bajajoaquin

We once made a set of fabrication tables for a place I worked. They were steel frames on heavy-duty locking casters, designed to take a 4X8 sheet of 1.25" MDF that could be easily replaced every year. We powdercoated them on the cheap by using whatever powder had missed the metal on other products, and ended up on the floor! We were only charged labor for the job, and not materials.

They turned out some sort of weird mottled grey-brown.....

My opinion is a little different.

It depends.

How much metal fabrication skill and equipment do you have? Do you have any scrap steel lying around? If you find a steel supplier, can you get the drops home and build up a forge?

If you don't have much skill (yet) or equipment, and you really don't know where to start, this isn't a bad deal. It's new, everything works together, so you don't have to fiddle, and it's available. It's a lot of money, yes. But if you are starting completely from scratch, you could easily spend that much or more on equipment and scrap parts to assemble your own, and have to put it together over several weeks.

However, if you are a metalworking expert, live next door to an abandoned steel mill, and have a torch, welder, and grinder available, then you'd be stupid to spend $650 on this!

I can guarantee you that, once you start smithing, you will find another forge for less money. You will be able to build yourself one for cheap. But you don't know when that will be, or how much forging you could have done before it comes along.

WOW! What a difference. How long did it take you?

...After a three year project...

Can I ask why you're making it all one piece, rather than separate tines and body, as on the original? I'm guessing it's because it would be more work, but it seems that it might be easier to fab the socket and transition beefier if it was a stand-alone piece. You could probably use mild for that, and more carbon for the tines.

So here are the pictures of the adjuster that needs some attention. If you look closely, there are hammer marks on the handle. I've been told that this shouldn't need more than hand tightening. Likely what happened is that, as it wore, it was over-tightened several times.

Jason, thanks for that tip. I'll check it out when I'm up there next.

I label mine "Feed the Forge" and I read about salting the pot in "Citizen of the Galaxy" back in the 1960's and it does help; as does managing the jar so it doesn't look too full or too empty.

Ahh, yes. Baslim's extraordinary wisdom.

At 30mm (about 1 1/8"+) and a meter long mounted on a nice stump you'd have a fairly useful anvil without doing any welding. Turn another one on edge for heavier work.

Good point. I hadn't bothered to do the conversion, so i was just thinking about regular old truck springs. But those dimensions are pretty large.

If you took three of them each a meter long, arranged them vertically, and welded them together, you'd have a 136 kilo anvil. That's pretty hefty. Cut in half, you'd have one that's 68kg, and 500mm X 90 mm X 120 mm (that's 150 lb, 20" X 3.5" X 4.75" for the Americans). Obviously, there will be more to it than just sticking it together, but the masses are viable sizes and weights.

...As for wood choices I have a wide variety to choose from as long as they are in stock and possibly available in 1 1/2" X 1 1/2" or 2X2 or even pieces I can cut down on my table saw.

...

Any tree-trimmers in your area? If they are trimming any trees that meet the criteria, you may be able to get some branches from them.

It sounds like a lot of work, but if you have the time and the welding skill...

I would guess that the best (only?) way it would work would be to orient the springs vertically and weld them that way. You might then use a single spring for the face.

Posting deleted. Did you buy it, or did someone else?

At Spring Conference last week, they fired up the hammer (I went home Thursday night and wasn't there), and it's performance was apparently way off. After poking around, it was determined that the adjuster below the helve has worn through excessively, and needs to be pulled out and repaired.

I took a couple of pictures, but they're still on the camera. If you look in the top pic, it's the sleeved adjuster under the "Cushioned" on the helve.

I'll take more pics as we start the disassembly process in the next couple of weeks. We may be re-pouring bearings as well.

I used that hammer at the last conference there and was annoyed it was so hard to use. I guess you guys that live close to there are used to its mannerisms I find it hard to either teach or learn on equipment that is not properly working.
Rob

No, I'm with you. I wish it was a bit hard to use. I've only used it once, myself, at the Fall Tractor Show in 2010. Between the treadle and its tendency to get "stuck" and need to be hand-pushed to start, it was a little underwhelming.

I was up at Vista Forge yesterday helping get things ready for the Spring Conference, and I took a couple more detail shots of the hammer. Here's the serial number plate. Anyone know a resource to determine age?



And here's a detail just of the helve.

I don't know that you have to know anything about tool steel, hardening, tempering, or anything else to make an anvil. Sure, if you want to make an anvil out of tool steel, that would be helpful....

But as Mr. Morgan said Thomas said, an anvil is a large mass you're using to beat against with your hammer. You will get better performance with a better anvil, but you will get better performance out of a crappy anvil than you will out of none at all. It comes down to a cost-benefit analysis for each person. Cost is time, money, effort, frustration. Benefit is use, time, satisfaction.

I solved the issue by buying some blocks of steel to make an anvil with, but kept looking for a commercially-made anvil at the same time. About the time I had all my parts together to build the anvil, I found a nice Hill wrought anvil locally for about $200. Now I have 270lb of steel blocks and a nice anvil. I don't know exactly what I'm going to do with those blocks, but I'm glad I have them. (I'm leaning towards a Brazeal-style blade anvil with fullers and a butcher machined-in.)

So, Keaton, my advice to you is to think about what you want. If you just want to get started smithing cheap and fast, track down a miscellaneous drop of mystery steel. Put it on a stand and start hammering.

If you want a London-pattern anvil (or German, or Hofi, or whatever), then you're better off saving your nickles and doing the search for one.

Grant, thanks. I remember your comments from the 40-lb rebuild thread. We're on the same page in that we're changing direction first. From talking to the guys who maintain things now, it sounds like everything was assembled and adjusted by people who were experienced with and focused on the machine shop equipment. If the hammer is at all in adjustment, it's luck rather than knowledge.

Not to criticize them: it just wasn't their thing.

...lately I have done more work on a 25# travel anvil designed after a roman example---a cube of steel with a spike---than I have with my 515# Fisher shop anvil.

This gets back to some stuff we were discussing on the "monster anvils" thread, about mass, and mass under the hammer.

I wonder what the mass is of the column of steel/iron under the face through the waist.

Would it matter what direction the other tool on the line are running? A lathe is reversible, shaper- I do not think it matters- power hammers can run either way. I am no expert on machines, peacock could surely tell you, or just disconnect the other tools, that Bradley needs to run the other way you already know that.

My impression is that yes, some of the other tools are directional. I don't have more solid knowledge. However, looking at which ones are, and which ones aren't is one of the things we're going to look into. It may be easier to reverse the whole line for the hammer, and then put twists in a couple of belts for machines that need a particular direction.

I'm really looking forward to the next time we fire it up. I have a 4" dia rod that I want to forge into a cone mandrel.

I dont remember anything else on that line being used during the last conference. Maybe remove the twist for the conf until a more permanent answer is found. That way at least it works to its best with everyone there. I will still try to go and will be sad if I miss it. Would it not hit harder if the belt drove it the proper rotation, instead of trying to push away the clutch wheel it would just hit.
Rob

The conference is more about the learning and demonstrations than about running the Bradley. We do that mostly during the Semi-Annual Tractor Shows. There's at least on LG on the line currently that will probably be used, but I think most of the focus will be on hand forging. My personal goal (and I'm not in charge!) is to get the belt direction reversed for the Spring Tractor Show, which is the last two weekends in June.

You're right in commenting about hitting harder: we're expecting the belt switch to make the treadle operate easier. We're looking to other adjustments to make it hit harder.

We could remove the twist, but that would change the direction of the entire line. We're going to look at our options. I'm not sure what parts of the line are on the same shaft, or if the current belt can be reversed.

The other thing we want to check is the adjustment of the bushings. We think we can get it to hit harder.

Sorry you can't make it. We are going to have a really good set of demonstrators this year.

As I mentioned in the rebuild thread, I am a member of the CBA group at Vista Forge, and we have a number of power hammers, including a 200-lb Bradley. As others mentioned, it may need some attention, as at very least it seems to have the power belts running in the wrong direction. Rather than hijack Matthew Gregory's rebuild thread, I thought I would post up some pictures in a separate thread.

Because you have to get the engine and the whole line running, we didn't check for sure, but we looked and thought that we agreed with the comments on here and You Tube, that, in the first picture, the belt is running clockwise, which puts the tension on the idler wheel. We'll be looking into what it's going to take to change that.



A couple of views from the other side:





Here's the same side, but showing more of the line shaft. You can see the machine shop equipment, and the other power hammers. There's a drill press, mill, lathe, shaper, and planer, as well as at least one Little Giant. There's more than than I can remember, and there's even more across the barn in the wheelright shop, but I don't have pictures.



Here's the back end of the hammer, and then another shot, showing the stationary engine that powers the line. It's a 15hp Mogul (if memory serves), originally designed to run on kerosene, but since converted to gas.





We have the spring conference coming up, and I'm pretty new to the organization, so once we get through that event, I'll be just helping out to get the direction changed. After that, I downloaded the operator's manual, and we'll spend a little time trying to make some adjustments, and see if we can get a little more power out of the hammer. I'll post up new stuff as we have it.

If anyone wants any more specific info, let me know. I'll be up there next week, and generally at least once a month.

Every time I travel through the handle making region of the US I stop by a place I know of and spend $20 for 15 handles; takes a bit of time sorting them from the seconds pile but they store nicely and don't go bad in my shop. I have a shelf in my metal shelving unit where I ran wires actoss the gap front and back and so have them exposed to air on all sides---important as I live in a desert and need to air dry them for a year or so before using them anyway---the kiln dried ones shrink a lot out here!

I'm not sure I do the same traveling you do, but that right there is some good advice.

Has anyone read Peter Egan's "Leanings" column this month in Cycle World? In it, he needs some parts made, and he goes to his local blacksmith.

Did you read the comments, and how many of them comment on your hinges?

Nice work.

... The tough part is PROVING it!

Not if we have a thread promoting it!

If you want to fix that hammer all you need to do is change the rotation of the motor.
I'm guessing it's 3 phase so all you need to do is switch any 2 of the wires
going to the motor from the motor starting switch.

I'm assuming you're replying to my post (I haven't read the whole thread, and don't know if he's having direction issues).

It doesn't run on 3-phase power, or even electricity. It runs on kerosene . It's driven by a line shaft off of a 15hp stationary engine (Fegeral Mogul comes to mind, but I don't think that's right). There's a bunch of other equipment on that same line shaft, from mills to drill presses to lathes, as well as a couple Little Giants. So I don't know what would be affected by reversing something.

The facilities are run out of the Antique Gas and Stationary Engine Museum (Clicky!) which is a pretty cool place in Vista, CA. There's lots of old tractors, gas, diesel, steam, as well as some neat old stationary machinery.

If anyone wants to offer more advice or tips, maybe we could get Glenn to move these posts to another thread, so we're not hijacking this one too much?