Big-D

Here's a few.

I had the exact same problem a number of years ago (actually, it was quite a number of years ago, about 1980). I'd only paid $45 for the Champion 400. I took the shaft and the "bits" of the bearing cone to a machine shop. They could readily make it, but wanted $125 (at that time). Considering I'd paid less than half of that for the blower, I didn't get them to make it. I sold the blower to a friend that had a 400 as well, for $25, and looked for and bought another blower. So, you can certainly get one made, the question is, "is it worth it?". If you want a blower that will not give you problems, and doesn't have hard to replace parts, get a Caneday Otto (sp?) blower, they have bushings, not bearings.

For about $140 you could buy 6 feet of 1-1/2" square 1045 (makes a great hammer, not overly hard, but I'd rather have a hammer that's not harder than the face of my anvil), and make about 14 hammers!

The foot treadle with the ball valve works great. I've built 4 of these hammers and have used that system on all of them. With the store bought pneumatic foot control, I found it hard to get my foot in just the right place, I had to "hunt for it". You have more than enough control with this set up. It's easy to build and probably less expensive than the store bought foot control.

Says here they are still made in Germany: http://www.blacksmithsdepot.com/peddinghaus-anvils.html

All of the sides are 2X12 pressure treated lumber. The front and back are edge glued with West Systems epoxy, VERY STRONG! No board behind the two with the handle hole.

Sorry for the double post. Actually, it's not loud at all. When you hold the feet tight it tends to dampen the sound.

Here's a cute little 103# pre-WWII Kohlswa I picked up for a portable anvil.

Here's a cute little 103# pre-WWII Kohlswa I picked up for a portable anvil.

My orange tabby tomcat would rather drink out of the slacktub than his water bowl. He has the shop "well marked".

I only use two hammers for forging. This one I made, and one of the Swedish hammers I re-forged. The peins are way too "sharp" on most store bought hammers.

I prefer actual wrought iron to the pure iron that was available a number of years ago. I asked one of the foremost colonial smiths about pure iron when it was available. He said he liked the way it looked in a finished product, but it didn't have any structural integrity due to it's composition. I really like the wrought available from these folks: http://www.oldglobewood.com/real-wrought-iron-rods.html It's at least double refined, and maybe triple refined.

Seems a little pricey to me considering the edges. I personally don't like "working around" chipped edges.

Always save some coke from your previous forging session. If your forge is outside, you might want to put it in a metal bucket and put it under cover. I never light "green" coal anyway, too smokey.