July 22, 20196 yr Read a lot about problems with the well known wide variance in hardy hole dimensions in older anvils causing hardy fitting headaches. My old 100# Kohlswa has what appears to be a 7/8" hole, although a bit rough, so with fingers crossed I picked up a half dozen 4" lengths of 7/8" cold rolled 1018 square stock today (at $1.65 per inch, I might add), and of course they wouldn't go in. However, lady luck smiled for a change, and it was just the rounded corners of the anvil's hardy hole that caused the problem. A couple of minutes on the belt sander putting a small radius on all the sharp corners of the bar stock and they now drop right through with a very close fit, with only a small amount of wiggle. Best part is each of them drops in no problem no matter what orientation I try. So it looks like hardies for this anvil are going to be easy to make. I got lucky this time, and I'm a happy guy!
July 22, 20196 yr Congratulations! I've also got a 7/8 hardy hole (104# PW) and finally got around to making a 7/8 hole in a plate of thick steel to act as a bottom swage for making tooling.
July 22, 20196 yr Better than my anvils. Each is a little different. 2 being @7/8 and 1 being a pre 1830's mousehole is roughly 3/4 with a curvish hole so orientation matters. The hardy tools in the Trenton fit loose in the Hay Budden.
July 23, 20196 yr My Mousehole (AKA The Undisputed King of Anvils) also has a 7/8"-ish hardy hole, which is about 1/32" larger one way than the other. I have a swage plate that fits in the portable hole for upsetting tooling (as Michael notes above); it's just slightly oversize, so that I can do the upsetting in it and then seat the tool in the actual hardy hole with a couple of firm blows. If I want a tool that can be used in any orientation, I'll do that in all four directions. Otherwise, I'll just do it one way only, as I did with my recent scrolling hardy.
July 23, 20196 yr Author Lots of creativity involved in hardy hole stuff. That hardy you made looks like a copy of the hat on my sister's garden gnome, lol. I'm going to start (and probably stay) simple, with a turning/bending tool, a hot cut, and maybe a couple of fullers. My skills are at such a low level right now I'm at the "gotta start somewhere" stage, but I can already see a need or want for a couple of punches for holes.
July 24, 20196 yr Author To do that I'd have to graduate from making 6" and 8" knives and small door latches and such to two-hand medieval broadswords and big sledges. Probably not gonna happen, TP.
July 24, 20196 yr I generally cheat and get top tools with mutilated striking faces and using my screwpress I forge them to fit the 1.5" hardies (I have 3 1.5" hardy holes and more to come on an improvised anvil/workbench.) I get the top tools cheap as they are "damaged beyond repair"---if you want to use them as top tools; they are fine as swages...
July 25, 20196 yr Author Does your screwpress have one of those big whirling handles hanging down from the handwheel? The photos of those things I've seen look like a brain concussion waiting to happen. Or am I confusing it with a fly press? ... the two terms seem to be sort of interchangeable in Google image searches.
July 25, 20196 yr Yes my screw press has a 42" toroid on top with 2 dependent handles; not generally a problem because if you are going fast you grab the handle and give it a whirl while stepping back and letting it spin. When you are bumping it the handle is in your hand. The problem occurs when you run it up to adjust stuff between the dies/tooling and not notice that it's gradually spinning itself down. *THEN* "thwappage" (technical term) becomes an issue. I have some foam pipe insulation or pool noodle sections shoved on the handles to make it a "gentle reminder". No; screw presses and fly presses are different! However the difference is in the number of leads on the screw. Mine has two and so is a screw press 3 or more and you have a fly press. A screw press is slower but has greater mechanical advantage. A fly press is preferred for forging as it's faster and you can get a lot of "bounce" with it. I would have liked to have a hulking big flypress; but for US$100 a nice large screwpress is what I got. Mine looks a lot like this one. (from an earlier thread on screwpresses here.Dec 11 2017: "Going to check this guy out any idea on the maker?")
July 25, 20196 yr Author Interesting stuff. Also looks like either a forklift or several stout friends would be needed to move one of those.
July 25, 20196 yr Well my winning bid was actually US$50; but the buyer's reaming + paying a rigger to load it onto my little pickup brought it up close to $100. (Factory shutting down and nobody wanted "old tech" but wave soldering and surface mount stuff went HIGH! I got to meet a retired tool room guy who remembered when they bought it in the late 1950's. He told me it didn't see much use as soon after they got a hydraulic press and everybody wanted to use the "modern" press.) A *very* slow and cautious trip home at 25 mph and NOBODY cut in front of me, honked, etc. At home I used an extremely large locust tree and a hoist to get it lowered to the ground---actually onto 4x4 skids and I used a comealong to pull it tight against the bumper and carefully drug it to the shop doors then simple lever and rollers to get it in.
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