Yikes that alstate rod is expensive! Still, might be worth a look. Despite a lot of experience with nickle rod, I really hate the stuff...

I would call Esab and tell them what you have and they can give a good recommendation.  The 4-60 while expensive, welds really nice. It has nickle in it, but is totally different than E99 or Ni-Rod.

There are a few suppliers of cast rod..  muggy weld, weld mold another.

The rod will be expensive no matter where you get it...

If you deal locally on a regular basis with the LWS (local welding supply) they might be able to get you a sample..

Last sample I asked for came in a 10lbs carton.. 

Shop around, call the different suppliers and talk to their technical departments. See what looks best.

Jlp, I would love for my LWS to give me a $500 sample of 10 lbs of 460 lol. While we buy a lot and have a great relationship with them, I haven't seen many samples.  Norton Abrasives on the other hand sent me about $1000 in samples at one point, a ton of Norax and Merit belts and hand stones.  Their rep also gave me this sharpening stone set in nice individual covered wood boxes. Needless to say I use Norton for all my belts and stones now.

Well the beast is home. Now the fun starts. Yay big hammer!

The clutch fork was broken when loading. Not a difficult repair but removing it is no small feat. The construction of this hammer is not what I expected. I see why Sid seemed to have trouble describing how they differed from the smaller models. The ram/ arms work just like the little hammers, but this frame is just plain weird. The thing is hollow and the clutch operates by means of a skinny rod that runs inside (feindishly)!

Oh and look at the wear on that axel

I am not sure if the guides are original or not. There is a pair of bolts buried inside the guides that look like they may have originally been holding things together and broken off over time. At the same time they also seem to function as dowel pins to hold the plates in register. The plates appear to be flame cut rather than cast making me question if they are original to a 1919 vintage machine. It seems that very little information is available on these early machines so I plan to document as much as I can

I have everything I dare pick off on the ground. The flywheel worries me. My 1/2 ton block may not be up to the weight , and my 2 ton is too tall for the space. Some planning is in order....

I have some really choice examples of worn pins

Pins are easy to make/fix..  Way to go... overall looks like a keeper.. 

When we got the hammer loaded Craig made a comment along the line of " look at the size of those dies" here is the bottom 4x9, next to the 3x6 from my Bradley.

Serious size difference.. What size is the Bradley? 

The Bradley is a 75. These are soft dies. That is both good and bad. Soft dies don't hold up as well as good steel, but they are easy to repair, and I dont have $750 lying around for good steel. So with a but load of welding...

That works..    Soft dies just wear faster.. If you wanted to hold off the wear and deformation, you can super quench, case harden or use hardfacing rod.. 

Or just redress them as needed.. It's all good.. 

Broken clutch fork welded. I am starting to get it back together. The ram is about mid stroke here with 9 inches of blocks under it.

Back together, mostly. The guides are a real pain. Too many directions to shim. Coupled with the casting quality, I see why they didnt carry this design for long. The bolt nearest the light binds the ram unless I back it off 1/4 turn from tight. Calling it a night, will attack that issue another day...

Motor on, some minor bits to go and I can wire it up and  see how it runs. 

Did you ever decide to pour the Babbitt bearings?

They need to be replaced, but that is not happening anytime soon.

Jason - looking good - did you drill out the pin holes and put oversized pins in to take up the wear. When I poured new bearings on my 100LG, I set up a mini scaffolding so it was lots more comfortable working than on just a ladder.

I've always wanted a 250LG, should have jumped on the couple I could have over the years.

 

New pins are in the future, but I have had limited time to work on it, and half the shop is yet to be moved still. One of the first replacements will be that knuckle near my head. Poor thing is trashed. That will be one of my first jobs for this hammer.

A 100 is a much more manageable hammer. I was honestly un prepared for how heavy all these parts are. I wanted a bigger hammer. I am kind of thinking this is quite enough now.  

Uh. . . Jason: You realize you used the words knuckle and head in the same sentence where I might read it? 

Just watching you rebuild your hammer has about cured me of wanting more than my 50# LG. it's plenty, really it is. 

Frosty The Lucky.

I am not even to the rebuild. That may be a year or so down the road. Just doing damage assesment at this point, hoping to have a hammer running soon. I will get back to actually fixing things once I get the Bradley home. Only a few smaller bits have arrived at this point.

I bought the 250 wanting more stroke. I probably would have been better off calling Anyang, but this thing does look cool...

There's a lot to be said for cool.

Frosty The Lucky.

It lives! A good example of why these hammers need breaks. There is something wrong with the treadle linkage, the die keys dont really fit right, but she turns over. I am surprised at how stabil it is not being bolted down.

I concur, it works! My #50 rocks a LOT more than that and a friend's #50 really dances but his is running about spec BPM. I like it, your's just stands there, doesn't get excite and slowly deliberately hits HARD. What more could a boy want in a power hammer?

Brakes are easy and I used grizzly type screen for the scatter shield over the spring. The screen won't let pieces out but lets me see it clearly and a layer of paint on the spring gives you advanced warning if a crack starts.

Frosty The Lucky.

Removed the zerk for the clutch and no new grease was present. I cleaned out the grease passage and installed a new fitting and found that the frozen fitting had forced half a tube of grease the wrong way into the grease gun- yuck. Grease gun cleaned up, new tube of grease and greased the daylights out of the beast, fired it up and guess what? Now the clutch pops right out. I may just be able to use it like this. At least until I get the Bradley home.