Patrick H

I did finally get a chance to attack one with a drill and it drilled beautifully, reminded me of Stressproof. I keep checking them at night but so far I can't detect any green glow. I may have a couple of nice big 1" plates next week. One will make the hammer base. I see this thing getting heavy quick. Thanks for finding that welding info Chris.

Thanks for all the input. The basic design I am looking to follow on the hammer is one built by Fred Connell and documented here: http://ornamentalroseengine.com/smith/hammer/index.htm The blocks I have can be welded quite easily using 7018 stick electrodes. They each have a length of chain welded on to move them. My tig welder is a 300 amp transformer machine that stick welds very nicely. If the rain lets up tonight I will drill a test hole. I to make a bolt on bottom die so it can be changed down the road if I ever need to. I am obviously still in the research stage and welcome all advice or opinions. I didn't expect to find steel for the lower anvil this quickly so it kind of jump started the project.

Hello everyone. This is my first post so thought I'd give a little background. About 10 years ago I took a 6 week blacksmithing class put on by my local gild. I enjoyed it greatly and acquired a nice anvil (late 1700/early 1800s Mouse Hole) and built a brake drum forge. Life happens as it often does and I never ended up doing anything with them. Now the kids are older and quite interested as well. I am a habitual tinkerer and builder so have decided to build a power hammer. I have a decent sized shop to work in and a mill, lathe, and shaper plus mig and tig welders. Ok, long story short, I intend to build a Dupont linkage style hammer with a true disc style clutch rather than the tire style. I acquired 2 steel blocks that I would like to use as the bottom anvil. They measure 10" x 12" x 16". Luckily they are stamped with the steel type on them but internet searches on that just keep sending me to nuclear reactor research documents. Anyway, they are A508-CL2 (class 2) reactor pressure vessel steel. They came out of the local nuclear plant when construction was shut down and everything was auctioned off in 1984-1985. As near as I can tell these are forged blocks and considered NiMoCr steel. Weight is in the ballpark of 550 pounds each. I think they would work great for the anvil, what say the experts? Thanks, Patrick