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Thanks again Alan, I am very lucky to have the advice here in these pages! I had the feeling that may happen but couldn't figure a way to make it work? Springs, cams, toothpaste... Got fed up and ant straight for the direct approach. I should have plenty of room to bore the holes for the 7/8" bolt and some hose, great idea.

 

Patrick, I am really not comfortable with holding a tool of that size (near 100lbs.) as well have had spring tooling move offset under the hammer which could mess up the work or myself  :unsure: But my inexperience with industrial forging may be my worst enemy I also think it shepherds invention and creativity. I would love to hang out at Scot Forge for a week or two, I would bring all my own safety gear including the plaid jacket! 

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 It will be interesting to see if you find you need to modify the fixings, a bit of clearance and it will probably be okay.

 

At one time I used to think being self taught was a draw back, then I came to believe that maybe it was an advantage...that if I was always reinventing the wheel, maybe just maybe, I would come up with a new variation that nobody else had. This reassured me for a while, until I realised that it doesn't have to be mutually exclusive…you could be just as inventive on top of handed down experience and knowledge and get there a lot quicker…drat and double drat! :)

 

"Necessity breeding invention" is all very well but it is much more relaxing and efficient to be knowledgable. :)

 

Anyway I have just done a meals on wheels delivery to my Mum and popped into the forge to take a couple of photos of the rubber flexi-mount, though it seems you both got the idea from the description…maybe you got an even better idea from the description, and this is a poor second!

 

Alan

 

post-9203-0-29809700-1410119837_thumb.jppost-9203-0-40953700-1410119939_thumb.jp

 

PS strange the second image uploaded contra rotated 90º... you will just have to turn your heads anti-clockwise until a mod. comes along!

Edited by Alan Evans
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Lillico was/is pretty much my starting point too. I have learned a bit from an industrial smith, Richard Lewis, who helped make some of my larger projects. Other than Lillico, probably the most concentrated single source has been that I have sat through the 10 hours of Clifton Ralph's videos a few times now…each time is repaid with new insights. Although there is an awful lot of repeat forging to sit through he is talking much of the time and keeps coming up with useful info…you have to listen hard!

 

I have spent many happy hours with Clifton at the various ABANA conferences I have been too. He sat through my demonstrations at Saint Louis Obispo and afterwards I noticed this guy inspecting my power hammer tooling. I think it passed! Clifton was then introduced to me by Bob Bergman, another knowledgeable source, who actually gave me a dedicated copy of Lillico. Bob had stayed with me for a while on his European trip. Clifton and I talked quite a lot…well mainly he talked and I listened, and some of it was about blacksmithing. :)

 

The hammer in the photographs is the largest I have in the forge, a 3cwt Alldays and Onions. I had used a Blacker (around 25kg/45lbs and a 50kg Reiter for a few years, 99% of the time I used them direct with cheese fullers as you have just made. I did make up a drop on flat bottom plate which enabled me to do offset forging. I  have a 5cwt Massey in the yard just hanging around, casual like! One day...

 

A year or two before I installed the 3cwt I picked up a beautiful little 1cwt Alldays and Onions and that introduced me to the joys of flat pallets and spring or other loose tools. I pretty much pushed the start button and with Lillico in one hand and a lump of metal in the other…quite a different mind set to direct forging.

 

Alan

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Ah yes Clifton, I had his videos when they were on cassette! I got a couple on cd but loan them out and they never returned, I guess I need to order another set. It is interesting that when he entered the trade it was very secretive and he felt excluded. His dedication to the work and his sharing of that knowledge makes him for sure the #1 source fro industrial smithing in my book.

 

I look forward to more of your post on hammer tooling and the work that you produce Alan, thanks again. 

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Oops! Thats a big hole... Finally, what brought me to IFI years ago was information from the late great Mr. Sarver about his "little" steam hammer. Full circle now and I am installing both my 750 and 200 in the shop. Cut and excavated the holes last week and I am building the rebar cages with the hopes of getting some mud this coming week. I also will be adding the modifications Grant used to on his hammer if I can figure it out...

 

Nice hole, it is very big!

From the looks of the sides both of these holes the excavator operator is a artist.

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I also had a 2cwt Massey until last year when I decided that realistically I would not use it and let Benprothero on here have it. I still have hopes for the 5cwt when some money turns up! But having a perfectly serviceable 3cwt Alldays in the old shop does rather diminish the urgency...

 

Do you mean that the Googlemail spam trap will not protect me? :)

 

It is non-use rather than ab-use. If I hadn't bought it, it may have gone to that big fire in the sky….

 

Alan

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  • 2 weeks later...

Billet, Billet, Billet... My favorite words  :D  Making progress, super sized the forge blower, cutting some heat time. Fullers worked great, hammer driver is getting better and I had a surprise visiter dress in green. 

 

Very good, could you post a picture of the inside of your furnace sometime? What burner do you use/ have you tried one of the annular mixing chamber type?

 

 

Now all you need is a rotating manipulator/grapple to mount on the fork carriage and you are away!

 

Probably like every other blacksmith in the world I always lusted after the loader that Sigourney Weaver used to wrestle the beast at the end of Aliens.

 

With one of those you could just pick up an orange hot billet from the fire and twist and tweak and bend and squish and poke a finger through it…..oooh gives me goosebumps! :)

 

Alan

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Well I see a de moor (200 kg-approximately 5cwt) has come up for sale in Johannesburg at R40 000 less than $4000

 

I was puzzled by your photograph. The hammer appears to be installed bolted down but very close to and on the wrong side of an outside wall?

 

Does the anvil block go down into the inertia block like on a Massey Clearspace or the Alldays and Onions? 

 

Alan

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Thats a beast Ian, what kind weight is the tup? 

 

Alan, the lift rolled in the shop for a slight modification. After pulling it around to the front of the steam hammer I see no other way than to build a manipulator! It is power drive, 2 ton capacity with tilt. Even if it doesn't stay in the shop a rental is right down the road. 

 

The quick and dirty would be manual rotation with a weld on receiver. I have three 4' sections of 6" to forge approaching 500 lbs. each! Will try and knock one out this week...

 

The Johnson has a manifold with 4- 1/8" slits around 4" long that deliver the forge the mix. The larger blower is stronger but I think it is still restricted by the slits. I may have to open them up. It took about an 80 min. to get 20" billet hot starting a dead cold forge. After the brick soaked in, I figure about 40 min. I will be making a different top from fiber board and lining the inside which should help with the soak out.

 

This pic is hard to see but the bottom ports come from the side the full length of the forge.

 

"Get away from her you @#$%&" -Ripley  :ph34r:

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Hi all, that little hammer isn't mine and has come up on a site similar to eBay. That one looks like a 70's version. Mine is a 1926 model same size but made when they put more 'detail' in the castings. Alan it does look a bit close to the wall :) otherwise you 'know' Africa isn't for sissies so why not work outside :) and yes the anvil sits on an inertia block. Never weighed the tup and I don't think I would be able to pick it up(we don't get 'Wheaties' here) 240lbs?

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  • 2 months later...

First post from me in several years. I installed my Niles Bement 800. I know Michael has been calling his a 750 but the factory literature I found says 800. I have it running on a 125 cfm diesel screw compressor with a 1000 gallon reserve tank. I need more like 400 cfms because I can only run it continually for about a minute. I can run it single blow style a lot longer.

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  • 4 weeks later...

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