teknition

The water on the anvil caused a small steam explosion. When you hit the hot steel against the water laying on the anvil, steam was created and momentarily trapped under the pressure of your hammer and the steel you were hitting. Since steam expands exponentially compared to the water, the result is a loud pop of steam.

Hi Mark, You have that spring pivot looking much better now, nice job May I suggest that on the hammer guide end you make a pipe sleeve for the bottom bolt like you did on top and use longer bolts with lock nuts on them so that the pipe sleeve can roll freely on the bolt to help reduce friction and wear from the spring sliding over the bolts. The more friction you engineer out of the design, the smoother and more efficiently your hammer will run. As far as using a gear reduction box on the hammer, I really can't say if thats a good idea or not. In my mind I think it would make tuning the ideal hammer speed harder. I think most guys that build a hammer are using pulley diameters to tune the hammer and by adding the gear box into the works, you are adding in another set of ratios to the mix. On the other hand, we all learn by trying different things, so give it a go and tell us how it works :cool: If the gear box has an oil fill and drain plug, I would think the lube would be 80/90 gear oil.

I know you said no "pyrometers" but would a non contact temp gun count as such? I kind of think of a pyrometr as a temp display with wires on it running to the forge. Over here Ive seen temp guns on sale for as little as 29.00, so in the US you could probably find the same thing for 15.00 I figure why worry about exacting color right away... get a temp gun, get the steel close to the color you think it should be then pull it out of the forge and shoot it with the temp gun... do that for a while and pretty soon youll be able to associate the color with the temp, and if not, you still have the temp gun to check it with.

Looks like you are going in the right direction Mark. I know exactly what you mean, one of the fastest ways to lighten your wallet is to go to a steel supplier and do some shopping Thats a nice little saw you picked up and im sure you will find it one of the more handy tools to have. A horizontal /verticle metal band saw is on my list of tools I "need" The splined end of the axle would make a dandy chunk of steel to forge some dies from if you forge and grind them to shape. You are doing a great job so far :cool: keep up the good work and be sure to post some progress pics, im sure there will be lots of interest in this thread once everyone sees it's here.

Looking good AM, keep up the good work. I really like the downswept blade as well. I'd love to see some pics when you get them finished.