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That would have been good idea. I'll remember that for my next power hammer. Since the seller of our new place just left yesterday I don't think it would have helped much.

I just got word from my customs broker that inspection only went as far as the X-ray. The container has been released. Now the freight forwarder will get the invoice for the inspection and they'll parcel that out among the people who had stuff in the container. Once I pay that bill by overnighting a money order or company check to North Carolina they will tell the warehouse its OK to release my cargo. The warehouse will then tell me how much they want for holding the box and loading it onto my truck for me and I'll pay that in cash when I go for the pickup. Then I open the box, measure the spacing on the mounting bolts and dig for the foundation. Maybe I'll turn it on a run it for just a few minutes before the foundation is ready.

The ship with my hammer on it docked a couple of days ago in Oakland. The next day I got an invoice from the freight forwarder for $156 to cover emptying the container, filing some paperwork, the port security charge, and rental on the trailer used to move the container. Since mine is such a small load, I paid minimum charges on all of it. The invoice also contained a pointer to a web site where I can track my package's progress through customs, then warehouse. The following day the web site was updated to show that my container is being held at customs for an X-ray inspection. So now I will need to pay for shipping to/from the X-ray machine in the port, and for the X-ray itself. These charges are pro-rated by either the weight or volume of my portion of it, and I'm sure there is a minimum charge there as well. No one can tell me when or how much yet. From there, after the X-ray, customs can release it or go for either a quick, or a full inspection. All inspection costs are borne by the owners of the cargo. Its all paid directly to the private companies that contract to do the work, not to customs. Meanwhile, the clock is ticking to return the empty container to the shipping company with rental charges on the container starting after a week. One thing I did not understand when I got a quote from the customs broker to handle my shipment for me is that he is only 1 of the people in the chain between the ship and my garage that I need to pay. There is the freight forwarder who gets the box from the ship to the warehouse, all of the people who will shuttle the container between the various inspection points, the inspectors, and finally the warehouse that will accept it and put it on my truck when this is all over. I knew enough to know that I didn't know so in my mind, I doubled the quote from the customs broker, and if things stop at the X-ray that should be enough. If this goes to a full blown empty the whole container and lay hands on every box in it, then it can get really costly.

Finally, should I go all out and get the hard hat too or is that overkill for what we're doing?

I want to make as sure as I can that my 12 year old is protected when using a power hammer. He is well trained in keeping goggles on all the time and i'll make sure he keeps them on with the face shield. I think that mesh might be good to protect from scale and not get scratched. The safety goggles would provide the eye protection. This would be to keep a small flying chunk from hitting his face. Would a logger helmet with ear protection built in make sense? Whatever he gets, I'm getting too so that I can drive home the message that safety gear is important, not just something that protective parents make kids do. We have already talked about how the power switch on the hammer does not go on until the safety gear is in place. Any suggestions for models that are comfortable, effective, and robust?

I have never done this, or worked on one of these hammers so give my opinion the appropriate weight. My guess is that you need to remove the head cover on the tup and tap the piston back down. You may want to loosen the bolts that hold the bottom seals in place so that you're not forcing things, and then re-tighten them after the piston comes through. James Johnson has some You Tube video showing how to remove and replace a piston that look like a great guide to the job.

In the US, I have bought custom sized belts from Industrial Abrasives in PA and been very pleased. Can someone explain the Klingspor issue?

Looking at the picture again, I think that's a Cummins engine, not a detroit.

My dad used to own a diesel repair shop and used to rebuild those things by the dozen for the Navy which used them in small boats as well as all of the trucks that used them. I used to rebuild the heads for them all the time when I worked there in the summers. They were a dead simple robust design. The long distance truckers liked them but the guys who pulled the heavier loads went for the Cummins or Cats.

Thanks for the help. We'll look around for coil springs to straighten and use. There is a 4WD shop near my work that might have a few laying around. We spent most of the conference in the teaching area where they had a 15kg Anyang set up and used that a lot. We saw that Nazel but were both kind of intimidated by it. Our hammer is due to arrive in a bit over a week so maybe by next spring we'll be brave enough to try the big boy toys.

Thanks for the advice. He's turning 12. He's got the basic metal moving skills already. He's made hooks, skewers, a BBQ fork, a wizard head, a few small lizards, and that one knife. He was able to get access to a power hammer at the CBA spring conference last year and since he's not a big kid that made a big difference for him and since he already had experience moving metal by hand he was able to put it to good use. I think he's likely to have his first few tries not be very good so I'm not sure if its worth adding the better steel, or if it makes sense to treat those first few ugly blades as good practice to learn and practice the hardening skills.

As my son's birthday approaches I've got a copy of Mr. Sell's book hidden in a closet for him. I'm not sure if I should be buying him some high carbon steel or letting him get the hang of shaping and forging on cheaper stock first. He has made 1 knife so far from mild steel for his grandfather's 80th birthday so he's got some learning still ahead of him and I don't know if he'd learn any better on something he could heat treat afterwards. What do people think?

I had my Hawkeye helve hammer mounted on a combination of a rubber vibration isolation pad with an inflatable vibration isolator on top of that and the hammer resting on the inflatable isolators. That did a great job of soaking up the vibration, but the hammer could dance around at least an inch back and forth as it ran. When the new hammer arrives I'm going to put in the big concrete block under it instead.

The compressibility of the air acts as a spring.

I have a similar setup on my milling machine. That one can be adjusted to spray a mist of coolant that evaporates and cools the work without leaving behind enough liquid to drip off of things. Instead of soap I use a mist cooling fluid which prevents the water from getting skanky in the bottle when I don't use all of it. It mixes at something like 1 oz per quart. I just looked it up, what I'm using is made by Kool Mist.

Gases tend to mix evenly by themselves. Otherwise we'd have a layer of argon or something on the floor instead of an athmosphere all mixed together. I would get a CO alarm. The thing about CO poisoning is you just get sleepy and stupid enough to not realize you need fresh air. Then you die.

I'm in the home stretch. All of the shipping and customs forms have been filed. I have a ship name and a schedule that I can follow. I even know that it was packed in a 40 ft reefer container. That part is a surprise. I guess that's where they found some cheap last minute space.

I built my gas forge as you suggested by using the kaowool, then an internal form for the castable. The castable I used wasn't really castable so much as rammable so I dropped crumbly bits of it into the gap between the form and the kaowool, then packed it solid with a stick. After drying I removed the internal form and painted the inside with ITC100. I was trying for good insulation from the kaowool and durability from the castable. The important thing for the castable is to let it dry as much as possible, then to heat it with the lowest fire you can until it really sets up.

I have had custom belts made by Industrial Abrasives in PA. Good quality, good prices, and quick delivery. They're family owned and on the 3rd generation.

The risk in using the dishwasher isn't to the sharpening stones. Its what could happen if you're not the one emptying the dishwasher after the cycle has run.

Cool about the web picture. I went to their site but couldn't find the webcam. I stuck to the 4140 for the dies. I figured I won't be getting them hot enough for H13 to matter and it will take a long time for me to wear out the normal steel. I just got a copy of the import form from the freight consolidator confirming that its going out Friday.

I sure hope I do. My import experience is limited to asking a travelling friend to bring me something back in their luggage and I can't even imagine the different ways that someone who's dishonest would rip off the newbie. I hired a customs broker because I figured that paying storage while I filled out form incorrectly 6 times before getting right would pay for anything the pro would charge. I will readily admit that I'm pretty fuzzy about how the hammer will get from the ship to the back of my truck and I hope the broker I hired will help me figure it out. 6 more days to ship!

I'm working with a local customs broker who has been very attentive and has not turned up anything fishy. This exporter has sold to other people here in the US who have not complained to me about a shipping scam so I think (hope) that I'll be OK on that score. I'll get notice at least 48 hours prior to the ship leaving via the ISF form and then my shipping broker says that 5 days prior to arrival I can expect to hear from the shipping broker on this end telling me where and when to pick up.

They may have found a better slot. I asked if the 26th was the real day or if they were giving themselves some room for error and they said its scheduled to ship on the 19th. I don't know how much that will impact the day that I get it since this will have it landing here right around Thanksgiving.

I guess the money must have cleared the bank. I just got the final confirmation paperwork with a ship date of October 26. That seems like a long time to get a box into a container and on a ship. I don't know if they're sandbagging or if it really does take that long. Assuming the dates are real, I'm looking at an early December delivery. One nice thing I noticed about ordering it on the stand is that it just needs to be plugged in and it will run. It comes with the motor starter and switch pre-wired and a box with start/stop/Estop buttons on a conduit stalk that's part of the stand.