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What did you do in the shop today?


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First big project on the treadle hammer: from chunk of 1045 to rounding hammer in some four hours.

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Punching the eye went pretty well.

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The saddle fuller bounced around a fair amount, until I draped the chains of the hold-down over it.

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And here we go: forge, hardened, and tempered. Grinding and handling await.

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Punching went very well, fullering a bit less so. I think a smaller radius would have made things go easier, as would have a longer handle on the top fuller. Lessons learned, and experience gained. Very happy with the effectiveness of the hammer, and I am definitely glad that I took the time and effort to build it.

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1 hour ago, Hotshoein4 (Mark) said:

That'll be a thumper JHCC. What's the weight so far? What size fuller did you use and what size would you use next time?

The rounding hammer is three pounds; the treadle hammer's head weight is thirty-six. 

The fuller was 1" in diameter, which certainly worked. I think ~3/4" would be easier to get deeper penetration into the workpiece.

1 hour ago, jlpservicesinc said:

Hammer looks good.

Thank you! I'm really happy with how responsive it is: the balance is just about perfect, so all the thrust of my leg translates into head speed and impact.

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18 hours ago, JHCC said:

 

Thank you! I'm really happy with how responsive it is: the balance is just about perfect, so all the thrust of my leg translates into head speed and impact.

Are you able to get some head throw? In other words you get some slap/snap in the head or is it directly linked to the foot treadle?  (solid connection)... 

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There's a tiny bit of head throw, but not much. When the hammer is at rest, it's perfectly balanced, and the head does have room to move up slightly. The linkage from the foot treadle to the head is a length of chain, but I'm thinking of adding a spring that will both absorb a bit of shock and store up some of the energy from the recoil. It works well as it stands, though, and I'm not using it for production work, so I'll probably leave it alone for the forseeable future. If I were getting paid for smithing, I probably would be a lot more concerned about it.

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The fuller was just a feature of the hammer head I made it from. The horn works well to fit in the spike hole to use it in that position. 

And, uh, why do you think I made a back scratcher? I needed one. My back was itchy and my hammer wasn't doing it for me lol. 

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This is a great topic, thank you littleblacksmith for starting it, and everyone who has contributed to it. I've been reading it and mining it for ideas when my shop is ready for actual smithing. Lots of great stuff here! :)

For now, I can show you the little side draft box that I've made. Made from 16 gauge mild steel, welded with the MIG/flux core welder I received for Christmas. My dad helped me get started with the welding (he was a professional welder before he retired). Painted it two days ago. I installed eyebolts in the corners to hang it from the ceiling, which should make it more stable and prevent the weight from pulling at the chimney.

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It was........ interesting..... in my shop today.

I got a new vise and got that mounted. Been working on a few scrolls and such for shelf bracket ideas and got some of those done. Made a couple 90 degree bends in some flat stock to be a small "shelf" for my heat runs in the basement. Some of the old supports came loose and the pipe rattles as the boiler warms up now.

Then things went downhill. I started another paper towel holder for my daughter who came over and wanted one as soon as she saw it. Got it cut, heated and textured it, rolled the ends and put the bend in it. Heated and textured the top piece, rolled one end, put the first bend in it, and........ 2 inches too short. No material left for the second bend. Measured the main piece, and the same thing..... 2 inches too short. Some fool didn't write down his measurements and apparently doesn't have a good memory so I spent all that time hammering out two pieces of fancy scrap.

Then it gets even better. I started to work on another scroll and my handle broke on my small ball peen sending the head up and breaking a bulb in my florescent light over the anvil. So I shut the forge down and spent the rest of the night cleaning glass out of everything.

But, here is the couple pieces of my first real attempts at scrolling and the paper towel holder I did finish. And please don't judge the welds. They are only tack welds to hold for looks and I'm actually a bit embarrassed by them. You'd think a guy that used to tig weld pipe could at least make a decent looking tack weld....

 

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Been busy last two days! I have compleated 3 set s of Rapid Tongs and started another Knife! I hope to finish up leather handle on my Nesmuck knife! I started to finish pomel the other day and old Craftsman 150 drill press quit!   New cord cleaned motor got Granpas old drill press runnin again!  I also picked up a very nice 74 ish Rockwell 14 inch Metel and wood cutting bandsaw!  I spent a few days cleaning it up and freeing up the two speed shift lever that was gummed up from sitting!

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On 2/17/2018 at 11:10 AM, jeremy k said:

The worst thing I see at demos, is the person demoing puts their back to the crowd to shield what they are trying to "show". You'd be surprised at how often that happens.

as mentioned earlier, there was no way to make everybody happy.  No matter where I stood  I would block somebody. I was not standing at the anvil like that but for only half a heat to mark the bar to cut it off. Now, how we were forging did make it so that the majority of the crowd could see, and after each heat I walked around and showed everybody what we did and explained how and why. There were no complaints that I heard about people not being able to see, or now knowing what we were doing.

                                                                                                                                                        Littleblacksmith  

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