Judson Yaggy

I've moved lots of heavy stuff lots of ways. You have 3 basic methods to choose from, starting with the most expensive but safest and going down to least expensive but most dangerous.

1. Hydraulic power. Hire a crane, tow truck, forklift, tractor with a loader, back-hoe, etc. Expensive but FAST and fairly safe if the operator knows his job. Stay out from under the load at all times.

2. Modern secondary methods. Com-a-long hoists, electric winches, engine lifts, etc. along with tripod or scaffolding or attached to a building as a lift point. More chance of old or damaged or overloaded equipment or insufficient load capacity of load bearing points.

3. Egyptian slave method. Lots of strong backs with levers, pipe rollers, and ramps. Unless well orchestrated a good chance of strained backs and crushed toes or worse. Popular due to low cost. Truth be told I moved my 2000# (gross) power hammer into my shop by myself with this method.

Hope this helps.

Two burners also gives you the opportunity to put a valve on each one and run them independently for shorter or localized heat which is sometimes useful.

I know Jim quite well. The arms on his 125# Beaudry broke while in use, he was darn lucky not to get hurt. He had new springs/arms forged by Steve Parker, an industrial smith from Illinois. Steve does a lot of demos at hammerins, you can probably find his contact info somewhere.

Jim and Ralph Sproul then made a die to press all the bends and offsets on Ralph's big press. They were very careful to keep the number of heats to a minimum and to work in the proper temp. range for the steel they were using (I forget what steel exactly) as this is a high stress part and failure can be spectacular.

I've heard of a few other people having Beaudrys break, Lee Sauder (if that's how you spell it) springs to mind. Don't know how he fixed his.

Hope this helps.

I have a Chili Forge Cayenne. Cost about $800 with shipping. It beats the pants off my old NC Forge Whisper Daddy. Efficient, hot, easy. Ceramic lining over the Kayowool except in the roof so less worry about carcinogenic dust. Each burner (has 2) has it's own valve so they can be run independently. Sorry to sound like an add, but I'd buy another in a heartbeat. They do make smaller stuff for less $.

The dies look like those on one of the leather harness hammering machines shown in Pounding Out The Profits.

Vermont

Hugh Duffy Coal & Oil
190 West Street
Rutland, VT 05701
Phone: 802-773-2567
Toll Free: 800-893-2567


Black Rock Coal
Route 14 South
East Montpelier VT
(800) 639-3179

I just did the square bar test on my 85lb. Kane and Roach mechanical hammer. High yellow heat, off the shelf a36 hot rolled, numbers are the average of 3 tests.

5 blows- .877 inch
10 blows- .721 inch

I run this hammer at 200bpm, slower than optimal for drawing but I use a fair number of top tools so need a little better control. 6.25in max. of daylight between dies when adjusted for 1in. stock.

If you don't let it get too cold and therefore stiff I recommend Naguahide, or vinyl based fake leather, as a low cost alternative to leather or canvass. Available at most fabric stores for a lot less money than canvass, and holes can be patched by gluing another piece over top of the hole with contact cement.

If you can tig, as you said in your post, get some tig brazing rod and use that combined with Warren's timing suggestions. However, your hood will remove more smoke if you get rid of that old one and make a sheet metal one with a 12 inch dia. stack on top of it. At the very least you will want to add a back panel and some partial sides to that antique hood to improve draw.