ptree

I will try if you can warn me when.

Shade 3's can be found for less at Hagemeyer. See the thread shade 3 flip-ups. Less than $9.00 + ship. By the way Steve Sells, I am an Industrial Environmental Safety and Health Specialist. Been a safety/enviro guy for perhaps 20 years now, But not really a safety inspector:)

I would strongly urge that every machine containing large, loaded, springs be guarded, and especially ones where the loaded springs are close to ones face:) My hammer has been in use since 2002, and as I have modified and so forth I have broken a couple of springs. The hood has nicely contained the parts. I did learn to use only new spring stock. The reused old springs failed pretty quick.

No trees down, but power off for 7 hours. Element, Nature plants the forrest, not me:) Beechs, maples and such will now thrive.

Once more into the breach dear friends... Today is supposed to yeild winds to 60 mils/hour and possible tornados. We have had perhaps an inch of rain on top of the snow/ice melt so the dirt is mud and the roots nothing much to hold onto. Ohhh boy!

TCooper, I too have trees that I am sweating, but it will take an excuvator of high lift crawler to push them over as they are leaning towards things I like. I am calling the excuvator guy tomorrow.

TCOOPER, I have been watching in the paper the news about Western KY. You all got it worse then we. I feel for you brother. Did you and yours at least have warm shelter? Sounds as if you heat with wood. Fire wood ought to be cheap and available this year at least. Today I start Jihad against the remaining pine trees on my place:) NO pine will be left standing. The other trees will fill in:)

I tend to try to be prepared. That comes from the Hillbilly side of the family, who always want enough food to get thru a couple weeks of bad weather/times, the ARMY, and being an industrial safety guy:) Now once it melts, I have some serious sawing to do. I will also get a crawler in I think as one pile of jackstrawed pined is too badly sprung to be safe to cut for the no value wood.

I took the HF genset back for a full cheerful refund. The manager helpfully pointed out that the local Home Depot had received 300 gensets the day before. I stopped by and they had a Husky 5000W 6250 surge, Briggs engined genset on rubber tires for $599. It is sitting in the Rocks van at the house pending my getting it out and in the shop tonight. Snowing at a rate that can best be described as HARD just now, and it hit 11F last night. I really feel for those yet without power.

Nice hammer. I converted my spring helve hammer to a tire drive down low in about 2003. Works much better that the V belt on a flat sheave. I would love to see a sketch of the slide arrangement. I need to improve mine. Could you email me a hand schetch maybe? ptreeforge at aol dot com

I make mine a different way than most. I use a 1/2"-13 hex nut welded to the fixed upright, with the flat of the nut welded to the side of the upright. I twist a 1/2" ob x 1" long or so nylon air line tube into the nut, and leave a little standing above the nut. I make the vane with a rod at the balance point that fits nicely, usually 1/4" od. and add a SS washer tacked on. In this way I have a lube free bearing, and I can paint it all and the wear from turning is nylon on SS, so no rust. I have a Man in the Moon, wearing a tophat, and the shop that spins nicely, and has been up there for years. No lube, no fuss no muss:)

Brian, I am in Floyds knobs, just across the river on I-64 from louisville. Power dropped twice more today, but was out only long enough for linemen to safely work to hook my two neighbors back up. We are now toasty warm. Outside temp hit 68F at least. Melting like wild. May not refreeze tonight (I Hope)

Glenn, I now heat totally with wood, just an outside burner. Heats wonderfully as long as I have 110V to the outdoor unit and 220V to the inside blower. Note below the failure of the cheap little HF genset! Well the power dropped again last night. Went to start the Harbor frieght genset and no joy. Little to no compression. It will go back on Warrenty. Had oil,drained a little to check and looked like fine brass sparles in the flashlight at Mid-night. Power back on at about 9:30am. Life is again good, but not happy till I get a genset on site. I will probably try to see if they will just refund and try a better brand:) All the ice came off last night. This morning the roads were cover with 2" of ice cubes from the tree limbs. Outside temp is 44F already and melt is occurring.

Happy days are here again, the power is back on! The ladies got sorta used to a general lack of power, since I did have the heat functional. Especially since it hit about 0F last night. They mostly gripped about a lack of hot water. We started to melt some today, and as the ice sticking limbs together melts, lots of limbs falling. I will have lots of cutting to do soon. That little 3000 watt continous harbor freight genset did a great job. Much quiter than the ones the neighbors have, and eats much less gas. At $299 priceless:) Got to change a busted radiator hose in the ice and snow this afternoon. Sloppy but done. Did i mention the power is back on:)

Well the ice storm that stuck Indiana and Kentuckly got me with both barrels. Trees down on top of the trees from himican Ike. One on the bike shed and bounced into the outdoor heater(new in October 09) I did a 6:00 am repair and got the heat back on, using the outdoor heater and a genset. Then a day and a half of neighbors and I cutting downed trees to be able to get out. I am writting from the libary. I expect to be at work tomorrow, will check/post from there. Power out probably 4 to 5 days.

Les, there are a large number of garden digging tools made and sold in the US. Try any hardware store. Now if you want high quality tools these may or may not suit. I make top quality trowels, but so far I only make trowels.

Crhis, Not to much to see inside. Just stored stuff:) I did do photos of everything including setting it up for the blueprint. I just wish it was available. Early April will be my first demo in Utica Indiana. Just across the river form Louisville Ky. Run up and have a good visit, hit the Frazier Historical arms Museum and the slugger museum and have a full weekend.

As an industrial safety and environmental guy, With years of forge shop experience, I can assure you that the standard in industry for forges is shade 3. These are also used in steel plants and foundries as well. A rated shade with an ANSI stamp means it is the real deal. Just as real safety glasses are stamped ansi Z87, or Just Z87. Prescription safety glasses are also stamped on the frames and the lens must be marked with the makers mark. Some of mine were marked where you held them up to the light and the mark appeared when you tiled to the lens. Others, such as the ones I currently wear have the markers mark stamped into the lens at the top outside corner. If you are welding, OSHA has a nice shade cart in the standard that is a great guidline for what shade to use with different processes and amperages and tip sizes for o/A. While the o/a is at a slightly higher temp, I do not think it is enough to warrent a warning re what lens to wear versus a forge. The forge metal is usually just under liquidus and the refractory is at incandescent heat. The Shade 3's will suffice

Ragnarok, the clay spencer tire hammer, and all of the compact spare drives such as on my spring helve use a steel wheel on the motor running on the tread of the tire as the clutch. You pivot the motor, use a spring to return the motor, and when you step on the treadle, the harder you push down, the less slip and the faster/harder the hammer hits. The compact spare adds a very nice flywheel effect and works wonderfully. I like the tire clutch much better that the clutch I have used on various LG's

The standard wear for heaters in every commercil forge shop I have ever been in was Shade 3 welders green lens. The heaters are the guys who load the forges and pull the hot billets out to pass to the hammerman. The heater will end up looking into the forge several hours a day, 200 days a year for years. The flip ups i tested are marked as ANSI Shade 3.

Didyium is for sodium flare when working glass and is the wrong wave lenght. The polycarbonate that is used in lens of this and safety glasses is very good at filtering UV. These are as are welding lens shaded to stop IR. The wavelenghts of metal at forging temps is the same as metal at welding temps. I can attest that after working with these today, I do not have the after images of bright spots that I get when not using a shade. I have some issues with believing that a lens designed to shade for IR, such as a welding lens will cause this issue.

I don't do historical demos, so my antique Datsun is OK I have places to stow my hand crank drill press, the anvil and the tools. My big table has removable legs that go on top. It also has a couple of little steel wheel that run in the floor channels. This way I can pick up the end and it rolls back to me. I load that table with buckets of coal and stell etc. There is a frame that holds a display easel, and another table as well as my hammer stand. Everything has a place and to balance the trailer. I did make a new axle, as the differential was a drag to gas milage.

I built a spring helve and have had it in use since 2002. It is not too light and at 45# it does move metal. One needs to be quite the scrounger, but if you are, and can weld well, this is the low cost way to go. You can see mine on BP0134 Power Hammer bad link was replaced and put into text

Donnie, the forge sides fold down flat to make it weather tight when not in use, the stack mounts to the cover roof to travel.

HammerKid, Look the youtube bit over and you can get a good idea of my demo set up. Note the post vice and smoke stack. Even though it was pretty windy that day the smoke was mostly going up the stack and away from me and the crowd. Not the big box behind the forge, that is an electrical enclosure off an old machine. Gasketed door, and it was free.