JNewman

My treadle guard is really handy for piling tools on while I am working (can't have enough horizontal surfaces in a shop) I do drop work sometimes and having heavy work on the treadle could get exiting. My guard looks like it was shop built and it is pretty beat up anyways. It drops over the anvil so the head either has to be fastened up or the hammer running to take it on or off which I don't like especially since it is pretty heavy/awkward to take on or off by myself. The new one will be open in the back with a piece that drops in. I will have to think about a retainer.

At a metal supplier it is worth paying them to cut the 20' bar in half for transport. Some will cut a bar in half for free some will charge a couple of bucks. Try out the different suppliers over time to find one that is a good fit. You should make sure the one you are going to either does not have a minimum charge or it is reasonable.

I agree with plywood, I would recommend a piece of baltic birch plywood. The hardwood is a lot tougher than fir or spruce and a LG has a fairly small base meaning more pressure.

Other Massey users, do you ever have a problem with the oil dipstick and a bunch of oil being blown out when using the single blow/squeeze setting? The previous users of my hammer started the hammer in low pressure hold up and I have always done the same as going from hold down to low pressure hold up the dipstick gets blown out. As well the treadle guard on the hammer interferes with the treadle going all the way up which is not a problem at all when using the hammer with the treadle. As the handles are on the opposite side of the hammer I am not sure exactly when the oil blows out but I suspect it is during the high pressure hold down. I am ordering a plate burnout today to make a new treadle guard as I had to extend the treadle last week so I could run the hammer from the back side. I had to forge a bunch of 12' long chisel bars and it was either punch a hole in the wall (which I considered) or run them through from the back on a 45. My dies are 9"x3.5" so I could not run them on the ends of the dies. I am also ordering steel for new 8" square dies this week so I can run them on the other side from the front. They are going to take a while to machine though I will probably have to run the bars through from the back again.

Radius guages are helpful for grinding/sanding radii until you get a good eye for them. And useful even with an experienced eye if the radius has to be accurate. While a set of Starrett radius guages is nice you can make a one time use one from a piece of poster board.

I have to strongly agree with Tim here. Until you get into heavy bar or tool steels steel is CHEAP. You can buy a 20' length of 3/8" round for less than $10. The predictability is well worth the small cost. Do you want to spend a couple of hours making something and then have it break because you wanted to save 50cents on material. If you don't know where to find steel locally join your local ABANA chapter, not only will you learn lots at the meetings but you can ask local people which steelyards are open on Saturdays and small customer friendly or which fab shops will sell you drops or full lengths at a reasonable price. Chances are there are professional smiths in the group who will sell you steel if there are no local steelyards open when you are available. If you are buying from a local smith or fab shop pay CASH and don't be a nuisance be prepared to cut the bar in half yourself, even if they mark it up a little they are not really making any money on the deal if it takes them any time. If it takes a bunch of time they are LOSING money. When I worked for someone else and I needed steel midweek I used to leave work at 4:30 and as long as traffic was OK I could make it to the steel yard 15 minutes before they closed. If I needed them to make a bunch of cuts I would pay and then pick the steel up the next day after work. Many steelyards open at 7am so you may be able to go before work.

Grind a 1.5" or 2" section for now. if you find it is not enough it is easy to widen the rounded edge, It is nice to have a sharp corner in a place or two and it is hard to replace material but easy to grind off. Taking a little off then using the anvil before taking more off is the prudent way to go here. My anvil has mostly a 1/4" radius but having a section at 3/8" radius would not be a bad thing if that is what it took to clean it up. . If any of the edge is rolled over creating an overhanging burr I would grind that all off. That rolled over edge is likely to chip just like a mushroomed chisel and can be dangerous as wellas marking up your work . Cleaning this up will actually sharpen up your corner.

Working over the back edge of the anvil rather than the horn not only is the fullering more aggressive but the mass of the of the anvil is under the work. With a thinner waisted or light anvil like Harris has this becomes even more of an issue. Even if his 70lb anvil were welded to a 1000lb steel base there will be enough flex in the anvil to rob a lot of energy working on the horn. You do need a nice radius on the back edge not a chipped up sharp corner to avoid cold shuts.

Epoxy anchors are good and probably good enough but I worry about the dynamic loads of a hammer. The thing I like about the Massey method is you do have some adjustability for the holes and if you ever break the anchor bolts (which sometimes happens with hammers) you simply drop in a new bolt. As well the anchor point set in the concrete is a steel plate which will never get pulled out. The weakest point in the system is the tensile strength of the bolt.

Or even better using Massey's method of bolting down with cast in anchor bolt holes. :rolleyes:

I cannot remember the exact brand just one from the hardware store.

I had a really interesting thing happen with oxide colours on a bowl a few years ago. I used a torch on a bowl I made as a wedding present to get some great purples blues and bronze colours. I put a thin coat of linseed oil on it to protect it and all the colours disappeared. I panicked a little as the wedding was in a day or two and I did not have time to make or buy anything else, and the bowl was pretty plain looking without the colours. I thought about it for a little while and then used some lacquer thinner to remove the oil. All the colours reappeared. A coat of spray lacquer did not affect the colours when i sprayed it on.

Best bet on something like this is to make samples to figure out the lengths needed. As well it gives you practice producing the basket twist. Usually the more times you make something the better you get. You also end up with a sample to show future customers if it works out. If it does not work out, you would have had to re make it anyways.

I bought a Metal Devil carbide saw for a specific job and find I use it a lot instead of my industrial bandsaw. If I didn't cut a lot of 1-3" dia alloy steel I would probably get rid of the bandsaw. While the blades are a lot more expensive than the abrasive blades they will cut a lot more than an abrasive blade and can be sharpened if you don't damage too many of the teeth, I think your cost per cut is probably lower with the carbide blades as long as you don't abuse the blades. As well they cut at least 4-5 times as fast as abrasive blades and don't fill your shop with abrasive grit. I wouldn't be without an abrasive saw for cutting hardened material but it sits on the shelf 99% of the time.

I used to have a gantry crane that I built but it took up a lot of room and was not great for moving things around. I bought a small electric forklift a few years ago and it was definitely something I would not live without now. It sits for days unused but when I need it, it is priceless. I can easily load and unload tractor trailers. When I am building multiples of something I put them on a skid and quickly load them on my truck. My shop is very tight for space and if it is in the way I can easily park it outside for the day. Small is important because the shop is so tight. Electric is nice because I can run it in the winter without opening the door. I built a boom for lifting things with slings and chains, but as important this boom attachment allows me to attach my hossfeld bender or beverly shear to the front of the forklift. I can then park it in front of the shop and have room to swing long handles, bars, or plates. I find a pallet truck is very handy as well and very useful for tight quarters. I did pick up a jib crane at an auction and do plan on installing it beside the power hammer but they require a HUGE foundation so it likely will be a while before it goes in.

6 gallons should be just barely enough. Make sure it is in a steel container with a steel lid. I would guess that heavy a piece will heat the oil up to 350-450F.

Fabricating a bending mandrel for the Hossfeld with a top and bottom flange will work. The question is whether bending the channel is worth the work and material involved in making the tooling. As well that tight a radius on that wide a channel you are likely to end up with quite a bit of thinning on the outer flange, I would try and keep the inner flange hotter. The bending mandrel will be fighting you on this as it will chill the inside flange.

For smaller quantities of refractory supplies . Pottery supply house in Oakville is pretty easy to deal with.

How is the machining of the casting coming?

450 would be a bare minimum. I would temper the struck end to a blue. Or I would probably use the same method I use for power hammer tooling thanks to Forgemaster. I temper ithings hot enough that the oil flashes off. Better that you have to dress the tool a little more often than have it crack.

How about a cleft weld, although I don't know how you will blend things together.

I spoke to a guy who was involved in the anchor project this morning he is a guy who does a lot of welding including gun barrels. It was a mild steel to mild steel jump weld. When I mentioned what you were doing his immediate reply was to make the stake out of mild steel with just the top tool steel.

I paid about $150 for a manual for my bender. I needed it because I needed it to hook up the electrical. There was an electrical schematic, but in general the manual sucked.

That is looking really nice Stephen!! One thing I didn't think to ask Tom, how did you support the top while welding the top plate on? Dave a jump weld is a weld where you are butting 2 pieces together as opposed to lapping them. In this case the shank of the t stake into the body of the top piece, but can also be 2 bars end to end. It is usually done with a dome on the end of the bar or bars to force scale flux etc out of the weld. As well it means you are not trying to weld the whole thing at once.

By the way have a look at Tom's stake here http://www.tunnelmillcrafts.com/Calendar/Calendar2010.htm The picture is about half way down. At Caniron he had a half done tinning stake he is making for his wife. A bick iron stake is something I want to make when I get some time. I want to both make one forge welding and out of one piece by either splitting or upsetting.