesn't need to be bent. Once you start curving, the body of the anvil gets in the way.

I have a Buffalo Forge Company Blower. The fan is 11"(27.5cm) diameter. The reduction is one revolution of hand crank gives 50 turns of fan blade. The thickness of fan is 1"(2.5cm) The outlet is 3"(7.5cm) It is a BIG blower. 12" diameter x3" thickness x 25-1 ratio would take a very strong arm to turn. You can buy mine if you want. It is brand new, never used. PM me if you like.

I don't have a problem with 6013 either, I just don't have any use for it. In the shop, I use MIG for what I would otherwise use 6013 for, and in the feild, I use 6011, 7018 or TIG. Seperate issue, I like 6011 better than 6010. It seems to freeze faster. I am not a professional pipe welder.

If you are talking about the central vein running from the stem to the tip, it can be made by folding the leaf in half, lightly hammering shut, then opening the leaf again.

What is your power source? AC, or DC or both? Why are you capping 6010 with 6013? I like to weld uphill with 7018 on DC, electrode positive. There is a little technique to learn, but once you master it it is easy. 6010 is a DC only rod, if you have AC, use 6011 instead. 95 amps without knowing the rod diameter is not enough info. I asume it is 1/8" though. I personaly have no use for 6013.

I got in the habit of smacking the hot iron against the side of the anvil, before placing it on the anvil and striking, surprised no one else mentioned this method, most of the scale falls off. Even if I am using my power hammer, I smack the side of the anvil with the hot steel.

I always thought those type of hammers were actualy called armorer's hammers, but aparentlu no one else uses that term.

The hard plate looks good. The horn has some marks you could carefully sand down. Overall though it is in good shape and a good anvil.

Consider wekend classes. That is what the school in my area does. Two eight hour days. Enabled me to attend on and off for many years, full time job or not.