Judson Yaggy

Because I can't resist poking the dead equine, that's a HUGE square anvil in John's post above... perhaps the Romans were onboard with the bigger is better thing.

Hay Budden.  Nice one!

Nice!  Going to play in the forging contest?  Prizes will be some of my tongs!

Online  registration now available.  http://www.newenglandblacksmiths.org/meet-registration/

AND I just got my paper flier in the mail today.  If that's how you roll, check your mailbox.  

I have been asured the flier is coming out soon.

Don't forget, less than a month!

Fall Meet- Sept. 7,8,9 at the Morell Metalsmith's shop in Colrain MA.  Mark Aspery demonstrator.

See you there!

I've never seen a commercially produced antique bender better than the Hossfelds, but there arent many.  The Diarcos are stiffer than the Hossfelds in my experiance but less versatile and have smaller capacity.

Seems to me that Hossfelds are a pretty simple design.  A pro smith disappointed with one could pretty easily bend one up out of say 1x4" 4140, machine some precice holes, and be good to go.  

Fewer and smaller round holes would suit modern hobby smiths better.  I'd personally like to see more rectangular slots as I think they support bars being punched or drifted for architectural metalwork better than a big round hole.  

3 hours ago, JHCC said:

However, if there's some way to do it so that things are a bit more intuitively laid out, that will save the end user a bit of hunting for the right hole

If you use a tool or a few or tens of hours your brain is perfectly capable of remembering forever where the round peg goes.  I'd be more interested in a block that didn't align the stress risers.  Looks like the current design has taken that into account.  

I've been loving the whatzit posts and will help out when I can.  Also love seeing tools preserved in a museum for posterity, but am having a hard time reconciling the 500 year hopeful estimate with the photos of peg board and pine timbers.  Both of the backer materials in the photos are moisture resivoirs (moisture is the bane of both wood and iron).  If they have been kiln dried and are in a climate controlled environment that's great but will the environment survive 500 years?  I know, I know, budget is the penultimate factor for small museums.  But some time spent thinking about the system as a whole might be worthwhile.  Budget cleaning and oiling every 6 months?

Peg board is some sort of MDO (medium density overlay) or MDF (medium density fiber) sheet particle board wood product.  There have been well documented problems with MDO and MDF off gassing formaldehyde .   Don't know how that would effect the conservation of ironwork but it might be worth looking into.

Stash is right! (Nice to see you at ABANA by the way!).  

Rock drill resharpening tool.

Drop her here too, my wife can have yours learn to shear sheep if they want to get really primal with the whole fiber thing...

Tail stock of a pipe threading devise perhaps.

I'll be there.  Will keep an eye open for you guys!

If anyone from New England is going to ABANA in VA next week feel free to stop by our NEB group campsite if you need to see a familiar face!

They are not just a square thread, at least on mine, they are some sort of butress thread.  In working condition they sell for between $500 and $1k usd.  The one above does not seem to have the lower movable jaw support that passes thru the rear leg making a total of 3 different patterns of the same size that I have seen.  

Try cutting the hole with a carbide tipped hole saw with a steel rod in place of the pilot bit.

Glad you made it there John.  I bought a bunch of machine tool stuff last time I was there.  

When are you going to come visit?  I'm 15 min. from Middlebury College. 

Clean, then shim the brake disc closer to it's mating part.  If you want better information you will need to post way more photos and explanations of the mechanism.  Free advice is worth every penny.  

Forge first then cut the hole.  When forging, think about the metal's resistance to movement.  It'll always move at the point of least resistance.

Selective heat may help if you made the mistake of cutting a bunch of these shapes before forging.

Look up Bob Menard, Ball and Chain Forge, Portland ME for a nice shop visit.  For tools go a little further north east to the Liberty Tool Co. in Liberty, ME.  (mid-coast) Giant permanent tool flea market and a museum.  

Perhaps a West.

Wish I had time to check out what you folks were doing down there in the teaching center, 60 pair of bolt tongs just kept our team WAY too busy for socializing!  Nice to have lunch with you Jenifer, and I got to meet Dick (Seldom here on IFI) at least.  Add drive time, set-up and tear down and running the forging competition to 14 hours of production forging and I'm looking forward to work tomorrow as a nice relaxing change from the weekend!

If they work following is a quick video of the upper forging area during the only 5 minutes of rain we had all weekend, one of the entries into the forging comp. and some of my loot from tailgaiting.  

See you all in September!

IMG_2671.mp

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On 5/21/2018 at 1:40 AM, beaudry said:

Just for interest does anyone  actually know how that thread was originally formed ?

The threads on mine (all 4, I have 2 of them) are clearly turned.  There are obvious lathe tooling marks.  The interesting thing is that it's not an acme, but rather some sort of buttress thread.  

1 hour ago, hamerhead73 said:

Foot powered forging hammer.  Does anybody know anything about it?

That is WAY cool.  Very very rare, and that one is a design I've not seen before.  Taper and flat die, and a shear blade behind it.  What's inside the tube?  Coil spring or something pneumatic?

Totally jazzed about that, please show us more!

Online registration for the spring meet is now available.    http://www.newenglandblacksmiths.org/2018/03/2018-spring-meet/