Judson Yaggy

That's a really rare hammer!  Blacker anvils less so but still somewhat uncommon, I've seen perhaps 6 in the last 25 years.  But that hammer is unique.  

Mechanical power hammer lube is generally a personal preference thing as long as you lube it every time you use it.  30w non-detergent, way oil, bar and chain oil, ATF, whatever as long as you use a good bit on every point every time you fire it up.  That includes on the slides/ram guides.  

Optimal guard on a mechanical is a heavy wire mesh or expanded metal surround of all the moving parts, and a flexible heavy duty containment on the springs themselves, think fire hose or big truck radiator hose cut to length and slipped over the springs.  The mesh lets you poke the buisness end of an oiler thru the guard to reach the lube points.  Sometimes you see a sheet metal guard that's hinged and latched so it can be opened to lube.  That's optimal, lots of folks "get away" with less.  

On 9/19/2019 at 5:24 PM, BillyBones said:

How much syrup does one get from 1320 taps? 

Highly variable.  Depends a huge amount on the weather, and to a lesser extent the health, size and location of the tree, and if you are running a vacuum pump.  Really rough average is 15 galons of sap per tap, then it takes between 35 and 45 gallons of sap to boil down to 1 galon of syrup, depending on the sugar content of the sap.  But it's worth it!

On 9/14/2019 at 7:12 PM, Owen Hinsman said:

Just picked up a 146# Peter Wright at the NEB fall meet,

You bought Justin's anvil!  Best buy there.  Enjoy!

Look into Fabrika isolation pads.  Extreme price warning here in case you have a delicate heart.  

56 minutes ago, JHCC said:

It’s a thing of beauty. 

Aww shucks, now I'm blushing!

Run of pick up tongs.  2 heats per to get to this point, 2 more heats required to finish.  Starting stock 5" of 5/8" round, power hammer required.  Some of these will be forging competition prizes at the New England Blacksmiths' meet next weekend.  Be there or be a rectangular thing!

I must respectfully disagree with the consensus.  At my steel yard hot rolled (hr) is A36.  Cold rolled (cr) is still 1018, or so they claim.   Slightly different chemistry, and cr forges somewhat more easily.    I'm not far from the border with Canada and most of our steel is still imported from there despite the tarrifs so this may be a regional thing.  It will also forgeweld easier becasuse of the cleanliness of the surface (no mill scale).  A pile of hr widgets stacked up in the gas forge for texturing stay seperate pieces, while the same widgets of cr will start sticking to each other after a while, unintentional forge welds.  Intentional forge welds may be acomplished at lower temps with cr as long as it's the material's first pass thru the forge.  

May be splitting hairs here, I buy hr whenever possible due to the lower price as noted above.  But some sections, especialy sheet, plate, and small bar are more common in cr, and it welds very well.  Just my observations from forging every day.  

Kozzy, descaled hot rolled available commercially would be great!  Please keep us in the loop!

With a repair, less than $200.  

I own 2 #4s, in very good and near mint condition, and I paid $200 and $300 respectively.  That said, I've seen them sell at big conferences for between $1k and $2k.   There is a #5 that hasn't sold for over a year on Ebay for something like $2500.  So there is your bracket!

On 8/22/2019 at 7:53 PM, jlpservicesinc said:

On this note the old bolt holes did line up close enough on the upsetting block to use 5/8" or 1/2" size. 

I'll bring my mag drill to the meet in a few weeks if you bring the base and want to poke some new holes in it.

Fall meet is coming up!  Sept. 13-15th, Brentwood NH.  More info and online registration here http://www.newenglandblacksmiths.org/meet-registration/  See you all in a few weeks!

Jenifer, Alex said "oh wow!" when he saw the photos.

No video no matter how long I wait.  Also on a Mac.  

A building is only as good as it's foundation and roof.  The stuff in between is only to connect the two.  Worth the price.  

Can I come take a class when it's done?  Or buy Alex a class?

6 hours ago, Tomas W said:

This one guy single handedly drives all tool prices through the roof

Incorrect.  His buyers drive the prices.  When he finds that he's sitting on a pile of anvils that don't sell, his price will go down.  300+ million Americans, popular hobby because of that tv show, not enought anvils out there.  

New anvil prices are $5 to $9 per pound USD.  

All the ones I've taken out of my house (c1850) are 1.5" square wrought iron.  The vast majority are indeed cast thou.

The only thing that's possibly a tool is the rectangular block on the right in the secind pic.  Has hints of dovetails like a power hammer die, but it's missing the rest of the power hammer (grin).  Would need closeups and a spark test to be sure, and with the holes in it value and use is minimal even if it's a die. The rest of it is chain accesories, lifting hardware, and some draft animal harness parts.  

That's a boilermaker's anvil, very rare type!

6 hours ago, Lou L said:

Picked this up at the tailgating area.at the NEB Spring meet two weeks ago

Glad I was there to assist in the ribbing... eh, excuse me, I meant respectful price negotiations.  You are going to love it!

For folks that wern't there, when Lou says he picked it up, he means that literally.  He picked it up, by himself, to estimate the weight!

Are the ram guides well oiled?  All the moving parts free?  

Have you played around with the linkage between the clutch and brake levers, ie the link with the turnbuckle?  I'd start by easing the tension on the clutch pulley and making sure the brake comes free before the flat belt gets grabbed.  

Looks like there are only 2 v belts coming off the motor.  Any chance they are slipping?

5 hours ago, JHCC said:

"Ssspatter, Preciouss! We hatesss it!"

LOL love it!

Glad you got it back John, but beware structural welding on someting like a hydraulic press with a 120v mig.  Interested in seeing how that project comes out.  

Upper one is a sheet metal hammer, lower one had a rubber/plastic face on the end with the collar.  

It's an I (Issac) Hill, made in England.  I had one once, it had way better rebound than 40%. 

If they are power hammer tools I'd call them set tools for use on open dies.  Closed dies are a completely different animal.  

I've had hammers back hauled from points south and west (I'm in the NE USA) by a local trucking company that occasionally has empty trucks in an odd part of the country and just wants to cover fuel expenses on the way home.  Couple of hundred bucks as long as seller and buyer are flexable enough to wait for the right trucking situation.  Call a local outfit and ask about back hauling.

Failing that, rent or borrow a trailer and you can haul it from here to tomorrow with the 450.  I would suggest that laying one down and standing it up again safely is on the prerequisite skill list for owning big equipment.  Or at least you should know someone who can do it!

51 minutes ago, Chris J Dixon said:

What are they?

Those are cast iron silo hoop couplers/tensioners.  Steel round bar with threaded ends wraps the silo, pass thru that bit pictured, and get a nut screwed onto the free end to keep the load of feed in the silo from blowing out the walls.