Possible Peter weight anvil questions

[Emery White]

Hey, I have an opportunity to purchase what seems to be a star power hammer. It is in extreme disrepair. It has a broken pulley and God knows what else is wrong with it. There is a chance I could buy a new cam (I think Is what its called) and pulley from the guy but it think it is a little giant. Is this worth it for me to buy? It costs me over 40 bucks to drive out there alone. I was thinking of asking scrap price for it so if i can't fix it I can scrap it and get my money out of it. I have all of the tools to restore it like a surface grinder, lathe belt grinder and stuff like that (no milling machine:(). Im not afraid of a lot of work but i dont want to pour money into it either. What is a good price, if I should get it at all? Also any advice for restoring a machine like that?

 

Are the drill press (in the power hammer pic), anvil and cone mandrel any good? What should I offer on those?

Thanks!

 

WFF

[Emery White]

Whoops. The chasing Hammer pic wasn't supposed to be there

[Geoff Keyes]

I do love me some old iron.  The anvil is very nice, in general people think they are made of gold, but as a tool that one should bring a good price.  IMHO, when you start getting up around $6-$8 a lb, you might as well buy new.

Do you need a cone, I've always wanted one, but for what I do, it doesn't have much function in my shop.  If you could get it for a reasonable price (for me that would be in the $2-$4 Lb range) you could turn it for a bit of profit, or use it as trade bait for things you do need.

 

With the hammer the answer it "It Depends" .  Does it turn, does it have a motor and motor mount?  What is actually broken?  What is missing (dies, linkages, pulleys, that sort of thing)?  What will it cost to move it?  Do you have the fab skills to do the work?

From what I can see, the frame looks whole, that's a plus.  How is the foot?  Are you looking to make a show piece out of it, or are you looking for a good tool?  If a tool is what you're after, then a bit of fabrication and frankensteining won't really be a problem.  If you're looking for an "as close to original" as you can get, maybe this is not the project for you.  You could land in the middle somewhere, get it, make it run, make stuff with it, find missing parts as you go.

What are they asking for the camelback drill in the background of the shots, that could be quite the tool in the right shop?

As with all of this stuff, the answer is "It's your call".  One thing I would think about, look at the price of a working #100 hammer, what is it going to cost to get this boy working?  Would this be a better tool than that working hammer, all other things being even?

 

I hope this helps, or did I just muddy things up?

 

Geoff

[Alan Longmire]

I does look like a Star.  Needs the flywheel/pulley, but the clutch is there.  

 

The anvil looks great, and Geoff is right on.  

[Gerald Boggs]

Only comment is about the cone mandrel, If you're knife focuses, not much need, but if you're doing a range of blacksmithing, they can come in handy.  Mine spends most of it's time alone in the corner, but every once in while, I spend a day using it and without it, that day would have been two.  Price, 23 years ago I spent $75 on a 2 footer and a fellow smith laughed at spending so much, now I couldn't find one for under $600 and a tall one like that in the photo is commonly over a $1000.

Edited September 28 by Gerald Boggs

[Joshua States]

We have a cone mandrel about that size, (maybe 5 feet tall?) in the shop. I don't use it much for knives, but my wife uses it a lot for her artwork.

I might try using it on the next axe head as it does smooth curves really well.

The anvil looks great, the PH looks like a 2 or 3 year long project.

What's he want for the coal forge?  

 

[billyO]

50 minutes ago, Gerald Boggs said:

Only comment is about the cone mandrel, If you're knife focuses, not much need, but if you're doing a range of blacksmithing, they can come in handy.  Mine spends most of it's time alone in the corner, but every once in while, I spend a day using it and without it, that day would have been two.  

What Gerald said...if general blacksmithing is in your future and you can afford it, buy it now!

I wish I had one in my shop.

 

[Emery White]

Yea I'll snap it up if the people decide to buy it. I found out it's a 350-400 lb anvil.