Judson Yaggy

I've done that, if you gun blue the steel after polishing the braze inlay really jumps out at you, plus blue and goldish look good together.

I love Craigslist. $200, not including the vises but it came with the tapping head.

Mmm, I love tarts... ;)

Model E is approx. 150# ram. When we moved ours we figured 4000# over all.

Yup, add a fly wheel and some valving and it sounds like a self contained hammer in the making. Google "self-contained forging hammer patent", or look here http://www.anvilfire.com/power/ Click on the home built then self contained link. I've got something similar 3/4 finished collecting dust in the back of the shop just waiting for a little free time.

Good spot R Smith- There is defiantly something out of whack there. Big red flag if the main shaft is bent or castings damaged from a fall. Probably could be repaired, but not worth the asking price. Bring a crowbar and some wood blocks. Lever up the hammer head enough to take the weight off the spring and insert the wood blocks between the dies to keep the weight off the rotating parts. Then try and rotate that bent flywheel at the back of the main shaft.

Yup, I do that too on big grinding jobs. It is indeed faster.

Moderators- I would vote for this thread being pinned/stickied, whatever you call it. Good safety info here on a subject that often has scant safety information, and Ptree is an EXPERT.

Thanks for the vid Dan. Could be operator error or that it's jumping around, but it doesn't look like it hits very hard. If that's a 40# hammer I'd like to see it hitting about 25% faster too. But I've never actually run one, and any power hammer is better than no power hammer.

Bruce, you speak the truth. If Toyota made a 5 cylinder 5 speed diesel I'd buy 3.

Mine's a '11 4 cylinder Tacoma, 23 mpg and it does 95% of what I want out of a truck. If I need more oomph I rent something big. I've found it a much more economical way to go.

Don't know if it's cheaper than a machine shop, but McMaster sells keyed and partially keyed shafts up to something like 1.75 or 2 inches. If I recall a hammer sized shaft is in the $100 range +/-

Yes, these are great, saves $ no doubt even when less then optimal. Past experience with phone time on hold makes me hesitant to call a company without a positive recommendation first. Biz school grads ruined small manufacturing.

John- Mine was sold specifically for use with propane, it has what I would describe as a cylinder with a perforated BRASS tip/flame holder, no extra parts. Turn the pilot left and the gas chokes off, turn it right and flamethrower. Just does not stay where you put it.

Tim- I'm sort of glad that you have had the same issues, perhaps I'm not crazy.

I'd given up on posting photos here on IFI, but I'll try again tomorrow so perhaps we can all see what I'm talking about.

Nice score, well moved, good advice everyone here, did the dog in pic 4 come with the table?

Gonna miss that guy. Thanks for posting the pics Tim.

That end grain floor (table? butcher's block?) is as cool as the rebar twist Bill. Both are nice!

About a month ago I bought a new Smith brand gas saver made for propane since I've recently switched from acetylene to propane. The problem is that the pilot light burns inconsistently. If I set it to a reasonable size when first lit it soon shrinks and goes out, if I set it crazy hot (pilot flame over 8 inches long) it will slowly shrink as time passes. After 45 minutes or so the pilot will be tiny, then go out, with no adjustment from me. I'm guessing that as the gas saver heats up something is changing the volume of propane allowed thru the pilot burner, but d@#^ if I can figure out what or how to adjust it.

Anyone else had this problem or have a clue how to fix it? Thanks.

Remember, when dressing for cold and sparks and flames, use ONLY wool and dry cotton. In the context of a blacksmith shop think of nylon, gortex, fleece, polypro, any synthetic fiber, as frozen gasoline just waiting to ignite and burn/melt onto your skin. Even if you don't get hurt, you will melt big holes into all of your gear. Wet cotton won't burn, but it'll make you colder than being naked. For cold and flames, wool is the way to go.

That's a sweet press, makes it look like you are just squishing clay! Need to hook up a foot treadle to it thou.

My TV is only hooked up to the dvd player, so I'm in no position to comment on whatever "controversies" are out there, but it's great that smithing is getting some wider coverage. They say there's no such thing as bad press... Maybe it's time to raise my prices ;)

I'll add my vote to the DON'T CUT IT side. You would be asking for breakage of the guides, the original manufacturer knew what they were doing, there is a lot of force pushing on the guides at the bottom of a stroke. First thing I'd try is lifting the hammer up onto a bed of timbers as previously suggested. If that is out of the question then make up new dies with the top of the die 90 degrees to the dovetail- this would let you work on the side of the hammer where there appears to be better visibility. Dies like this were used in the Champion hammers (amongst others), there are several threads here on them if you search.

No, no Larry. Wrong approach. In the interest of fair, just and acceptable, he should send us one! That would fix everything. We could all post videos, equalizing the suffering across oceans. I humbly volunteer some valuable floor space in my shop, plus I'm closer to England than 95% of the smiths in the USA thus providing John great savings in the shipping costs. In fact, we should all start sending John our spare postage stamps, in a few years he should have enough to plaster the thing with them and mail it to our east coast. ;)

I had a 200# Hill for a while, decent enough anvil, had a bit of a ridge on the underside of the horn towards the waist IIRC. Otherwise looked a lot like a Mousehole. Good buy!

Wow, do you guys really feel that way about brakes on mechanicals? I wouldn't be without one on my hammers, for single blows and especially driving tooling I find them to be indispensable. All of the higher quality mechanical hammers came with factory brakes, must have been a reason for that. I'll admit if you are just wailing away drawing tapers you don't need one but seems to me that to get the most out of a hammer you need control. Yanking your work out of the way while the hammer slows down (even for just an extra rotation or two) is less than ideal even if you can get used to it (I've done it that way too).

Some Bradley info here on the NEB website. http://newenglandblacksmiths.org/power_hammer_info.htm About half way down a long page.

Ok, Phillip broke the mechanical hammer ice. My 85# Kane and Roach mechanical has an actual ram weight of 95#. On a related note, I don't recommend using your wife's bathroom scale unless she is more tolerant of cracked dial covers and oil drips than my wife is. ;)

Did you guys check out his other hammer control youtube? Darn impressive.