JNewman

I would say it is time to start over again. All is not lost though, you learned attempting the first. I don't know what the shaft was made of but it may have some extra carbon. I just bought 10' of 3/4" round yesterday and it was only $10. When you are making your lollypop use the pein on your hammer to draw the width out faster to keep it round. Obviously a swage block makes making a ladle shape must easier (Shameless plug). But you can use the hardy hole to sink into as long as the top corners are well rounded. You can also use a block of wood to sink into, hardwood works better but use what you can get.

I think that part of the misunderstanding with this thread is a difference between business and hobby. In business if you need something now you go buy it. I have much different spending practices at home than at work, not to say I am wastefull at the shop but if I need to spend money now I do, even if it means I cannot take a paycheque home. I am guessing Grant would be much more hesitant to spend a couple of hundred thousand on a new boat, and if he did he would not be bragging about that here. Of course now that I said that he is going to tell us about his new boat.

You mentioned something similar in another post and I did have some luck with it, I was just hoping there was an easier way. I did it the other way though and put the tip down, I did have it yank the the tongs out of my hands the one time but I let them go rather than let it hurt me. It did allow me to get things back centered though. I will have to try it tip up and hit it harder. The one thing I have been learning is even though the bigger hammer has all the extra power it is often faster not to use it all and work slower but keep everything lined up. Big fat disclaimer understood, big hammers, presses and table saws are unforgiving machines.

Look in your local yellow pages under lubricants, industrial. I bought about 15 gallons of quench oil a few years ago which I am still using, it was quite a bit cheaper than buying motor oil. I never priced veggy oil. After a few years I think the Veggy oil may have gone rancid.

Grant tell us lots more on prices please. Maybe it will get some of these guys to raise their prices and make us all more money.

I know I need to work on that. I go home some days with forearms more tired than if I had been using them to hammer. I have had things wrenched a litttle trying to get tapers back on center. Appart from the easiest thing which is to start them centered any tips on getting them back in line.

I think that is the sort of thing Solidworks customer support should be able to help you with.

Part of what I was trying to get along in my first post is a thing that looks so crude, driving a wedge in to hold down the die only works properly when it is fit very accurately.

I am not a big fan of trusting glue to hold a hammer head on. I have a Hofi type hammer made by Tom Clark. About a year ago the glue over the end of the handle fell out and the handle came a little loose. I think there was a steel wedge in there under the glue if not I made one, I tapped it in a little further and have not had any problem since. The problem with only using glue is that if it fails proper wedging fails slowly, when glue joints fail they tend to happen all at once.

Do not put a screw in the end !!!!!!!!!!!!! You need take the steel wedge out and make sure the handle fits snug so there is not a lot of slop. You may have to trim the handle so the head goes on further to acheive this. If there is not already a slot cut in the end of the handle saw cut one aligned with the hammer head. Drive a WOODEN wedge into the slot. Now drive in one or two steel wedges perpendicular to the wooden wedge. Trim the wedges and handle flush. Do not get the handles soaking wet this swells the wood crushes the fibers in the wood then when they dry they will be loose.

Here is a is a quick and dirty tool I made to center up and square up the shanks to the chisel on these chisels I am making. I don't need the tool for most of the chisels but some of them end up off center or bent at the base of the shank. The first couple that were out I used my swage with some loose shims to center the chisel on the split line of the swage but after 25lb of swage bouncing off the die I figured I needed a safer way. If I had a huge quantity of these to make I would have made a spring swage with the top and bottom the right thickness but most of the time this tool doesn't leave a flat and if it does it is a very small one.

I hadn't thought of a pin even though there is a slot for one in the back of the bottom die. I can borrow a mag drill from my next door neighbor but I will have to send the sow block out for the machining, I think it is too tall and possibly too heavy for my little Excello Mill. I wasn't using lube on the bottom key before, because the when I first used the hammer I did lube the key and it came loose a couple of times. But the new top key that I made and blued in works great with grease on it. Now that the sow block key fits better I figured it would be fine and will hopefully help with removal.

You are welcome to join OABA we have a number of members who are in Qu

I have recently had a problem with the sow block on my hammer moving. I have been making chisels that get welded on the end of a pipe. Imagine a wedge 3" wide 1 1/2 thick on the heavy end, tapering to a feather edge over 5" with a 1" shank on the heavy end. I am making these from 3" round 4340, so I am hitting pretty hard especially on the taper tool after I have the taper roughed out. What is supprising is I would expect all that hard pounding using a taper tool on the bottom die would push the sow block back. However the sow block has moved forwards about 1/4-3/8" twice on me in the last few days. This is a real PITA to fix because I have to remove my treadle guard/tool tray and then beat on a punch to drive the key out. With the sow block moving forward (key drives in from the back) I would expect the key to have loosened up with the block moving, but it is really hard to get out, ten or so blows with a 12lb sledge before it STARTS to move. After it moved the second time today I took a good look at the key. It looked like it was binding a little on the big end because of upsetting on the end. I ground that off and then fitted it with bluing, it could be a better fit but I think I am going to make a new longer key at some point so I can drive it in and out with no punch. I added an extra shim and now that its a better fit I greased it and drove it in. Hopefully this will fix my problem. I have another dozen chisels to make next week so I will find out if it does.

Thanks Roger, I would like to pick up a some of those older Clifton Ralph videos that you have recently converted.

I have used various shaped scrapers for cleaning up aluminum matchplates, cast aluminum patterns, cast aluminum vaccum tools and cast aluminum styrofoam moulds. Die grinders with flap wheels and Socat disks work a lot faster where you can get them in but there are still lots of places you cannot get the rotary tools. The shapes I have used the most are a woodworking chisel sharpened almost square and a round file with a bit of a bevel ground on the end. both of thes are pushed and basically used like a single tooth file.

Roger will you have UMBA DVDs there?

If you can have a look in the back of the book "Werk Und Werkzeug Des Kunstschmeids" by Otto Schmirler. It has a Oliver hammer that uses a compression spring. I have heard that this was what the origional ABANA treadle hammer was based on. The spring is set up similar to Hollis's suggestion. There is a long pipe that the sping is inside fastened to the frame, inside the spring runs a long piece of round bar which is fastened to the arm. The book while expensive is an excellent reference as well, my copy is in German English and French. You can also do what I did when I could only find long compression springs. I took a torch and heated a small spot on the spring and bent it up to form a link. I then just let it air cool. The two springs I used were still working after ten years when I sold it recently. I used to repair T-bar springs this way when I worked in the ski business and they stood up as well as the new ones.

Thanks guys. I spoke to a smith today who hot dips most of his outdoor work he mentioned that he had this done on some work because it could not go in the galv tank. He mentioned a rough finish as well and that it hid detail more than the hot dip. The whole reason I was interested in the spray was to have less detail hiding. I don't think either of the galve shops around here paint as well but I will check. Subbing out the paint is something I will do if I can. There are some small body shops around my shop that I will go visit if the job is a go. I don't want to go powder coat for all the reasons above. Most of the guys I know who's work I admire who have had outdoor railings powder coated have later regretted it.

I am in the process of quoting a high end railing. I was looking through the book Forged Architechtural Ironwork, by Peter Parkinson. He talks about getting a zinc spray on work, the way he describes this it sounds like spray welding. It apparently leaves a smoother finish than hot dip galvanizing. I have friends who hot dip a fair amount and I know they spend a lot of time cleaning up galvanizing before paint. I am having a hard time finding someone who can do this work so I can get a quote and do the job if I get it. Should I be trying shops that do spray welding for metal buildup? Does anyone have a source in Ontario? Has anyone on here used this process?

I have found they do work well for cleaning wood out of abrasives. But what I have found works as well is using compressed air. Hold the nozzle about an inch away from the sandpaper and blast away while the machine is running. Obviously glasses and if you have no dust collection a respirator are neccesary.

Well it was my first or second post.

Getting them hot is where my holdup was. I was being cautious (probably too cautious) in keeping the short heat so I was often waiting for stock to heat up. I did my nipping under my hydraulic press with a spring cutter which didn't have quite enough power nipping the chisels especially if the cutter didn't quite line up. If I start getting a lot more of this work I will have to set the press up a little better with a dedicated cutter or set up a cutter on my small hammer.

Despite the fact they were not instructional videos I probably picked up a little more from the older videos. What I am hoping is that the new videos are the first batch and they plan on more, we will have to see. One trick I immediately noticed in the old video was turning the pin with the roller when starting an eye on top of the bender. When I have done it in the past I have either done a bunch in steps and then adjusted the bending dog or adjusted the dog as I rolled the eye. Next time I will definately do it the other way. I was not impressed with the hydraulic set up on the Hossfeld although I have done some bending with mine that I could really use some extra push. I have done a run of 3" radius 180 degree bends in 3/4" pipe a few times and even with 10' of leverage it is a bit of a struggle. I would hate to have to bend any larger pipe on a tight radius. Even with the struggle I do think I bent the pipe faster by hand than I could with the hydraulics on the hossfeld.

The kiln I was thinking of buying has sold but there are others for only slightly more. From what I have read the heat treatment salts are not as corrosive as Sodium chloride. I will be carefull of the soft bricks and the wires.