[TheForge] Re: Quiet Day

[Jerry Frost]

From: "Mike Spencer" <mspencer@tallships.ca>

Subject: [TheForge] Re: Quiet Day


>
> Well, I'm not at Quad State so here's some idle chat for a slow day:
> update on my air hammer project.
>

Neither am I. Deb and I have been readying the barn for a new baby pygmy
goat being shipped up today but other than nails and fencing there isn't
much metal content to the barn.

> The Chevy Cavalier is now tethered to the hammer body with a couple of
> short pieces of steel belted tire tread.  Makes a slightly flexible
> mount so that (my) sloppy engineering won't rip metal.  Bolted an ad
> hoc clamp to a tie rod.  So the wheels can't turn and the (front left
> corner of the) car can't move more than about an inch.
>

Tethered eh? Maybe you should've used an animal named power plant, say a
Falcon?

> Made an external throttle lever, so now the thing can be run single
> handed.  Start the car, put it in gear, turn on the head light switch
> (wired to the electric fan), get out and rev up until the hammer
> begins to turn.  Rev up more until the tup will stay in the UP
> position.
>
> No longer quite so hair-raisingly scarey but still ummm.... exciting.
>
> But the load on the car is about like pulling a horse trailer full
> of Percherons uphill.  Boils over pretty soon.  Have to build a rad
> mount for the old truck radiator I picked up today and re-attach the
> fan and tranmission cooler pipes.
>
> Gotta learn how much oil to give the hammer.  I got kinda free with
> the oil and it started to rain oil mist from the exhaust bell and emit
> smoke.  (Blue smoke, not red or green, so it's probably okay. :-)
>

Breathing smoke sounds like a show maker to me. Perhaps a good first project
would be a forged dragon's head large enough to cover the exhaust port, then
a more volatile oil, a sparkplug and . . . Voila! Show time! <grin>

> Tup hits the top cover occasionally.  Not good.  I know I re-installed
> all the parts of the valve that's supposed to prevent that, even used
> a new spring.  Tune-up time, I guess.
>

Tune time for sure. Tup Top Taps To Terrible To Tolerate!

> Lower die is staying in place okay so all that grinding and lapping
> was worth it.  The anvil moves a bit but I can't really tell  how much
> until the foot treadle is working.
>
> Next step is to make a treadle and counterweight so I don't have to
> operate it with the hand lever.  Then I can try it on a piece of
> hot iron!  For a first project I'm thinking of drawing an old anvil
> out into 1/4" square for little hooks or maybe some fancy blade stock by
> forge welding a Buick together. :-)
>
> - Mike
>

Buick to dragon's head! Three nostrils to a side will make for a most
dramatic fire breathing power hammer!

Frosty
------------------------
If it ain't forged
it ain't real.
Wrought iron is.
The FrostWorks

Meadow Lakes, AK.