Judson Yaggy

Jim- If you ever get over to Vermont check out the historic replica forge at the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum. They have a very nice stone forge, works very well. We (Green Mtn. BA) have hammer-ins there sometimes. I have heard that Dimitri Gerakeris isn't too keen on drop-in visitors, might want to contact him first.

Timmy was a blacksmith? Ya learn something new every day!

Thomas- That's a good idea, but I'm a bit spoiled by a nice amount of stainless scrap so I've never bothered. I'd imagine the litter gives better thermal characteristics than just the tray thou...

IIRC the author of the Nazel/self-contained hammer booklet was Mark Kraus. Had some good diagrams showing air flow while the hammer is in various modes. Jesse, you probably now realize that you've bought yourself one H#$$ of a big hammer! Most folks learn blacksmithing by beating up a piece of 1/2" square, but each to his own. Just be careful, an inexperienced smith could get hurt fast by one of those.

It's a good idea to coat your Kaowool with something wether you are using flux or not as when ceramic blankets get damaged microscopic fibers become airborne and can lodge in your lungs, leading to complications like Silicosis. I have a thin stainless steel tray that I slide into my gasser when using flux, it gets gooey and breaks down eventually but it's cheaper and easier to replace than refractory.

24"x48"x1" plate steel weighs about 320lbs. Figure about .28# per cubic inch for a rough guess. Will make a great hammer base regardless.

Here's the thread from back when I started asking the same questions. Has answers to some of your questions. I'm about 3/4 of the way thru building a 125# self contained, of a fairly simple design. Don't know if it'll work yet or not. I've designed the frame and ram guides so that I can unbolt the self contained parts and add a utility type hammer cylinder if it is unsatisfactory. I used some parts off of a punch press that I converted to hydraulics for the back end of the hammer. Please note that this is a bit of a fool's errand. I'm just doing it to see if I can, to learn, for the fun of it. I've already got a bunch of mechanical hammers that are perfectly functional, and I've got the mill and big lathe needed to machine parts. This is NOT a way to save money. It would be cheaper to save pennies/make stuff for sale and buy a functional hammer out right than spend the hundreds of hours of time to make one. BUT... boy it's fun to make stuff, and there is that satisfaction in knowing you did it yourself! Let us all know how it goes.

I'd build one like Ralph Sproul's shown here http://www.bearhillblacksmith.com/plans_available.htm No financial connection between Ralph and I, he's just a smart, great guy. Lots of folks around here have his style of hammer, and I can personally attest that they have outstanding control. Can be run like a treadle hammer by dialing down the air pressure, stroke can be adjusted by sliding the limit switch up and down. It's my understanding that Grant/Bob's machine runs two cylinders, one for the up stroke and another for down. If I'm stepping on proprietary toes here someone please let me know. I too had thought about linear bearings when I started my hammer build, but suspected that they wouldn't like the impact side loading they would sometimes get. Would love to hear how they work out for you.

I think it was Judd Nelson, and IIRC ABANA was formed in 1973? Dave, the only book I have that covers setting a tire is A. Watson's "The Village Blacksmith" and he shows a wheel in a vertical position being spun thru a trough of water to quench the tire. Is this one of the incorrect techniques you mention?

I'd call it the MOD. Short for Modular, modern, and Made by Originative Design.

Frosty's and Ralph Sproul's look quite similar, a lot of guys around here use them. Here's a link to Ralph's, scroll down a little for the forge. Plans Available

That may be the nicest looking hood I've ever seen. However it's hard to tell scale in the photo, but it looks like you've got about a 6" thimble for your chimney stack. You may find that the amount of smoke generated by a good coal fire especially on start-up quite surprising. I'd recommend at least a 10" outlet, 12" for preference. You could possibly get away with a 8" stack if you are willing to put up with some escaping soot and smoke or have a powered vent system, but I suspect that you will want to keep your shop as clean as it looks in the photos. Check out some of Jock Dempsey's stuff for more ideas. Blacksmithing and Metalworking Equipment Plans

Charcoal? Fairly clean, little smell, very traditional. Expensive thou. I don't know if it would work with NG but propane blown type "ribbon burner" forges are supposed to be both very efficient and fairly quiet. A lot of glass blowers use them, and there was an article in the Hammer's Blow a few years ago about them.

Grant's info on the older hammers having a 12:1 anvil ratio and thus a shorter anvil making the plate set-up possible makes sense as Ralph said his hammer had a serial number in the low 20s, made in the first couple of decades of the 20thC. And yes, I agree that pics would be cool.

I was lucky enough to get to run Ralph's big hammer (3B) last weekend and get a good look at the set up mentioned above and pictured in the link further up this thread. The plate he has his sitting on is more like 3 or 3.5 inches thick, and the hammer is elevated above the anvil block on dry hardwood timbers, something really dense like rock maple or beech. The advantages are that it raises the whole hammer so that the dies are at a more "normal" hight for us modern smiths, and the whole thing looks way easier to put together than a custom retrofit foundation. He said that it also made it easy to roll the whole assembly into place on rollers from the door of the shop- the hammer is on the other end of the shop from the road. The downside? I suppose that if you want to do heavy duty all day every day industrial forging the base plate set up is not as efficient. Also, I noticed that the floor of his shop has cracked quite a bit around the hammer. Another 10 years and he's probably in for a repair.

IIRC the Moloch is quite similar to the Little Giant, of which the 50#er weighs about 1800# overall, give or take motors, extra base plates, or large missing pieces.

Atmospheric (venturi type) or blown? I run my 2 venturi style forges between 4 and 10 psi depending on what I'm doing. I run a 3 burner NC Tool forge and a 2 burner Chile forge.

Ben's Mill is not too far from here, our local group had a hammer in there once. Very cool place. I believe it's now owned by the local historical society or land trust, and is being slowly restored.

A lot of old C frame presses, both fly and punch, had places where you could install one or more tension rods or "big bolts" to help the frame resist deflection under load. Sort of turning a C frame into a H frame. Could be your prospective press has this. Are the mounting points for the big bolt integral to the original casting?

Back to the corkscrew are we? What a fun process!

Whaddya mean when YOU go to Barbados? Aren't we all invited out of a portion of our shares? Your new base is much more logical by the way. Well done Grant and everyone.

Yup, that's the one.

Hea, looks familiar! Gotta love that Journal! I also make the individual holders shown, chiseling done in 2 heats on my flypress, dishing in one heat, candle holders from square tube.

Made by Fisher as in the anvil manufacturers. 6.25" jaws, weighs about 135#, opens to about 7" and the jaws stay square and parallel the whole way. Very cool.

Grant- While you know WAY better than I, unless I'm misunderstanding the scale of your sketches the heel on your latest drawing looks too thick to economically machine, mostly I'm thinking of the depth of the drilled hole. Make the heel (in side view) 1/2 the hight of the parent stock and you could nest blanks, two with one cut. This will also reduce the depth of the required hole.