November 8, 20169 yr Hi folks, I've got a little cute power hammer (pics see below) with a 165 lb ram. The only dies i have are simple flat dies. The cutie was built in 1978 in Russia so there are no other original dies available. Other dies from recent manufacturers with the same ram mass are much too small. So I got the hint to use hand tools but the hammer has so much power that i can't hold any tool workable. That's why I tried to make some dies i can mount on the original ones. I took some 10mm steel plate, fitted it to the dies and welded a half cutted 50mm rod on it to build a drawing die. I tried to "clamp" the DIY ones an the dies with screws, but the one on the ram just didn't want to hold. So now I'm searching for two things: 1) Methods for fastening the DIY dies. How do you fasten your selfmade ones? 2) Shapes of workable dies. Which shapes of dies do you use wherefor? I'm really dying to see you creations! Many thanks in advance!!!!
November 8, 20169 yr Now the fun starts! Download a copy of Lillico from the Hereford college website. Make a frame to attach a pice of 50mm box section at one end of the bottom pallet, use this hardy hole to locate your various direct forging tools. These can be either spring tools or bottom profiles. Each one requires a piece of 40mm box section welded to it as a hardy peg....lternatively drift the 50mm box section out with a 40mm square drift and use 40mm solid for the tool hardy pegs. I wrote about a firm/flexible fixing system here for attaching direct tools to top and bottom pallets... http://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/27911-steam-hammers/?page=20#comment-406040 The whole thread was interesting unfortunately many of the images seem to have got lost. The added fullers that were mentioned are shown here... http://dillonsculpture.tumblr.com/post/106060265305/overtime-in-santas-workshop This image shows my rubber tube mount plus the fullers. It also shows the bolt on hardy hole, and flip over spacer system. and in the background on the floor shows some composite drop on tools for specific projects. The most useful tooling system I found for my 50kg (110lb) Reiter direct forging hammer, which had a stroke of 200mm and therefore not much height for top tools...was a pair of cheese fuller drawing dies and a drop-on mild steel table which was around 175mm (7") square. Alan
November 8, 20169 yr Author Hi Alan, thanks for your post! I've got a similar system to mount my spacers (pics following, thought I had some on my phone..). I already thought about using the spring fullers often shown in several post. But don't they have just exactly one point (equals one distance) where the faces are exactly parallel?! 36 minutes ago, Alan Evans said: The whole thread was interesting unfortunately many of the images seem to have got lost. Yeah, seems to be a general problem. Many interesting posts lost most of the pics.
November 8, 20169 yr 15 minutes ago, c.baum said: Hi Alan, thanks for your post! I've got a similar system to mount my spacers (pics following, thought I had some on my phone..). I already thought about using the spring fullers often shown in several post. But don't they have just exactly one point (equals one distance) where the faces are exactly parallel?! Yeah, seems to be a general problem. Many interesting posts lost most of the pics. A new concept must be learnt with flat pallet work...the top tool will conform to the surface of the top pallet so they will be parallel when under load at any height...the spring will allow both height and axial movement...until a weld fails, which is par for the course....I find a wide and thin spring is most effective, the thinness gives for flexibility and little stress/work hardening; the wide gives good location and keeps the tools in line. Alan
November 8, 20169 yr Author 48 minutes ago, Alan Evans said: the top tool will conform to the surface of the top pallet that's an interesting statement. Which dimensions should the spring have at its cross-sectional area?I could imagine that the spring needs to be very very thin to support the movement of the top tool. 5mm thickness might be almost too thick in my eyes.
November 8, 20169 yr It tends to be what is on the rack...but I have them from 30x5mm up to 50x6mm I think...not at the forge today so can't measure. You can always make them longer if they are thicker. All my top tool handles are 30x5mm-ish...it takes the sting out if you have them tilted when the tup comes down. If made from square or round I would forge a flat area to act as a flexi-hinge to do the same job. Doesn't take many thumps to prompt invention! The flat spreads any pressure over your hand and is therefore more comfortable than the narrow contact from a square or round. Alan
November 15, 20169 yr On 11/8/2016 at 4:45 AM, Alan Evans said: Now the fun starts! Download a copy of Lillico from the Hereford college website. Alan, I don't see anything on the HC website, nor does the google search for "Lillico power hammer pdf" you recommended elsewhere turn up any results. If I PM you my email address, do you have a PDF you could send me? Thanks, JHCC
November 15, 20169 yr Follow the white rabbit to the blacksmiths course and the rural craft centre, and you shall behold this page http://www.hlcollege.ac.uk/Downloads/craftpublications.html The PDFs there should give you every thing you need to know about blacksmithing, let alone thatching wheelwrighting and saddlery. Happy reading! Alan ps if you still have problems, yes... pm your email and I will send them.
November 15, 20169 yr I followed the white rabbit, but all I found was a hookah-smoking caterpillar. Thanks for the link; I had some of those saved already, but always good to find more!
November 16, 20169 yr http://www.alaforge.org/files/Tire_Hammer_Tools_small.pdf This is an extensive PDF of tooling Clay Spencer put together. I printed a copy for reference.
November 16, 20169 yr Thank you for that I have sacreficed a tree from the amazon and printed it all off Cheers
February 10, 20179 yr Author Hi folks, i'm so sorry that i lost sight of this topic, but i've been in parental leave so i spend the time with my son. I hope you understand that. At first, many thanks for the links! Many nice ideas. Secondly: I've attached a picture of my current DIY dies. They work really fine for me. On the pic you see the 25mm radius fullering set. I use this set for "aggressive" drawing or large fullering. The base is a simple 10mm mild steel plate bent around the original die, installed with four M12 bolts. This is the first set i made, so i tried to make the bending easier by fullering the lines in the bend. It worked fine for the bending job, but unfortunately this caused the plate being bent open when fastening the bolts. So my next plates will be bend without the fuller. I also had the idea to make the plates of spring steel to prevent them from opening too. Further die shapes are planed too. The first set of 75mm radius dies is already made and waits to been mounted on the base plate. Smaller fullering dies like 15mm radius and axe dies are planed too. I'll keep you informed!! p.s.: one the pic you can also see the mounting tool for holding my spacers.
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