December 10, 200916 yr Dillon Forge - Blacksmith Niles Bement Pond steam hammer running on a 400 cfm deutz diesel air compressor. The 750 lb head has a 24" stroke at 100 beats a minute. The two forgings in the video were built as a vessel #7 and a kinetic sculpture "Dyinocus"
December 10, 200916 yr What size stock are you using for these pieces? Also- How is the Bradley running? How would you compare it to the Niles? Patrick
December 11, 200916 yr I like that kinetic sculpture a lot, very nice. What is the big end made of, wood, metal, stone? P.S. If anyone is interested I still have two Niles-Bement-Pond 1,100# hammers for sale. I'm not getting any younger and neither are they.
December 11, 200916 yr Author What size stock are you using for these pieces? Also- How is the Bradley running? How would you compare it to the Niles? Patrick Patrick, About 4 Edited December 11, 200916 yr by Danger Dillon
December 11, 200916 yr Author I like that kinetic sculpture a lot, very nice. What is the big end made of, wood, metal, stone? P.S. If anyone is interested I still have two Niles-Bement-Pond 1,100# hammers for sale. I'm not getting any younger and neither are they. Marble counter weight about 200 lbs.
December 12, 200916 yr Man I want a big hammer..... Nice looking stuff.... Stuff worked under a big hammer just has that fluid organic feel... even if its a industrial thing. I am toying with the idea of building a big crank hammer from scratch.. maybe 1000 lb.... I have a friend who has a 500lb Little Giant... I figured I could scale and fabricate.... maybe when I retire Anyway I like... I think those free form play sessions is how you come up with a signature style
December 12, 200916 yr Hey Danger, Can I come and play at your house-my little 110 lb hammer just doesn't have enough punch. Nice work- your kinetec sculpture is cool. Mark Emig
December 12, 200916 yr Well Dangerman, looks like that machine has a treadle. You'll get about the same effect using the treadle as the way your "driver" is currently running the hammer. Usually a driver uses the motion valve more with each blow to control the stroking of the hammer. Running "automatic" you're getting about half the blow force of "driving" the hammer. Still a lot of force for sure.
December 15, 200916 yr Author Well Dangerman, looks like that machine has a treadle. You'll get about the same effect using the treadle as the way your "driver" is currently running the hammer. Usually a driver uses the motion valve more with each blow to control the stroking of the hammer. Running "automatic" you're getting about half the blow force of "driving" the hammer. Still a lot of force for sure. From your video "My little hammer" it looks to be a considerable blow with superb control. Built and tried to use the foot control without much success. I belive the air bypass is key to the operation by foot but I am not clear about how to link the control valve. It seems you would get movement in the control valve if it was not tagged down? Any clarification in the linkage would be greatly appreciated. Michael
January 15, 201016 yr Author As you know its all about control. Walk up to the machine, dies are closed, try to supply just enough air to raise the ram, very difficult. Remedy supply air to the control valve, but where? The middle I am guessing. My biggest question is the linkage of the ram position control, what the hey? If you don't tag it down wont the ram push it back and forth? Thanks, I know there would be only two steam hammers with this set up but I swear I wont start make blacksmith tools, just want to pound big stuff.
January 16, 201016 yr Gather roun' chillen, and Grandpa will tell you a story bout how things were back before the turn of the century. I'll give you all the help I can Danger, that's what I do I guess. First things first. Get that sucker to stand at attention. Gotta be careful here, ya know in the 80's Chambersburg started making their self-contained hammer so the ram was down when you stepped up to them, LIABILITY! Their lawyers stared designing their hammers. So, what I tell you is what "I" do and have done, not instructions for what you should do. I drilled a hole in the valve chest after the throttle valve but before the motion valve. I tapped it for 1" pipe and screwed in an elbow. This was connected by a 1" hose to a ball-cock mounted conveniently near the front of the hammer so I could reach it with my left hand. The other side of the valve was just connected to the air supply. This gave me perfect control of the park or idle position of the ram. Often had to tinker with it due to variations in the air supply or the vaguerities of the throttle. As you saw from the video, often I like the hammer to be “idling” up and down a little when I address it. Maybe just me, but sometimes they will just “stall” when you open the throttle and you gotta tickle them a little to get em stroking. No good explanation, but my hammer used less air that way too, as opposed to holding in the up position. Also allows you to jump on the treadle when the hammer is going up, and get a pretty decent single blow. Tune it tomorrow to learn how Timmy gets out of the well.
January 16, 201016 yr This is getting exciting! I cant wait to see what happens next! This is so much better than reality TV...
January 17, 201016 yr Watchin that hammer......got me ALL excited LOL.......I need a larger hammer to scale up my work. I've been doing a LOT of cold forging of non ferrous.....and after seeing that 750.........I may not be able to sleep tonight I've never seen a BIG hammer with fullering dies......but I image they are out there. Beautiful forgings, Michael.
February 16, 201016 yr Author Found some drawings, I guess this is much more involved that your setup Grant. By the way I like your avatars new look, did you cut your hair?DImg.tiffDImg-2.tiff
February 17, 201016 yr Dillon have you seen the Lillico book. It gives you an idea of how they used to block out big forgings with an open die steam hammer. It is illuminating. It gives you a nice appreciation for volume. Have you seen the Clifton Ralph power hammer videos? You can also get videos cheap from UMBA and they have Clifton, Kurt Ferrenbach, and Steve Parker demoing at an IBA Conference. That particular video shows you some interesting bits of "Furniture" to get you the angles to get certain blows, not to mention setting up for doing bending on a hammer. This year the last weekend in June, Clifton and Kurt will be demoing on a 400# Chambesburg run on Steam! should be a good show Tipton, Indiana a short drive North of Indianapolis;-) Christian Husband Father Blacksmith Farrier Farmer The rest just gets in the way... ;-)
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