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I Forge Iron

Ian Wille

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    St. Charles, Missouri

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    Jackson, Mo

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  1. Funny that you mention graphite crucible formula for the chips, Mike. I rigged up a chip (more like chunk, about like nut size coal) forge using broken up graphite based crucibles from a local foundry several years ago. ( Link to my previous post on this )The burner was a 5" square ribbon burner with about 25 ports, mounted in a firepot about 2" deep. The blower I was using was the 112cfm blower from Kayne and Son. The crucible pieces worked alright, but tended to stick to each other, which made it fun to get work into and out of the chip bed . They also tended to "absorb" scale. Not bad, and has potential, but I ran out of spare time to do more R&D.
  2. Would you mind specifying a little as to where exactly the hammer is in the US? I ask not to buy it, but just help track the origin of this hammer down and try to help you out a bit. I did work for Tom briefly towards the end, and its similar (if not the same) as three that he had brought stateside from Pakistan as a test. If memory serves, they were being made by the same company that made his tongs. Anyway, they're a decent hammer, having ran two smaller sisters to this hammer, can say they are a good machine, and pack quite the hit!
  3. Hi Marc, What part of the world is this hammer located in? The TC is something Tom had put on the tools he sold. This hammer came from Pakistan, but i can't say if it was originally made in Pakistan, or just refurbished there. Ian
  4. Hi Aaron, I thought I'd chime in on the information about Tom's hammers. I lived about two hours from him, so I made a lot of visits to his shop. Even had the fortunate chance to work for him for a few months before he passed. Tom made all of the forged hammers from 1045. Its dead simple, and forgiving, to work with in the shop, as I'm sure you've discovered. they were quenched in collected rain water, due to the purity. His shop was in a area with HARD water. He most certainly did temper his hammers. There was an old kitchen oven in the shop that he baked them in, somewhere around 475 degrees F. Its hard to beat an old oven for that nice, slow, tempering bake, plus the large volume for multiple hammers all at once. And they come out with such nice colors, too! I've seen how much you like those temper colors! His end goal was between Rockwell 50C - 54C. IIRC, I think he mentioned that he used the 4140 for the cast hammers he did. Seems that what he said in one of our conversations. Though I cannot recall what the heat treat process was on those. And just to add my two cents, everyone else is steering you right. Tempering is a must when making any struck tools. One day it clicked that heat treating is really a balancing act between hardness (brittleness) and toughness. I think it happened as I was looking at a graph on a heat treat spec sheet. It was laid out clearly, and just made it simple to understand. Anyway, when you quench from critical, the carbon and iron atoms are having their crystal structure rearranged, from austenite (crystalline form when steel is at critical) to martensite (the final, hard crystalline form). The thing about the martensite transformation is that there is some volumetric change due to different densities between martensite and austenite. That change, coupled with the naturally high strain the martensite crystal forms are under, creates a lot, and I mean a lot, of stress in the hardened steel. That strain stress is a part of the hardness of a hammer, but like all of us, needs to relax some or it will crack. So tempering helps to relax the crystalline martensite (obviously, the higher the tempering temperature, a higher amount of martensite is relaxed). And that is where the balancing act comes into play: bake at just the right temperature to be hard, but also tough. So there is, I'd say, a good reason we are taught to temper I picked up a lot of this trying to make hammers from 1080. lets just say it was quench crack city for a looong while. Hope this short book helps!
  5. Hey Benton, very nice hawks! im curious to know more about that axe class in St. Louis? its about a 20 minute drive from me...
  6. Judson, just curious, is that the powdered graphite that is sold for seed flow lubricant for planters?
  7. This is not a modern application (unless you consider 1935 modern), but does show forge welding being used in an industrial setting- in this case a linkage for a steam locomotive. I think this should qualify as heavy industrial engineering.
  8. So maybe we could also actually "sketch" this in iron? It looks like the "3" shape could be bent/lapped over onto itself at the 8mm segemnt, with space left to insert the angled leg. Then the two pieces could either be riveted or forgewelded together. This way the whole part could be made out of the same size stock. Of course this would make the 8mm segment thick, and would also turn this into a 3D piece instead of 2D, and might not be best for a key fob. So hopefully this crude sketch helps explain my take on this... hopefully...
  9. Also, as a side note, maybe the key to a NA ribbon burner is a thinner refractory block and larger plenum? Here is a Link to Dudley Giberson's (of Joppa Glassworks) patent: LINKY Notice there is a large plenum, and a thin burner face,as compared to the 2"-3" thick burner faces commonly used of ribbon burners now. Some interesting food for thought. I don't mean to suggest that we run him out of business and steal his ideas, only that we look at and learn from his developments from the NA ribbon burner.
  10. Hey Frosty, Have you ever tried one of your T-Burners with a ribbon burner? I've thought about an NA ribbon myself on and off again.
  11. To Build on what Horseshoe182 suggested, look for MSC Industrial Supply or Grainger. Both supply houses sell to the manufacturing industry will have those drills, mig tips, and special plumbing supplies in stock. And there will probably be one within a reasonable driving distance.
  12. If you have an farm and feed stores near you, you might look look around for graphite seed flow lube. I found some at a local Orscheln's and have had decent results with it plain. I'm next going to try mixing it with some dish soap and water like Hofi's recipe. It's on the list to try out this coming weekend.
  13. This is something I've been working on for about one year now. I have actually had some success and have been able to build my own chip bed forge that works reasonably well. In use, the chip bed itself will reach lemon-yellow, and will heat a short section of 1" square to working temperature from cold in a little less than 5 minutes. Some specifics: I made my own ribbon style burner ( Google pine Ridge Burners; these sound similar to what you are talking about). My burner is 5" square tubing with 3" of steel plate built up for the burner face. In that face, I've drilled 25 0.2188" diameter holes for the gas/air mix to exit through. the burner body, or plenum, is 5" x 5" square tubing, 7" long. The gas/air inlet pipe is 2" diameter, and is bottom center on one of the sides of the plenum. Note that when I say bottom, I am referring to the end of the burner opposite of the face. I am using a blower (This one). I use a gate valve between it and the burner to control airflow, as well as the damper on the burner itself. The gas(propane) is admitted just after the the gate valve via a 0.0625" diameter orifice. The hearth is one I made out of 0.750" plate. it is approximately 2" deep, and 12" long by 12" wide. It used to be my coal firepot, until I made one for coke. My ceramic chips are broken up crucible material, which looks to be some sort of graphite. I break it up myself with a hammer and chisel. they do stay put while the burner is running. The burner is mounted as in Angele's, with it shooting straight up into the chip bed. What I've learned: The burner, as it is works quite well for its purpose. The port size I'm using (0.2188") seems to be ideal from what experimenting I've done with the above setup. The steel face of the burner was done for temporary purposes and to allow me to easily experiment with various port sizes. Soon I will either make my own cast refractory head burner or buy one from Pine Ridge. I have found that it needs that 3" thickness. In my early models, I only had 1" plate for the face. In use that plate would get to about 1600 degrees F, at which point the incoming gas and air would ignite and flashback through the system. I added 2" of plate, and have not had that problem since. When I make my own burner, i shall make sure I have at least 3" of refractory between the burner face and the plenum. The graphite crucible material I am using works okay, but could be better. At the temperature the forge runs, the graphite chips do soften and stick together pretty badly, so I end up stirring/breaking up the chip bed every other time I go and take another heat. Of course, the chips scatter around the table top in use, so they have to be raked back into the hearth. The chips do absorb some scale/iron into them, but not too badly. I would like to find some sort of refractory chips that have a softening temperature around 3000 degrees F, maybe 3200 degrees, with some abrasion resistance and ability to withstand thermal shock as well. Mullite seems to fit this bill better than your Aluminum Oxide, though I have only been able to source suppliers of mullite powder here in the U.S. I'm still searching for a company that makes or could economically make mullite chips. I really don't want to start making my own refractories, as I am busy enough making tools, projects, and experimenting, along with school, work, etc... but I digress... Oh, i've also found that around 2" of chips above and below the work piece really cuts down on the heating time. Overall, my model works, but can be improved. It is very home-grown. I've taken care of as many safety issues as I am capable of. In use, it works much like a coal fire, with about the same amount of maintainance and radiant heat. The principles for fire depth/structure are also similar to that of coal, in that there's an oxidizing layer and a neutral layer, and the whole heats much better if there's a thick covering of chips above the work-piece. I get very little scale on the work when heating, which is nice. The fire is also quite clean, with no soot or smoke, which I like. I can also adjust the atmosphere of the chip bed as well to get the neutralizing fire I want. I have found it works for both short and large heats, though heating up large pieces does take quite a bit longer. I present this for learning purposes, both for everyone's and my own. I'm just 21, and have a great deal to learn yet, so anything that anyone sees that I have gotten wrong or understand improperly, by all means, let me know. What I've learned here has been through trial and error and some reading and using good old mental reasoning. I know that what I've made works, and now I'm going to improve upon it. I will be going home this weekend (where I have my forge) and will take picture and get more information while there, maybe even some video too. Ian Wille
  14. Hi Ian, I noticed you last name. Are you by chance of Dutch heritage? My Grandfather was a Wille. His family all came from the Rotterdam area of Holland. All the best, John

  15. Here's a link to Brent Bailey's hammer making article: http://www.calsmith.org/techniques/hammers/baileycrosspein.pdf I came across it by happenstance the other day while browsing the CBA's website. I was glad to find it again as I had not been able to located it for some time, and didn't think to print out a copy. Ian Wille
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