It followed me home

[Sam Salvati]

How would a motor lift and drop that hammer? How does the lifting mechanism work?

[metalmaster1766]

a friend i know has a 250 lb drop hammer like that, very nice find, they are handy to have

Ron

[roy_tate]

My dad used to drive a propane truck, going to houses and filling their tanks. I told him once that I could use a propane tank, and he mentioned a 275 gallon tank on a trailer. That seemed a bit large to me, but then he remembered a smaller tank that came off of a tractor or a truck. It is a 43 gallon (358 pound) tank, with valves for liquid, vapor, bleed off, vapor return, etc. And of course, a pop-off valve just in case someone fills it too full. This tank is heavy! I could lift one end, but we used a tractor's front end loader to load it into my truck.

I still need to get the gaskets inspected, get a cap for one of the return lines, paint it, and get it filled. So, expect to see some questions about propane forges and burners soon. (I know there are several blueprints, and a million articles on the internet.)



A larger image is in my gallery

[ThomasPowers]

How would a motor lift and drop that hammer? How does the lifting mechanism work?

You don't use a motor you pull on the rope and then let go. Drop hammers are not cycle machines like a trip hammer.

Larger ones are sometimes board hammers---there is a sturdy board fastened to the upper die that a motor driven wheel engages to raise it. when it reaches the top the wheel pops off and the thing "drops".

Thomas

[Sam Salvati]

You don't use a motor you pull on the rope and then let go. Drop hammers are not cycle machines like a trip hammer.

Larger ones are sometimes board hammers---there is a sturdy board fastened to the upper die that a motor driven wheel engages to raise it. when it reaches the top the wheel pops off and the thing "drops".

Thomas

But I have seen a video of a motorized drop hammer? Especially a 250 pounder, you would need some help lifting that one, no? The video of it can be seen here:


Forging a katana blade from a railroad anchor #1 - Google Video

[brunetta]

New guy here, here are a few pictures of what I picked up last week in Sacramento, CA. Used tool dealer that I met at a Renn Faire. The post vise is a Fisher 119lbs with 6-1/4" jaws. The large post drills I did not buy too big for my shop ... If anyone out there is interested I can send you the information. The anvil vises 3 are Stewart handy workers Chicago flexable shaft co. pat date sept 1916. There is a Cheney anvil vise no 40 pat date is nov 18 1879 from fulton iron and engine works.

[Sam Salvati]

Cool stuff, those anvil vises are cast iron? Welcome too by the way!

[metalmaster1766]

the drop hammer, the heavy ones can also have a motor and gearbox attched to a large flat belt type pulley, the belt just lays over the pulley, with the motor on the pulley spins and when you pull on the rope it makes it very easy to lift the 250 lb drop hammer, i may be ablt to get pics if anyone is interested in seeing it

this is one of the last thing to follow me home, its a kalamazoo 9" bandsaw, its a real nice saw, the other is an electric kiln which i havent taken any pictures of,

the kiln i got to do some investment/lostwax casting

[Sam Salvati]

WOW, that is an awesome saw. And please, I would love to see pictures of the hammer!

[ThomasPowers]

But I have seen a video of a motorized drop hammer? Especially a 250 pounder, you would need some help lifting that one, no? The video of it can be seen here:


Forging a katana blade from a railroad anchor #1 - Google Video

Without a picture of the top of that hammer in the video I can't tell if it's a drop hammer or just an H frame triphammer of some sort---have you seen the rest of that hammer? One of the sofa members built a 500# tilthammer using an old hay baler as a power source, kind of fun to watch but also slow.

Also look at my second sentence that talks specifically about a MOTORIZED drop hammer.

look at the cycle rate on it, about 1 blow per second. A good triphammer would get you 4 blows per second!

You can motorize fly presses to---I've used one before but they are still designed for more of 1 strong blow rarther than cycling.

Thomas

[BT]

Go to B&S Massey Stock List and look at items 8 thru 14 for some pictures of motorized drop hammers.

[Glenn]

Keykeeper said this followed him home. Now he wants to know what the thing is and how it works. Any ideas ?

[Ferrous Beuler]

My guess is a tie down like what you might see on a modern flatbed tractor trailer, but this one may date from the horsedrawn era, used on a dray. Dan:)

[Alan DuBoff]

Apprentice,

That leg vise is cleaner than the one I got! And you paid a lot less!

Nice score! Where do you find all those files? Under a house?

[keykeeper]

ApprenticeMan: That is an awesome score. I see some blades in the making there. That vise looks sweeeeeet! Enjoy!

[Valentin]

i have 2 new budys folowing me .... a 300A welder-invertor witch i am really proud of and a old scale that i found at the junk yard ...my 2nd this is a 10kg :)

[the_sandy_creek_forge]

Saturday: One 4ft. by 7ft. layout table (1/4in steel on MASSIVE wooden frame)-20 dollars. One earlier Columbian 5" post vise, with wedge type mounting system, very good condition-20 dollars. I thought I might have spent a bit much on the vise, but the person I was bidding against was wearing a dinner jacket and dress shoes at a farm auction (can we say...tool collector?) so I decided that 20 bucks was worth it to keep it from getting hung up on a wall somewhere.
-Aaron @ the SCF
p.s. by tool collector I mean the bad type that buys oodles of tools and never uses them, but rather hangs them up as pretties, as opposed to the good type that buys oodles of tools, and then builds a bigger shop just so they can all get used ;)

[irnsrgn]

$20 is outright thievery LOL, good gloat. BTW I got my first small post vice at a farm sale in 65 for $5 in almost unused condition.

[Glenn]

Fellow ask if I would be interested in some banding material and without a clue as to what I was getting myself into I said yes.

We walked to the door and there in the floor was maybe 30 feet of 1-1/4" wide steel banding material. Thanked him and threw it into the back of the truck. Then he ask if I needed some other material about the same size and there was still some room in the mostly empty truck, so I said "sure".

Each of the 10 rings is about 1.5 feet in diameter x3 is 12 feet (rough guess) long, of more 1-1/4" material. This stuff has one ragged edge though. Anyway there is some 120 +/- feet of the stuff.

Now what do I do with it ??
* Mig weld the edges together into a sheet of steel?
* Weld it into the quarter panel to patch the holes in the truck.
*Attach it to a board to lay down the glue for the linoleum floor.

You folks are blacksmiths, any sharp ideas ??

[yesteryearforge]

The rings are most likely band saw blades
Sell them to a bladesmith to make a damascus knife blade and take the money and buy a good knife.

[Blacksmith Jim]

I'd probably try to make a damascus billet for fun.

[Seamus]

Not sure I fully understand the
definition of "It Followed Me Home"
It suggests to me
that the item was free,
or darn near,
& that you found it,
or it found you,
when you were looking for something else,
or not looking for anything atal.

Anywho, my offerings are in that vein.
Freecycle?

The Freecycle Network - Changing the world, one gift at a time.

Anyone besides me use it?
If not, you ought to, since all I am going
to show you came to me that way.
The idea is, if you have something you don't need
or want, & think someone else might be able to
use it, you post it on the mailing list & folks respond
or not. So I responded to someone who said he had
a bunch of coal, & got this:

Free Fossil Fuels from Freecycle on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Now it's not blacksmith quality, but for some things
it'll do just fine and it was free after all. 55 gallons
worth of it. I kept laughing at how big the pieces
were and he wanted to know why I thought it was funny.
I explained to him how big blacksmith coal usually is
& he said "Oh! I got some scrap steel you might want!"
So among other things he gave me these:

Bonus on Flickr - Photo Sharing!


I am hopeful I can make one of these into a cheap
swage block of sorts. The thin one is 1.25" thick
and 1 foot by 1.5 foot. The thick one is about 9"
x 10" and 2" thick.

On another Freecycle trip to get a Dog House

Free Dog House on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

The guy said he had a big piece of steel
& might I want it? See, he had just moved
into the house & this big honking
thing
along with the dog house & a few other things
had been left by the previous owner.
I said sure & he showed me this:

Another Freecycle Find on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

I suspect a few of you know what it is, but
I have yet to see another one this big
except here:

The Fountain Public House, Soham, Cambridgeshire, UK - History

in the 4th, 5th & 6th pictures.

The last Freecycle find was described as an old
drill press that might not work. My wife
responded to it for me. I had not seen
the email & so did not know what I was
going to find when I got there. I did not
have high expectations figuring it might be
one of these things:

Amazon.com: Makita 122-190-0 Drill Press Stand: Tools & Hardware

Instead, it turned out to be something
MUCH better:

Canedy Otto Drill Press on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

[Pault17]

Glenn,
I have used the metal strapping for easy leaves on flowers and things. It heats up quick and needs to be worked fast, but I have had no complaints on the leaves I have made. I have also found (for now, maybe it's just a phase) that if you sand/polish the leaves down to bare metal and heat them up through the temper colors, you can make some pretty interesting patterns.

carpe malleus
pt

[ThomasPowers]

Bandsaw blade and strapping billet. I like to stack them up until they will turn out about square after welding.

The 1"+ wide stuff really requires a powerhammer to do it justice though.

Note that trying to weld BSB to BSB can be hard due to the Ni content so use a more aggressive flux or make sure there is a piece of banding between each BSB layer.

Thomas

[Gary]

For those living on the West coast, don't despair. I'm from Portland, Or. and in the last two years that I've been looking I've found 3 rivet/farmer's forges ( one at an estate sale marked 10.00 for "iron tub"). I've bought 2 anvils, 125 lb. farriers and a nice little 89 lb. Peter Wright for 125.00 each. I've had the most luck with post vises, I have 5 from 35 lbs.to 90+ lbs. and only had to pay for one. It cost 50.00 and when I got it home and cleaned it up found it was a Peter Wright. My first post vise was found under a neighbor lady's woodpile in her garage. I have to admit two of the vises and a large 3'x4.5' Champion Forge came from a family trip to Kansas. I also found a nice Buffalo Forge drill press. I have used Craigslist, the newspaper, local magazines with classified ad sections and word of mouth. I have found many smaller tools such as hammers at garage and estate sales. I watch e-bay but the prices are usually way too high, especially with shipping for anything heavy. The tools are out there! Good Luck!