harrismetalsmith

Michael, this is not a great pic, I will take some detail shots later. As far as the price, $500 and some tooling in trade. Woody you have me beat by a long shot :-) I hope to beat you in the setup time :-0 My goal is to be hitting by the end of July. I can't start digging the foundation until late April, because of the size projects I have going on inside the shop right now it's not feasible.

Woody, that is one thing that makes moving these nice. You can disassemble the main pieces and you aren't picking up that much weight. I calculated the anvil without the sow block as around 5600 lbs. it is 20" diameter. Michael, when I get a chance I will photograph the treadle linkage. The piece on the trailer was some kind of industrial sized shop built, screw/ straightening press. From the same shop, to neat to leave for the scrapers. In front of that is the sow block :-) Man am I glad that is there, after watching you make yours. Hats off to you there, for persistence. Just want to give a shout out to my friend who bought out this shop, and rescued this beauty from the scrapers.

:) here's a couple of pictures from the unloading. My son, checking out the new hammer, as the future owner he wanted to be on site to supervise.

Michael, I have always enjoyed this thread, but now all of your installation notes and pictures are invaluable. My friend talked with one of the last guys to work in the blacksmith shop at the steel mill where this hammer came from. It was converted to air a while back, they had been running it on air for a long time. He also said that it had a full rebuild done on it 10 or 15 years ago. The piston appears very tight and well maintained, well see the real deal once I get it installed and powered up. I already dug a big foundation about 8 years ago when I installed the 2B, problem is my shop is located at an old historic ironworks. We dug 7 feet deep on that foundation and it was nothing but furnace slag all the way down. It caves in like crazy so we had to dig way oversized to get the bottom size right. Not looking forward to that part, but I'm gonna use it as an opportunity to put another jib crane in the hammer foundation, on the back side. I envy the pictures you posted with the crisp hole in the dirt. Oh well, the shop is in a neat location. We unloaded the hammer today, have to store it for now as the foundation will be about 2 months out. Also unloaded the compressor, a deutz diesel powered Atlas Copco, a bit smaller, only 60 cfm, I'm planning to add a huge reserve to use it to at least test the hammer. Maybe an upgrade will be in order after I get the hammer in place. Thanks again for all the great photos and info you have posted

Well, today my new workhorse came to the shop. Beautiful Niles Bement, from a closed steel mill in West Virginia. My buddy bought the blacksmith shop at auction, and i got the hammer from him. I'm calculating 680 lbs, for the ram and upper die, then another 80 for the piston rod, so it is in the 750 lb. range. Michael I'm glad that you have figured out how much air it takes to run a hammer this size. A 4 cylinder deutz diesel, Atlas Copco is part of the deal for me. Not sure of the hp on it yet, I guess it will take a good 250 or 500 gallon air reserve to run this puppy. The compressor comes tomorrow and we will unload it all then. How long have you run your Niles full tilt? And do you run out of air with your current setup? Speaking of setup, what size is your air reserve? Pretty psyched up about this. :-)

Michael, Thanks for sharing the Chambersburg information. Very nice. Is your Niles Bement stamped anywhere with the size? How do you know it's a 700 lb?

This is a pretty cool Niles Bement catalog http://books.google.com/books?id=6SxRAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA633&dq=Niles+bement+hammer&hl=en&sa=X&ei=vjhLUfKfL-e_0gGL-IGIDA&ved=0CDgQ6wEwAQ#v=onepage&q=Niles%20bement%20hammer&f=false

Do any of you guys have any original Niles or Chambersburg catalogs or owners manuals?

Here is some more good information from an old Nazel catalog I have. You can find me Matt Harris, on Facebook where I posted the entire catalog in my pictures.

Part No. 53 in this diagram is a leather packing ring, if that doesn't seal right the ram will not draw up into the housing. Also on the bottom of part 55, which is the inner ram guide there are cast iron piston type rings. And on the top of the ram where there is the flange there are cast iron rings. I was told when the hammers were new they did not have the cast iron rings, they were added later as the ram wore in the housing and caused air leakage. When I got my hammer it did not draw up as it should, was a combination of poorly fitting cast iron rings, and a leather seal that was shot. I also had to rebuild the valves to prevent air leaking around the valves. First thing I would try is the simplest, but still a lot of work. Remove the ram cylinder head, part no. 3, remove the ram, and replace the leather seal in the ram guide ring. Inspect for rings, and their fit, they should be no more than ten thousands, which is very sloppy actually. Replace the parts and see. One trick, while the ram is removed, use feeler gauges to check the tolerances on the valves, there are horizontal slots where the air comes from the piston to the ram. The valves are where it is at in my opinion. My hammer did not run right until I got them within one thousandth. I sent the valve sleeves, which are removable out to be professionally cylintricly ground. Then I blazed up the valves with bronze rods and precision turn, and lap in place. Through ABANA Bob Bergman has a great video on rebuilding these hammers and a great packet of information as well. Well worth the money IMO. Hope these pics help.

I am assuming you mean the ram. That is usually air leakage around the leather seal ring and the inner cast iron rings. If you mean the piston, then you probably have a problem with the crank shaft.

hahaha Nice picture

These are excellent videos, and a great resource on gas forge building. Thank you for sharing with the blacksmith community.

Bob, is that a Joppa glassworks, or a Pine Ridge ribbon burner? If so how do you like it? Nice forge, I am wondering how the doors hold up under high heat, for extended periods of time.

Don't we all need one :)

Michael, thanks for that info, that helps me to plan accordingly. John, no not as of yet. But i am on the hunt for something in the 300 to 400 class. I will have another hammer within 4 or 5 years. Good deals take patience. The Nazel is keeping me moving for now

Michael what size compressor are you running those big hammers on? Also do you have any recommendations for running a 300 or 400 pound Chambersburg hammer, as far as compressor size?

I used a piece of aluminum struck by a hammer to move some parts when rebuilding my Nazel. I personally wouldn't use a bottle jack, unless necessary, because you can't feel the pressure like you can by hand. Also soak the heck out of it for days with penetrating oils. You have probably done that, but keep it up. Just my thoughts.

Sam, I am not that far from you. If you want to get a good feel for them, come on up and run them for a while. I have a #0 and a #1. :)

Dave, I had a similar problem when replacing the leather in mine. I had it too tight and had to remove it and refit. It is amazing that leather can cause a 200+ lb. ram to be that slugish, but it can. The second fit was still tight but not as bad. I think the leather is why my ram stays parked in the up position. For the first time the other day I came into the shop and the ram was down. It will not wear in much over time. Mine is still tight after several hundred hours. I think the oil keeps it new. When I did my leather seal, I removed the upper ram cover, and raised the ram up, then dropped the ram back down into the leather. You can get a good feel for the fit and friction that way. I still had to use a mallet and a piece of aluminum to convince the ram to go down. I'm guessing you ran the motor with the piston bypass valve open, and the motor was not laboring? Just an easy double check that it's not an electrical issue.

"I was able to get a sketch (with measurements) from a 3B from a new friend from California. I've made some more mods to the one I made and am waiting for better weather to replace the leather seals (again) and put the new version of the cone in..." Was there a difference between the 2B and 3B cones, Dave?

$1500. That would be my offer on that hammer in that condition

I also have several dies that are custom made profiles for use under my power hammers. Sometimes they will curve to one side. I have been able to "tune" some of the curve out by sanding and filing the side of the die that is making the INSIDE diameter of the curve. Even if you can't see it there is more than likely more material on one side of the die. With any open die forging operation you will need to straighten it by hand. For silicon bronze i would straighten on a wood stump with a large wooden mallet. Hope that helps

Yes the depth in your first pictures looks about right to my taste. Looks like that clay was shot so you didn't loose anything. I used all my old broken bricks as filler.

I have the same exact Champion forge, but without the hood that you have. My blower is mounted separately from the forge, which allows for a larger ash dump area. I build Very Large fires, in a firepot I designed and fabricated. You will love that forge. I used firebrick to fill the forge body with clay troweled into the cracks and to smooth out the transition between the bricks and firepot. I would recommend using bricks to elevate the firepot as much as you can, it is a deep forge, and if you have the pot low you may have a hard time getting a fast heat in the middle of a bar. If you are only using it for the ends of bars that won't be an issue. Have fun, and don't count the blower out, take it apart, clean the contacts and brushes carefully and try it out. I have 4 blowers from that era, and 2 have the original motors. The one on my forge I converted to a new motor.