FieryFurnace

Looking forward to the conference. Last year was my first time attending and I had a blast. Clay agreed to work with me on this, after I acted as his assistant instructor at JCC a few weeks ago. So glad he did. Clay is a good guy. We often use VERY different methods to accomplish the same end, so spectators will get to see these methods side-by-side. We will be focusing on traditional iron work, working together on a single project. We have been discussing what exactly we want to demonstrate. If anyone has some suggestions of what they'd like to see demonstrated, please feel free to message me with suggestions. Thanks for posting Andrew!

A good anvil stand will kill all anvil ring. That anvil stand on grass, could quite possibly be the cause of muffled ring. Set it on something solid, and try it out.

They appear straight in the pics.....could just be the angle or something.....or we could be unknowingly referring to different parts of the anvil. :)

Located a brand new 1.5 hp 3600 rpm for $165. :) gonna try to pick it up next week. I have not seen a Fontanini anvil before....that I recall. Google image search.....BRB

Yeah I agree, loose the twisting holes. If a person can afford a custom new anvil, they can afford a post vise. I like the location of the hardy holes, but would prefer all 90 degree corners left sharp from the manufacturer, so I could dress as I pleased. I might also suggest a thicker round horn. On the flat horn, on all double horn anvils I've seen, the underside is a straight taper to the small of the horn. How about a nice arch like single horn anvils? That might look neat!

Double horn, with a step, with the hardy hole towards the square horn and not by the round horn. It seems like all of the new ones have the hardy hole up there by the round horn, so all of us horn-to-the-right people will cut our fingers off. I also like the radius upper edge on the hardy hole, like the Fishers have. Another good feature on the fishers, is the overhanging top plate. The top plate overhangs the mass underneath slightly, (1/8-inch maybe) this allows the smith to dress the anvil as desired, and allows numerous redressing without grinding into the body of the anvil. Just as an off the cuff idea: A single agressive radius, facing straight up, positioned over part of the mass of the anvil, would be an attractive feature, especially for the guys who like to taper on the horn. I'm not sure where and how, such a die could be incorporated so as not to interfere with other important aspects. Perhaps run the horn radius in to over the anvil mass for two inches or so, then step up to the flat plate??? Be sure to share what you come up with.

Josh: The hammer in the video has a linkage identical to a tire hammer. The parts are just sized differently. The difference in this hammer is that the tire drive system is rigged differently. There is no reason to run a motor to a tire, a pulley off the tire, then a v-belt to another pulley, with a drive shaft to the ram. The one modification that I do like, is that the tire is not directly attached to the head. If you run a drive shaft off the tire and attach the driveshaft to the ram, you eliminate having to weld a plate on the tire. This gives you easy access to the lug-nuts, if they need tightening. If you put the tire where the large v-belt pulley is, and ran the drive shaft directly off the tire, that would be an improvement to the design, IMO. Back to the spring a ram linkage though, any hammer that runs off this type of head, operates exactly the same. It doesn't matter if it's a Little Giant, Star, Tire Hammer, or some other make. If it has the arms with a coil spring between, it operates the same, regardless of the proportion. Basically the spring provides tension so that when the arms extend and the ram hit's the dies, the ram is the pulled back upward by the spring tension, giving upward momentum to get the head back up and around for another blow.

The ram weight, including the steel tube, is 50 pounds.

Thanks for the complements guys. This isn't an advertisement thread for hammers. I just thought I'd share some of the more unique hammers I made last year. Backyardblacksmithin: check you PM's.

I am soooo making one of these! :) thanks for sharing!

Sometimes I get to make hammers, which is a nice change from production work and just generally regular blacksmithing. Here are a few highlights from 2013. My dad strikes for me, and some is also done under the tire hammer. When I do get to make hammers, I make them out of 1045 most of the time, but sometimes I use 4140. This hammer has decorative cheeks and a heavy scotch bright finish. I think it was a 4 or 4.5 pounder. Here is another decorative cheek hammer with no handle. I think it was about a 3 or 3.5 pounder. These are tough to make because if you slip with the dies, it will beat up the ridges. Here are two cross peens in the 2.5 to 3 pound range. One of these is 4140 just because I had it in the right size. This first one was made with smaller radius fuller dies, while the second picture is of one done with the bigger dies. The smaller dies give kind of a neat look, just to mix things up a bit. This is the one done with the bigger dies, and I did "hollow" cheeks on this one. Hollow cheeks look kind of neat to me. I did this hammer just to be different. I didn't particularly love this hammer, but it was sort of neat looking. And so there! Those are highlight hammers of 2013. Hope you enjoyed the pics.

I'm no wiz at computers and stuff so I could be wrong. I post photos from photo bucket into my message bodies, so that when you look at a post if mine, the photo appears in the post without requiring you to go offsite to view it. However, if I move or delete the photo from photo bucket, the photo no longer appears on IFI. If you posted your photos from picasa or photo bucket, or some other photo hosting program, then moved or deleted those photos from that program they will also disappear from your post. I would imagine if your photo host altered their site in a way that affected your photo's image URL (the link you put into the IFI message body to create an image in your post,) then the photo would disappear as well. I believe that in order to keep the photo on IFI permanently, you have to upload it as an attachment when you write your post, or upload the photo to your IFI albums and host it from there. I am sure there are some tutorials on this site about all of this. :)

Simple fans really help me out a lot. Once you work up a but of a sweat, the air flow really helps. I only have one small window in my shop, so it is pretty closed up. I had two little walmart fans in there last summer, and it made all the difference.

I paid $300 for the one I bought about five years ago. It was very similar to this one, but this one looks better built than the one I bought. I used mine for three years, made minor alterations, produced thousands of dollars of iron work with it, and the sold it for what I bought it for.

Thanks guys! Andrew did a real fine job striking and could have handled making a much larger hammer without difficulty. He turned out a very well finished hammer. His is hammer number 47.

IN MY EXPERIENCE, a small 1/4-inch wall firepot will hold up for several years of moderate use. I used mine outside, with no shelter, with green coal and coke for 2.5-3 years exclusively, and it was still serviceable at the end of that time. On the flip side, an acquaintance of mine is reporting that his coke is turning the outside of his 5/8-inch plate firepot, a cherry red color. My suggestion is, if you have the material and you are typically going to only work lighter stock (under 3/4-inch square,) go for it. It will give you some service at least! 5/8 and 3/4 plate are wonderful for firepots, but are heavy. We don't live in an ideal world, so go with the lighter 1/4-inch material. You'll be fine!

It may be irritating but it is still his shop. :D Its just one of the downsides to not working for yourself. With all of the additional stuff a shop owner/manager has to take care of, I wouldn't worry too much about it. It is a personal preference thing though with no "standard" way of handling it. When I had another blacksmith come in and strike for me making hammers, I permitted him to put his touchmark on the hammer in addition to mine. All he did was show up, strike, handle the hammers, and then take care of sales on ebay. I provided the know-how, the shop, the tools, the fuel, the material, all up-front costs, and the social connections to help sell the hammers. He was a friend so I didn't mind his mark being on the hammers. If I hired out a regular journeyman, I would not allow his personal touchmark to go any company products. They would get stamped FFF and that is it. (If something went wrong with the product/client, the client would pursue the issue with the COMPANY, not with YOU.) They would get credit in the company portfolio for their contribution in work and design. (Such as "Made by Dave Custer and the skilled staff of Fiery Furnace Forge.") So, I wouldn't get too frustrated. :D

The dies aren't large enough to cover the whole face like a flatter, but for those size hammers, my power hammer isn't powerful enough anyway. So from the information here it seems I need to stick with 100 pounds of ram, and a 12-14 inch cylinder, with a 2.5-inch diameter, and 3/8-1/2 inch ports.

Thanks Wayne! I gave it to my grandad over thanksgiving. He really liked it.

The stitching was machine done! My brother has a pretty nice machine! Haha! Unfortunately I only had one piece of pie before it was all gone, but it was very tasty.

Thanks for the additional info. Purchasing any of the manufactured hammers is not an option for me right now. I can build much, much cheaper than I can buy. I have seen the KA hammer before, but I still need the option of a cycling hammer. Often, I need single hit ability, but not exclusively. My current old-style Kinyon is perfectly capable of single hit control. Control-wise, I can live with my current Kinyon. I was just thinking of the Coleman because of the added features. However, after several suggestions, I think I will use a different control system. I don't currently use any long punches or drifts, or other tools, under the PH. I'm thinking less about tool clearance, but more about space for the head to operate above my tooling. You put a cupping tool, a 4.5-inch billet, and a flatter between my dies, and I have an inch and a half of room for the head to cycle. Plus it doesn't have the power to upset the stock anyway. I do like a good mechanical hammer, but they seem to need momentum to get going. Thus instead of a single power blow, you get a "tap, tap, blam" approach. I get what you are saying about the "triggering"mechanism affecting the throw of the hammer. The key then to having a varying hammer blow based upon how ad the treadle is compressed, is to have your triggering mechanism somehow tied into the foot peddle. Thus, as you depress the peddle more, the blow gets longer and heavier. My current system is a manual adjustment. You have to unscrew, reposition, and retighten the trigger, thus preventing mid-heat transitioning.

macbruce: McMaster has the 14-inch cylinders. It looks like around $200 or less will get me outfitted! Less if I go with a shorter cylinder. I did not think about the increased volume. I mean I knew it was more, obviously, but I just didn't realize it was twice as much. I think it would be the more wise option for me to not go much above 100 pounds. That will be a sufficient upgrade for me, and will be more likely to operate within my compressor's ability. Keith: thanks for sharing your experience with the Coleman linkage. Trinculo: Due to my readily available steel source, and the selection there, I can build an entire hammer for the same cost as the KZ control kit. I've beat up some 2x4 under the KZ and absolutely love it's control and power.

I measured my cylinder and it is a 13 inch, however the stroke at maximum width is only 8-inch. Haha! So really I could get a 2.5 or 3 inch cylinder 14-inches long and just make sure the hammer I build actually uses the whole stroke, at it's maximum operating range. The KZ hammers run off of a 12 x 2.5 cylinder with a custom 1.75 inch rod. The website says it will run on a 5hp, 80 gallon compressor, with 17 CFM. (All of this info is available publicly on the website.)

One of the big things that the larger hammer is needed for, is my hammer making. Extra throw would be nice and more weight is essential. This thread is to work out my ignorance of what size tube would be suitable for my current compressor and still be a suitable upgrade. I'm also looking for added control which will lower the amount of products I lose due to missed blows. I also need a larger die area, for making various products without having to swap dies, mid-heat. This stuff can't simply be added to my current hammer. I have run my hammer without the lower die, in the past to help gain extra throw, but when I'm working a piece that large, the hammer doesn't hit hard enough to do anything to it, not to mention being unable to switch immediately from long side to short side, and continue forging. The biggest stuff I work with currently is 2.5-inch solid rounds, and I don't see increasing that anytime soon. That's about as much as the 50 pound tire hammer wants to handle. It would be great to be able to go from tire hammer dies, to the air hammer, during the same heat, without having to swap dies or grab a striker. Perhaps a 14 or 16-inch cylinder is what I really need instead of a 24-inch. I don't really know, that's why I'm trying to get input here.

Ok I just read online where the increased width increases the pounds of force that the rod exerts.....rather drastically actually. At 100 psi in a 16-inch tube you get the following. 269 pounds in a 2-inch cylinder 447 pounds in a 2.5-inch cylinder 662 pounds in a 3-inch cylinder 884 pounds in a 3.5-inch cylinder Wow! Big difference!