stevomiller

Thomas, sorry for ribbing you, but I got schooled by my family on this one, I’m first gen born here in the states. My folks believe it or not didn’t drink beer at home, so Krug isn’t a German word I learned around the kitchen table (I am NOT fluent, I understand just what basic family conversations a kid would hear). However back on the other continent visiting I used our American common term Stein (which I knew ment stone but also figured it was correct for the tankard, one of those “lead, lead” type of words. I got an explanation pretty much matching what Wiki says, except he didn’t tell me any of the regional names such as Seidel from southern Germany, but hey they talk funny there anyways! My best friend growing up was from Bavaria, and when eating dinner there one night his dad kept asking in their dialect for “Krumbiren” (spic?). I didn’t know what he wanted, and he thought I was just daft. Ends up he wanted the potatoes, what my family called “Kartoffeln”, “Erdapfeln”or I think “ Erfel”(spic?) I heard from the older folks.

Check your PMs sent you a possible lead, would be a drive though. 4” vise and swage block for $130

Since that is definitely a German “tankard” we shall refer to it as a Krug, especially having a lid, and not a stein. My family will hand you a stone if you ask for a stein! Whatever you English wish to call it, we shall both agree to call it a nice find and good deal! ;-)

Been a long time since I’ve made these and it was under the nose of the guy teaching me smithing. Always had better luck with plain higher carbon (think W1/files) over other material. Left the material extremely hard, maybe 250* temper. Keep sharp edges they. Throw Sparks’s better. Last but only hearsay because I never tried it, I’ve had multiple smiths tell me that if you grow the grain a bit they throw better sparks (metal abraded off easier), of course it also weakens the parent stock so there would be a balancing act.

Holy Thread Necromancy Batman! I believe about 20 years ago Ed Fowler was doing the DamBrasscus thing, along with claims of all sorts of added performance. It fizzled and the truth was there was issues with the small steel wires absorbing detrimental elements and other problems. Looks cool, but best left to fittings etc and not blades, especially near the cutting edge.

I hate using that term, it’s amazing what these guys do, this shops in Cambodia. Big piece of shafting for an anvil, and multiple fixtures made by driving spikes into a large piece of timber to hold the axe head for finish work since they don’t have a vise. Hammers, chisels, drifts and a angle grinder (seems everyone has one these, the Nepalese kukri smiths wield them like a precision tool). Cambodian Smiths forging punched eye axe heads.

You will want a 1 to 2 hp motor for most belt grinders, a true 3/4 hp will get you going if not pushed to hard. Large shop wheel grinders, buffers (polishing lathes on your side of things), laudrymat size dryers and wash machines, an air compressor (perhaps find one the pump portion is dead, or the motor just needs new start capacitors), swimming pool and jacquzzi spa pump motors are 1.5 to 2hp usually. They tend to be nice sealed motors too that won’t short out from metal dust etc, and they are rated continuous duty. They replace pump with motor all the time. They are higher rpm, 3400-3800 rpm, just gear it down with pulleys. Best Steve

Being a millwright, you have the prerequisite skills, and access to equipment and probably left over materials, to fab a nice serviceable anvil. Id still keep looking for that great deal on a used one, or saving for a new one, but in the meantime make do! We have a great thread on Improvised Anvils, another fascetiously called High Tech anvils, and then there are other individual threads of individual fabricated anvils. If you can find some 4-5” square stock, minimum same length as cross section, you have a start. Same cross section but 10-20” long, stood on end so you work the small square face is a very efficient anvil. Id love to find a scrapped train axle, about 8” diameter and 4’ long. Put two 6” straight edges parallel and opposite each other, cut at a slope with an abrasive saw. You could cut it in half and make two, shape the second face with about 6” radius and use it for moving metal faster with a rounding hammer, then rotatable and work on your flat anvil to finish forge and true things up.

We all posted at the same time. If you are blowing the grate out that’s a LOT of air. The randomness of your air holes is no big deal, don’t sweat it. Since you have a lathe reduce the diameter of your motor pulley or make a larger diameter for your blower axle, you don’t need to immediately jump to a lower rpm motor. If your current motor pulley is 4” turn it down to 3” try again. At 2”, or half what it is now, then it will run the equivalent of the 1800 rpm with you’re current pulley set up. Is your fire pot/duck nest made of clay or packed ash? How deep is it? You want your fire at least as deep as the nest so your stock can slide straight through, plus some on top of that. How much depends on the stock size worked and what type of work you’re doing to it. Have you run a coal forge before, or is this your virgin voyage? If so, guys do you know if we have videos on the forum of managing a coal fire?

I can’t tell you exactly how much, there are so many factors in how you manage fire: how deep and wide you keep your fire, if you work your coal wet, turn your blower off between heats etc. The main thing tho to me isn’t just gobbling fuel, it’s burning up or overly scaling up your work, etc. I know this isn’t definitive, but any more air than is needed to heat your stock reasonably fast, in the appropriate sized fire, is too much air. Tha t means extra fuel consumed, extra scaling, possibly cooling your work with unconsumed air.

Glad you got it operating! 3400RPM is really humping, I’m going to guess the original motor was between 1200-1800: don’t know about original pulley ratios tho. Make sure you have a good blast gate or diverted to reduce the air flow, or a choke on the fan shroud inlet. Yes air pressure is important to get air up through the coals, but not that huge volume that sucker will provide. You will blow out the fire, or decarburize your work, and go through fuel at an alarming rate. Unfortunately the heavy wire mesh you used for a tuyere grate will probably burn through fairly quickly, I’ve had better luck with thicker plate with holes drilled/milled in it, or bars of material used to make a grate.

MC my experience with elk and deer hide is that the are more supple and tear resistant for a given weight, goat hide is as well. Kangaroo hide would probably be the pinnacle except for the extra seams needed. However as you said cost is steeper on most nonbovine leathers. Id probably use a tight weave of canvas if I were to ever make one, as nowadays textiles are far cheaper than leather. I bet pre industrial era that wasn’t the case, so the fire resistance of leather at a similar price probably made it the more common material.

The GENTILE ones are often like that, seaking attention and pleasures of this world. However xxxxxxxxxxxxx oxen eschew the lusts of the flesh and seeking attention from others. At least, that’s been my personal observation.

If I win the lottery I want a Bradley and a Beudry, I always thought they were built very robust and there linkages are unique compared to most mechanicals. They scratch my engineers itch.

ID, is the Azad exactly the same, or just the same maker as the Zomax? It’s hard to tell from the pictures I saw here and other places online, but it seemed like the Azad casting where the the hand crank axle enters is longer, maybe giving more support (or not, not knowing why it’s made that way). Thanks for the information on the Zomax that the DONT have bushings inside, etc. if the gears were tough enough it could be worth reworking them, but if the gearing isn’t quality there’s no use. Butcher it’s up to you what it’s worth. However for the prices folks sell them for today I’d really want to make sure they were 100% complete and with NO internal damage. If in good shape then I might justify it if I had the funds available. I’m guessing prices aren’t going to go down.

If the price was cheap I’d buy it and double up the gearing via jack shaft to get a bigger air blast. But at that price no no no thanks.

Just saw your post after all the time it’s been here. How big is it? Was/is it leather or oil cloth for the flexible portion? That’s awesome you are going to literally breathe new life into those! I spent one day at a forge that had a nice big double lung bellows, it was really fun to use, the valves would clack and make a kind of wheezing sound. When I had a big shop to work in I considered making a set but didn’t ever do it, always had something else with my attention.

Jen, how easy are blowers to find reasonably in your neck of the woods? I know here in California they aren’t particularly easy to find, and like so many areas now they want collector prices when you do. I don’t belong to the California BSA but maybe that would be the trick for folks to network outside of the “collector” circles. I don’t need one, I still have my smaller Champion, just commenting on prices I’ve seen lately. Especially Champion 400 out here are higher than Buffalos’, but then again many of the first type have their stands still, and I can honestly say I’ve never seen a Cannedy Otto out here for sale or even in someone’s shop. I wonder if they were more regional in distribution, or if it’s simply a numbers game of total number sold of that brand.

Sure looks like the 140, that’s a nice blower you’ve got, whatever model it is. And that was great catalog WPA shared, thank you. It appears Champion liked using cream separator handles on a couple models.

My understanding is that most of these are heat treated for maximum toughness with hard chrome surface treatment to provide a lubricious and long wearing surface. Sufyan, I hate to push off this answer, but you should be looking to industry trade journals and white papers for this information, as it is a very specific usage that is also affected by the exact alloy used, etc.

I’d have to cross reference it, don’t have my books here. You shou be able to Google it and find out. I don’t think there’s a reason not to try the EN16 you have now if the stock size is right. It should be a tough easy to heat treat steel.

Biggun, EN16 is a medium carbon steel (.4 C) with higher manganese (>1%) to make it deep harden, a bit of Silicon, and a bit of Moly added. It’s somewhere between 1040 and 4140 in performance. I don’t think we have a direct replacement in the US.

Myself, Out of those two I’d use the EN 16, it should handle impact better among other things. The O1 will make good cutting/engraving/scraping type tools, it is more abrasion resistant due to carbide formation from the higher carbon and tungsten in it.

Glenn, this isn’t the Old World Anvils you are probably thinking of, these are on EBay and Amazon for about $280, plus $80 shipping. To the OP, I doubt it’s forged as claimed but cast, they are made in China based on visual clues matching the Cougar brand sold. Its a crap shoot, I’ve owned 3 Chinese anvils and they were well hardened steel not cast iron, faces ground well, two had the horns finish ground, one didn’t (just like the one shown is left “as cast”). The castings can be very variable as well (one had a hardy hole that was not square and full of flash), and so can the heat treating. Two I had were identical models bought at same time 25 years ago, one was about 50RC, the other must have been close to 60RC. The little 66lb Italian pattern I bought off EBay a few months ago is very hard, rebounds a bearing 15” from 16” drop, I’m very happy with it. You can get a good one, or...... Not. Without a name brand to bank on, nor a real storefront, you MIGHT get stuck with something that’s not what you expected.

I’m with Moto, based on what we can see that sucker, I’d think, would make your forge look like an erupting volcano! Haveyou pulled the fan case apart and checked out the impellar? Old sheave on the impellar axle properly fixed n place and not slipping? Hows the tuyere and air grate? Is it occluded somehow? And the guys are right a crown can help belt tracking tremendously on the sheaves. If yours are not crowned, you can even put a couple wraps of tape in the center of them to test, and to be honest, I’ve run stuff for years with that rigged type of fix before the tape wore down.