edennis

Any possibility these are going to be republished? I'm guessing no, but figured I'd throw it out there.

I fellow is selling a 25 LG for $2500. He says it's in working condition but needs a little TLC. Here is what he says about it: "In terms of what it need right away: A better clutch spring, the current spring is worn out and when you take your foot off the treadle the hammer keeps running a bit. The long term things it could use is a new pitman arm conversion, and to have the pulley sent to little giant for a rebuild service, it is not really necessary, but it would run a little smoother if that was done. I don't have any other dies, but these are in really good condition. New dies and many replacement parts are available for these hammers from little giant. the sowblock dovetail has had some repairs done that appear to be holding up fine, I am told they were finished 2.5 years ago, and that new Babbitt bearings were also poured at that time. Overall the hammer has good potential, and is currently running, just a little quirky." Trying to decide if I should jump on it. I don't know a ton about what some of these fixes might involve/cost. Thoughts? Thank!

Yeah, I know- but good for other stuff

Does anyone have advice on if $300 is a fair price for a "Famco 4" arbor press as seen here? Thanks advance!

Thanks for the reply. I believe a different blower model has the mechanical speed control, while mine is strictly electronic. If you scroll down on the specs page for the blower is shows different models having different types of speed control. I'm pretty sure the sig-gen is compatible since someone over on the bladesmithforum has used these exact pieces together- but you never know. It feels like the wiring is incorrect to me, but I can't think of any other configuration to put them in. I'm scared to try hooking the blue/red wires to the AC input as I don't want to fry the blower (hoping I already havn't!). Maybe the sig-gen is busted... but I'm out of ideas at this point.

It's running on it's own 120V AC line- but it has a DC control panel that accepts 0-10vdc for speed control. This is the input that is acting up.

Well, with the blue (low supposedly) connected to "OV" and red (high supposedly) connected to "0-10V" the blower actually does slow down from 10V down to about just under 7V. After that it just turns off... bad blower electronics? bad signal generator? I'm baffled.

woops, the previous post is supposed to read" I tried hooking up the blower and I'm having trouble. I'm wondering if the blower's electronics are shot. The only way I can get the blower to run is in the first configuration. However, it only runs at full blast and the sig-gen dial does nothing until I turn it way down and then the blower cuts out and wont go on again until the power plug is turned on and off again. With the blue wire on "OV" and the red on "0-10v" the motor just starts to run and then cuts out.

I would rather figure it out on my own- but in this case I really know very little about this stuff and a push in the right direction can be really helpful for me to even know where to start looking.first configuration. However, it only runs at full blast and the sig-gen dial does nothing until I turn it way down and then the blower cuts out and wont go on again until the power plug is turned on and off again. With the blue wire on "OV" andthered on "0-10v" the motor just starts to run and then cuts out. Something doesn't seem right. Thoughts?

I've also found that I know the clay is good when it hurts to work. I like the term bellows thrall, hah. I have read the rockbridge bloomery stuff- Lee is the person who taught me this stuff.

Oh, very cool! Awesome that you were able to get it to work with hand dug clay. That's a future step for me. Right now I'm using clay of a known composition.

oh, very cool. I didn't know Pennsic has bloomery smelts. What do you mean by "small one"? The blower was smaller in size then I expected when I received it. However, I believe the specs are up to par for a bloomery smelt. We'll see soon I guess.

bloomery

SLowly answering all my own questions. Just found an old laptop charger and stripped the wires to give power to the generator: worked like c charm. Found out from the company which wires are what based on color. Now I just to give the blower power.

Yes, I figured out immediately after asking that i do indeed need to hook up the AC-input for the blower separate from the generator. limonite