Jymm Hoffman

Some times it is best if I walk away from a project. Either because I am tired, close to messing it up or it is fighting me.

You left out some important information. It is illegal to burn bituminous coal in Allegheny County, PA. Just because you live in PA does not mean you can get your hands on good coal. Many places have some local coal, but it is junk. Free and cheap is not always better. The really good stuff is normally scarfed up by big companies leaving us little guys to suck wind hoping for droppings. After having been violently sick from bad coal, spending many hours driving for half way decent coal, blowing black snot out of my nose, coughing like a smoker, brushing coal dust out of my hair, dragging coal dust into the house, and 13 years of full time use of mostly bituminous coal, tried coke and anthracite, spent a lot of time cleaning clinker and ash from the fire, the romance finally left me and I finally switched to propane. No pick up or delivery time, no storage problems, no need to carry the fuel into the shop then take out the ashes to either spread on the driveway or put into the trash, black buggers gone (except from grinding which is easily remedied with a dust mask,) and a lot less coughing. Much healthier with the switch.

In the warmer weather, I think an awful lot about induction. So do you want to just play with a fire or do you want to spend more time making neat stuff?

Time for me to heat it and beat it, not play with a fire.

I was using about 3 to 4 tons of coal a year in the early 1990's. I switched to propane in 1993. Not what my consumption of propane was, but my production increased drastically, as well as sales because I had more stuff to sell. I have not burned coal in my shop since.
Last summer I did a pre-buy and payments on a monthly budget. Just paid the last $300.00 payment (10 months.) I went through my 1,000 gallons and will set up another pre- buy of at least 1,000 to 1,200 gallons. Price is dropping for propane finally. It will probably cost me around $2.25 to $2.50 per gallon. Propane did not do well on the pre-buy system this time, normally it is way ahead of the game. I have bee seriously considering Grant's induction machine, for at least summer work. My forge heats my shop nicely, all year round. However, there are some things that the propane will do better than the induction, especially when I am teaching students in the winter time.

Depends on the weight. UPS will take up to 150 pounds. I followed someone else's advice and have good success. I use banding (because I have it and the tools,) to strap a board on the top and on the bottom. I cut the boards to tracing marks from the anvil. I also use a Sharpie to write the to and from addresses on the face of the anvil incase this comes off the anvil. I staple the UPS label on the top board, then shrink wrap them. I use some packing tape to re-enforce the shrink wrap and to help keep it from coming undone. My UPS driver says they prefer these wrapped this way, easier to move than if they were in a box and they won't poke through since they are not in a box.

Over 150 pounds, I use R&L Carriers : R+L Carriers Depending on weight, location etc. You may have to take to the terminal. R&L does not charge for a lift gate as many other carriers do. UPS also does freight now, they bought out Overnight Express. Both will pick up and deliver to some residential areas. I use the banding strap to strap the anvils to a small pallet and use very similar techniques as above.

I have one double horn anvil and one Colonial Pattern anvil in stock.
Hoffmans Forge, LLC - Anvils for sale

air hammer. bigger opening for tooling.

HW, I don't think you have enough pressure from your blower, maybe the burner tip configuration being different as well. To get enough pressure, most blowers need to run at 3,450 rpms or more. Volume alone is not enough as well as pressure alone, you need both, but can easliy over do it with some blowers on the market.

Tasmith, You are absolutely correct. The problem I have is finding such a new blower at a reasonably low price. I was actually reluctant to try the ones I now recommend for the reasons you mention. However, these blowers are not your average squirrel cage, and since I wanted a readily available source at what I call a more reasonable price, I tried the ones from Kayne & Son/Blacksmiths Depot. I was getting prices of over $500.00 for new paddle type blowers and the manufacturers wanted to sell large volumes. Now if you can get a used one from a Johnson Furnace, you will get a great blower. I just checked the prices of the blower I would recommend from Johnson is $785.00 compared to Blacksmith's Depot for about $110.00. And as Paul Harvey would say, and now you know the rest of the story, at least why I use these blowers.

Barbecue regulator set at house hold pressure is 11 inches of water column, that is about 1/2 pound pressure.

Pretty much what I was going to send you is in the link that Chris posted.

One of the photos shows a needle valve, it was used for fine adjustment. It has been removed because it would change on me and I had to constantly adjust it. Went back to just using the ball valve for adjustments in the gas.

Don,
Great drawings. I can not always get the gap to disappear, but frequently do with the following method: I add a step, after the shoulder and scarf, bend away from the shoulder and upset the corner a little. Then wrap back around, also helps to get the pin started on center. Do not close up completely, as welding a collar around a bar. I frequently make the welds diamond shape instead of round, as some of the originals. After you get a good weld, you can then knock the corners out (at a welding heat,) to make the part the hinge rides on round. Doing a batch of pintles this way now.

You have not tried one of my anvils, or any of the other new ones that are made from tool steel. Mine are cast, yes but entirely of H13 tool steel and through hardened, horn is just as hard as the face, the feet are just as hard as well. They do bounce the hammer back as well or better than my 150 year old Peter Wright. You may have experience with some cheap cast iron anvils, not the quality cast steel ones now on the market.

Yes. Rigidizer does not protect from scale or flux. You can just lay the ram pack stuff over the blanket, but it is better to pack it down somewhat. It is called ram refractory since they use hand held air hammers on this stuff in the mills and really ram it into place. It is not necessary to do more than use a hand hammer to pack it into place. I have also just used my fist.

Do not go cheap on the bottom of your forge. I use Plastech 85, or Greenpack 85 over 2 1" layers of blanket, nearly indestructable stuff. Can watch scale and flux puddle on this stuff, scrape it off and keep going. It is worth every penny, maybe $75.00 for 55 pound box. I use about 1/3 a box in a 2 burner system that is about 12 inches long and about 8 inches wide. I fire it off as soon as the system is together. It lasts for years in my shop, with a forge that is used nearly every day, many hours a day.

ANH Refractories,There is a company warehouse in Leetsdale, a few minutes from my shop you could come visit and see how I build my systems (for free,)

or Chiz Brothers in Elizabeth, http://www.chizbros.com/

welcome aboard. Have you looked into joining the Pittsburgh Area Artist Blacksmith Association? Pittsburgh Area Artist-Blacksmiths Association Next Hammer In is at Old Economy Village and my shop.

blksmth, thank you for the comments.
Brian, wished I'd thought about feet long enough for holes before I welded mine to the legs. The washers welded to the feet work okay. My problems is the anvil scooting when I work over the edge and against the side. I do like bolting things down.

Looks a lot like a Mousehole to me.

I agree very much with making certain an anvil is very stable. I admit that I was reluctant to try a tripod type stand. I used stumps for years. I also got tired of the anvils dancing around the shop, even my 300 plus pound anvils. So I started to bolt angle iron to the stumps so they could be bolted to the floor. I find that I want to move my anvils around, depending on the job, thus the reason for not sinking them into the floor. As I have seen done and did like the stability.
I have worked on anvils that are in sand boxes, I don't like them. They are not rigid enough for me.

Back to the tripod, three legged stand, whatever you want to call it. I do not want to get into a debate with who came up with the idea first, this is my adaptation. And my story of how I came to use this style of anvil stand:

After seeing Tom Clark using and selling these, I started to pay more attention, but was still reluctant. Then a friend provided me with the legs and I built one to fit my needs and my 335 pound Euroanvil. I also find that I really like being able to stand closer to the anvil, and many times my feet are under the anvil, safely, enabling me to stand straight up, not reaching out and I get more power out of my body with less harmful moves. So I recommend to everyone with a tripod stand to put the single leg on the side of their hammer hand, you don't kick that leg very often as you might the other way around.

I like the tripod enough to adapt it to my smaller anvils and have a break down version shown as well, makes traveling with this tripod much easier to pack.

The large anvil is secured with brackets around the corner of the feet and silicone. It works very well. The anvil has never shown and sign of moving out of the mount. I did find it necessary to weld washers to the 3rd. leg to keep it from moving around the shop. I drop a bolt through the floor to keep it from moving, primarily from when I am working on the side, and over the edge of the anvil. Not only does the silicon hold it, it quites it down considerably.

The smaller anvil is bolted down, on top of a piece of conveyer belting to quite it down. I have always securely fastened an anvil to its mount (wood stumps included,) which also helps to quite them.

The legs are heavy walled tubing. The Euroanvil stand is completely welded while the small one has detachable legs for traveling. I have a small stand that is welded for one I do not travel with, I prefer it. You should also note that there are holes that enable things to pass through the anvils pritchel and hardie holes, very useful. I like to keep my anvils clear. I do not like a lot of things hanging around my anvils, they eventually get in the way, so I only have one or two places for hardies and to hang a brush. I have changed the hardie holder on the larger stand so that the hardie is stored sharp edge down, similar to the smaller stand.

I am a full time smith and work at it. As I previously posted in another thread, define a living. I do have a stick welder, but don't use it much outside of making my own tools. I have modernized my shop, propane forges (ones I build,) 2 self contained air hammers, bandsaw, belt sander attached to a good grinder. I do mostly histocial stuff, but take a look at my website to see what I do, a picture is worth a thousand words so the saying goes. Yes it is a tough way to make a living.

anvillain,
You are on the right track, that is how I used to build my larger forges. The firebrick will absorb the heat while the ceramic fiber blanket reflects it. Having ceramic blanket underneath will help keep the heat from transferring out and help reflect the heat in the firebrick back up into the forge where you want it. That is one of the reasons why my systems work so well. However, I have switched to a ram refractory to cover the "wool" on the bottom. It does not break down as the fire brick will. Even if you do not do any forge welding, it will eventually break down, from thermo shock and scale from the metal. If you have a quantity of these thinner fire brick, you may just consider them sacrificial, I did in the beginning of my use of a gasser. However, replacing them will probably cause you to damage the blanket around them.

The other concern about containing the fibers is legitimate. However, the brick will be insufficient for that. You need to coat the blanket. Some like the expensive ITC. I use a 3,000 degree F mortar that comes premixed. I thin it down to coat the blanket and the entire system. It is much less expensive and will do the same, contain the fibers. I have had firebrick/blanket suppliers tell me that all ceramic material, fire brick, blanket, etc all become a carcinogen after reaching a certain temperature. Regardless of the fuel, so firebrick in a coal forge can be dangerous to handle as well. Wear a mask to keep the fibers out while working with this stuff. It is an irritant when new, carcinogen after firing.

When I bought my Bradley, the owner handed me what I would call more of a flyer than a book. It had a parts break down, motor sizes and foundation recommendations. I tried to follow the foundation recommendations but started to hit water about 24 inches down as the location was lowland. I called the guy I once worked for to ask about the foundations. He told me to stop digging. He set his hammers ( strap/ half helve machines) on 6 inches of concrete without any problem. I basically stopped the depth and widened it for the area under the anvil. I think I went about 12" the rest of the hammer bases plus the are to mount the motor. I also re-enforced the concrete with scrap iron as well as welded up a frame to hold the bolts that came up through the concrete to bolt down the base of the machine. It never moved or gave me any problems. When I moved the machine to another location, I did not do a foundation and it broke through a 4" floor, just settled down. The next location was also set on the floor without any problems to the floor, but it would need more frequent adjustments due to it "wiggling" some. If I made a copy of that flyer and can find it, I will let you know. I let the original go with the machine when I sold it. They are very well built and hard to kill. 6 to 8 inches of concrete with bolts through, should be plenty. They also recommend 2 inches planking between the wood and concrete. I used oak.

Now you have many opinions. Figure out how much material you need. Those prices on eBay you posted are about as good as they will get. I rebuilt one set of bellows using untreated canvas, back in 1981. Last I knew, they were still working. The other 2 sets I have done were done in leather, both are still working.

Check to see if there are any leather shops in your area that carry garment leather. That's the best material I have used, got it from a remnant table at a Tandy's Leather. It cost me $80.00, and I had leather left over.

My opinion is: the best material you should try to get is garment leather. If you really can not afford the extra dollars, only then should you use the canvas. Do not bother with all those fancy treatments or painting it. If you think you need to spend the extra money and a lot of extra time treating or painting the canvas, you probably could have spent the extra money on garment leather. Have patience and save your money to buy the better product. Don't get into a rush and use cheap stuff

I lock into a price in the summer with a "pre buy." Unfortunately, our prices have not come down, I am paying 2.899 for the 1,000 gallons I ordered this year. It sound good when gas was over $4.00 gallon. I have always done the large tank outside since I switched over to propane. I have also always used a system with a blower and household pressure, 11 Inches of water column (about 1/2 pound pressure.) They are much more efficient than the naturally aspirated forges, hotter faster too. However, since I started running classes and more forges in my shop, my propane dealer set me up on 10 pounds of pressure coming into the building. I have black pipe running around most of my walls with outlets that I hook into. The outlets are old tank valves the dealer gave me. They fit into 3/4" pipe as that is the thread on the tank end. I hook the barbecue type regulators into those old tank valves to bring my pressure down to what I need and able to run 6 to 8 forges off this type of system. Plus I can move a forge to the work when necessary.

The butterfly hinges I made for Ft. Ligonier about 8 years ago were all forge welded as the originals in their collection. I used 1/8" by 1 1/2" stock. I roughed out a bunch of one side of the hinges at a time. I bent about 2" over the edge of the anvil and formed a sharp 90 degree bend, then wrapped it back onto itself to form the barrel around a 3/16" pin. I did get a little of the bowing, but forced it back when reheating. I welded the overlap, spread out (alternating cross peen and face of hammer,) to the desired width. I cleaned up the barrel and cut off from the bar. The rest was bench work to cut and file the "wings" as well as the barrels to fit, outside of setting the pins as I did peen both ends. I don't ember the time, but I would estimate about an hour for a finished pair. (4 welded up identical sides.) I would not do these for less then $75.00 a pair.

Link: [ABANA] The ABANA

I also use the Hartford for liability insurance. If someone is in your shop, you need to check with them. I make students sign a waiver acknowledging the work is dangerous and will not hold me or the site liable for hurting themselves, plus I have the right to kick them out if they do not follow my instructions. If you have employees, different story, workman's comp. etc.
How does any of this hold up in court? I don't know and hear lots of horror stories. Bottom line, what risks are you willing to take and how much are you willing to spend?

Thanks Don, great info.