ironstein

Rsmith brings up vet valid points. I understand why the nazels are sought after. They are old iron with a proven track record and lots of nostalgia (spelling?). They have history. I thought about a used 165 and had a hard time pulling the trigger on a used machine.

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Tim,
Your thread was my inspiration for that die. Yea the mild steel rod seems to take a beating. I'll probably be dressing it often.

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Beautiful work! Very nice tool cabinet.

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R smith,
Of course it does, I got the biggest machine I could afford. I wanted easy access to parts and customer service, and James Johnson offers all of that. I don't know enough about hammers to try and restore an older hammer. Although I would love to own a bigger hammer, I figure that can come later when I actually know what I'm doing!

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Tim,
What type hammer do you have? How long did it take to wear out? What made you notice the wear? Feed me info brother!
Brian

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If you got the 165 then you'd want a nazel!

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Esab! And my miller matic is a 180. Darn auto correct on my phone!

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When I moved to Utah I brought my miller matic with me, I also have a synchrowave by miller, I like them both. The mug is 220 volt, but the duty cycle is not great if you're doing production work. I recently bought an esan 280c. This thing is a workhorse and will even do spray transfer. I can make welds on small stuff look like rig! Get the highest duty cycle you can afford, you will be glad you did.

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By the way Thurman, you mentioned the powerhammer running hot, yes when i use it for a few hours it gets hot, it's supposed to. I ran it 8 hours straight one day, and you could barely put your han on it. These hammers run better and better as they get hot, and you should warm it up before doing heavy work. I usually fire it up and let it run for a while while i am getting tools ready and lighting either the coke forge or my propane forge. I will periodically walk over and step on the treadle to bring it out of idle and cycle the ram about a half inch from the bottom die for 30 seconds or so, this seems to warm Thelma up real well. As for the oiler, it works great, i run a ton of oil through it, where its squirting out and smoking when it gets warm. This helps ensure everything is well lubed and will work some of the materials out of the hammer. I opened her up to grease the zerks the other day and found a huge puddle of oil in the bottom pan with all kinds of crud and grease that had worked its way down from the uppers of the hammer. Too much oil and grease won't hurt anything, better off with too much than not enough.

Like i said, the anyang 88 has been perfect, i just got back from the shop, made some punches and bolsters for the powerhammer out of 4140. the punch went through the 3" piece of 2" round like butter! 3 blows to get 3/4 of the way through, 2 blows on the other side and a nice 1/4" slug popped out!
I just watched Clifton Ralphs videos yesterday. I had back surgery 3 weeks ago so i have a cold therapy machine that i strap on my back and i sat in my recliner for hours watching Clifton. I highly recommend them, he makes it look so simple. It made me glad i bought the 88 because you do't have to stop and adjust stroke like the murray mechanicals he uses. Plenty of room for tooling, and the blows hit just as hard when you're using tall tooling. I was surprised he only had the two mechanical hammers, he talked quite a bit about how nice the steam hammers were to work with since you didn't have to make adjustments for stock size and tooling. I got a ton of great ideas for tool making and forging.
Hey Francis, hows the old Champion working out?

E.F., I did not have a single issue with anything! This hammer is a workhorse, hits super hard, and is super controllable for light or heavy forging. The oiler works great and has from the beginning. James adds a few check valves to ensure it works properly.

James is great with customer service pre and post purchase. The hammer seems to get better and better as it breaks in. I chose it because I wanted a self contained hammer, and the beche and nazels are very similar, and people are still working them hard after many years.

If I were to buy another hammer, I would buy an Anyang without hesitation. The machine speaks for itself, it is designed to forge 24/7, 3 shifts a day, 7 days a week. Just keep it oiled, grease 2 zerks once in a while, and hit it while it's hot!

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Thank you sir! It sure smooths out the hammer marks. I did pre and post heat the entire set up. The rail seems to hold up well. I'll post some more pics when I go to the shop tomorrow. I gotta size em this time, they seem to take a while to load.

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I know this isn't an original idea, this is my take with what i had available. I used the bottom web of a railroad rail, welded a mild steel rod to the bottom and made a holder to rest on the base of the die holder. ill post some more pics of the tool at work on a taper.

Excellent control with that hammer. Very nice!

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So crazy! Oh to be a fly on the wall of that place for a while. I bet those guys make it look effortless.

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Definitely. I'm getting into some more complicated Damascus patterns that are teaching me just how little I actually know, kind of humbling! I'm having fun though. It sure beats carrying steel on my shoulder all day. I had back surgery a few weeks ago, bad career choice being an Ironworkers for 17 years.

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Hey Mark,
Utah is beautiful! I've got a pretty nice shop set up, you need to come visit so we can put Thelma, my Anyang 88 through its paces. The thing hits hard! We just rented a cool cabin in the mountains, there will be room if you wanna come visit.


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Mid span. Now you know more about post tension cables than you wanted! It was very interesting and challenging work. I use a 10,000 psi pump for my hydraulic press that is exactly like what we used to tension cables.

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There are also what are called "temperature" tendons which usually run in the middle of the slab with no profile for crack prevention, these are running perpendicular to the profiled cables. I once built a post tension slab that was 4 feet thick The profiles were reversed to provide lift at the columns. In other words they were profiled low underneath column reinforcing, and high at mid spam.

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Mark,
The cables are profiled low between spans and profile to the top of the slab (3/4" to 1" from finish floor) over supports like beams, girders and columns. This creates lift when tensioning.

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Thanks for all the replies. It turns out the floor is slate tile, backer board or thin concrete with 3/4 plywood subfloor underneath. Looks like i'll have to drill through the slate and concrete board and lag into the sub floor. There are wood trusses supporting the subfloor with around two feet of space under the plywood. Glad its not post tension cables!

Good to know. Soft in that it cracks and crumbles? Or soft in that it drills easily? I'm gonna hit up Delta stone, they have supposedly the largest rock saw west of the Mississippi, they may know a thing or two!

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I'll look into them thanks.

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Just curious if anyone used any special anchoring system I hadn't heard of, I'm sure I can just use masonry screws.

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Not sure. I've requested info on the floor. I'm pretty sure it's concrete underneath, there is an underground parking structure and I believe 3 floors above that. I need to make sure there are no post tension cables, I don't want to drill into the floor and create a catastrophe.

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