Judson Yaggy

I was for a while.  Their magazine usually had an interesting article or two but seemed focused on big fab shops.

Been following and sympathizing.  If I wasn't on 60 hours a week Alex and I would come down for a weekend or 2 and help out.  Put up a building or 2 in my time and can run a tele handler in my sleep.  If you get in a serious pinch call me.  

3 hours ago, Cleave said:

This big chisel did make me wonder why old chisels and slicks have a socket and a wood handle rather than being forged from one piece

I split my professional life between timber framing and blacksmithing.  Once you hit a chisel with a mallet or hammer every day for 20 years you realize that the old timers knew what they were doing.  If an all metal woodworking chisel performed better they would have gone down that road.  

Wood handles, for timber framing, absorb impact that may be otherwise transferred to the holding hand, and are cheap and easy to replace.  I mush down the wood part of my framing chisels every 5 years or so, but the steel edge remains.  If I dressed an all steel woodworking chisel to remove dangerous mushrooming as often as I do my metalworking punches, slitters, and drifts the thing would be worn away within a year.  

Slicks are never struck, the wood is a cheap handle/lever.

On 12/2/2019 at 12:12 AM, S. Louque said:

What characteristics make an ideal striking surface?

Once you have an alloy that won't chip, then the best characteristics are mass, mass, and mass.  A 5" thick cast iron swage block is a better striking anvil than a 2" thick slab of steel be it mild or exotic alloy because of MASS!  Watch the videos carefully and you will see that the modern generic striking anvil jumps around no matter who built it or who is hitting it.  Anvil movement is serious inefficiency.  I suspect that us professional smiths could tell if we had a heavy well fastened anvil or a light loose one under the hammer with our eyes closed.  

Me too Arft, flipping thru POTP as I type.  If American I'd say a cross between a Star and a Scranton.  But I'm thinking British.

Thorkelsson, the Maritime Museum in Akranes has a nice Beche air hammer.   Apologies if you already knew that.    

The chain drive on the back end is not original.  

Including claimed alloy and claimed hardness would also be useful.  

The Accaciao anvil, while small and Chinese?, should also make the cut as a "real" anvil available retail.  

Frontstep Forge, Alberta Canada is having cast steel anvils made.  

If any NEB members haven't heard this already, here you go.  

Our old email list server, Yahoo Groups is discontinuing their service.  They have been a buggy, unsupported pain in the butt for a few years now so good riddance.  We have migrated the list to groups.io.  Most members have been automatically and seamlessly transitioned, but if you feel you have fallen thru the cracks google them and include the words NEB list in your search to find the path to join.  You do need to be a NEB member in good standing to join.  

If you have questions or concerns, contact your state representatives for help, info about state reps is on our website http://www.newenglandblacksmiths.org/contact-info/

So were the smaller Little Giants, but folks today try to use them for general use.  Any well made power hammer is better than no power hammer. 

@Kozzy the tag looks like it says "1993"?  Assuming that was the date of donation, might want to tell the museum it *wasn't* made in 1993!

Mine's the 65# but the basics are the same.  Come on over.  Send me a pm.

My Fontanini (Rat Hole) came moderately magnetic, I intended to degaus as described above but never got around to it.  Hammered on it hard for 5 years or so and it's not so bad now.  It was kind of fun knowing when my workpiece cooled thru the Curie Point.  

17 hours ago, David Kahn said:

Do you just torch heat the steel wrap on one of the links to open it and/or close it back up, or is there a trick? 

That's what I did.  But if there is enough slack in the chain you can fold it to 90 degrees and slide the links apart.  Around here we call it "gutter chain" or "elevator chain"  for manure cleaners and hay elevators and you can find it at agriculture equipment dealers. 

7 hours ago, Anachronist58 said:

As I have heard it is said in Vermont, "I would tap that".

We do say that here.  Started as a combination sexual innuendo/ nod to our most important industry, but as these things do the meaning of the vernacular has crept to encompass most things that we like.  Tapping an anvil could be trying to get sap out of it, AHEM that other activity, knocking gently upon it, putting a threaded hole in it, or just really liking it.  Ain't the living English language great?

On 10/27/2019 at 4:09 PM, David Kahn said:

and then have the correct female threads cut into an appropriately sized length of schedule 40 steel pipe,

Sch 40 doesnt have the wall thickness for machining threads, plus the weld will just p!%& off the machinist.  Get some bushing stock.  

Crickets from the peanut gallery!

10 hours ago, jlpservicesinc said:

and roof on before snow sets in ,things should work out timing wise.

Pretty traditional here in New England to set the roof during the first ice or snow storm of the year!

David, I have 2 #4 Fishers, and the threads are more complicated than the general consensus here believes. To my eye they have what looks like buttress rather than acme threads.  Additionally the direction of the butterss is reversed on the top and bottom screws.  Also, the diameter of the top screw is larger than the bottom screw, but they have the same lead.  Photos below are of one of mine, top screw first.  

If you replace one screw it is important that it have the same lead as the original or the "timing" chain will drive the two screws out of alignment and the vise will bind.  If yours is binding the first thing I would check is that the jaws are parallel and screws are indexed properly.  Pull off the chain and you can adjust each screw independently, then reinstall the chain.  

I'm an hour and a half from Lyme, but if you want to come over this way some time to look at mine, feel free to drop me a line.  

Youtube is not the best source of info.  

90% of knifemakers prefer a press.  Real blacksmiths can use either but find hammers more versatile.  Poke poke grin...  You can do serious work with either or preferably both.  Skills first, tools second.

Bar and chain, 30w non-detergant, ATF, whatever, just use lots.  

Agree.  Farrier's clinchers.  

Up the speed some and figure out how to get it to dwell with the tup up.  A little slow for a 100# mechanichal.  Probably an easy fix, swap out a pulley somewhere.  Good job with the mass, nice to see nothing jumping around or the camera shaking on impact.  

Mass of the anvil matters greatly.  Static load resistance to deflection, what h beams are engineered for, is different than resisting or returning the dynamic energy of an impact.  Concrete and steel react differently to the really exciting live loads we have here and don't couple well in a forging hammer.

Same is optimal, close is good enough.  The closer you are the less wobble the whole thing will have.  Many antique mechanicals had no provision for counterweight, they relied on over engineered adjacent parts or expected frequent replacements or just figured that if you bought a budget hammer you got what you paid for.  If you can't figure out how to build in a counterweight, at least bolt the hammer down to a solid concrete slab.  

3 hours ago, Irondragon Forge & Clay said:

I think the auger was used to drill holes for old post & beam wooden pins.

I disagree.  I've spent the last 25 years alternating between timber framing and blacksmithing, and have never seen a historic or modern drill bit that looks like that.  In addition, if you twisted that into a beam it would get stuck so hard you would never get it back.  

Swaping out both pulleys for A belts could be cheaper than mixing and matching vx pulleys and bushings.  No need to keep original diameters as long as drive and driven diameters yeild your desired RPM (as long as they fit in the frame and guards and the motor can handle it).  Some pulley bores and diameters are cheaper than others.  YMMV, good luck John.  

My littlest hammer is a #1 that I rebuilt.  What is it that you want to know?

It does not show in POTP.  Part of why I said it's rare.  Closest spring and frame casting style shown there (but not a perfect match) is the Iron Store Giant, made in Minnesota.  

Front end looks pretty crisp, the pitman especially.  Possibly could be "new" replacement parts, perhaps even the crank plate with another foundry's name.  Hard to say for sure untill someone else posts pics of another one!

If you are a full time pro you already know to stay on top of the oil and viscosity with local conditions.  If you are a weekend warrior, any oil will likely be fine on any Iowa winter day you happen to feel like working.  It doesn't often get cold enough there to worry.

FYI there are some pics of an Iron Store on one of the facebook powerhammer groups right now.  Different spring shape.