It followed me home

[Ed Thomas]

Two things:

1) one_rod: I'm a little curious why you made such a sharp pein on the hammer. Do you have a specific use in mind? I think I'd wind up buggering up anything I tried to pein with that end, so I usually make my hammers more rounded at the pein end.

2) Meco3hp (or anybody): Do you know any use for these clips? I have yet to find one, which is odd considering everything else from the tracks is good for something. I'm talking about the ones on the left, not the solid stock ones.

[meco3hp]

Hello,
The only idea that I can figure is heat them and flatten them out for misc high carbon steel. Anybody else got any ideas? They measure about 3 1/8"x 5/16" flattened out. I do have a buddy that can get alot of drops out of a local machineshop's metal dumpster, all they ask is you try to and make an even trade. But no tin! Just cast or iron. They love cast iron bath tubs. If I can't figure out a use for them I can always trade them out that way.

[Glenn]

Track plates make good feet for outdoor legs on tables and such.

[ThomasPowers]

There wqs a site posted somewhere recently that used the solid ones to make guillotine fullers from. You just use the straight section and the "flat" provides a better place to hammer on when using it. They had both plain and pipe fullers made from them.

I never pick them up cause i had *no* ideas on how to use them. Now I have to go get a couple...

Thomas

[Ed Thomas]

Those hollow-formed, sheet-metal looking clips are much more common now. Those are the ones I'm talking about. It seems like they are more trouble than they are worth to use for anything. I've made (and posted pictures of) tools from the solid springs. They are a pretty good steel and make a nice tool.

[one_rod]

Originally Posted by Ed Thomas

Two things:

1) one_rod: I'm a little curious why you made such a sharp pein on the hammer. Do you have a specific use in mind? I think I'd wind up buggering up anything I tried to pein with that end, so I usually make my hammers more rounded at the pein end.

Yes, good point Ed. As soon as I started to use the thing I realised I had made it too sharp.

A little work with the belt grinder, and it is now a much more practical shape.

I'm very much a beginner at this sort of thing so am learning as I go along. (I have quickly learned that it's a lot easier to shape a hammer head before you put the handle on than afterwards :roll: )


one_rod.

[Nolano]

Yeah, that can be a hard one to learn. I've never actually used an oxy/acetylene cutting torch, only a plasma cutter.

[meco3hp]

Hello,
Went on a walk today along some RR tracks. I found the regular amount of spikes and such, but I found two other items of intrest.
The first item is a chunk of metallic material, that I think came from where they used "thermite" to weld rails together, as this track is ribbon rail. The pics have a magnet hanging off of the side of it and it has a strong pull. I'm going to try forging it and see what I get.
The second item is a 10" long shaft about 2" dia. that was broke. When I looked at it the break, it seams to have a "sheath" around the edge, like the center pulled apart but the outer surface stayed intact. Could this be "case hardened"? How do you use a chuck of this stuff. Does it forge like regular steel or what?
Here are some pics.




Let me know what you think.

[irnsrgn]

don't know about the blob, but the shaft may be case hardened or induction hardened like the do hydraulic cylinder shafts before chroming them. you will be able to tell by a spark test, tho.

[HeavyHammer]

I couldnt pass it up. I was at a SCRAPARAMA and was looking for a small anvil for demos. Well i found a beaut but i didnt have the cash so i went and bought some other things. Then I saw it and clenched the $23 in my pocket. Then i saw the price $25. So yeah i paid $23 for an anvil that weighs more than me(it weighs about 200 lbs).