SJS

That is the toy I want to play with when I grow up... I have seen Chambersburg selfcontained hammers listed on machinery reseller lists before.. Bruce I think it is likely comparable to a 7 or 8B... I think I have seen them listed up to atleast to 2k fall weights;-) I don't trust my memory and neither should anyone else... but I think I remember seeing 10,000# selfcontained Chambersbergs... I want to have a summer camp for blacksmiths where I can forge anvils with them,

If your forge is undersized for the hybrid burner you could be exceeding the temp rating on your kao-wool. A standard 3/4" T-rex burner is good for about 500 Cu/inches, and a really good hybrid burner will burn hot enough to damage the Kao-wool. You also might not have used enough ITC100 to stabilize or rigidize the Kao-wool. Bubble Alumina is also a very nice high temp refactory that stands up to abuse and flux very well. Apparently a bunch of the guy making a lot of pattern welded steel have been switching to the bubble alumina because it stands up to the flux so much better...

Hoping Daniel and his brother are not swamped the whole summer... Really sounds like an excellent design, and I am looking forward to at least more info. if not parts and plans, or finished machines soon ;-) count me in too.

If you post some pics of your hammer's repairs we can offer some suggestions to get it working better. Billy Merritt, who I call the King of Junkyard Damascus! has a 25#LG that is tuned to scream and he puts out ton of Damascus a year...  Anvilfire.com still sells the Dave Manzer video, about tuning up your LG and getting the most out of it. Sid is also a great resource plus you could order stock parts and see if that fixes all the issues your having...

As for the potential to damage yourself... Nothing can replace good technique, and good judgment! An iron will, and a body of flesh and bone don't mix well in my experience. You are only young and invincible for a short time. When I was your age my favorite hammer was an 8# hand sledge, then in my late 30's after not forging very much I lite up my tendons with several 4-6 hour sessions with a 4# rounding hammer and a gasser loaded to the gills with stock. The tendonitis and carpal tunnel crippled me for nearly 6 months. Now I prefer a nice 2-2.5# hammer for almost everything. I also have arthritic changes in my hands, wrists, and shoulder, and those pesky tennis elbow tendons still get inflamed easily. It is surprisingly easy to give yourself a repetitive stress injury. Damage you don't heal up, doesn't get any easier to live with as you get old! On the contrary it gets more painful and testy. Take very good care of anything you want to keep, such as: your hands, your eyes, your hearing, your knees and your back. My old standby definition of Wisdom: is the ability to learn from someone else's mistakes without making them yourself. Sadly most people don't learn from their own mistakes, let alone someone else's. You want to be able to see and hear your children, and it is nice to be able to pick them up and hold them...

Nuge made an EXCELLENT call.  The induction heaters that Grant started importing and Larry (monstermetal) is handling still are a game changer.  Talk about nearly instant gratification;-)  It is definitely on the short list of major purchases, probably after Ken's KZ100 control package to get my lame Bull up and slapping again...  Heat and precise control of where and how much heat are the berries, but you will get spoiled, and limited to  a max of around 1" stock for most things.  But 1" stock is impressive enough for most things.

Another concern is anvil to tup ratio, if you don't have enough anvil to support a bigger ram, some of your increased energy from the bigger ram will be wasted bouncing the anvil and the hammer around. Good designs are balanced, look over at
http://www.anvilfire.com/power/power-hammer-building.php
the chambersburg anvil ratio chart is particularly useful. It is tempting to try to squeeze just a little more bang out of your budget and materials, but it is often disappointing, if not disastrous.