shipto

I am always expecting the metal to crinkle as its being formed.

pillar candles then and no to start off it will be all cold working since i dont have a forge finished yet, have started it but i need to make some money with the cheap and cheerful stuff before I can learn to dabble with the hot iron.

yes worked cold they will be bases for small church candle holders. I am making tools for them as i go along. there will be no clever stuff with them but i hope to sell them once i have all the tooling ready.

ok first products from the hammer it took about five hit to dish these out and then flatten the edges but its 1.5mm thick and i am happy.

just finished working on it for today and got it up and running (after a fashion)
it needs finishing but it is at the stage where I could try it out. used it to flatten a few bits of thin pipe and to deface some currency and it seems to have enough weight behind it to do what I need it for. just have to finish the foot plate with safety which I discussed in previous thread, sort out the chain to hold it up when not in use and give it a lick of paint.

just thought I would post a pic of my progress with the hammer, still a bit to go but hopefully should have the rest of it in place to complete it next weekend. Sorry the pic was taken in the dark but I had to wait to borrow the camera, will take better soon.

Thanks for all the replies I have started on the treadle catch and will add a piece of chain so i can lock the hammer in place when not in use.
I have included a pic of what I plan to do.

Thats a good point actually but just posting this and posing the question has given me an idea I could have a catch that is part of the foot rest that when I place my foot on the rest it will move the catch away and allow the hammer to operate normally but if there is no foot on the rest and it tries to come down it will not allow it.

I am in the process of making myself a treadle hammer and have most of it built however I cant help feeling a little worried about the safety.
I have a single spring to hold the hammer up and if that spring should break obviously the hammer would just drop.
Now taking Murphy's law into account there is a chance that there could be a finger under it when this happens.
I was thinking of some kind of catch which if the spring breaks then this catch would block the movement in some way.
If anyone has a treadle hammer could you post pics of the safety devices on them to give me ideas please.
Thanks in advance

just a quick edit: I do work safe and will of course refrain from sticking fingers under the hammer I just want to make sure that if I forget myself I have a good chance of my fingers staying round rather than flat.

Hey, good eye orgtwister!

That is a very dangerous situation indeed. We had a young feller at work turn on a lathe with the key in the chuck and sent it through the wall across the shop.

We now have a "key present in holder" switch that will not allow the control relay to close and the lathe will not run with out the key resting in the holder.

I went to college on a course for the unemployed, this taught me the basics and got me my first job as a welder/fabricator, which paid very low wages but i loved working there and would have stayed if the wage was better. However it gave me experience and i moved on to a company that made man-up forklift trucks which paid 2 times more than the first place.

I've just sold my drummond round bed, i've replaced it with a Viceroy that just come out of a local school (i'll take some pics tomorrow). There is a fair bit of information about drummond lathes (and a lot of other makes) here lathes.co.uk and there is a drummond group on yahoo.

I have only ever seen pictures of those. I have a mag drill at work which is a god send. I guess at least those could be used for other non magnetic materials which gives them a slight edge.

would you be able to afford a welder generator? gives you the ability to do work on site as well as in the shop then.

WATCH YOUR TONGUE!

Frosty

"may be pants?"

Does our slang sound as weird to you as yours does to us?

Frosty

thank you frosty. I would have been more inclined to try OP last year when the exchange rate was more favourable but its a lot of outlay for something that may be pants.
It looks good on their website but they wouldn't make it sound anything else would they.

Does anyone use this software?
is it worth the asking price?
lastly what are the alternatives?

try again maybe this time.

My pre-war (maybe even pre ww1?) Drummond round bed. I have used it for turning a few things but I still havent got it working quite right yet. Well picture was showing up when i posted this but it isnt now. I will sort it out after work tonight.

I have just posted to the introduction section that I would like a forge and I already have been given the idea from this thread. I even have a brake disc, I have access to steel box section for the frame and air flow. who would have thought that I already had the bits needed for a workable forge. I was thinking i would need fire bricks and all sorts.

I am Dwayne from the uk. I am hoping to start my own business soon but I am trying not to rush into it.
For my full time job I weld up steel frameworks for plastic fans which are used in various enviroments where steel or other metal fans would not be acceptable i.e. explosive enviroments, acidic enviroments etc.
However I hope to be able to turn to more interesting steelwork like gates, railings, planters and other such things.
I have a lot of the tools I will be needing including 235amp mig welder, various shop brought scroll jigs, various self made jigs and I am making more as and when i need them for my designs. My next project apart from making jigs for designs is to rig up a covering for my back yard so I can work in my spare time to expand my design and stock range and save me lugging my welder in and out of the shed.
I would love to get a forge and tools but people here in uk do not want to pay the money for that kind of thing especially with the credit crunch going on at the moment. I may still invest when I can if only to do a few things for my own enjoyment.
well that is me I kinda doubt I will be able to add too much to the group but you never know I do have a bit of a problem solving mind.