Actually since I've worked on this thing the ram wasn't that hard to make so if it wears out in a few months oh well . Il go ahead and build new ram with plastic guides. I also thought about putting some bolts through side of ram and maybe take out the tiny bit of looseness but I'm hoping the small space will be filled with grease. I'm just glad to have it this far along I've tried to do everything right so the spring isn't stuck in my brain while giving it a test run . Lol

1/16 (.0625") of slop kinda seems like a lot to me.  The dies will be out of parallel because of this, in the very least shim until you get it where you want if possible.  Excess slop may possibly work as a lever against welded or mechanically joined parts.  Think of how the ram is being pushed though the guide and where the pressure is placed.  The pressure being pushed in one spot is going to be a lot harder on your machine than the pressure being distributed over a larger area.

 

Don't rush what you are doing, it is better to do something right the first time and have it last your lifetime (or at least a long, serviceable life) than it is to rush something and have it fall apart the first few times you use it.  Although lessons are easy to learn, the loss of time and a possible injury are hard to forgive yourself for just to see something move.

This is true DD and I was thinking of some way to shim it for the moment . It will aggravate me not having it right. It seem like when its on the upstroke that the spring binds a little on the roller bolts. But I haven't greased the ram at all yet til I get all the dies and welding done.

Here are some dies I made up today out of s7 tool steel . Thank goodness for angle grinders cauz this stuff was HARD LOL.BUT I think they shall do well for the moment I'm gona make fuller dies next for stretching and fullering hammer heads

Finally finished krusty rusty dusty lol . Havent got to forge yet it hits around 160 bpm from what I've calculated. I went ahead and bought a new 2 hp motor which powers it great . I fixed all the play in the ram and actually plan to add about 20 lbs. To the ram . It weighs about 28 lbs. As is . I plan to bolt 6 by 6 s wood together and make a base and add weight my anvil weighs 260lbs. . Hits hard from what I can tell but i will let u know after a test run on steel.

Nice stuff.

When is the video going to be up?

Hopefully this weekend il try to do some forging as you can see in the pics I need to take about 3 hours and clean out my building I've got to clean a spot where it can stay permanently . I tryed sliding this machine with me and my wife and we couldn't budge it lol. I'm gona have to get a few buddies together if I make a base for it cauz this thing would blow two people a hernia quick I would say around 700 lbs. As it sits

Very nice build.  The only thing I'd do different would be to use that hornless anvil in the background as the anvil for the hammer.  With the convenience of the hardy hole, you could easily swap out offset lower dies for a bunch of different operations, and leave the top die flat.

 

Can't wait to see how she runs.

That's funny you mentioned that because its a peter wright I found at scrap yard for 20 buks even. And I origionally planned on using it but I wanted the weight of that 6by6 solid steel post . And I think I might make dies that will slide in but I gotta do some forging before I work on this thing anymore I've neglected the forge for weeks months to work on this in spare time