harrismetalsmith

Rob thanks for taking the time to measure your dies and post the pictures. That is how I am going to mount it when I pull the hammer to raise it. I see the 3" baseplate. Are the other plates under the hammer and anvil steel as well? Or are they a composite or timbers, hard to tell from the picture. Cool thing happened today. I got a call from my old boss who sold me my hammer. He has some old die material to get rid of.

I'm thinking that 5" to 5 1/2" was the original height. I took some known measurements from the machine , scaled them to some 2b pictures from original nazel literature, and those are the numbers I came up with.

Grant, thanks for the steel recomendation. I will see what I can come up with. You are right there isn't a loss of stroke right now. But because I set the machine and anvil for the dies that are in it, the anvil is set 3" higher to accomidate the short uper die. So the loss is in daylight between the bottom die and the bottom of the ram guide collar. Instead of 11" like it should be, it is closer to 8".

Dave you are always welcome at my shop. Just send me a email the day before.

Thanks for your responses guys. I will plan on having about 1/2" to 3/4" extra for wear. The bottom die is 6" so I was thinking maybe the top was as well. My hammer is a 2 piece. Unfortunately I didn't know better when I set the hammer, and I set it up for the current top die. What a mistake, because the top die I have is only 3" including the dovetail. I've lost 3" of stroke between the hammer and bottom die because of this. I also set the hammer too low for me. I worked at an industrial shop in Philly for a while and their 3B was set low for safety and all the men who worked there were short Italians. I'm 6'4" and my hammer is just too low. Soooooo..... because the hammer is too low and I've lost some stroke from the top die being too short. I've decided to raise the hammer and in the process replace the top die. My plan is to actualy mill a new matched pair. I have a copy of the Nazel Hammer Book, and other literature I got from Bob Bergman. But none of it talks about die height. They give die surface sizes, but no height. Kinda crazy. All the pictures do show the dies quite tall. Any sugestions on die steel? I can get some surplus 4140 from a friend of a friend cheap. Will that be a good steel?

I am wondering what the original die height is for a Nazel 2B. If anyone has a 2b please measure yours and post the height. I have a top die on mine that is way short. I want to make a new one. What is the height including the dovetail? Thanks in advance.

Monster, any word on what happened to that puppy? Thanks, from a Nazel owner and fan.

Very nice forms! :)

I personally don't like welding up anvils, unless that is the last resort. I grind out any chip sections and use the rounded out areas and the square parts as well. Just one opinion. I have a 250 lb. Fisher that is very chipped out but I still use it fine.

Here is the blower I have on the forge currently. Also a pic of the inside of the forge. The forge body is made from a piece of large pipe from the scrap yard 12" I.d. and 13" o.d. inside of the forge is aprox 9 1/2" I.d. as seen in the photo. I notice most of your forges have the blower at the bottom with 2, 90 degree elbows. Doesn't this create even more resitance for the blower to work against? I am wondering if I should put a gate valve on my current setup? I have never controlled the air flow. Maybe instead of not enough air, I have too much? Just wondering out loud, please feel free to give an opinion based upon your experience.

Thanks Dave. I think a good initial plan of action is to replace the blower and go from there. I may steel the one off the moon bounce my father in law bought for the kids. I'm not sure about the location of the burner. My chamber is totaly round, so creating a natural vortex, instead of fighting it seems more natural and logical. Also wondering about gas pressure. I've heard that ribbon burners use less gas, but do they need a higher pressure than is generated by my 100 lb. tank. Is the concept less volume at a higher pressure?

Ok guys, thanks for the input. I will post pics of my current setup next week. I didn't realize the paddle blade fans provide more pressure than the squirrel cage ones. Right now I am using a old Champion electric forge blower. I just don't think I'm getting enough from it right now. Territorial, I will take a look at the size of my supply pipe, I think its 2". Built this a while back, but I haven't used it much because its not working right. By the way, do you guys have a favorite angle or direction to angle your burner into the chamber? With my old style forced air forges I sent it in from the top angled for a vortex. With the ribbon burner I sent it straight in from the top. The inside chamber is aprox. 11" diameter. I'm thinking of going back to an angle with the ribbon style to create a more natural vortex. Right now the ribbon hits the bottom of the forge and rolls out evenly on both sides. Like I said earlier I will post pics next week.

Just read this entire thread, and I wanted to say good job! Keep it up, I hope you have it running soon. I have restored a few hammers, and I can honestly say there's nothing like using it after all that hard work. Really nice documentation on the restoration as well, invaluable information for others. :)

I built a large ribbon burner forge, Hammers Blow design. But I dont seem to be getting enough presure from the blower. If you have a ribbon burner forge, what do you use for a blower? CFM? Model? Suplier?

Congratulations! That's a beautiful machine. I bought a 55 ton Edwards about 4 years ago, don't know how I lived without it. What I love about an ironworker is it takes so much time out of some of the "dumb" fab stuf that I don't like to do. Time saved = better profit and more time to spend on more important stuf. That puppy will last you your lifetime, just do all the grease, lube stuf your manual says to do. :)

I bought this drill press off ebay yesterday for $300. Today we brought it to the shop and hooked it up to see it run. It is a beast! 2 h.p. OLD SCHOOL, 3 phase. The best part is it has a power feed on the quill. All of the speeds and gears work great. I am very excited, there are some good deals to be had out there right now, it seems. The vice in the photo was a temporary rig to test the machine. I have one question. The power feed runs in a contained gear box, filled with oil. What type? Heavy gear oil? I downloaded the original manual but it didn't say.

All of the original pitman arms I have seen were, cast bronze. The one on my #1 was all cracked up, with a bad repair as well. So I fabricated a new one out of mild steel with a bronze bushing. I posted an earlier post on this thread about this. Your friends hammer is probably the smaller one a #0, is actually a 35 lb. hammer. My #0 is my favorite trip hammer.

I have moved a bunch of machines. Including about 8 hammers. Stand it up. I like to use 2 chains with ratchet style load binders. Use them in an X pattern, either cross or pulling against one another. Use the chains around the waist part. Then I double strap it in another X pattern up high with heavy duty ratchet straps. Long planks or heavy plywood is good for equalizing he weight, and preventing bending an axle. when I talk about an X pattern, I mean your pulling from the corners. Alot of pro truckers stop after a few miles and check the binders again. Vibration from the road lossening stuff. Good luck!!

There is no need to pay for the patents! Go to My link In the search bar type the 2 patent numbers Francis gave, It will bring up a link that says "Title not available", click on that, then on the next page click on the PDF. Totaly free and legal. By the way I see nothing other than the spring style, that is the same as a Champion. Your hammer looks like it may have undergone a crule conversion. Watch out especialy for that pitman arm, it looks like a suspect repair has been done to it.

Very cool! Nicely forged.

That's a really nice demo series of photos. Thank you for taking the time to post them. What alloy bronze were you using? Looks like it can stand a much higher heat than what I've been using.

I researched and saved a llloooonnnnggggggg time before buying mine. I have an Edwards 55 ton. Paid $5800 3 years ago, NEW. I love it. Reasons I bought it. 1. Great machine for the money 2. American Made 3. Interchangeable backend tooling 4. 14" mid shear 5. Angle shear I would encourage you to buy the bigest and best your money can stretch to. When I first started looking, my budget was the same as yours. I soon realized that you get a much better machine when you break the $5500 to $6000. Having said all that, now is a great time to buy anything. Keep looking used, I just saw another 55 ton edwards go in the $4000 range used.

You can build a big fire in a little forge, and do big work. Just build a a BIG FIRE. My demo forge is 16" round, and I have heated 1" square to a white heat with it. The problem most people have is they don't heap enough extra coal around the fire. I'm talking 5" + high bank on both sides of the fire. The only problem I've had with your style forge is the blower is usually smaller. That will be your biggest hindrance in getting it really hot.

Also got some color on the iron, I use a sandable charcoal black primer (Krylon 1316). Just a dusting, then Scotchbrite hand pads are use to scuff down the rail to bring up highlights of the surface forging. Finally I use Minwax with a brown stain, to really bring warmth to the end project and complement the of the darkened bronze. Hope to install in a couple weeks, pics will follow.

:) The best setup is what you are talking about and the type Meyer has shown in his picture. :)