nuge Posted March 19, 2010 Share Posted March 19, 2010 Thanks a (quarter) ton for posting this doubleD. Real neat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Browne Posted March 19, 2010 Share Posted March 19, 2010 It seems I am getting sticky spots on the belt and residue left on the pulleys, from oil? I haven't used any belt dressing and have scuffed the belt a couple times to prevent it from chirping, as it warms up it tends to get worse. The guy I bought it from was cleaning it with windex, maybe what has caused the problem. I am getting closer to finishing a jack shaft, and will be raising the whole machine 3", its always something, but it will be worth it! Mike, I'm currently running a nylon backed leather belt with GREAT results on my 100 Bradley compact. Prior to this, I was having horrible chirping and control problems using one of the rubber impregnated cloth belts. As Nazelhammer mentioned earlier, it makes a difference in the pulley type you are using. I am running an aluminum motor pulley and the chirping would get much worse as the pulley heated up. On long forging days the pulley would get hot enough to melt some of the rubber in the belt causing more grabbing and chirping. I think it may have been a thread on this or one of the other forums that directed me to the Baltimore belt Co where a very knowledgeable salesperson steered me to the nylon/leather belt. The hammer now runs like a dream and no more screeching/chirping/grabbing or over heated pulleys. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jason0012 Posted March 19, 2010 Share Posted March 19, 2010 Why do some smiths dislike Bradleys? Well, for some jobs the Bradley is not the best hammer. I have run a 100# upright since '95 and it is one of the best hammers I have ever run. That said , some jobs it is not in its element. It has about the same stroke, and flexibility of the 25# little giant I used to have. Punching, splitting, drifting, upsetting, and any work that involves lots of tooling or big changes in cross section are kind of touchy on this hammer. Not impossible mind you, but more difficult. My Bradley also has about 8" of adjustment to its stroke that the little giant didn't have. I am quite used to changing the space between the dies on my hammer, a task those air hammer enthusiasts wouldn't be accustomed to. The Bradley really shines though when a lot of metal has to be moved fast, it draws like no other hammer! The massive guides make it possible to put some very specialised tooling on the Bradley as well. It may be the only hammer that was truly engineered from the beginning to handle the strain of combination dies! Bradley hammers were designed for production work, all day, everyday. Mine is 107 years old and still running strong! They do take up more floor space than a little giant, but for the full time shop will run a little giant under on just about every job. With any machine in the shop, the more you know about it the more you can get out of it. The absolute worst thing about Bradley's seems to be their obscurity! My hammer runs on a belt the local supplier called a "Tobacco Belt" it is a rubber/canvas composite that is smooth on both sides. It really doesn't squeak much but I have broken a few belts! One of my observations in the video was that the operator was standing next to the belt. I do hope there is a gaurd on the belt. It is absolutely no fun getting hit with the belt off of my hammer, I would imagine the 500 would whomp you a hell of a lot harder! I always run mine from the other side( seemed weird at first) It took getting smacked in the head a few times to make me switch. The only dressing I have used was the spray on type. The hammer seems to gain some HP with a squirt of the sticky stuff. The belt grabs better and it seems that the hammer runs faster and hits harder. I only rarely notice belt slip, and it usually when the hammer is very cold. I did notice when I first set the hammer in my shop that the drive pulley was glazed with some sort of rosin that seemed to cause it to want to slip. I worked it over with the 41/2" grinder( just scuffed the glaze) and all the old garbage seemed to peel off. The pulley is now bright and shinny bare metal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dillon Sculpture Posted March 20, 2010 Author Share Posted March 20, 2010 I have seemed to clear up the issue with the belt, I have just kept cleaning a deglazing until It stooped the chirping. I have run over half of the 200 post and have found roughing them out on the 500 and finishing on the 250 is choice. I am averaging 3 1/2 minutes per post of forging. One heat with the NC six burner is barely keeping up with 4 in at a time, just reaching a orange heat. Jason, I would hate to get hit by that belt thanks for the tip, it is 8" wide 1/4" thick and weighs about 25#. I would like to eventually forge from the front of the machine, I'm working on making some new dies, right now I just need to finish this job. When do you think you'll have your 300 running? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dillon Sculpture Posted March 27, 2010 Author Share Posted March 27, 2010 Finished my posts yesterday, 200 pc. of 1 1/4" by 30" forged to 44" octagon. A lot like work but hey this one side job almost payed for my last acquisition. The enerpac press is 30 ton high pressure, it is normally on the floor but I got tired of sitting down to use it, I may have to make the hight change permanent, where do you guys find the height comfortable for a press? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dillon Sculpture Posted March 31, 2010 Author Share Posted March 31, 2010 They are rail pickets going down a stair, the fabricator has a big blue but didn't want to attempt to forge them on the hammer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Gilmore Posted March 31, 2010 Share Posted March 31, 2010 Did you draw them to 3/4" oct. and leave about 10" at 1 1/4" on the bottom? Flat dies? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dillon Sculpture Posted April 1, 2010 Author Share Posted April 1, 2010 I would say about 80% of its speed, but the eccentric cam that controls the stroke was set at its lowest point 3, meaning a short snappy blow. It has a numbered setting to 9 which increases its stroke three fold, with the extra stoke it will land a very heavy thump at the same speed. My dies are flat on the bottom with a 3/8" crown on half the length of the top, still leaving me plenty of tooling and straightening room on the 12" of total length. Good eye on the post Glen your dead on, give or take a 1/16". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dillon Sculpture Posted April 1, 2010 Author Share Posted April 1, 2010 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jason0012 Posted April 1, 2010 Share Posted April 1, 2010 I have ( on two occasions) forged 5" square 4140 on my 100# so that 500 can go a lot bigger than that! 5" would be within the normal range for a 500 I think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freddie Posted July 16, 2010 Share Posted July 16, 2010 We have drawings for rubbers that we got from Courtland Machine because they gave up on making rubbers because of the hassle involved. They’re a machine shop not rubber manufactures. We hooked up with a rubber manufacture that has the right rubber formula for Bradley’s. The rubber is the same used on aircraft carrier arresting gear. To have new rubbers made for your 500 it could possibly cost more than you paid for your hammer. Nazelhammers: I'd be interested in getting the rubber cushion drawings for my 75# Bradley, if you can provide. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patrick Posted July 16, 2010 Share Posted July 16, 2010 My hammer is very similar to Danger Dillion's. The tag on mine say "300" but the ram weighs in a 460#. I'm not sure if it came from the factory that way or if a previous owner put a heavy ram in it, but I have run into another 300 with a heavy ram like mine. I have forged 4" square on one occasion to make a replacemt heel for a 180# anvil. I decided to make the replacement a square taper rather than the typical london patter. Job was done in two heats and most of the last heat was refining and tweaking. I have on several occassions upset 3" round by 6" long sections of 4340 to make special dye blanks. I typically run my hammer with the longest stroke as that gives me the most flexibility of workpiece size range, but if I need to get additinal space between the dies for an upsetting or tooling job I can shorten the stroke and gain several inches. Lately, I've been making custom dies for my hammer to allow me to forge specific sizes of flat bar, usually 0.210" or 0.375" thick. I am forging to within about 0.010" tolerance on these jobs. This is small scale production of mokume for a regular customer with some pretty common sizes so it makes sense to create tooling for his work. The first die I made will for 0.210" thickness in a range of sizes from 1.0" to 1.5" by 1/8" increments. I sure nice to have all of those sizes in one tool. I am working on a new die for th same thinknes but widths in the 2.5-3.0" range. Bradley's really are a manufacturer's tool and you see that when you get into repetitive work like the mokume I've been doing or the spidles the D. Dillon has recently described. In industry, Bradley's often had custom dies for swaging, drawing, edging, pointing etc. Based on what I've seen of a few buisnesses that ran Bradleys and closed in the last few years, flat dies were actually the exception and form or shape dies the standard. Patrick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nakedanvil - Grant Sarver Posted July 17, 2010 Share Posted July 17, 2010 I remember an auction in Illinois 25 years or so ago, drop forge shop with four rows of mostly board drop hammers in varying sizes. Shop must have been nearly 1/4 mile long. Next to most of the drop hammers was a Bradley. Used to draw or block out the stock prior to drop forging. I think Bradley sold thousands of hammers into that kind of 24/7 operation, only hammer made that was up to that kind of service. Later many shops replaced them with Ruduceroll roll forging machines for prepping. It's rare for this kind of shop to fiddle with selling an old machine, they just call the scrapper. They wrote 'em off long time ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nakedanvil - Grant Sarver Posted July 17, 2010 Share Posted July 17, 2010 I've always told people to get real leather belts for slack-belt clutching. If you have the idler on the correct side of the drive, they are simply wonderful! The nylon backed ones eliminate the only flaw in leather - stretching out when new. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clinton Posted July 17, 2010 Share Posted July 17, 2010 I've always told people to get real leather belts for slack-belt clutching. If you have the idler on the correct side of the drive, they are simply wonderful! The nylon backed ones eliminate the only flaw in leather - stretching out when new. At .66 cents a square inch a four inch x 72 inch belt = $190.00 or the rubber canvas belting @ $4.00/ Ft x 6 Ft = $24.00 Hmmm I think I will stick with the cheap stuff Also what would be the correct side of the drive? Can you explain this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dillon Sculpture Posted July 17, 2010 Author Share Posted July 17, 2010 Clinton, the belt needs to travel from the motor passed the idler to the drive wheel, otherwise it will just be pushing out on the idler and not grabbing the drive wheel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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