ptree

My Father worked in the aluminum extrusion trade for 40+ years. His Father was a master molder in a foundry making farm implements. He was also trained as a blacksmith in an apprenticeship, but moved to the foundrey in the same factory. His Father was a stoker in the same foundrey, stoking the cupplo's with a #2 scoop by hand! His father was tin smith in Germany.

Geoff, Many of the front wheel driv hubs MUST have a axle torqued into the wheel bearing hub assembly to prevent destruction of the bearings. They need the pre-load. I used a FWD van REAR axle wheel bearing hub assembly. Worked well. Jeff

Quench, Blue print made along with a fair number of others and is in the unavailable high numbers.

Drinking milk for metal fume fever is an old wives tale and does NOT WORK! Ptree the industrial safety guy.

I have 4 of Nathans hammers, and can fully reccomend them to one and all. I have three diagonal peen hammers and those are the ones I do 95% of my hand hammer work with.

I have made about 175 garden trowels from spikes and perhaps 20 knives. The spikes marked HC do have higher carbon than the plain spikes but still don't have enough carbon to get knife hard. I make the trowels in a gasser as I do them in batches of 10 to 12. A gasser will indeed scale worse than coal, but you can fry that steel in either. Shoot straight KYBOY, you have to be able to sleep at night, and selling stuff as better than it is will make that hard. I tell my customers for the trowels, "these are gaurnteed to not bend or break for my lifetime" That gets a laugh, and a lot of "How long do you expect to live?" I also tell folks that these trowels WILL rust when used as intended. I suggest they get a coffee can, fill with sand and put a coule tablespoons of oil in it and stir. Then when done gardening, stick the trowel in the sand. Scours off the dirt etc and the oil keeps them clean and nice. Added bonus is they can always find the trowel:)

From the photo, I would say single acting steam cylinder, IE lifts only. I worked at a shop that had a 25,000# double acting hammer. You could feel the hit 32 city blocks away. It hit with a million foot pounds of energy. The first couple of blows were not a "bumpy" as the metal was greatly deforming and the hit was absorbed more slowly. The finish hits where the forging was almost finished were the hard, loud hits. For reference, the double acting hammers would hit much harder, as they are moving much faster at hit all things else the same. The 25,000# hammer had about a 5' diameter piston, and it was supplied with 145# 345F live steam. That ram was moving when it hit!!!

I posted the same warning in response to a "drink milk" just a couple of days ago. Does not work. Get medical attention is the right response. Ptree the industrial safety guy.

I have seen much bigger versions of the split cross in the local graveyard. The German immergrants used them as grave markers. Made from wrought them have held up well since the 1880s which was the oldest date I saw. These were split, but were embelsished with scrolls at the cross arms. They cut in the name/dates in the cross arms.

Drinking milk to combat metal fume fever is an old wives tale. It does not work. The only proof against metal fume fever is to not breathe the metal fume. Either don't breathe fume or use a properly fitted respirator with the correct filters.

John, The term 4 way is an industry standard. So is poppit. The intake and exhaust valves in you truck are poppit valves. I was just trying to make the terms used by the industry clear so folks can get the valves you have found best on the firts try. For obscure, try "pilot operated, 4 way, 5 port directional control valve" This would be the standard callout for a 5 ported, two position control valve operated in both directions by a pilot air signal:) The way refers to flow paths. with pilot signal to one end, the valve shifts and there are 2 paths. one supplies pressure and one exhausts. Pilot the other end and there are 2 paths, but opposite the first condition. sorry to be obscure:)

John Larson, The industry names for the valve you call a shuttle valve is a "spool valve" If the spool vale has two delivery ports, it is a "4 way" way. Also called a 5 port, 4 way directional control valve. The lever operated valve is a 3 way control valve. The lever operated valves just like the 4 way valves can be spool, poppit, diaphragm, or sliding element. At a hydraulic and pnuematics shop if you ask for a shuttle valve you will most likely get a "Shuttle" valve. This is a valve that has a shuttle (can be a poppit or can be a diaphragm) that has three ports. These have many uses. They can be used as "quick exhaust valves" or to allow the higher of two pressure to be fed to the delivery port. Not a critism, just trying to help folks find the parts they need. I learned these terms when working in the R & D lab of a major Pnuematics manufacturer about 30 years ago.

Heavy truck axles such as BIG lorries with full float type axles will have 1541H materials, hard. You will soften them when you heat to forge. Do not hold at forge or HT temps for long, as the grain grows quick. Get it hot and forge. Heat treat in oil. Temper within 45 minutes. Many around me use this material for hammers. (I used to work at an Axle forge shop)

I am in Floyds Knobs In. About 2 hours

I make Garden trowels from RR spikes. Also garden knives and weed diggers.

I would offer from Military experience and from years working in industrial forge shops the following; 1. Artillery shells are forged steel, of fairly high carbon, heat treated to shatter. If the larger shards of artillery sheels can be salvaged, and are not cracked too badly would indeed make good tools. If the shells were to have the fuze unscrewed, then the explosive could be burned out and the entire casing recovered. Be aware that dud artillery shells are usually VERY VERY unstable and should never be handled. The fuzes are the same and even more unstable. The burnout would be suggested only for a stockpile of unfired shells. These should probably be found with a blank cap screwed into the fuze well, or a lifting eye for the bigger projo's The standard GP bombs are usually welded steel I think. These usually have both nose and tail fuses and I would not handle them either. I am unsure how you intend to remove the fill and fuzes from unexploded bombs but it is not something I would try.

I built a RUSTY type in 2002. I bought the plans and while they were somewhat helpfull, they are simply a hand sketch of the general idea and not a set of "Plans". I next upgraded mine to a tire clitch and 45# ram. This style hammer is only slightly harder to fab up than the baby helve. If I simply wanted to draw I would build the baby helve. If you need to use top tools and need a guided ram, the pivoting spring helve is a little more work but gains function. I think the spring helve has just as much "Snap" as the dupont style mechanism of the LG and "tire hammer". # for # I can see no difference in hit from my spring helve to a LG. For scrounging, Have a peek at my hammer across the street at Anvilfire on the powerhammer page. I used a hydraulic cylinder rear cap clevis for pivot, a scabbed together anvil and so forth. To build cheaply, one must be a scrounger, and be able to see the "re-purpose" in things one has to hand. Good luck.

I got started as a blacksmith as a PRE-SCHOOLER. We lived next to a house muesum. They built a blacksmith shop, and they did not have a fence:) I was adopted by that smith as his bellows boy. In the third grade we moved away:( At 18 I joined the ARMY, and ended up in Germany. In advanced training I had learned to cut jem stones in the craft shop and went to the base craft shop to check it out. No jem cutting:( But, they had a Jewlery shop. So I begain to learn fabrication and casting. They hired a German jewlor to teach, and boy was he strict. All the others in class dropped out, so he taught me as an apprentice. When I came back to the US to Engineering school, I went looking for a job as a Jewlor to help pay. No dice. I did go to work in factories that worked metal, and then a shop with an industrial drop forge. Still only forging silver at home. Then a neighbor bought a forge and anvil. Could not get a fire going, and did not know how to do anything and I showed him how to manage a fire a little. CAUGHT the bug bad. Had an anvil soon, built a shop, built a bigger shop, built an addition etc.

I can offer that all of the large industrial forges that I have seen that burned natural gas or Propane injected the gas into the blower case. These were purpose built blowers and were often 2 to 4' in diameter. One axle billet forge in particular I remember used a 4' od blower, feeding a manifold to the 6 burners. The gas was fed at 20 PSI (not inches, PSI) and the burners were refractory. Used about $20,000 a month in natural gas for 2 shifts in 2004.

For the first time in perhaps 30 years, my Lodge and Shipley 14.5" x 56 tool makers lathe tonight made chips! it has been a 4 year project to get it home,stripped of the old smoked drive, smoked hydraulic tracer, stripped of the huge DC motor and mount. About 1000# to the scrap yard. Installed, leveled a drive found scroungered and installed. Then to get a tool post. Then to get the tee nut for the tool post cut down. Tonight I put a hunk of steel in the chuck, ground a HSS bit, and made chips. Then I tried the feed and that worked as well! I had to rebuil the gear selector for the feed, as some ham fist had forced the selector and broken it. BUT, I made chips:)

I built a Rusty style hammer, and used square tube for the center column. Empty the whole thing rang like a bell. I filled it with steel shot, and the machine is much less nosiy. The extra 650# also helps to stabilize the machine. I had access to scrap steel shot from a Wheelabrator. Dirty, but free. After a few hours I had to top off as it settled. This went on for a couple of months.

I suffer some hand and wrist and elbow issues. I thin my handles, sand them smooth and ensure no bumps, left over labels etc. I also rub bee's wax on the handles. When your warm hand warms the bee's wax it gets a little sticky and improves the grip without requiring one to increase muscle grip. Since I am mostly holding the hammer with my little and ring finger due to the other two fingers not working right I need the help with grip. I also swing high. That is I lift the hammer head high, up near the ear, and mostly control the drop. This saves the elbows and wrists as well as the hand. I am still able to hit nice and hard, and it no longer hurts.

And the Stikl was even on SALE! With my issues with joints I was only able to use the big boy for one tank of gas a day. More than that wrecked me for at least three days. I can run the little smooth jewel for perhaps 4 hours and not suffer too badly the next day. I think the newer saw runs faster to get the power, and is better balenced and vibration isolated. It is also much quiteier. I do wear muffs. Down to mostly trimming stuff hanging into the yard space. The remainder will get dozed.

I don't need the AC, but I have strong plans on a built in generator:) Hope things continue to improve for you Quench. Also for the many in your area.

Power back on Saturday. Hot Showers are sure nice!!! I bought a new style Sthill saw to supplement the monster I bought 20+ years ago. The little saw weighs about 6# vs the 14.7 of the older. Cuts like a hot knife thru butter on pine. The old saw is reserved for the stuff needing the 20" bar. I will print out all the comments made here and present them to the church for their review. Thanks Guys