Monday, July 2, 2012

A early Christmas gift...

I have been super in to forging over the last year and have been doing all kinds of studying about doing aluminum forging and steel forging so why not give it a try......

The power hammer work is something I have just started and taking the classes ( Old MLS post about the classes) that the California BlackSmith group offers gave me a little more insight in to everything.

While I was at class I noticed a cool little machine sitting in the corner not being used.

It happened to be a early 1900s Little Giant Power Hammer made in Minnesota, but not some random town I don't know of, it happened to be a few miles from where I grew up in a small city named Mankato. Just miles from New Ulm,MN which is my home town. So automaticly I was drawn to the brand and needed one... I have driven my truck by this address in Mankato hundreds of times and even know the building....
The ad from 1931 with a 100lb machine

Since I have have been hammering the last months non stop on robots, science museum stuff, gov. stuff and all power labs stuff, I knew I owe it to myself to buy a gift for me and my desire to learn.

This machine came up for sale a month back and once the dude Carl selling it, knew it was going to a good home.... He made the price right !

Carl was so stoked on his free forklift he wanted a picture with it...
I would like to show the picture of it in the rental truck but I am sure I would be blacklisted for destroying the floor in the rental box truck from hauling this thing, so just pretend theres a box truck in this photo too.
My new addition to MLS 
1927 Little Giant 100 LB Trip PowerHammer

Here is the pile of parts, as you can tell from the forklift photo, I have already done some major cleaning on it and getting it ready for the motor mount and paint.

The name plate says it all.
Mankato, MN
This is a video to show you how and what it does.

2 comments:

  1. Wow,
    this is extra sweet. Can't wait to see what you do with it...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Love it! Mankato in the house.

    ReplyDelete