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Other aspects: Hard to think but disposable income hardly ever goes UP as you get older. I used to be able to save and spend all the money I made as a teenager when my housing, food and medical bills were covered by my parents. Now I see a tiny fraction of what I make with a house and family depending on me.

On the other hand when you are young you generally will move about a bit and shipping a good sized shop is a painful and expensive ordeal. Took more than a full flat bed semi load my last move---OUCH!

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KYBoyy - You need to gold to breed gold... :( Yep, a power hammer will be a game-changer. If you want to work efficiently as a one-man shop, it's pretty much essential unless you stick with small-sized work.

Oh, I agree..That $3800 wasnt easy to come buy..I sold a large portion of a very nice knife collection to help fund it..
When we got married I sold off about a half dozen of my gun collection..None worth less than a $1000 dollars..Didnt want to but to see my new wife happy and to have a comfortable start I did it..then as soon as we were on level ground my wonderful wife started buying me new guns for the collection..
Lisa shoots,fishs, hunts and smiths..What a woman!
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Your list is too long!
Make a list no more than three items long. I personally cannot handle "to do" lists more than two items long.


Haha, my list is probably 300 items long. I'm a textbook ADHD case and that's how I need to work. I jump around from thing to thing way too much, so having a really long to-do list helps me stay productive when I get bored with what I'm working on. Works for me in the end. I also have a very "get all set first" mentality, which has worked out fine for me so far but won't continue to do so for too much longer. It usually means spending most of my time building and buying equipment (which is fortunately my favorite part of this anyway), but this years goal is to transition my shop from a hobby to a job, so I'll need to work pretty hard to start making more things that actually leave the shop. Doesn't help that I have a big shop space right now, all I ever think about is filling it with more tools...
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KYBOY - A good wife is indeed the greatest boon a man can have in business or in life in general. I'm looking forward to when I get to have one in a year or two (depending on her schooling schedule). :)

Joshua M - Yep, pretty much. I still stand by my recommendation of an Appalachian-style, but a DePew-style helve hammer can be put together with a minimum of welding. This one was built by an Iforgeiron member a few years back (I think) and I saved it to my files:

helve5-1.jpg

helve6-1.jpg

Something like that could be conceivably built using heavy timbers and bolted construction with very little fabrication. Your cost in materials would be less than getting a 25 Little Giant in need of repair. But it would need work on your part and a bit of mechanical skill (which is a good thing to have as a blacksmith) to do. Balances, pros and cons. Pick what works for you.

By the by, Grant's Junkyard Hammer whose video I put up earlier is a variation of this design as well. There were commercial versions available. This picture was also snagged from earlier posts on Iforgeiron:

depews.jpg

There was also video at one point, but it got lost in some forum computer troubles, I think.

Just trying to show you options. Time, money, and talent are required to make stuff, but a shortage in one area can be made up for int he other two. :) So if you have less money than time and talent right now, perhaps another route is the way to go.

By the way, these hammers are running heads that weigh 10 lbs or less, meaning that a scavenged 1/2 hp motor will run them just dandily and the anvil portion can weigh only 100 lbs. Stick a couple of handles on the side a la the Ark of the Covenant and you and a buddy could move it around. They hit very fast, relying on the acceleration part of Force = mass x acceleration.

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I would like to remind everyone that this young, ambitious man, is 15. He may have a very difficult time getting the funds together to get a mechanical hammer like a Little Giant.

I commend you on getting your things together, but don't forget to be patient. You have a long way to go yet. Take things in order and do one thing till its finished before moving on to the next. You will do very well.

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  • 1 month later...
This one was built by an Iforgeiron member a few years back (I think) and I saved it to my files: helve5-1.jpghelve6-1.jpg


Nice little helve... has anyone owned up to owning or designing that little jewel... or is there anymore info available on it ? Great machine

I could build that with the metal laying around my shop and use one of the commercial sewing machine motors with a clutch for power. I like it, but without any measurements or scale in the photos it's still an easy construction even if you had to guess at size... It looks to be about 40-44 inches tall...?
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KYBOY - A good wife is indeed the greatest boon a man can have in business or in life in general. I'm looking forward to when I get to have one in a year or two (depending on her schooling schedule). :)

Joshua M - Yep, pretty much. I still stand by my recommendation of an Appalachian-style, but a DePew-style helve hammer can be put together with a minimum of welding. This one was built by an Iforgeiron member a few years back (I think) and I saved it to my files:

helve5-1.jpg

helve6-1.jpg

Something like that could be conceivably built using heavy timbers and bolted construction with very little fabrication. Your cost in materials would be less than getting a 25 Little Giant in need of repair. But it would need work on your part and a bit of mechanical skill (which is a good thing to have as a blacksmith) to do. Balances, pros and cons. Pick what works for you.

By the by, Grant's Junkyard Hammer whose video I put up earlier is a variation of this design as well. There were commercial versions available. This picture was also snagged from earlier posts on Iforgeiron:

depews.jpg

There was also video at one point, but it got lost in some forum computer troubles, I think.

Just trying to show you options. Time, money, and talent are required to make stuff, but a shortage in one area can be made up for int he other two. :) So if you have less money than time and talent right now, perhaps another route is the way to go.

By the way, these hammers are running heads that weigh 10 lbs or less, meaning that a scavenged 1/2 hp motor will run them just dandily and the anvil portion can weigh only 100 lbs. Stick a couple of handles on the side a la the Ark of the Covenant and you and a buddy could move it around. They hit very fast, relying on the acceleration part of Force = mass x acceleration.


This!
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Since I posted the original questions... I managed to search the www and found the video of the Depew hammer in operation...just not at any of the links in any of the various threads I viewed.

It's pretty obvious that some time ago the forum lost a lot of information that was never saved or restored. From several threads with comments about the homebuilt version of the Depew and the plans in the blueprint area it's obvious those blueprints as well as others were also lost... I was thinking someone might read this thread that had saved the plans... I do this a lot and have plans dating back more than a couple of years ago. If no one saved them that's fine... I'm pretty sure I'm bright enough to wing it with the pics and the patent drawings of the original Depew hammer I found and then saved.

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Joshua;
I smithed for 10 years before getting a 50lb LG and a treadle hammer. And made some good money. Not great money but enough to buy other stuff.
Most of my work was for muzzleloaders and Ren Fair types and a few Craft shows and county fairs.
I had a coal forge that was portable and an 80lb Hay Budden anvil. This outfit was light enough to get in and out of the garage and load on a trailor as I did a lot of rendevious and reinactments.
Once I got the LG my work scope changed and I started doing heavier and more elaborite pieces.
When I moved to Oregon I left the LG with my good friend and blacksmithing partner.
I am now trying to do iron art. OH BOY!!!!.
And I am replacing the LG with a Kinyon style that I am building myself.
I think what I am trying to say is that things change and your intrest or the market changes.
A power hammer is nice to have and makes a big difference if you are doing heavy work or production.
But you don't have to have one to have fun or to make money. An induction forge would be very nice. Do you need one at this stage of the game? Start with the basics. Have some fun, make a little money. Save it. When the chance comes for a good deal jump on it. The self contained hammers are nice if you don't need a compressor for anything else, but if you use air for anything else you might look at building one. Check with the metal shop instructor at your school. It would make a great school project. If you are intrested I will donate my plans for the new style Kinyon hammer to you when I am finished building mine.
Whatever you decied to do, have fun and learn all you can from as many of the fine smiths out there.

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My apologies mudbugone, I don't mean to sound offensive or short, my inflection through type has been called by some who don't know me personally as abrasive. I was posting my "this!" comment directed towards Josh, who i have had a running discussion about powerhammers both on this thread and off for months now. I deleted my comment as it was taken incorrectly, and i am sorry.

It makes perfect sense to suggest those that hammer by just those pictures, it's not ideal no but there doesn't exist perfect plans for everything, even the original blueprint was more a set of guidelines then a set of plans, seeing as how like most junkyard hammers are built with what is available to the builder you cannot really make a set of plans. It was more a teach a man to fish type thing hehe.

Please stick around and continue to contribute, it is welcome and awesome.

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My apologies mudbugone, I don't mean to sound offensive or short, my inflection through type has been called by some who don't know me personally as abrasive. I was posting my "this!" comment directed towards Josh, who i have had a running discussion about powerhammers both on this thread and off for months now. I deleted my comment as it was taken incorrectly, and i am sorry.

It makes perfect sense to suggest those that hammer by just those pictures, it's not ideal no but there doesn't exist perfect plans for everything, even the original blueprint was more a set of guidelines then a set of plans, seeing as how like most junkyard hammers are built with what is available to the builder you cannot really make a set of plans. It was more a teach a man to fish type thing hehe.

Please stick around and continue to contribute, it is welcome and awesome.

i do like the idea of that hammer, with my connections to the guys at my local steel supplyer i could probs get all the steel for under $50, with extra..... and i already have some 4140 for dies
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After searching the internet pretty hard... In addition to finding the video of the DePew helve I finally found the instructions for building the above homemade helve copy...

http://www.iforgeiron.com/page/index.html/_/blueprints/100-series/bp0159-helve-hammer-r390

Not sure why this can't be accessed thru the forum,but I was able to circumvent the problems and found it.... Perhaps someone can use it or hopefully it can be restored so it's where others could find it without such BS...

I had no idea it was so small... the helve beam is a 2x4... somehow that just does not seem heavy enough. I'm more than a little familiar with wood and a modern 2x4 is a POS wood...Maybe something hand hewn in those dimensions would be a more substantial helve over a store bought 2x4...or one of the manufactured stranded pieces of lumber. I just keep getting the image of a splintered helve using such light duty lumber. A "parallam beam/post" cut to size would hold up better be safer and stay straight.

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Hard maple is the wood of choice for helves. My 40# bradley has a 7x6 inch maple helve thats is about 7 feet long. I have tried other wood with no success. Of course it needs to be free of knots and other defects and glued up from 2 or 3 pieces to be the best. The 125# Bradley is about 4x5x 40 and is one piece (not glue up) it is factory part may be 80 years old still great. Oak and osage orange were really bad didn't last long at al. Don't waste your time and money with anything other than hard maple.

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This might be a suitable source for a 36" piece of rough sawn 2x4 hard maple http://smith-lumber....products_id=139 should be clear grained.

Considering the quality of most lumber now days I still think the parallam manufactured strand beam would furnish a better alternative (especially in larger sized helve beams)... the strength and stability of the product far exceeds most as harvested lumber. A hundred years ago things were quite different. I'd almost prefer a beam that I'd built myself by laminating it up from thinner pieces to make a suitable helve. The link above though is probably suitable material for this size helve considering it's hand selected for a specific use. That's IF a 36" piece will work on this machine which seems to be shorter than that.

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