Hello, I was wondering if someone here had acess to the serial number list for Hay-Budden anvils, I believe it is in the book, 'Anvils in America'. I would be interested in knowing the year of the anvil I recently picked up.
The anvil is a Lakeside, so it says on it and with what research I have done it looks like it was made by Hay-Budden and sold through Montgomery Wards. I dont know what it weighs, but on the side it says 55, but to mee it seems like it weighs more than 55 LBS, it is definatly less than 100 LBS for sure. The serial number of it is 173158 If you can tell me the year and anything else interesting about it, that would be great! Thanks for your help, Chris.
Oct 19, 2012 - I have an anvil with the Lakeside foundry mark on the side of the anvil. Anvils and from the serial number I found out it was forged in 1916. If you see a series of numbers (serial number). Any anvil with letters, numbers or logos raised. Louisville Forged.
Blacksmithing and Metalworking Q&A: anvilfire Guru page: October 1 - 7, 2004 WELCOME to the anvilfire Guru's Den - V. 3.0 THIS is a forum for questions and answers about blacksmithing and general metalworking. Ask the Guru any reasonable question and he or one of his helpers will answer your question, find someone that can, OR research the question for you. This is an archive of posts from October 1 - 7, 2004 on the Guru's Den I've seen various fire strikers online but none of those I've seen yet (even on blacksmith sites) have a close-up view or description on making the striking surface. I assume it's rough like a file or other knurled surface, but I can't be positive from the shallow references I've seen so far.
I'm in far northern Minnesota (over 100 miles from cities larger than pop. 3000), can anyone suggest where I might find flints if I decide to try a striker? - Friday, 10/01/04 00:20:07 EDT Hudson & Alan Thank you for the info on the bullet cherry. I have the lathe with the mill attachment, the big & small drill presses with the cross-feed vises, etc., and can heat-treat, but I can not visualize how to get the raised teeth swirling around the pointed cherry. I would think that I should have the sharp working edge of the teeth above the regular surface of the cherry body. I can make it by hand with the tiny chisel as Alan suggested or file multiple teeth as in a file as I assume they did it years ago. I was wondering if there was a better way these days.
And Paw Paw.I am sorry for the multiple postings but the first time I posted, when I hit the 'Post' button, I got a message saying that there was nothing in the comment slot. I checked the next day and there was no posting, so I asked the question again-I guess I didn't do good, sorry.
Friday, 10/01/04 00:58:44 EDT Hi Elliott Olson- Thanks for the info on the HC spikes-I was suprised it was that low and yes I would very much appreciate the info on the other railroad steels. I have pieces of most of the others. My email address is: [email protected]. Thanks again, - Friday, 10/01/04 01:13:05 EDT Elliot, All my strikers are faily smooth. It is how they are used, that is the trick.
You need a nice hard stone that will flake well. Like flint or a type like flint. Then you flake a bit off so you have a nice SHARP edge.
This will in turn shave a THIN sliver of steel off which will actually get hot enough to ignigte.( spark) It takes some practise, but is well worth it - Friday, 10/01/04 01:15:17 EDT I was always under the impression that it was the flint that sparked, not the steel. Friday, 10/01/04 01:23:06 EDT If, as you say, it's the steel that sparks, maybe a sharp piece of granite from the quarry next door would work? - Friday, 10/01/04 01:27:41 EDT Power Hammer Dies: First, I have never seen a power hammer where the die height was not critical.
Shortening them almost always results in over travel of the ram and possibly bending or damaging parts. On Little Giants it can bend the toggle arms and overstress the other parts. On air hammers it crashes the piston in the cylinder. 1/4' may not make a difference on your hammer but you are the one that will have to study it. On the best quality air hammers the ram was marked with a maximum extension line.
Anything beyond this was dangerous. To properly setup the hammer the dies should be set somewhere short of this line. Often this is on hammers with a seperate anvil that can settle so an allowance is absolutely necessary. Dies are fairly hard or very hard tool steel. Yours appear to have been too hard which is a common problem. On these highly stressed parts they should be annealed, preheated, welded, then reheat treated. It is like repairing anvil edges.
I would not repair anywhere that does not absolutely need it. Junkyard steel rules apply. Big commercial hammers use 50 to 60 point carbon steels.
Many smaller hammers have used higher carbon dies and the results of poor heat treating is often obvious. Little Giants used something called Black Diamond tool steel.
Something like 1095 I think. I cannot tell from your photos exactly what the damage is other than some of the spalling.
You need to try good natural lighting without glaring flash. Before doing ANY grinding or finishing on the dovetails do no more than a simple deburring and removal of rolled edges and MEASURE everything. Measure the dovetail angle and the wedge taper. Is the taper on the die or in the dovetail? Tapers on American machinery are always nominal fractions of an inch per foot.
3/16 in 12, 1/4 in 12, 5/16 in 12. Determining these requires painstaking measurement using micrometers, height gauges or precision calipers. Since the parts are always shorter than a foot calculations are often required including some trig. Dovetail angles are usualy in degrees. 10, 12 and 15 are common. Telling the difference betwwen them +/- 1 deg is a trick.
Measurements are often made over hardened pins like dowel pins. When you are done you should have enough information to make detailed drawings for a new set of dies. You may want to have new dies made rather than trying to repair the old ones.
Current makers use SAE 1045, SAE 4140, AISI H13 and S7. 4140-50 is the least troublesome to heat treat and works well. Good combination dies are the most useful in small shop. Check out the type used on the Big BLU. Friday, 10/01/04 01:30:25 EDT Thanks much Guru. I was affraid you were gonna say that. The main problem as I see it is that the way it broke out the die is fully supported on one side, and only a small triangle about 1/4' diameter on the other.
The whole middle of the die is not making contact with the holder. What about fabricating some type of shim to fill this space? My plan is to measure this one carefully then find a die that is currently made for another hammer that is close.
Unfortunatly the cost of a new die is prohibitive right now. Also, the bottom die is much large flas surface. About 4' X 5'. The previous owner welded the end of the wedge to the die so it will not come out without some tricky torch work. I plan to just leave it be, and clean it up. Will a combination top die still work with a flat bottom?
Thanks again FredlyFX - Friday, 10/01/04 02:02:17 EDT Elliott, There are 3 pages of folder there. When you go to the photo page you need to click on the next 16 link at the bottom. The folder is called FredlyFX - Friday, 10/01/04 02:03:59 EDT Oops, way past bed time.
Large flas = larger flat - Friday, 10/01/04 02:06:16 EDT FredlyFX, I still can't find any folders in the anvilfire user gallery, nothing is clickable there, no pics. Friday, 10/01/04 02:17:37 EDT Propane stuff: Thanks, Guru and others, for the low-pressure info. I'll do my experimenting down around 2PSI to make sure. I've plumbed my system with about 12 feet of 1/2' copper tube.
Delivered propane is less expensive up here in NH, but only with my supplier, Amerigas. Based on my usage, which is only heat and hot water for now, I'm paying about $1.20 / gal. The next lowest price is up around $1.50. Some charge $1.67 and that's the same as the refilling station for larger (40lbs and up) tanks. But the tanks themselves are free rent if you buy a minimum, usually 1/2 tank per year. The free delivery is really nice and the large tanks keep from freezing, as Guru said.
But the best is the tanks take a good 6 months to empty. That is most welcome on those Sunday nights when the refillers are closed.Marc - MarcG - Friday, 10/01/04 07:56:35 EDT Elliott, Granite might work, but there is a reason they call'em a flint & steel. You can't beat a good piece of flint (actually, most of what we call flint is either chert or agate).
If you can't find any, email me with your address and I'll send you a couple pieces of the good stuff. On your striker, I have had good luck with water quenching the face of the striker and just leaving it dead-hard (no temper). I heat it to critical and quench just the face of the striker and hold it in the quench until the rest of the piece cools. You then need to put the hardened face on the grinder and clean it up to bright. Like Ralph said, smooth is not a problem.
You get the abrasion from the flint. Friday, 10/01/04 08:14:31 EDT FredlyFX, Little giant power hammers are bad about doing the same type wear to the dovetail area that the pictures show on you hammer. I stopped at Sid's Little Giant shop last year in Nebraska and he had a 50lb. Hammer in his shop with the same problem. He said that you could use a angle grinder to level the dovetail and then use a metal shim ( thickness depending on how much metal you removed ) to bring it back up to the original height. The hammer in his shop was fixed this way and everything fit tight. There is also a page on the web showing a guy in Minnesota repairing the die slot on a Little Giant hammer.
Just search for Little Giant Power Hammers and you can probably find it. If not,I'll try to let you know the address later - mike - Friday, 10/01/04 08:40:09 EDT Bob, I don't know what happens, but you are welcome to post anytime you wish. I try to answer everybody, but sometimes it takes me a day or two. Friday, 10/01/04 09:00:55 EDT Elliott, Have you joined the anvilfire foto group?
If not, that may be why you aren't seeing any pictures. Friday, 10/01/04 09:05:06 EDT More propane questions: I forgot about this earlier, but I'm also interested in using the same propane plumbing to do localized heating and oxy-propane cutting.