Bob S

Better a small space than no space at all. You can make a bunch of nice stuff in a little space.

Good comment. There is a world of small stuff to make.

I wouldn't waste much effort on saving this broken press. Scrap it and save your energy for something worthwhile.

jmo

Bob

I have not had the pleasure of communicating with Todd, but now that I read his profile, please give him a warm hello from me, as a fellow disabled vet.  I am 100% myself, and always changing meds, so I know what a discouragement that can be. Tell him to keep on pounding!! :D   Sounds like he has a wonderful and caring friend in you as well, and that makes all the difference!

 

Warmest Regards,

Dennis

just noticed your location. hope you were not affected by that big tornado.

Bob

Brian often times uses old breaker bits from air hammers or other construction hammers. It seems that the metal is similar to S7 in characteristics.

Having been a manufacturer of paving breaker bits, I can tell you that no one uses S-7 or any real tool steel ( at least not in 1", 1-1/8, 1-1/4). I've had just about every one spectrographed. B&L is a modified 1045, Vulcan used to use 1078 but now uses 15B30, Pioneer/DelSteel is 1078 or 9260 for their "alloy" bits. Apex (my old brand) are 8630. These things sell new (at full discount) for about what tool steel costs per pound. Everybody is looking for the cheapest thing that will do the job. People expect these bits to be really great stuff, perception trumps reality every time.

BTW: "Paving breaker" bits are solid, "jackhammer" bits have a hole down the center. 

I am curious to see pics of this. I have never heard of "pouring" a bearing before. I have only ever seen one white metal bearing and it was a press fit insert.

http://www.anvilmag.com/smith/011f2.htm

Looking good Frank.

Where is your location?

could location be made a required part of the sign up process?

Do I have one of your old hammers, a 50lb that came from Minn that Danny Downs owned?

I sold a 50 lber to Danny Downs years ago. Bill Fiorini (RIP) brought him over.

Bob S. Doesn't Bill Roberts make a really fine humming bird? I know someone in the Sandbox does.

 

The long tail versions give me a heck of an idea. Make long tailed birds to pivot on a perch and peck a wind chime in the wind.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

Not sure about Bill Roberts. Been a long time since artmetal...

But if you work out the hummingbird thing (pecking on chime) maybe you could 'tune' them to indicate the Beaufort Scale.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaufort_scale

So looking through these forums I've been finding a lot of really good advice on how to start out forging and learn the correct basics, but is there any advice you've seen widely given that is either not entirely correct or is detrimental in some way, so I can know what not to follow?

If you actually light a fire and do some real forging the good advice will reveal itself to you. At some point you have to try.

Mistakes are cool.

Just as a rule of thumb I would advise not doing anything Frosty says.  :P

good to see you back eric. Stay well.

This is stamped Kohlswa Sweden on one side

in Iowa they call them Coleslaw anvils.....

just sayin'

Bob I don't think you get what I'm asking. 
 

that happens a lot....  :unsure:

My questions still stand gents.

I'm leaning towards having the inlet raised rather than having a clinker breaker design. But the idea of an extra control over the air flow is appealing.

Cheers

If you read #18 in the thread I linked to above you will see that Tom Allyn was experimenting with different hole arrangements/shapes to change the shape and size of his fire. Tom was using easily available pipe fittings. If you try it come back and let us know how it works.

Holes in the bottom (as most firepots have) will guarantee that as clinker is formed, it will flow down and block off your air supply, which will make necessary a clinker breaker. 

A better idea (IMO) would be if the bottom of your fire pot was raised so that there was room for the clinker to form without blocking the air. Imagine a ball cut in half with a hole thru the center for air. This could easily be forged and welded in place.

Your fire will be able to breathe without continuously 'breaking' the clinker and losing fuel in the process. When the clinker gets so large that it blocks the hole it can be removed from the top using a hooked poker.

Read Tom Allyns comments here.....

http://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/23205-fire-pot/

 

looks like it would work if you lived in Australia ...

could be decoration around the base I guess. more likely (to me) is that the hardy was made from another object that had these marks. it's a nice looking tool.

beefy material looks great.

Steam punk is modern technology dressed in turn of the last century Victorian style. 

The post drill has an integral shaft with the threading at 1/2"X24tpi.  Obviously very non standard at least by todays standards....taps and dies are available for purchase but if a champion shuck can be found with this thread gage then thats what i would rather do.post drill.jpgpost drill 2.jpg

whats that mean?

this site has a lot of post drill info

http://www.beautifuliron.com/thepost.htm

All young smiths are reminded to bring a note from their Moms.

:D 

I built my t hammer using Clay's plans more or less. here is my up/down. that said after a short while you will realize that if you made your tooling all about the same length you could avoid up/down. not that it's that hard but it does take time and some effort. if I was doing it over I wouldn't bother with making the ram adjustable.

if all tooling is made the same length and you don't need to adjust there isn't any advantage to the so called 'in line' design. with the swing arm style you get a nice slap hit.

I've only done short searches and don't know if LA stands for Los Angeles or Louisiana, or?

lower Alabama?  :P