wd&mlteach

Once life settles down a bit then the wife and I are planning on a selling and buying a new bigger place to live. One of my stipulations is that it has a bigger garage/workshop and is out of town. Or at least the capability to have enough land to build one of my own design. As for right now I have what I have and I will make do. Knots I loved of a dual purpose machine and Frosty you a correct, the more complicated a machine gets the less functional it is. Hence the reason why I enjoy blacksmithing more than I like machining. Not that i can't appreciate machine work, because I do. And I do like it but I would just rather hammer something out on my anvil then tram-up an end mill.

Here is what I did today, which was not much. I cut a couple smaller channel for side supports and clamped the whole thing together. Tomorrow I plan on welding the smaller channel at the upright and drilling/tapping the anvil side. That way I can break it down into sections light enough for me to move.

I have another question I am hoping you folks can answer, did you fill the anvil with weight? Right now the anvil side is a piece of 3x6" tube that is 3/8" thick. it is hollow except for the top 1 1/4". i welded another chunk in there that contains a 1" hardie. I have access to 180 pound of lead bricks that I could shove inside the tube. My other possibility is punching slugs. the last time i was at the scrap yard I climbed a mountain of slugs that I am sure i could get pretty cheap. Most of them were 1/2" round x 1/2" thick.

By the way thanks for the feedback so far.

Knots, I plan on filling the head with lead. I have nine 20# lead bricks just sitting around to be used for something. This might be just what I was saving them for. The head is pretty heavy already as it is made from 4 inch square tube that is 1/4 thick. The it has two 1 1/4" plates welded to it one is the face and one is fit inside the square tube. I milled two slots in the tube and then welded the square plate up inside. in the process the milled slotes were filled in with with the weld bead. I also will use your "hande" idea as the top of my hammer head. Right now the top is very sharp.

Frosty, is this what you are trying to communicate to me? Forgive me for the ipad artwork.

Knots, that is a great idea. However, I barely have enough room to fit the treadle hammer in my shed as designed. If I add a planishing hammer to the back or side of the collumn I would be out of room. My smithy is a single car garage and it packed right now. I do want you to know that I did think about your suggestion for a very long time today. I know it is not a Planishing hammer but I even got a small air hammer out just to think about it some more. Even after that I still came up with the same conclusion of not utilizing your suggestion.

Here is what I have done so far, it has been slow going these days with a new baby that does not sleep between 12-3:30am, a wife who just had a c-section -housework is all mine, finishing my masters thesis, figuring out how to get six copies of 337 pages printed and bound, graduating, a birthday party for my other son, staying after school with kids working everyday becasue the school years is just about done, and as you pointed out teaching full time as well. By the way thanks for noticing my rarity. Technology Education formerly know as shop teachers are rare and finding some that are interested in and teach a bit of blacksmithing are even more rare.

Anyway here is what I have accomplished lately. I will be adding an adjustment to the slide mounted on the channel. I have a weldable sprocket I just need to find about 24" of roller chain to weld on the channel. The farm supply shop that I go to has it in stock, just in 10' lengths. I do not need that much. I also need to decide whether the whole thing should be welded together or not. Welding is faster than drilling and tapping all of those holes, but being able to take it apart is a big plus.

I remember something like a 50:1 ratio. So a 3lb hammer would be good for a 150 anvil.  But that is what I read, reality is different, see what the other folks tell you. I do know that I have seen a lot of anvils that were missing important pieces and that had to be caused by something.

Cigars are what I have been using.

Nothing embarrassing about it, and you got a nice deal, enjoy.

Dave you are correct that was to be pound not ounce

$40 that is my kind of a price! Very nice score! It looks like it is in nice shape. From what I know usually the jaw width is what is measured as to identify vise size, not how far apart it opens. When you get a chance measure the width of the jaw face.

Thanks for the additional photos. I have pondering the question of removable tooling myself and your photos help. Did you make a drilling jig so that all of the tooling posts match the recieving holes?  I could see case hardening a driling jig for marking where the posts need to be drilled. Also, thanks for sticking the hex wrench in there. I figured that is what you were using but that wrench made it pretty clear.

I will also include the safety strap as a face full of hammer is no good.

Hooks and nails

Wow, that is a great place. There is a place near me that sells mild for 0.45 and tube for 0.55 a pound. If you are short on money I would buy one of the smaller ones to get an idea of what it is that you realy need. The big ones are nice but mild steel weighs 0.2836 oz per cubic inch, a big piece would add up fast if you are not careful.

Based on the information I gathered here and my plans, I have started my hammer build. I have the rear tower, the head, and the anvil pillar made. I have decided to go ahead and make the pivot point for the parallel swing arms adjustable. For those of you that have this type of hammer, how much vertical travel is needed/used for the pivot point or slide with this type of hammer? Exploring my options, I have contemplated the use of a hydraulic jack to raise and lower the pivot slide and swing arm assembly. The slide has been inspired by knots, thanks for that suggestion. Here is a quick sketch of what I am looking at.

Glad I could help, I am also sorry that I forgot about not posting links to c-list.

Porkchop let me know how you make out.  If you missed that one I just saw another one pop up tonight that was $80 for a 4 incher. There is a heavy looking five maybe 6 inch vise for 175 closer to me in York. Message me if you want the details.

Porkchop if you are still looking for a vise check this one out. It is more than I would spend but might be close enough for a drive.

 http://reading.craigslist.org/tls/3756551062.html

When I bought mine I used this one as reference on what to pay.https://www.blacksmithsdepot.com/page.php?theLocation=/Resources/Product/Blacksmith_Vise/Small_Blacksmith_Vise.xml/ I also used this number to help justify/show my wife what a great deals my vise purchases were. She thought they were cheap enough to be okay with spending the money. And I knew they were great, because who doesn't love a good post vise? When I look at them, especially the early ones, they are beautiful examples of craftsmanship and design. To see each of the forge weld lines of the individual pieces laid over and hammer marks left from when it was made, brings me almost to a standstill much like a forged anvil. They are impressive and to me, museum-quality heirlooms of functionality. If they are not new they are priceless, as they most likely will never be made that way again. If they are new then, they are just prohibitively priced.

I have to say that I originally chose the Marx Gade plans for simplicity. Now that I am thinking more about it the in-line may be the way to go if one were to want it adjustable.  Unfortunately, I have have the springs sitting here in front of me for the swing style.  Had I exhuasted the resources here before my investment, the choice may have been different. Thanks for your input. when i build my power hammer next year, I will look here first.

Knots, do you have any wiggle from oyur upright angles when the hammer hits?  Would it be better to make the upright out of square tube? 

Well at least I am not the only one having problems with this posting. Here is the picture that did not show up the three times.

Nice design variation, thanks for the input.  I like the simplicity of the angle supports and I already have that in stock.  Certainly an option worth pondering and an avenue that I most likely would not have explored.

I noticed you have a what looks like a double stack of 3/4 plywood as a mounting plate. How does taht hold up? Or was that just there for the move?

This is the mount I modified for school. It works nice. It originally held a basketball hoop that fell and smashed the ring flat. I saw it in the school's junk pile and knew just how to use it. It does not work real well for much leverage as it does spin. But for what the kids do with it, it works great.

I started this endeavor in 2009 and I have three post vises.

4 1/2 $24 dollars at the scrap yard

5 1/2 $40 off ebay

100 Pound 5 7/8" for $40

I just passed up a 5 inch for 50 last week.

You pay what you want to, but around here they can still be found cheap.

Chinobi,

Right now the 12 mold is 2 x 6 with 6 inch tapers. The tapers for the mold with three end up being 10 inches long when finished. Really you could interchange the tapers between the molds and I am sure they would work.  I actually assigned the 2 x 6 mold to a CAD student who was finished with their work and needed something else to do. That is why it is *untested*. I need to check and make sure it is done correct and then I should build it, to be double sure it works before I post it here.  As far as patterns go if you want a box style pattern with a 3 x 4, it is no problem to do.  I should note that anything over 3 is a bit different in that there is a bottom support that hold the tips equal distance appart.

I am not sure how long it will take them as they work differnet and have to build the skills as they go. It took me, maybe two hours of uniterrupted time to get mine done and take pictures.  I do not remeber the last one taking that long. 

This is the mount I modified for school. It works nice it just is a bear to move until I put round wheels on it. It originally held a basketball hoop that fell and smashed the ring flat. I saw it in the school's junk pile and knew just how to use it. It does not work real well for much leverage as it does spin. But for what the kids do with it, it works great.

This is the mount I modified for school. It works nice it just is a bear to move until I put round wheels on it. It originally held a basketball hoop that fell and smashed the ring flat. I saw it in the school's junk pile and knew just how to use it. It does not work real well for much leverage as it does spin. But for what the kids do with it, it works great.

The bike chain idea it fantastic and might be my option. As far as what I am using it for, we'll I do not know, as I have never used one. I have watched a bit at a few hammer ins and i can see their advantages and limitations. As pointed out they are great for hand style tooling and that is where I know I will start.

I do not have the tools at home to modify or redesign anything. As a result, it ought to be finished, tested and working before it goes there. That is my motivation for adding the adjustable head height and removable tooling. Thanks for the ideas and the recommendations.

Chinobi, you are correct drilling into the points would be tough starting. When I said open them up, I already knew that I had dropped some extra solder in the points. I actually started out on the disk sander and ground the points down flat. Notice that all of the tubes are not the same length, that is character ;)


Here you can see the solder inside the points that needs "opened up".


Here they are cleaned out with 1/8" drill bit.


Thanks for the compliments guys. I hope somebody can use this as it was fun to do. I took the pictures because one of the kids, who saw me make the first one, asked if they could do one as an extra project. Not having time in the regular class for extra instruction, I figured I would make a visual how-to and they can follow that.

Frosty, I am pretty sure that is tin plated sheet 30 g, it is a bright finish. It is pretty thin and you might be right about not having to cut the slits. I will try that in the future and I will let you know how I make out. As far as pouring time I do not have a definite answer. I know it takes two pours and a couple hours until they set completely. Each batch I did I let sit overnight at room temp and took out of the mold the next day afterwork. So at that rate it was close to 24 hours, but it can't actually take that long. To remove them from the mold I ran them under hot tap water and with a little tugging they popped out.

I have drawn up a 12 candle version that has not been tested yet. When I run that one through and see if it actually works I will post that one as well.