SGensh

Josh, I remember Bob telling me that as a kid they would use it as a seating bench when it was on the back porch of the house. Nice pictures, thanks for sharing them. I have to get down there and see the exhibit one of these days. I just recently got the check for making all of the stands for the didactic panels in that exhibition but I haven't seen it installed. Steve G

This past weekend Clifton Ralph, Steve Parker, and Kurt Fahrenbach forged a new post vise under a two hundred pound Chambersburg steam hammer actually running on steam from a coal fired boiler at the Tipton County Fairgrounds in Tipton,Indiana. It was a great demonstration and a rare opportunity to see the diffence between steam and air operation of a hammer. Roger Degner took video so I'm sure there will be an opportunity to see some of it later for those who missed it. Even as he approaches eighty Clifton is still a great teacher and Steve and Kurt did a great job. I'll try and post a few pictures and perhaps Dave Hammer will post some of his too. If this doesn't work I hope it's OK to say that there are some in the gallery over at fogemagic too. Steve G

Nathan has only one of the 150 KAs and one 75. I know he likes them both and uses them hard. He's made a lot of fine hand hammers on them. Steve G

When I reconfigured my homebuilt air hammer I used a system much like Don and Grant are suggesting. I'll try and attach two photos of the connection which has served me well. (I used a similar setup on the first iteration also). The threaded rod of the air cylinder runs into a tapped hole in an aluminum block the same size as my ram. It is prevented from rotating by a clip which is in turn held by one of the four bolts which pass through this block and teh one below it into tapped holes in the 90 pound ram. The bolt holes in the blocks are oversized to allow deflection and each layer is seperated by a piece of conveyor belting. There are "washers" of the same material under steel washers at the bolt heads. It is dead simple, cheap, and it's worked out well for years. I've never broken a rod with this arrangement though I did detach the piston once. Steve G

Confirmed power hammer junkies may want to take a look at the photos of the Cambria Ironworks I posted in the Forgemagic photo gallery last evening. One is of a 10.000 pound Sellers hammer. Another is back to back 3,000 pound hammers. They sure make my 120 pound homebuilt seem tiny.

I'll start out by noting that I have produced far more fabricated work over the years than forged work. I have no problem with welding and do so quite a lot in my metalworking shop. That said I do believe that arc welding is not forging. Arc welding is fabricating. It can sometimes be profitably combined in the same piece of work as forging but then the work should be described as forged and fabricated not just called forged. Take a look at some of the work of Edgar Brandt to see how welding should be integrated with forged work. Take a look at anything with obvious mig welds to see what not to do. As always; this is just my opinion- we all know what that's worth!

Ed, In my shop I have three dry chemical extinguishers rated 10A 80BC which are hung on wall brackets. (The brackets are actually required to make the rating- go figure!). These are located at the forge area exit, just outside my office door, and near the main exit door. In addition I have a smaller dry chemical unit mounted on my oxy acetylene cart as required by the state. These units are inspected anually as I need to keep them up to date for the annual fire and hazard inspection I'm subject to as a "life hazard use" site here in New Jersey. (I get to pay a fee for that service of course.) I asked the inspector this year if there was any more suitable equpment I should be using and he had no other suggestions other than saying as others have to call it in before fighting a fire. I also always keep some old detergent bottles filled with water near my welding table and in the forge area. If something seems to be smoldering a quick squirt will usually take care of it without any big mess. The company who services my extinguishers recommends the Amerox brand as being reliable and easily serviced as well as being made domestically. I just had both my annual extinguisher inspection and my state inspection. The fire extinguisher service company only charged $50 for onsite service- a relatively small amount for peace of mind.

Lifting- I installed an I beam monorail with an electric hoist in my welding bay. Then I added a second hoist to it. I liked that so much I built a small rolling gantry with a chain hoist on it to cover the rest of the shop! The gantry is sized so it will just roll into the back of a pickup or it can be knocked down for transport. Welding- I've picked up a couple of T-slot tables from machine tools which I use as welding benches. Ground square on five out of six sides they are perfect for quick setups and fixturing. Cheap right angle plates clamped to them make easy fixtures. Nothing is ever welded directly to the table (that's a banishment offense in my shop) so the tables stay accurate and the work does too. Quick measurements- Short lengths (3") of extruded rectangular aluminum bars stacked in a box for quick setups. 1/4 by 1, 3/8 by 5/8,and 1/2 by 3/4" give enough range for quickly scribed lines from a bench top or they can be used for standoffs when welding. I also use these and 1 2 3 blocks for drilling or punching a series of holes with just one stop set along a fence. Just design the layout to the block or shim size and stack them in place for the first hole then remove the shim or shims to get the location of the next hole. This is far faster than scribing out and center punching a series of locations.

When I handle a hammer I still do it the way my dad taught me a long time ago. I try to carefully fit the handle to the eye so that it will not rock even before it is wedged. I will usually drop the rear edge of the hammer handle against a solid bench or an anvil to seat the head fully. Then I use a full width wooden wedge running along the center of the long axis of the eye. I like to saw or split mine from white oak. When the wooden wedge is fully seated and has been trimmed off flush I drive a fluted steel wedge at 90 degrees to it to finish the process. I haven't had any problems with the handles I have mounted this way. This is the same method described in the replacement handle kits for Plumb hammers though they supply a wooden wedge of an unknown species. (There is no need to saw a slot for the steel wedge.) I don't care for the round wedges myself but I have a friend who likes them. I don't think they expand the handle as well as the cross driven wood and steel wedges.

I'd like to make one also. Any idea of size?

ElkDoc, Jim's advice is good. I made the mistake of building a very nice overhead hood for my coal forge. It was an offset pyramid of brake formed galvanized sheet metal and had a perimeter frame of angle iron with forged hanging hooks in the four corners to suspend it by. Everybody who saw it loved its looks- the only problem was it wouldn't draw off the smoke from the fire. Unless the hood is very low to the fire you start to pull in a layer of the ambient air around the forge and it seems to form a barrier to the rising smoke which then billows out around the hood instead of being drawn up the chimney. ( This hood even had a power ventilator in the stack.) That hood is now sitting on the floor of another smith's shop. He insists he wants to use it because he likes the look even though I told him it won't work well. I now have a simple side draft hood mounted next to my firepot and it draws really well. (I still use the power ventilator because my stack size is limited.) Your side draft hood can be as simple as an angle cut in your flue pipe to create an opening or as elaborate as your imagination allows.

I have to agree with Ed's assesment of Tom Latane's Demo. I had just sent an email to a friend last night saying that I thought this was the best demo I had ever seen. I did tear myself away at times to try and catch some of the rest of the proceedings but I kept finding myself right back there every time. Like Ed I had to leave before Tom finished on Sunday and I regret that I couldn't stay till the very end. Tom is both a wonderful teacher and a wonderfly skilled smith. This was my first Spring Fling but I'm sure I will haveto go back in the future. It was a well organized and incredibly enjoyable event.

Ed, I'm planning on being there. I hope to arrive Friday afternoon and plan on camping in my van. I'm sure there will be others also.

Ed, The new shop looks like it will be really nice. I like the way youv'e minimized it's apparent height by building into the bank. Since I rent my shop space I am not able to cut a nice big hole in the roof for a stack and had to use an existing flue. I am working with a six inch stove pipe running vertically from a side draft hood for about eighteen inches. It then makes a bend a little less than forty five and continues for another three feet where it bends again to enter an induced draft fan which was originally intended for a large gas fired hot tub heater. I'm using a Centaur fire pot and tend to build fairly large fires. I haven't had any problems with removing almost all of the smoke with this setup. Sometimes drafts elswhere in the shop can waft a little smoke into the other shop areas. You do have to put up with the motor noise though. If you decide you need an inducer I'd try to find one you could mount outside. That said- if it was me I'd be going sttraight up and out the roof if I could.