beaudry

My 100# Little Giant runs on a 5 hp 1750 rpm 220v single phase motor. My guess is that 3 hp wouldn't be enough to run a 100# . Let's see a picture of your Ajax.

It looks like a stout hammer. Is it yours ? What is the linkage between the ram and the ends of the leaf springs ? Steel links or some kind of straps ?

I paid $5,000 for a #7 hammer 10 or 12 years ago , another $2,000 to ship it all the way across the country and unload it , and another $5,000 to get it set up on a proper foundation, new dies, rollers, single phase motor , jack shaft and belts , magnetic switch etc. Well worth it if you have a need for a hammer that size and the ability to handle lots of heavy stuff safely. PM me if you get it and I'll send you a copy of the factory literature.

It's a Beaudry motor driven hammer with integral clutch. The motor driven hammers are pretty rare and worth rebuilding if you get a hold of one. Great hammers. Looks like the twin brother to my #7 [200 lb]

Best way is to draw it up full size in plan view with the stock you are using to see what will work. You can mock up the swing with a couple of sticks cut to the actual width of the gates with a pivot point at the centerline of the hinge pin. Give yourself some adjustability in the design. Don't forget to factor in any joinery details like collars or headed off tenons or the latch that may make the gate wider in spots. If it swings freely and functions like it should then it will look right as well. Give things a little slack to compensate for some sag over time. Make sure that the supporting structure of the opening is adequate to support the weight of the gate without sagging or distorting This is one of those jobs that really benefits from some careful layout and planning.

Looks like a useful anvil at a decent price. Some people seem to prefer that shape for general work , even though it does't have a hardy hole, pritchel , heel or horn. If you stick with this and end up getting an English pattern or double horn anvil as your main shop anvil, that one would make great floor anvil for upsetting long bars. Doe's anyone know how they were used as a sawyers anvil ?

I have a 500 gallon tank that is plumbed into the shop that runs three different gas forges and a big oxy/ propane rosebud torch. The torch is supported by two 250 cubic ft. O2 tanks manifolded together. This gives me the best price and avoids the time and hassle of running to town to fill smaller tanks. The local gas company comes out and fills it about twice a year

Does anybody know what would be the advantage of a vise where the back jaw moves back by turning the handle ?[ like this one does] It seems that it would be much less useful in not being able to put a long piece vertically without hitting the bench. There was some´discussion on these vises over on the vise thread at garagejournal and it was suggested that these were useful in confined spaces where there wasn't room for a conventional forward opening vise, like in a submarine. Cool vise regardless, I want one! Is the thread on the screw a reverse thread ?

We all like gas forges because you gan get a long even heat on whatever will fit in the firebox. Has anyone successfully built a gas forge specifically designed for a short intense heat in the middle of a bar ? This is probably one of those applications where an induction forge would really be the ticket.

A coal or coke forge is easier to control to get a localized heat in the middle of a bar. There's less time wasted cooling the rest of the bar from the long heat of a gas forge. Upsetting works best with a high heat, more so than for drawing. For short localized heats, I find that a big oxy fuel cutting tip [ #2 or 3 ] works better than a rose bud and consumes a lot less gas and gives better control. Having your torch run through Gas Saver is much more efficient and will pay for itself quickly in gas savings and reduced frustration. Good ones are made by Smith or Victor These are a shut off valve installed inline between the tank regulators and the torch. The torch is connected to the gas saver on the outlet side by a pair of short flexible hose whips. They have a pilot light built in . Set the mix on the torch, heat the part , hang the torch up on the hook which shuts it off, do the work , pick the torch up again , light on the pilot and reheat as needed. Once the mix is set on the torch there is no time wasted adjusting the knobs or shutting the torch off and setting it down while the part cools. These are designed for different fuel gasses and also work well with a brazing torch or an oxy propane rosebud tip up to a #10 for larger heating jobs. These are well worth the money. Fabricate a stable stand for it so you can bring it close to the work. A decent welding supplier will usually have them in stock and can make up the short hose whips .

Don't grind on it, Just strip the paint off if you want and oil it. Using it will smooth it out . You can actually peen that one edge back cold with a hammer . The tip of the horn and any dings can be dressed with a hammer as well The hard face plates on those old english anvils are usually pretty thin [ maybe 3/8'' or so ] Mount it solidly to a base anchored into the floor with the top about wrist height and you are good to go. I like to have a solid timber base slightly smaller that the length of the footprint of the anvil. Orient the grain of the block vertically. This can be one solid piece or built up from smaller timbers. Through bolt two pieces of heavy flat bar [ 1/2' x 6'' maybe ] on each side of the block with the top 1'' of the edge of the flat bar pinching the feet of the anvil. This will hold it really tight to the block and kill the ring at the same time. Loosen the bolts to remove or reorient the anvil on the block. If you are lucky enough to have a dirt floor in your smithy, cut the block long enough to bury it about two feet deep . Pour a couple of inches of concrete in the bottom of the hole , set the block in and fill the hole around the block with more concrete . Bring the last few inches up to finish grade with dirt. If you have a concrete floor, make a base for the block with some angle iron and anchor it into the floor with concrete anchors drilled into the slab. Lead lag shields will enable you to unbolt it and move the block around if you change your mind or need to get it out of the way. With this method you can stand right up next to the anvil in any position for the most effective stance. Having an anvil mounted solidly so that it doesn't move at all will mean that every hammer blow goes into the work instead of pushing the anvil around. Mocking up the location and height and orientation of the anvil will help you get it right the first time.

It looks English, maybe a Peter Wright . The numbers is the weight marked in the old hundredweight system ; First 1=112 lbs [ one hundredweight ] second 1= 1/4 hundredweight = 28 lbs last number =21 lbs for a total of 161 lbs , pretty close to your scale weight of 155 lb good anvil in decent shape at a good price

How does it hold up with the sideways twisting torque that is common with scroll tongs ? I'm assuming that unless the parent stock can fit through the hinge mortise both the working end as well as the reins have to be shaped after the two pieces are assembled Is there some advantage with a joint like that ?

In the US, try Alaska Copper and Brass in Seattle , Portland or San Diego or Atlas Metals in Denver. For small quantities in limited alloys try onlinemetals. For forging, best to use silicon bronze or naval bronze . Naval bronze in my experience is easier to forge with a slightly wider range of forging temperatures. Also quite a bit cheaper . Silicon bronze is a bit redder in color, but they both look about the same with age or a darkening patina. Be prepared for some expensive mistakes if you forge it hot . Temperature is really critical with the material falling to pieces above an orange heat , but it moves easily at orange all the way down to black heat. It shows tool and hammer work beautifully and is great for carving and stamping with hot work chisels. I make all my hot work chisels and gouges with thin sharp edges or narrow profiles from S-1 , forged at yellow and allowed to cool in air. The bronzes weld well with Mig with a HE-Argon- Co2 mix and a fair amount of preheat . Also can be Tigged with He. or gas welded with bronze rod. I just finished up the last bit of a 4' x 8' sheet of 1/4'' Naval Bronze plate that I bought about 15 years ago for about $1,200 . Probably double that now. Free machining leaded yellow brass is less expensive and is noticeably easier to file ,saw, drill or machine than the bronzes but difficult to weld. I doubt that it is forgeable because of the lead and high zinc content.

I have a 7'' Columbian post vise that was obviously dropped forged. Your vise still has the parting line from the drop forging dies clearly visible running vertically down the centerline of the front and back jaws. They are stout vises for their size and seem of more recent manufacture than a lot of other vises by other makers. One common feature of the Columbian post vises that I have seen besides the short back end of the screw box is the U-bolt that holds the spring and the back leg to the mounting plate. This is different than the tapered wedges and mortised mounting plate usually found on most other vises. This seems like a much stronger mounting system and I have retrofitted most of the vises in my shop with mounts of this type. Easy to do with a piece of angle iron and some round bar threaded on each end.

Great vise and a steal of a price. Big American made heavy machinist vises are getting hard to find. A vise is only as good as it's mounting. Hopefully you have or will make a solid bench to bolt it to that will enable you to use it to it's full capacity.

Nice hammer. Keep us updated on the rebuild. You probably know this already but you want to cut that top die key off flush with the ram once it gets finally fitted , so it doesn't bugger up the guide when it comes powering up to the top of its stroke. A lot of those hammers have damage to the underside of the bell housing from a long die key hitting the guide. I put a punch march on the top of the key when it's fully set sight so I can get a quick visual to see if it's starting to work loose. A thick copper shim on top of the key in the dovetail made all the difference in keeping the die and key solidly in place. Mine has a short locating pin between the bottom of the upper dovetail in the ram and the top of the upper die to keep it centered. Does yours ?

Putting it on a piece of plywood is a waste of time. Get real about this and try and do it right the first time. Draw the footprint of the hammer on a piece of plywood . Indicate the dies and their orientation on the template. Set the template on the shop floor and move it around until you find the right location where you can work a bar both straight in through the dies as well as across the length of the dies. Do this with the longest bar you can imagine handling [ probably no more than ten feet . ] Work out an efficient path from the forge to the hammer , with maybe a stop in the middle for a secondary operation on the anvil, like straightening. Do the same mockup with the anvil and the vise. Take your time. This will probably indicate a work area about 12' by 12' ,maybe a little more. Think efficient work flow from forge to hammer to anvil or vise. Repeat. If you do big architectural pieces like railings and gates you might want spread it out a bit. If you make knives and small items you could tighten it up a bit. Pour a substancial footing for the hammer [ 2' deep at least ?] Keep all the concrete below grade if you are committed to staying with a dirt floor. Fasten the anvil solidly at the proper height to a solid timber set vertically in concrete . Mount the post vise to a solid bench or post anchored to a wall and or into the floor. Dont't waste your time and energy chasing an anvil around the shop or in a vise that moves with every hit. The human body only has a limited amount of power. Mount your basic tools solidly to make the most of it. Mocking it up and playing with the space will usually indicate the best and most efficient setup. Usually there really is only one way that works with the space you have. With a dirt floor you can dig it up to run power or air or water lines in the future. Rake it flat and smooth every week or so.

Vactra 2 way oil is designed for heavy pressure and slow speeds [lathe and milling machine beds for example ] Works great for most open flow through type bearings commonly found on mechanical power hammers . It's relatively cheap and is available in gallons or 5 gallon pails from most industrial supply houses. Not as sticky as bar oil so it doesn't hold the grit and dirt . Use lots, to keep things running smoothly and flush out the dirt. Oil is always cheaper than parts or downtime. If the hammer has grease fittings or grease cups use a light grease suitable for heavy loads, slow speeds .

Pour a separate foundation block for the hammer. Put the top of it level with the future floor height if you think you will eventually pour a slab. The hammer will hit harder and with more control if it's bolted to a heavy foundation block. Bury a heavy wood block even with the floor where your heel rests when you work the treadle . A dirt floor is great to have in a blacksmith shop. Easier on your body, easier to pick up dropped hot pieces and sparks and hot cutoffs don't fly in all directions. There are lot's of pictures of big industrial shops with dirt floors. I've had a dirt floor in my forge shop for 25 years and love it. The machine shop has a concrete slab and the wood shop has a wood floor

The wood blocks I have embedded in the floor are flush or just below the grade of my dirt floor. They measure about 2'' x 12'' x 15'' and are lagged into the top of the concrete foundation block which is 2'' below grade. The only purpose of these blocks is to provide a solid consistent surface in a otherwise soft floor, not raise my foot in any way . With a flat concrete or wood floor around the hammer I would not need these blocks. The flat part of the lowered treadle is about 3'' by 12'' so there are various options to where I can push down with my toe while the heel is always firmly planted on the floor [ or block in my case ] Most work is done straight in to the hammer, but just like working around an anvil at various angles with a hand hammer, I tend to work around the the power hammer die as the shape develops . Being able to move side to side while working a piece, and still standing solidly on both feet seems much safer, easier on my body and allows me better control of the hammer. This is most apparent in handling heavy and/or long pieces. I often find it easiest in using hand held top tools to lay the work across the length of the die and bring the tool in from the front . This gives me the clearest visibility of the set up and position of the tool relative to the work . I also find that it works much better to finish long smooth tapers in solid or hollow pieces with the work laid almost corner to corner on large flat dies. Notice the use of such terms as usually, often , works best in my case, for my application , with my hammer etc. etc.

I was going to put this in the ''How big a hammer thread'' but thought it might get lost and distract from that interesting and worthwhile discussion. It seems that a big part of how much control a power hammer has [ either air or mechanical ] is often a factor of how well the foot treadle is designed. My hammers have all been raised from 4'' -6'' on timber riser blocks with the hammer secured with heavy bolts passing through the riser into the concrete foundation. This raises the dies to a much more comfortable height [ for me ] and I think the hammer benefits from a slight cushion between the frame and anvil and the concrete foundation block. I built these riser blocks from glued and through bolted pressure treated douglas fir glulam beams. The riser block is cut in the same shape as the footprint of the hammer at the front business end and is banded with 1/8'' steel flat bar to protect the wood. The wood sticks out about an inch beyond the footprint of the frame. All this means is that factory treadle is too high, so I welded short extensions bars down a few inches and welded a flat bar section curved to follow the shape of the treadle to act as a foot pedal. This extends around to the front and side of the hammer so I can work either direction, across the width or along the length of the dies. I designed and built this modification to the treadle , so that when the treadle is full down the hammers is at full sped and power. To operate the hammer, I stand comfortably upright on both feet with my right foot forward and the heel solidly on the ground while I operate the treadle with the toe of my boot. This means I am always in a solid stance and can concentrate on the work at hand instead of trying to stay in balance while standing on one leg. By operating the treadle with my toe, I can lengthen my stance to get back a bit to handle long bars and still be comfortably in balance. To back off on the speed or power or stop the blow , I just have to lift my toe while still standing on both feet . Since my forge shop has dirt floor, I found it necessary to solidly bed a timber block at grade at the locations where my heel rests so that there is a consistent height and feel. Before I did this my heel would slowly grind a depression in the floor so that I was having to constantly adjust my stance. I've seen hammers set up with a number of different ways to operate the treadle, but this one works best for me. I'm curious how other people have set their treadles up and how it works or not .

Alan, thanks for your reply clarifying the power available at the top end of the stroke of an air hammer. Really love seeing pictures of your work by the way and your valuable contributions to the forum. On an unrelated topic , are you using an acid based pickling paste to treat your stainless steel forgings and is it effective to preventing rusting on forged stainless work exposed to a damp climate ? Here in the US it's customary to use an proprietary acid based cleaning paste to keep rust from forming on the heat affected zones of welded stainless steel pieces but I am not sure of it's actual composition and if it would be effective on SS forgings . It's fairly hazardous to handle and must be thoroughly rinsed from the piece before being put in service. The increased expense of the base material and general extra challenge of doing anything with stainless must be offset by having reduced or no finishing or maintenance costs ?

nonjic I've heard that Massey did indeed make mechanical hammers. I would imagine that they filled the same niche they had in the US of a relatively lower cost machine that could run on less power in a rural or small town blacksmith shop. Do you have any pictures from the Massey archives to share ? Do you know if many Massey hammers [ pneumatic or mechanical ] were imported to North America ?

Mostly, the armchair BS are just opinions presented as fact. I've seen some fantastic artistic work done on air hammers and they seem to be the hammer of choice in production and industrial shops. One thing they seem to have that no mechanical hammer has, is the ability to upset a piece down from near the top of their stroke and then work it on edge with no change in setting. That seems to open up a wide range of possibilities to be able to bump up stock to fit the job and to get really radical changes in section. Am I right that they have the capacity to develop full power from the top of the stroke or is the travel speed of the ram integral to the power of the blow ? If I won the lottery, I'd have a shop with the room and the power to have a 300# Massey, Nazel or Chambersburg pneumatic, a 200# Beaudry motor driven mechanical and a 25# or 50 #Little Giant type hammer. I have the latter two already. It's unlikely I'll win the lottery, so in the meantime I try to get the very best performance from the machines I have and am always interested to learn more. I bet that 400# Beaudry listed up thread is a real pile driver.