CMS3900

Are you using forced air or naturally aspirated burners?

I have a 33 HS, and I love it. James Johnson is a great person to deal with, and promptly returns emails and phone calls. I even emailed him in the middle of the night one time, thinking he would answer the next day, and he emailed me back almost within the hour. The machine arrived in a nice steel framed, wood covered crate, and after basic setup was hammering in no time. The only issue I have had was that the tup would not retract, which was fixed by running a lighter oil in the machine. James and Bruce Beamish have worked with the factory to fix a lot of issues the machines have had in the past. The top die key no longer retracts into the machine, possibly causing a loose key to beat the machine up as the older Anyangs could, as well as Strikers and other Import hammers possibly could have. The HS (heavy series) hammers also have more stroke for top tooling. James runs all the hammers before he ships them in order to assure the customers hammer will work flawlessly out of the box. I went through mine anyway with a fine toothed comb before starting it, lubing all the points in the manual only to find he had already done so. I haven't run many hammers but I really like the control the Anyang has. I have a few mechanical hammers in my shop I am in the process of rebuilding, and selling them to put money toward a 165 HS Anyang has definitely been in the back of my mind after using the 33. The only con I can think of is price compared to a *used* comparable weight mechanical hammer, but my thoughts were when I purchase the Anyang was that it was turn key, new, and had a warranty, which offset the additional cost. On the flip side, if I had found a similar weight mechanical hammer that was 100% rebuilt, tuned in, and turn key it would be in the same price range. --Morgan

Welcome to IFI Caleb. When you get a chance, add your location to your profile so when you start asking questions folks will know where your at to assist better. Who knows, you might even live near a member on here!. It looks like your getting your shop together nicely. Fire prevention is always key so it's good to see the extinguisher. As for the forge, you might be able to modify it later to open on the end. There's a bunch of reading on here on forges, forge design, and materials.

Wood shavings and fire is always a concern so your on the right track being mindful of fire safety. Can doors be fitted to any of the run in sheds? The run in shed combo would give space for the mower and the motorcycle and room for other stuff. It would look pretty good with a lean-to off the front for smithing in the summer.

Sounds like your on the right track. Welcome to IFI!

Looks great!

No, not the 9" wheel, you need a 9" carbide saw blade like the other thread. (sarcasm in effect)

I, like Emower have been told by several blacksmiths in my area that IFI isn't worth my time. I disagree with them on most points; however I do feel there is room for improvement. The feeling I am getting from the last couple of posts in this thread is that "crumudgeons" feel people are turned off from the site because: There lazy and don't want to look, they can't take hard criticism, or they want to do something in easy mode when blacksmithing and its various disciplines are by default laborious. These type of people will come to the site regardless and dealing with them should be easy. Just don't answer them. I have been on a mess of technical forums that have the same issue as here. People sign up, post a question that's been beat to death without looking for the answer. If you don't answer them and a day later they post a bunch of new information they got off the forum and have more questions then you know at least they are trying to work the problem out themselves. This alleviates new people searching the forum for the first time only to find a snarky comment under every beaten to death topic, which turns them away from joining. I operate on forums with the guidelines I was taught as a kid. If I don't have something nice to say, I don't say anything at all. Everyday I see at least one snarky or sarcastic comment. Heck, in my first thread here I was basically called a idiot without anyone knowing what my skills or abilities were, which I have seen happen again to other folks. I have even warned a few new folks via PM that they were about to get it, and they did. Assumptions have no place on a forum where it is just as easy as asking a constructive question as it is to post something snarky. What's even easier is posting nothing at all. The second thing I would suggest is loosen up the restrictions for outside links. Myself, and other folks I have spoke with feel IFI acts within it's own microcosm, where any question can be BEST answered by information already on the forums. I feel sometimes there might be a thread on another forum, or a website, or someplace else on the web that explains the question in a manner the poster feels is better than information currently on IFI. Any technical community thrives through collaboration. A forum in itself is a collaboration of minds. I just ask that IFI could take a greater part in the collaboration of the community as a whole. No other forum I have ever been on has had such strict links policies. Overall IFI is a great forum, with a wealth of information, great patrons, and decent folks. I am happy to be able to utilize it, and give back where I can.

True but for what I want it to do, shrinking, shaping, louvering, it works well I suppose. I don't know too much about them but would like to learn more. A buddy of mine does land speed racing and has one, I think it's a P5, and the first time I saw it work I knew I needed one!

There was a thread on this a while back, here ya go.

That's a sweet hammer. One of the best clones I have seen actually. One of these days I would love to get a little pullmax.

Most people make a motor mount that bolts to the frame of the hammer. Search "REBUILT 50 lb. LITTLE GIANT POWER HAMMER SMOOTH OPERATION" on youtube, Its red, and shows a motor mount they added.

A lot of folks buy pattern welded billets like that to make knives, and by all accounts I have read the Alabama Damascus stuff is high quality. There are tons of knife makers out there who only do metal removal and don't even have a forge in their shop.

Check out the ring lord, sounds like you are looking for a resistance welder. Similar to the welders people use to make bandsaw blades. This would let you weld together rings of any shape.

Ok, JHCC is right, that most flintlock kits today use cast brass for the those parts, however sheet brass can be worked to create the shapes you want as well. As far as contacts I will PM you.

Timgunn said it here, as it was explained to me. A 110v HT oven takes longer to come to temperature due to the available maximum wattage, and over that time some of the heat transfers out of the oven and needs to be replaced, lengthening the cycle more. Coming to temp faster with a 220v creates marginal savings in allowing less time for heat to escape, but savings none the less.

Electric Heat treat ovens for heat treatment and tempering are in my opinion the only way to go. You know what the temperature is and you can soak at that specific temperature for the time needed as per a certain materials HT instruction. I also use my HT oven as my Kydex oven for molding sheaths and for various other projects. 220v is the preferred voltage because as you said, it uses less electric and will heat up faster. If you have issues with your gas forge post some pictures and maybe folks can help out.

Wallace Gusler, His work is a great source of inspiration for me. I think I have watched that about 100 times.

What type of hammer are you working on? Are you homebrewing a hammer? You mention a tire hammer, are you using any plans? Generally speaking when the hammer is at rest with the pivot at BDC, the toggle links should be almost perpendicular to the ram, with the inner ends of the links 1/2 to 3/4's of a inch lower than the outer ends, and the ram should have a gap between the dies. This gap is usually adjustable on most Dupont Linkage machines IE Duponts, Fairbanks, Little Giants, Mayers, and others by sliding the cross head up and down the pitman arm. This variable gap is there to allow the hammer to have a proper cycle when working various size stock. Spring pressure is based on the amount of force required to overcome the weight of the ram and leverage from the toggle arms pulling the links outward to lift the ram, and still having room to compress during the cycle. Spring rate is linear. The length of the toggle arms and links would be a function of both ram travel distance as well as room for spring compression, which is different for ever hammer.

I hope to see one of these machines in person this year, but it really shows where the future is going. https://youtu.be/L3CkzQQFZXs

That's a pretty neat setup. On a Bradley the crankshaft eccentric is adjustable, for setting your length of stroke. On your machine it looks like length of stroke is set by loosening that assembly at the top of the connecting rod and sliding it closer to, or further away, from the pivot point along that big shaft. Someone posted some European power hammers that had a similar sliding mechanism like that a while back.

Man, that's a cool hammer. So similar to a Bradley, but different. It's cool to see the different engineering approaches. Does it have a eccentric on the crankshaft like a Bradley, or is that what the adjustment at the top does?

Lots of different punches. Treadle Hammers do amazing punch work.

I think it looks great. Cool little EDC knife. The Zoolander reference is a +1 as well.

I think the VFD was required for making the three phase motor on the hammer run off single phase. Just like the grinders where they have a three phase motor (specifically for need of speed control) but operate them on single phase. I wonder too if he did get it sorted out.