Problem Solving

I done lost my angle grinder (I don't know how) and the only hacksaw blade I have is bent and, I have been trying to cut a piece of 1/2x1/8 flat bar for half an hour and I'm less than a quarter of the way through. I would fire up the forge and just hot cut what I need but I'm not allowed to use the forge at the moment. Is there another way to cut the flat bar or do I have to wait?

Couldn't figure out where to put this request, so I am here..........where I am!!!!! Just hope it's the right place so I don't face the wrath of a moderator. I melted the side out of my plastic Lowe's bucket filled with Vermiculite today. Guess I got my hammer head too close to the side. So I've got to find a couple of metal 5 gallon buckets/cans. But I'm pulling up a blank and can't think where I might find used ones. Do auto lubrication centers still buy grease in those cans? Paint used to come in them but the manufacturers have switched over to plastic paint cans. Been racking my brain for the last couple of hours and can't think of any place that …

I do a lot of brazing and soldering and I was hoping to do a little DIY solder/brazing paste. I was thinking about getting a harbor freight rock tumbler, filling it with marbles and brazing rod and letting it run for a week, mix the resulting powdered metal with some white brazing flux and give it a try. Not for everything, but I think it has a place. I primary run Harris 35 silver, so it's good stuff, might do it with the 56 for improved flow ability. For the solder, I was going to mix it with Oatly tinning flux, different solder of course, but it has body to keep it in suspension. Harris Stay clean flux is good, but it's a liquid and nothing will suspend. …

Decided to make a pot stand for camping. Going all fancy like and using some scrolls for decrative purposes. I drew out my scroll, as seen in the bottom right of the photo. I used some string and measured it out. Total length is 11.75 inches, made from 3/4x1/4" flat stock. I wanted to do a taper for the inner part of the scroll, so i did some math, and figured that having a 7/8ths" taper length for both ends of the bar would look nice, so 7/8ths plus 7/8ths equals 1.75", so i started with a 10" long piece of flat stock. I did my scroll work, bending, curling, and made the scrolls look like what i drew...but then saw that even though both scrolls on the piece mat…

Hi, I do a lot of silver brazing/white flux, space is tight a lot of times with the clamps, and the silver braze flows and brazes the clamps to the work occasionally. I'm looking for something spray/dip/paint/rub on the clamps to act as a resist. I have use carbon from the acetylene torch, but that doesn't last that long, and I have to re adjust my torch every time I blacken my clamps. I was wondering if there was something out there, or some process that would make the clamps more resistant. Any thoughts would be nice. Thanks

Hi Everyone, My buddy dropped off a 136 lb 3’ piece of NEW railroad track. It has a large printed paper taped on to the side of the rail that says “New”. I already have a couple of old railroad tracks in use as “anvils”, one vertical 30” piece and one horizontal 12”. I appreciate any advice or ideas,

What would you call this and how to prevent?

I have a 100 gal. propane tank that I removed the valves and filled with water and soap for a month. Its been sitting for two years . Is it safe to cut?

I have some 2 inch round stock that I want to use to make a hammer. I expect to slit and drift the eye. but I don't know how to accurately locate where to begin slitting. Can anyone suggest a way using basic hand tools ? I think maybe I could wrap a quarter inch strip of paper tightly around the stock and then then use a pin to pierce through the paper where it overlaps itself. Then cut it off at each pinhole and fold it in half and mark the center of the strip with a pinhole. Finally tape the strip back on the stock and center punch at the end of the strip and also at the midpoint of the paper strip. I am pretty sure this would work, but is there a…

Apologies if this has been discussed a thousand times. Will a dimmer switch be able to vary the speed on an electric motor? It's an old Westinghouse electric motor. (Attached to a blower.) 115 volts 5.1 Amps 1/4 horse power I guess it wouldn't be the first time I've been electrocuted. It'd be a shame to fry the motor though. Thanks!

I'm about to do a project, a finnish knife from auto spring steel, i am going to work in a proper smithy with more or less full gear, but the problem is that coal and coke is a pain in the xxx to find where i live, (west coast sweden) and highly expensive, so im considering to use techniques showed by joey van der steeg to effectivize my forge's fuel use, and to recruit a striker to be able to excert maximum power into the stock, does this seem like a good idea? Suggestions?

I like reusing old steel - partly because new steel is hard to buy cheaply here but mainly because it feels like the right thing to do. Plus you never know what you’re going to get. I picked up a bunch of steel the other day - probably an inch wide by I dunno, 1/16? 1/8? I’m not so good with imperial a looks about 3-4mm whenever I try to work it it’s just splitting - totally unusable. Is this something I’m doing wrong or is it more likely the steel is so overworked it’s broken down? I’m amateur status - did have a good look through but couldn’t see any useful posts on this.

Hoping someone has some insight. My last forge weld billet completely failed to weld. Was a stack of 15n20 and 1075. Have done several billets already from the same steel (AKS). The only thing I did differently, was in between my last billets I had used a graphite mold to melt down some old range brass into brass ingots. Is it possible that doing so introduced some contamination into my forge? (Its also possible I was just having an off day too I suppose).

My 9 year old daughter found this clip on the ground thinking I could make something out of it. I told her it was to small to use them I felt bad......... Help me think of some things I could use it for please!

Hi all I hope you don’t mind helping me gain some knowledge on how to approach a problem which arises as part of a home build pizza oven project? I want to cast a flat, smooth, single piece floor for my oven, and it should be able to withstand pizza oven temps (up to around 600C /1100F). I want to avoid the use of firebricks, or anything which isn’t perfectly smooth and free from gaps, so would want to understand how to create a mortar or cement mix which I could cast into a mould sized around 20 inches x 23 inches and a couple of inches thick (unless it should be thicker?). This floor would sit on a vermiculite/cement mix plinth for added heat insulation. S…

Hi all, I've been reading these forums for a couple days now trying to find a solution to my problem but I can't seem to find a straight answer. I'm on a tight budget looking for cheap DIY solution for a heat resistant surface for brazing/soldering (not sure which is the correct term) small copper and brass pieces. I know there are commercial solutions out there like solderite boards (not sure what the material is technically called), but they tend to be pretty expensive (~$35 for a 12"x12" piece). I'd like my protective layer to be somewhat larger than that -- in the ballpark of 24"x24" inches. I plan on using a charcoal or honeycomb block to place my pr…

I'm hoping someone with more experience can give me some ideas on how to work around my limitation in tooling. I want to create a cup-shaped depression in a 3x3" square of 3/8" flat bar. I have a big piece of steel plate as an anvil, a 4" bench vise, some tongs, a few hammers, and an assortment of punches / drifts. Maybe most useful of all, I have a 1 1/2" diam steel billet, which could be used to hammer down into the sheet to provide exactly the depression I need. But, I don't have any way to support the sheet in a way that I could use the cylinder to force down the sheet into a cup. I'm sorry if this is totally obvious - it would be easy if I had a deep…

Recently, I have been having issues with my steel forming cracks when I'm drawing it out under my Hydraulic press. My first thought was that I was forging too cold, so I heated the steel to the max temp that my forge will produce and cracks still formed. I tried this with W1 steel from two separate bars and the result didn't change, so I don't think that the steel was already cracked. If you have any input, I would love to solve this problem. P.s. I'm new to using a press, so it's possible that I'm doing something I shouldn't be. If there are any techniques that you could share to help me, they would be much appreciated.

I am wanting to reproduce this in steel. The slats from 3/4” x 1/8” flat bar. The shelves from 3/4” steel cut as valentines. I am thinking of connecting the slats to the shelves using blind copper rivets. The shelves will not need to hold anything weighty. Just personal hygiene items, tooth brush, razor, beard cream, manly moisturizing items, brush and beard comb. Perhaps a small copper bowl for pocket change and keys. Will copper rivets hold? I forgot, it is 24” high

Should a roller bearing with a inner race be installed inside the shaft pressed on or just tight. There on the end of a 48" auger.

Does anyone have experience gluing deer antlers on as handles for fire tools? What glue should I use? Thanks

Rebar has a well-defined pattern and I wanted to know what would happen if it were twisted. As we are all aware it's not much use twisting round bar, but would rebar be any different? Wondering if anyone has managed to twist rebar in a way that makes interesting use of the pattern. Here's what happened: A tight twist, one direction. A bit of a mess: A light twist in a fullered section to define the twist. Ordinary. A long reverse twist. OK. A squared section. Not much good as the twist loses the pattern on the steel. OK for contrast perhaps.

Good Afternoon All, I am working on making a grabber that will pick up heaver things since at 6' 8" tall the ground it a LONG way down. I got a number of these items from a surplus store many years ago and now think they would be of use in my grabber build. If I knew what to call it I might could find some on the web or at the hardware store. The item is about 3 inches long and the holes are a bit larger than 1/4". The imprint is EFCOR (the manufacturer) and IBEW. I think IBEW is the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. Before I start looking for the correct hay stack to start looking for this needle I thought I would try my luck with you go…

Hi everyone! another rookie question here, that has probably been asked, but I have found very little on 'parallelogram, rhombus' etc. keywords, and that haven't really solved my problem. Please read it to the end to see what I have already tried. I strongly believe that hammering technique is of utmost importance to learn early, and only a good practice makes it perfect, not just any practice. I am a 'youtube-learning' blacksmith (I don't think that nowadays anyone is really 'self-tought'), and have no one nearby to ask. My problem is with a cross section turning into a parallelogram, instead of rectangular, when flattening a square bar, when working in cl…

Hi All, I've made a set of railings that I got galvanised and subsequently treated with t wash/mordant solution. I painted it on, left it to dry, and it finished up with the really nice grey finish. After fitting them, and a day in the rain, a white powder coating has developed on top of the grey finish. This has only developed where the rain has landed on the railings, or where water has run down. You can see this in this image The coating can be cleaned off with a wire wheel, but I don't want to go through all that effort if this is going to happen again the very next time it rains. Have I done something wrong in my application? or missed a step? Th…