DuEulear

Sorry eggwelder any time you burn anything you have left a carbon footprint. If you want to blacksmith without one you will need a large solar plant, an inverter, and an induction heater.

Thanks to all of you for the compliments

my good old stump finally outlived its usefulness as it was slightly too high and wobbeled so i decided to make a new stand out of 1/4 plate. I went with a european style sand filled box with a small modification ( i added a through hole in the base on 1 side just the right size to fit my floor jack so i can pick it up and move it when i need to. ). Ive only forged on it once so far but i seem to be getting more hit outa my peddinghaus than i used to and it dosent wiggle anymore. Enjoy

My main forging hammer is made of S7 a friend of mine acted as a striker and we made it by hand . It is definitelt a pain to forge but the benifit is a extreamly durable hammer face in 5 years of use and newby abuse i have yet to mark the peen or hammer face . Home heat treating of s7 is a bit like baking cookies if all you have is a propane furnace or coal fire but doable. Plan on twice the time for forging and keep the part above curie point at all times as it can harden under your hammer. I would not bother with d2 as the heat treat is really a pain without that programible furnace we all want. enjoy

Thanks kubiak I have considered that setting up a Mobil coke forge for summer use as my floor layout also dose not allow for easy addition of the venting necessary but i hope to be moving this summer as i also have teenage girls sharing a room!!! so i was saving for that down payment and hobby shop improvements need to take a back burnner until we move the hammer was my one last bit of fun before the move so i'll cross my fingers on that polebarn on the new property.

1. with the heavy springs as it is adjusted right now it takes about 5 lbs of resistance to depress the treadle before it went down nice and easy just not back up. i am still trying to fine tune her to work the best she can 2. thanks for the advise on loosening the guide wheels i will have to try that as is i only have the compressed about 1/16" but the did seem a little tight i allready moved washers to fix a very minor alignment issue after welding but was unsure if taking pressure off the ram would allow for slop in the vertical movement of the ram. 3.I understand the difference between the power hammer and treadle hammer and have used both my tests where designed to see just how much work i could get done as i wanted to get an idea of just how hard i can hit with it. the only other treadle hammer i have used was all hollow tube construction and was not very impressive. The treadle hammer is what i could afford / house in my current space as i live in town with neighbors 30' to either side of my shop zoned residential and is still better than swinging a heavy hand sledge i intend to use the treadle hammer to begin exploring traditional joinery and chasing&repose also filling in when i have jobs that require a striker and well i was fresh out of apprentices. My next tool purchase is a new house in the country with acreage and a pole barn for a bigger shop space so i can have a coal fire (Been propane only for 5 yrsand getting sick of it) and a power hammer and the space for both. until then it is better to own a treadle hammer than not own one Thanks for your suggstions Du

Ok as promised here is my review of my My new clay Spencer Inline treadle hammer, after testing. I spent the day in the shop yesterday and finally had a chance to hit some hot metal with her. My wife won the naming contest and named it “Jenny” as according to her a female mule is called a Jenny and well she (the hammer not the wife) kicks like one. the plans where fairly well written and easy enough to follow that a fool like me with no fab experience could build this hammer the majority of the 6months spent on this project was spent acquiring major components and only 1.5 months of weekends where spent on actual assembly, I did not keep a time sheet but if I had to guess I spent around 150-200 hrs spent on construction. There are a few options in the plans my anvil ended up being a 6” round 370lb solid anvil, the hammer I opted for a 3” round solid as opposed to a 2.75” round solid this gave me a 80 lb ram vs 65lb , I also upgraded the base plate to ¾ From ½ inch plate. Total theoretical machine weight of 750lbs the rest of the parts used where to spec. my test yesterday was limited to flat plates only as I have built no other tooling just yet I used two pieces of 1045 1” round stock cut to 1” for comparison one was hit 3 times with my previous heavy hitter a 2.5 kg peddinghaus one hand sledge which is no fun to forge with for any length of time. The other was hit 3 times with Jenny between the hard plates which are 4x4x1” 4140 ht the results are as follows hand sledge was upset to .895 thousandths treadle hammer .810 thousandths This was a little less than I expected but I was experiencing problems with my treadle hammer as the plans listed 150lbs garage door extension springs which are cut in half and 3 halves are used to counterbalance the hammer, I had hoped the poor performance on the return of the hammer would improve with use. But I seems the listed springs are just not enough with the upgraded hammer weight so to get a full blow out of the hammer I had to lift the treadle the last half of the total stroke distance with my foot so I could then strike with a full blow this took some getting used to and is less than ideal. Later after some practice I could manage 10-15 blows in a 1 minute heat but it was not quite right. I ran a second test on a piece of 1018 1” sq scrap struck on the 1” side that was roughly 1.25 inches long to start I gave it 2 heats and 20 blows as fast as I could manage and reduced it to .580 from 1.010 not bad but lifting the treadle was starting to get to me. So I ran back to Homedepot as they sell one size larger spring rated at 160lbs . After dinner and I got back out and swapped out the springs with two halves from the stronger spring and one original this was enough to lift the hammer a little better but still not quite all the way up with tooling in place so I took it apart once more and changed out the last spring and was rewarded with a nice crisp rise of the hammer all the way to the top of the stroke. But as I live in the city with neighbors near and it was now midnight I had to call it quits if you are planning on building this design I would just go straight to the larger 160lb Springs if you are using a 3” round for your hammer if you stick with the 2 ¾ “ you can probably stick with the lighter 150”lb springs if so I have an extra set I can sell you at cost or a little less. Over all I am more than pleased with my new toy I am hoping I can do a little better without having to lift the treadle Monday I will be building drawing dies and a flat shelf die to fit the bottom die so I can get a ½ face blow to make tongs and will post results next weekend.

Ok so i ckeked the hardie hole on my 275lb peddinghaus and it is square within a 1/64th not bad in my opinion i think you might have got a bum anvil made on a monday or somthing

I also own a peddinghaus anvil purchased new through home depot as my first anvil 5 years ago has preformed perfectly I haven't noticed my hardir hole being out of square i'll have to check that in the morning

But i like my bent up handle it saya hey i am over a century old be nice to me lol. i was concidering adding a larger pedal but i just stuck to th abana plans figured i can change it later if it bugs me. Dont you want plenty of space for tooling and acceleration before impact?

The anvil is 6" round solid 36" thr ram is 3" solid i found them at my employer as usable drops but i had to learn to weld 4350 and 4140 (preheating and post heating the parts in 20degree weather was fun) But at .33 cents a pound i took what i could get Thanks for the compliments i'll update this post again when i finaly see what i can do with her but i need to clean up the mess in my shop first

I plan on feeding her a strady diet of hot iron with a little copper and brass for treats when she is being a good girl.

So i finally finished my new treadle hammer and i just had to show off because it is the first machine i have ever built from scratch, first welding/fab project, first major shop upgrade. And it only cost me $800 and 200hours of my time ????. i still need to build the hardplates, handle assembly, and bolt her in place but it works. thanks kubiack for your help on straightening the column i did end up cutting it almost compleatly apart. now the next question what to name her? never mind what to make with her first? what am i to do with my freetime now? ....... well i need sleep that is enough bragging for one night.

I keep a rare earth magnet about 2" round by1/2 thick in my first aid kit for steel in the eyebal emergency removal has come in handy dispite the safety specs on the plus side wraped in a ziplock bag an inside my first aid kit it is still strong enough to keep the kit stuck to anything iron lol

Thanks, Somehow i knew that would be the answer as the lazy way is never the right way i was just a little miffed when i discovered my error. the column is a 4x4 7ga tube i put a box level on it and it is still straight as an arrow pointing the wrong way. i am hoping that i can cut the base welds most of the way through on both sides leaving just a tack in the middle like a hinge and bend it to where i need it to be then re-weld it to the base. if it dosent move easily i will have to cut the upper braces free as well loosing almos all the work i did yesterday Grrrrr. but i know you are right thanks again

hello, i am writing this to see what you all think For the last several months i have been using my free time to build a clay Spencer inline treadle hammer ( the one that uses skate wheels for bearings.) yesterday i finally welded together the base anvil and column assembly i did my best when it comes to squaring everything up but with my limited welding skills i either warped it or missed squaring the column properly all the internal angles of the base column and anvil are square but the column in relation to the anvil appears to be 3/16" off the center-line to the right at the top of the anvil. this would be 3/8 at the total height of the 72" column. my anvil is a 6" round and is curved very slightly in the same axis( about 1/8 in three feet. the column is not square to the base correctly on the same side so i ether warped it or forgot to put my square on the side of the column MY question is this Looking at the design i can see where i may be able to line things up with the upper assembly's as i continue construction Is this a good idea or should i be considering cutting everything apart and starting over before i proceed? Any advice would be helpful. Thanks DuEulear

Ok so looking at what i can get for .30 Cents a pound my options are 8620 0r 1020 6" rd for the anvil and 4150 3" for the hammer is there any reason to avoid 4150 or 8620 0n the welding and fab front unless i am mistaken they should both be tough enough as they are fairly low to medium carbon i have rather limited stick welding expirence and an ac only buzzz box. i can purchase new stock for slightly more money but usable drops are cheaper. thanks for your help btw i am in michigan dave

hi am just a beginning blacksmith about 4 yrs exp making knives and other small work in my garage. any way i am planning on building my first treadle hammer this winter and i was wondering what alloys you all would recomend. i have clay spencers plans and i like the desighn for it's small footprint. important as my entire shop is 20x12 . any way the clay spencer plans just specify hot rolled steel for the hammer and anvil my question is hot rolled what? i work for a steel company that gives me a substantial discount (new stock at XXXX near the scrap price) so cost dose not scare me much. any way 1020 seems too soft a36 and 1045 are options or even 4140ht can get the high alloy stuff too but welding becomes a problem. let me know your thoughts Dave My first thought is that you need to read the ToS about language