mofokaye

These rails have trees growing through them, believe me, the government aren't worried. :D Once done it should have10ish inches of movement, and it'll also be height adjustable for working on larger stock. This is the plan anyway...

Mainline trains no longer use this system, and have a more typical flat bottomed rail held to the sleeper with spring pins like this '> However thanks to Dr. Beechings railway cuts in the 60's there are literally thousands of miles of abandoned railways in the UK... and subsequently MILLIONS of these rail chairs laying about. There may well be a profitable business here :D

The way the rail's held in place is quite clever, but possibly no good for my uses... So some future improvisation may be in order. I'll try and show as best I can, and failing this get some decent photos tomorrow. Here's the best picture I have: There's a U shaped spring that is hammered in behind the rail. This holds the rail in place whilst giving it a slight amount of movement to accommodate passing trains. For my purposes though I fear the rail may just bounce loose after a short period, but I'm sure I can come with something. As you appreciate, these rail chairs are just too good to pass up. I'll see how successful they are, and if all goes well maybe we can discuss me shipping you over some ;) As for a video, fear not, there shall definitely be one up once it's up and running! I believe there's already a link to a video from last year of just the crank running further up the thread :)

So, it's been over a year since I made any real progress on this thing due to a heavy workload, other life commitments, and spending 2 months in a darkened room with bleeding eyeballs. Y'know, usual. But, I'm back on it now, and determined to have this thing up and running shortly. So, this weeks progress: The anvil's done. Made out of some heavy channel, and lots of scrap round bar welded into it, it forms a formidable lump. No idea how effective it'll be, but it's the best I can manage at this time. Also you can see my use of these British rail chairs I mentioned earlier in the build, both bolted firmly in place, holding the rail track dies. And another shot of the front of the hammer Next I attached the helve to the frame, and installed the grease cups on the brass bearings Now to work on actually transmitting power to the helve. I'm looking at using a Bradley style rubber cushion design, but will be running some small scale experiments first. Lastly a look at the thing so far, apologies for the typical horrendous state of my tiny workshop.

Apparently, the smiths in that scene were the actual smiths from Weta Workshop who forged all the swords for that movie... Although in a fantasy tale involving talking trees, cave trolls and wizards, I'm inclined to assume those Elves are just far better smiths than mortal man.

Rammstein. That gets your hammer moving!

Yeah, if you look carefully those are two separate wheels on the back. One of them would be locked solid to the shaft, the other would just free turn. The belt would be part of a constantly turning line shaft, and to in turn the machine on, a mechanism was used to slide the belt onto the engaged pulley (Which is what you can see in the picture)... Hope that made sense, I'm not good at explaining things verbally... :)

Hard to justify even if the whole thing had cracked in half...

Yeah, at a quick glance I can tell that won't work well...

It'll be the classic slack belt clutch, the belts are just tightened at the moment so I could test the bearings, etc. The whole foot pedal assembly is next on my list of jobs :)

So, a few weeks later and the bearings are complete, with their own grease cups salvaged of some decaying quarrying equipment. The flywheel is now attached (Although slightly off balance, which is something I'll address next time I have a free moment) And the motor is bolted solidly into place. Much more to be done, but a brief test of the crank assembly can be seen here:

This is a very common form of rail over here in the UK, and for the largest part of our rail networks history, these cast iron rail chairs were the standard method of attaching the rails to the sleepers.... Subsequently, if you know where to look, there's millions of them! As for my intended use for them, it's a complete shot in the dark... But if it works it'll be a very quick way for me to swap dies. I made a solid forged crank simply due to the stresses I expect it to encounter, but one I could dismantle would make life a lot easier. Good luck!

Here's an old one for you guys. 1910 'Bradford Makers' treadle lathe. I took these pictures when I first got the thing, it's since been cleaned up and mounted with an electric motor, whilst the flywheel and treadle have been stored away safely. There's a few minor issues with the carriage, but nothing I can't sort out when I have the time, otherwise the thing's tip-top.

Following my previous attempt at building a helve hammer, shown here: ...I decided to stop buggering about, and do it properly. Here is my progress so far: The basic metal frame, and the hand forged crank shaft in what will roughly be it's eventual location. Shown in this picture is the dies, made from rail track, which will be held in 'rail chairs'. The crank shaft, finished on the lathe and polished. My job for later in the week will be making the bearings and mounting them in place. The monstrous 8-belt drive pulley. Wouldn't want this falling on my foot. Everything clamped roughly in place to give an idea of the final dimensions. Hopefully I'll be obtaining a solid lump of 16" square 12" thick plate, hacked from an old car crusher to use as the anvil mass. And the obligatory shot of my tiny messy workshop. Hopefully many more progress updates over the coming weeks and months!

Very good point, but doesn't sound anywhere near as fun I'll look into getting some babbit, I have plenty of other uses for the scrap copper! Thanks guys