Abenakis

Thank you Matt. If you find something to correct, just tell me and I'll be glad to learn something more. And as for your luck, (and I don't want to judge in any way, I am not in that situation so I can only talk about what I see from my standing point of view) I am afraid that, too many times, those who speak english don't see the need to learn other language and, because of that, miss a very good opportunity to learn another way of thinking too. Just an example: in japanese, the word catastrophee is the same as opportunity. Incredible but so true. When everything gets wiped out, you have an opportunity to restart from scratch! Now imagine that you're raised with this thinking, your youth long. You cannot look at life the same way as those who have not been raised with this very real connection; you get courage in front of bad things just because you already look at the afterwards. In another language (I think it's gaelic), there are no possesion words. Things can't be yours. When you talk about something, you have to describre the relationship you have with it: the fork I am eating with; the land I walk on; the women I live with and so on. In reality, the only thing that ever becomes really ours is the energy we get when we eat and, even there, it's only temporary as we will give it to something else like a piece of iron we forge! Amazing! When you learn different language, you also learn the philosophy of the people who live and had lived with this language. Being from two different cultures that are very small in North America, I am faced with a third one which brings it's own set of values which can clearly be felt just by the way the people talk. Listen to Italian people when they talk: they are singing; their words have a special rythm that can only bring passion! I could give you multiple examples of those very interesting differences in the cultures. And I can tell you that there are real things, feelings, moods that I can only say in english because there is no word for that in french or abenakis! Impressive isn't it? So, to conclude, I feel that I am the lucky one! Because I am rich of different cultures and I HAVE to be open to the others! Maybe you could feel that I am passionnate about that. That's true. As much as Jake Pogrebinsky when he talks about technology in blacksmithing. Because I am afraid that the trend toward standardisation is going to cut us from all those beautiful and significant differences that we should rather cherish. I believe that, luckily, we, those who work with raw material, have not completly drawn into this standardisation and we still feel the natural energy of things, often more than we think them. But I still want to conclude with Albert Einstein's words : (my own translation) Intuition is a sacred gift while the rational mind is only a faithful servant. We have created a society that honour the servant and has forgotten the gift! Have a very good day!

"I have always like sthe shape of it and wish it could tell me stories." Please, if it tells you some, write them down. Imagine all the anecdotes it must have heard from the shoes that were repaired! It would make for a "juicy" best seller... :D

Try this place: High Temperature Refractory Ceramic Materials: Zircar. They specialise in blankets and even moldable stuff. I have already contacted them and they are interested in working with people for something different than their usual applications. They say their stuff is good up to 1850

"The neck fits perfectly in my vice and I use it as a texturing/light shaping anvil for light steel sheet and copper work" Oh! What a great idea! That is something I will surely try. I have now to find an elegant way to make it stay at its place when I work with it... Matt87, I would have said it in french it would have been prefectly phrased but I wonder if anybody would have understood? :rolleyes:

Holy cow! At least, it can make a great book holder... Or a door stopper... I went to hear if it would ring; no ring at all.. Real cast iron... An it even looks (in the heat treating BP) that re-heating this would not transform it into something forgeable... At least, it can make a great book holder... Or a door stopper... SNIF... I tought I had a good piece of iron to play with! SNIF...

Hi all I found this little shoemaker anvil and I thought that I might use it as a base for some tools; but before jumping on this, cutting, grinding, welding and heat treating I like to ask the experienced man what he would want to do with it. I do have some hammers and chisels but don't have any hardy yet (the anvil is about to come). It measures 7 1/2 x 8 inches. Any idea other than door or paper weight is welcome. I know, from some brainstorming sessions, that the best solutions often come from what seemed to be the craziest idea at first! So, let your brain free in its most creative field (you don't have to pay the bill anyway!). Thanks

Frosty, please don't hold your participation! In fact, I prefer to see the things being used; there is some etheral energy in those that brand new things cannot be proud of. And that's what blacksmithing is all about, no? Unkle Spike: good thinking; keep an eye on those bolts though as any vibration has a tendancy to loosen them. And your blower, with its long arm to reach the table, will surely induce some.

Unkle Spike, I have to congrat you: your work is very nice. Frosty: look at Uncle Spike work; neat clean, beautifully colored; though, I have to admit that, at least, you have good ideas! lol Keep on..

Please Frosty, put some photos up there; I, for one, want to see those marvels! That, plus what I have seen from Uncle Spike, would make a good collection to get inspiration from!

Thanks a lot, everybody. All those terrific comments are what I was wishing for; challenge of the ideas, points to be careful with, better understanding of others' design, all to push me further through this very funny and creative moment of designing and building my own tools! 20 years in computer programming helped in finding different solutions for a problem but it's nothing like putting the hands in there. I will make sure to gather as much data as possible so that my experiments serve as many people as possible.

Arftist, I have looked again at my accelerator linkage and found out that both part of the movement, the up and the down parts, benefit from the acceleration; and they are right after the other with a very slow moving moment after the hit that is lasting almost half of the crankshaft rotation. On both side, there is also a very short stopping moment when the amount of movement is converted into energy (storage in the up part and release in the down part). And since the energy stored in your leaf spring is in direct relation with the speed of both movement, there would be a significant gain in the strength of the hit. On top, I beleive that it is possible to move the attachment point of the link on the frame so that it would produce higher or lower acceleration thus lighter / stronger hit at the end. I'll work on that. And since my shop is quite small, I will work on a version that will use half length leaf spring and place the motor between the support column and the anvil one; I have seen one like that so I know it's feasable. By the way, it's true that the shock absorber eats energy, that's the only reason they exist, but it would have been only AFTER the hit that it would have happen.

So, you say that the spring, in fact, continue to swing once the crankshaft has past his bottom end thus releasing its stored energy into the hammer! I think I understand the idea. And, in this case, you don't even want the accelerator linkage I have tried because the slowed up movement (it takes 3/4 of a turn to move up) would not store the energy you want to release later. Is the $500 bucks still a valid number?

On anvilfire? Yes. It's a quite neat version of the leaf spring principle. Do you know any specific for it? Like: how much is the spring compressed when the hammer hits? I guess that it needs to be compressed at rest when at the bottom of the crankshaft rotation otherwise there would not be a powerful hit; am I wrong?

Larry, did you noticed any change in the rebound of your anvil since you have put it in your sand box (maybe you haven't try it any other way before!) ? I am afraid the sand could absorb some of the energy of the hit?

Bentiron, you are true! There some pretty nice ideas ther too. I liked the neatness of the off-axis wheel that turns inside what looks like a large bearing housing; probably balls between the two. I have also seen a wheel at the bottom of what is probably and height adjusting screw; I wonder how large and long a bolt and its nut would have to be to be capable of handling the bang of a 50kg hammer hitting it at speed! I like the idea of being able to vary the distance between the top and botton for different applications.

Following this comment on the usage of spring, I began to think that there could be other ways of achieving acceleration of the hammer. More so because a cranckshaft is at its lower vertical speed around top and bottom dead center. So, in reality all the movement between 11 and 1 and 5 and 7 (on a clock) generates almost no vertical movement to something attached vertically to it like my shock absorber. So I went to the drawing board and began to play with geometry. When something came out, I tried it with my son's mecanno toy. I have attached 2 photographs: one shows the upper position of the accelaration arm and the other, the lower one. Now, if you compare the position of the small wheel (which represent the cranckshaft) in the two photos, you can note that all the vertical down movement is done within 1/4 of a turn, compare to normally 1/2. This means that the speed has been, at least, doubled. The accelarator arm could be replaced by a leaf spring as long as it is attached to the frame via a link, not directly as what is usually seen. The lenght of that link must be greater than the diameter of the crankshaft. The way I plan to try this out is with the shock attached to the end of the accelerator arm, the shock acting as a compensation device for the difference in thickness of the iron piece as it is being beaten by the hammer.

Startup! I am at the start line. I should buy my anvil today or tomorrow and I will have to build my working table. I am also discussing, on the power hammer forum, a design of mine and, yes, people are great here and ready to share their knowledge. Now, if the rest of the world could see that we can all talk, discuss and beat only on the iron!!! We prove that a very fine world is absolutly possible when people are acting in good faith and good will! Have a beer for me, would you!! lol

Dale: Very interesting ideas in your hammer; takes more space than I can afford but there has been some clever thinking put in that machine. Thanks for your post.

Thomas: I get the picture! Thanks (lol) Chris: that might be the reason why I would HAVE to keep the oil; it slows down the piston inside the reservoir and makes the top out or bottoming less of a concern! As for the capacity to sustain heay load, I remember that, once, by error, I went airborne for a 50 feet high drop from a cliff and the shock has handled it very cleanly! Motocross are very sturdy. But, I'll watch in case; your experience, here, is telling me to be careful I haven't yet been able to make up an intelligent serie of words with TUP; can you help me on that too?

Refreshing! I love the way you look at the possibilities that steel is giving you; very artistic. It inspires me to look and think differently. Thanks for that gift

The idea I had behind the usage of the spring was not to act as an energy storage device but rather as a way, for the system, to live with the difference in thickness of the beaten steel rod being hammered; then, compression damping was a way to counter the bouncing of the spring and, thus, leave as much energy as possible to hit the steel part. I see that I was using only one of the possiblities it gives me. Chris: if I understand your idea, you would want no damping at all. That way, the spring would be compressed at the end of the up stroke by the weight of the parts underneath and would have to rebound while the crankshaft is going downward, speeding up the hammer. Very interesting. I believe that, if it's light enough to compress at the top of the up stroke, it will be able to extend only at the end of the downward one; but, that's perfect because, anyway, since this part of the movement has the least amount of vertical speed (the crankshaft direction is almost horizontal), that could help keep the speed of the hammer at its maximum. I have a completly worn out shock with liter spring gauge and that's the one I'll start with! dablacksmith: a clutch! The donator motor has one that could be used; but I think that the electric motor mounted on a spring loaded plate (a la mini-power hammer on youtube) would be easier to construct and maintain... but I am interested in understanding why a foot control for a sewing machine would not work, if you have the explanation. I will research anyway because there are multiple places where I would want to use that type of control Thanks, both ofd you, for your input. I knew I could count on people here!

Hi I have looked at many homemade power hammers and I came out with something from my own salvage yard. But before getting deep into the fabrication of this little monster, I have decided to submit my design to all this wonderful experience that lies around here. (experience doesn't lie, does it????) As you can see on the drawing, I am planning to use a motorcycle shock absorber; the one I would use comes from an old motocross racer of the early '70s, when the suspension was mostly done by your arms and legs! Compression damping on these should insure a good hit while the spring would make sure that the shock is back in its full length before the next cycle. If I find one with adjustable compression damping on an outside body (yes, it exist) that does not cost too much, then I could even adjust the force of the impact. As for speed, I guess that a pedal, as the ones used on sewing machines, should be able to control the electric motor. I also want the hammer stem to move between a set of bearings to get a free movement and keep as much impact speed as possible. For the crankshaft part, I think I could mate a disclosed part from my racer to the eye of the shock mount with either a needle bearing or a bronze bushing with a grease nipple at the end of the shaft. According to your experience, where could that design fail? (Yep, you can beat on this one!) Thanks, everybody.

Wow! Great looking tool! Now, anybody would have a couple of grand to help me buy this baby? Please?

Before looking at those videos, I was not too keen about using some sort of power hammer, mainly because of the noise level; now I know why I NEED one: it took so little time to do the rough work while the fancy thing is left to hand work. What's the brand of your's, Jose, it really doesn't sound too harsh on the eardrums!

I looked at the properties of iron wood and it's very intersting: density up to 1.5 times that of oak. They say that you need very hard and sharp tools to work on it; nails and screws will be hard to get in; use glue instead; does not deteriorate when in contact with water (used on boat). And the price is about the same as oak. It is highly recommended to wear a mask if you want to work with it! It is also possible to have it in presswood type of panel (but I don't think it's useful for us). GrandLordKhorne, did you noticed any change in the ring and rebound capability of your anvil?