kerrystagmer

Was a good day for concrete work! Foundations for both the Beaudry and the Nazel went in today in opposite sides of the shop. Needless to say the Nazel one was a bit bigger but I was suprised we got them both done. We will wait a week or 2 before giving serious thought to placing the Beaudry. The Nazel won't come till the end of the month(june) so it will have plenty of drying time.

Hey Will, I ll have to measure them but the bottom die is an odd combination set up for what I assume is repointing jackhammer bits I've run into a little snag as it appears the anvil is slightly turned and the mounting holes are blocked somewhat. Is there a trick to rotating the anvil? I do have the hammer up in the air on 4*4's at the moment and can get to everything.

I should think that would make someone very happy...

The big issue with the v belts for me is the way the hammer runs. By slipping the v belts and having the secondary shaft still the hammer comes up to speed slowly. It basicly eliminates the single hit that this style of hammer is known for. I will however wait till we are using it and have other stuff sorted to make any changes. Right now its working ok and hits plenty hard. Yup 250 lb but I dont remember the year. The serial # is 8051

As I posted elsewhere my beaudry will finally be put on a foundation. I needed to get it moved today so we can start on the foundation for the Nazel but the beaudry foundation will not be poured till this weekend. Just a couple of shots along the way! Big forklift! Resting place for the next week or so. What a brave, brave soul he must have! We even picked it once and set it back down. Thats one tough little guy. Those are 6 by 12's so he is pretty big!

I know you have pics now!!! Give them up!

That is for certified aircraft quality fully annealed (post cut). Commercial quality is less I'm sure. Its just the way Ive always bought stuff like this. If I was forging them then they might be quite a bit less.

They are pricing me 4 by 8 by 8 at $4 a lb (about 65 lbs) for 4340 seem right>? I've never priced or bought it before. I know 4340 is much more then 4130 and these will have to be sawn off of 4" plate.

I guess I was rolling 43 series in with the 41 mentally mostly because of same suppliers and recommended uses. 4130 is great stuff if your under 3/4 " but once you cross that thickness your ability to harden to the center drops off. I havent really played with 43 series myself due to extra cost and honestly lack of need! Someone has pointed out to me that the plate on the left side of the casting is an odd cover likely hiding a repair. I'd like to hear thoughts on this from those who know more then me! Looks like sunday I'll be laying out a foundation for the new location of the Beaudry. I'll have to get it moved before the memorial day weekend as I think the idea is to start on the Nazel location then. I respond good to crisis so having a crazy soon deadline for this will get me moving faster. I think I can get a smaller forklift down here from the quarry to move it and have a big pile of concrete here already so I wont be too much more out of pocket. Suddenly 5,500 lbs sounds light... Turns out I have a driver going up to pick up steel on Thursday so I better get my ass in gear on that as well. If anyone is in this area and wants in on my steel buy just let me know. I do this 3-4 times a year so if you can't do it now, it will happen again late summer. They carry only 4130, 4140 and 4340

I keep the light on on my Gorton Mill so I know when the 3 phase is on! Even though you can hear it, it's not bothersome and I hate random white noise like fans. As all our sanders and buffers are also 3 phase its on pretty much all the time. I might buy them (dies) 'big enough' as I have to buy 4130 plate right away. I'd hate to have to plow them off an inch but can do it if needed. At least then they would be cheap.

Grant- How tall? I assume it might be installation dependent based on sowblock to ram distance? Chromolys seem to be very happy at 50Rc and its something I'm comfortable with. The transition between 47 and 50 is where I feel it goes from just being tough to having a 'hard' feel on bar, much more then 52 is where you can chip it on hard hits. So I agree 100% there. I'm currently paying $125 flat rate on hardening if I send them out to the big furnaces or salt bath. As my oil bath is only in a 7 inch pipe (15 gal in an old oxygen tank for swords ) its probably best for them to go out to a larger bath for quench. As I said these guys are hardening dies for drop hammers on a regular basis. I should make dies for the Beaudry #8 at the same time anyway as it has unusual combination dies set up for jack hammmer points.

I'm in the midst of an estate sale now.. ( not mine, not yet!) PLEASE PLEASE write stuff down and keep your manuals in one place! Seems that unloader valve should have a whistle attached to it! Will do John, let me know what your looking for size wise as well. They get stuff in and out of there all the time. He is George's brother if you remember George P. from Jerusalem Mill. I'd love to see your self contained hammer prototype as well. How long ago did you build it? Someone here was talking of bidding up into the 9500$ range and we expected it to go up up up. Thankfully not the case. I dont know the shipping quote yet but the forklift is only just under $600.00 delivered to my shop. If I had more time to unload we could use the big Cat and save even that. Its not too far away so heres hoping for the same price range in shipping as you were quoted, where are you 781? I buy alot of 4130 AQ P&O and should be able to get material (4140 or 4340) for dies from the same supplier. Admiral quoted me somewhere OVER $3.60 a lb the last time I called. My current supplier (Benedict-Miller in NJ) was $1.10 a lb. The trick is to keep your purchases over 1000 lbs at a time. What size should I expect to need? Looks like a couple of saw anvils!!

3 phase is close by but I'll bet costs would be very high to have service run here. I have a 10 hp rotary setup now that works great but we have way too much stuff run off it. Its ok when there are only one or 2 of us here but on busy days I know we are taxing stuff on startup. My Father (inlaw) is an electrical engineer specializing in control panels for motor starting (mostly concrete plant and pumping stations) so I should be ok there. He actually just took in VFD's on tradin for a customer that might do the trick. Regardless of the incomming power an air unloader for startup just seems a smart way to do it. You are still spinning up the flywheel and piston but not under pressure. Do those guys offer just the electronics? Big motors are very easy to come by in Baltimore. I'll bet a thousand or more is the motor price alone. Most of my stuff is 7.5 or smaller right now but my idler is 10hp. I've been very happy with the unit I have but don't know if they are still in business. Just as long as the main hammer isnt over 15K I should be ok. I think I have a safe margin.

The guys at Postville said the 15,500 overall from the spec sheet was realistic. They said plan for the anvil to be in the 5-7 range. I think with this lighter style anvil it might be lower on the anvil side. Either way I'm renting a machine that could handle it assembled if need be. Plus the 966G will be our backup if we are in trouble. I think its rating is like 34,000 before tipping.

Decent pexto stake plates alone often sell for $300 or more Blowhorn stakes usually exceed $200 You did just fine...

So as you guys know there is a little hammer heading my way. I figured it was time to start a separate thread rather then continue the gentle hijack of the other one. It now belongs to Mike L. and will be set up here in our shop. The current intention is to move the Beaudry #8 to what will be the back wall of the shop and place the Nazel in its place. The seller stated that this hammer had been a trade-in on a Nazel 6B but I dont think they gave anymore info. If anyone knows anymore about it please let me know!. I talked to the gents at Postville Blacksmiths shop today in relation to moving and general weights of the individual pieces. I have arranged for a 15,500 lb capacity forklift with pick up and delivery here rather then try to use a catapillar 966G that they have on site next door at the quarry. While the 966G has the lifting power I was concerned with its ability to lift high off the trailer and control in setting the hammer in place. On top of that its huge! It will be easier to manuver the forklift. They also recommended to wait to hunt for dies till we have the hammer were we can take accurate measurements of the dovetails as they are often altered from factory. I think our current idea is to purchase material to make a new set and cut the dovetails here once we inspect the hammer. I use a local heat treater that can handle hardening in just a couple days on parts like this. They already have harden hammer dies for 2 different big drop hammer shops (Victory Racing Plate and formerly for Kirk-Stieff Silver) I also spent some time with Dave Hammer at the BGCM's Blacksmith Day's in Westminster MD this weekend. We mainly talked about foundations and issues if the hammer has been abused. Currently we have a 10hp rotary converter in the shop that will have to be increased or purchase a big VFD. We were beyond capacity anyway so its time to upgrade. Pics of the hammer from the ebay auction...

Im not the buyer, its just coming here to live. I dont know if Mike talked to them about it yet or not. I'll put up thread after the weekend so we can stop this one. Dave Hammer will be at the hammer in i'm attending this weekend so I'll get to chat with him a bit about it too. Mike did seem to have more info based on the serial number. Sounded like its not run in sometime from what he could gather. Nice year for him. He just bought a 50 kuhn as well.

Seems its coming here to me.... I'll start another thread so we can let this one stay KA 150.

I'll post you some hammer porn from the BGCM even this weekend. John will have 2 hammers there...

Lets chat at Blacksmith Days. I'll be there both to demo and sell. Id like to talk to you about ideas to convert it to using a height adjustment like the new ones. It really does get some hard use! What year was it built? My customer actually comes into town and stays with us a week at a time in the fall. I'm sure he would love a visit to your place! He mainly comes here to weld billets of damascus to work from the remainder of the year. He was here for the first Fire and Brimstone event and is already an Iron Kiss fan!

Not sure why my email would be blocked. I'll have to check it. Ill drop you a PM with it. John, I suspect $5500 is closer to where we are. Consideration could be made if the air compressor was purchased with it. Maybe the pair at $6500. 7.5 hp single phase 80 gal Speed Air with iron compressor head. I'm having trouble finding any reference to pricing when it was new or prices for Phoenix. That was the main reason I listed IK and Big Blue. No hurry and honestly if it sits past summer one of my regular customers will purchase it when he is working on this side of the country. His 50 LG needs a rebuild and he is considering his options.

Dont forget there will be at least 2 set up and running at the Westminster MD Blacksmith Days event next weekend! Deker will be on one doing pattern welding and some knife forging off and on all day. Check the website at http://www.bgcmonline.com for info on the Blacksmith's Guild of Central Maryland event.

I didnt see additional dies there but its possible he had them. All the tooling and spring fullers are an exact fit for my Iron Kiss so I will be keeping them. If I find any more dies they would go with the hammer. I will have his entire shop with me at Blacksmith Days in Westminster MD in 2 weeks. I'll check the classifieds here and if it is acceptable I'll post the list. I wont be moving the hammer till its sold and it will be under power till then. One advantage to the buyer is we accept credit cards so that may help more guys be able to concider it. It was a one man shop making furniture so the hammer has seen occasional use, not hard production. He mainly used it to create mortise and tenion joints in bar stools and tables.

I'm selling a power hammer for a friends estate and havent yet decided on the price. Its a Bull 125 in perfect running condition. I'd like to hear what you guys think. Compairable (new) Big blue 155 at $6200 and (new)Iron Kiss 125 at $7800 of course dont tell the whole story , but it seems a good point of reference. It doesnt need to be a quick sale, the property isnt for sale and the space doenst have to be cleared quickly. We will be keeping the compressor in place and hooked up so it can be tested by possible buyers. My friends wife is the daughter of a blacksmith and having hammer sitting in the shop for awhile longer wont bother her at all. Opinions? There is a 75 on ebay right now for $7500 but that seems unreasonable to me.