Problem Solving

Hello! This is mainly about candlesticks, which I have made roughly 8 of and they all have been very time consuming, so I want to find other ways to forge them. So far, I forge two at a time, one at the anvil while the other is in the forge. I start with 500 mm long pieces of 10 mm square and begin upsetting one end until it gets thick enough at the very end (17-20 mm). This is not only very time consuming, but also dangerous since I've hit my left hand (that holds the bar) a lot of times when upset the piece (I've tried holding it with tongs, but it's not stable). I then flatten it out with the cross pein side of my hammer until the end resembles somewhat of a circl…

Hello everybody. I want to forge a bell ( about 18 to 20 cm big). I want to Use it for cattle. I want to make the sound last longer when it strikes. Do i have to harden it more or do i need more tension on the metall? Or do i need to do something else to make it sound longer? Regards and thanks in advance Sebas

Ok braintrust, here is my dilemma. I made about 30' of interior barrier railing (95% fabricated) out of some very old, rusted, pitted silo hoops I had in my scrap pile for some clients who wanted the most rustic, salvaged look and materials I could find. It was around 200 linear feet of 1/2" and 9/16" material. Silo hoops are both curved to begin with and abused from the deconstruction process, so they needed to be straightened. Doing so was ok if tedious for that amount of material. Trouble is, they liked it so much they changed the design of the other railings in the house and want the same material. I would love to know any tricks that would make straighten…

I'm in the process of designing a large gate project and my preferred finish is to have the the two gates and two side panels hot dip galvanized for weatherproofing . I've had good luck with this kind of finish for forged exterior steelwork as the process gets into all the nooks and crannies and if it's done correctly doesn't obscure any more of the texture or detail than paint. The process is pretty cost effective and really gives superior weatherproofing in a wet outdoor environment. The main objection seems to be the silver gray industrial look but the zinc coating can be etched chemically or by a year in the weather before a color top coat is applied if de…

Hi everyone, I'm new to the site and have seen that you guys know a TON about burners; I haven't come across a site specifically for my needs but you guys look like the most knowledgeable folks around when it comes to propane burners. I'm following this Instructable: https://www.instructables.com/id/Build-a-Propane-Jet-Burner-Brewing-Seafood-Wok-Bur/ But the flame keeps blowing itself out when I open up the valve, as you can see in the video I attached. I thought the problem was my 1/16" orifice so I switched to a 0.035" MIG tip, but the results are the same. I'd really appreciate it if you guys could give me some pointers, I tried to contact the inve…

I’m working on a project where I need a 2” section of a 1” diameter the bar to be 1-1/2” diameter. I don’t have any larger stock than the 1” diameter bar, and I tried upsetting a section and it was very slow going. An alternative I came up with is to use small 2” long piece of heavy wall tubing and forge weld that to the diameter of the 1” bar. I’d prefer it forge welded if it’s practical, it would be a good learning experience and the weld higher strength. Any specific approach in making the weld? Or is it simply flux the bar, slide the tubing section on, and forge the diameter in one direction working my way around to the starting point?

I had a thought about practicing certain techniques and hammer methods on soft metals such as aluminium as a way of not using the useful steel for simple practice pieces. Simply using soft metals to mimic hot iron in how it would move as a way to see how to move metal, but because hot steel would react differantly I don’t knkw if this is a very good idea for anything more than basic hammer technique Is this an idea that could work?

My wife wants me to make a decorative piece which will require a flat ring roughly 30 to 36 inches in diameter about 2 inches wide and 1/8 inch thick. Since it's for decoration it doesn't matter if the inner edge is thicker than the outer edge due to the bending. I do not have access to any devices for rolling rings, so I'm wondering if any of you have good tips for accomplishing this. Any thoughts on bending the ring the easy way, welding it, and then heat and beat to accomplish making it the hard way vs. trying to bend it the hard way initially? I can probably use a 55 gallon drum or a semi truck wheel to create some kind of jig if I go a little smaller,…

About a month ago I moved my forging setup into a barn, which has been a huge improvement over what I had previously been doing. The biggest drawback for me currently is airborne dust. The floor consists of a mixture of sand, dirt, and fine particulate matter (this is what causes the dust). Just walking back and forth from the forge to the anvil kicks up significant amounts of dust. What would be a good way to reduce the dust as much as possible? I'd really rather avoid having to wear a dust mask while I'm forging, if at all possible. I considered wetting down the floor a bit, but I'm worried the increase in moisture might not be good for the old beams that the barn …

In the past few days I've been tossing garbage out of my garage to make room for a little workshop. In the corner I found a bucket with some odds and ends, like some conduit pipe and broom handles, things like that. One pair of items caught my eye. They were t-stakes (like this, but not exact, but similar enough to get my point across of what they are. Many many moons ago we used to have a garden, and we had a chicken wire fence to keep bigger critters out. We used the stakes in the garden, probably close to 30 or so. I know for a fact I have more that are in the dilapidated shed in my yard. These are well over 20 years old, probably pushing 30. The questions I…

I make chisels, punches, drifts, and fullers from tie rod ends, but this one is much larger than any others I have used. It is marked “ford p622d”. i don’t need a drift as thick as this. My Hardy hole is small. 7/8” I think. To use such a thick drift I would need to fabricate a portable Hardy hole. I suppose I could make a few handled punches? I don’t know the proper name for it, so will just say the ball that goes in the socket. That I think I will forge into a handled center punch. What about the socket? It sparks pretty well. I am thinking I might cut it and unroll it to use as the bit in a hatchet. I have wrought iron wagon tyres to use as the head. I…

I have access to a few plow blades. The ones that are steel and bolt on the front of dump trucks. I've been searching here and the web to find out what steel their made of. They cut fairly easy with a torch (except the inlay). Someone told me that part was tungsten, someone else said carbon. At any rate you can heat it bright red and it will snap so you can cut the blades as needed. Is the steel any good for forging stuff out of? I've got one I cut up stacked and bolted the pieces to a 6x6 post to be able to beat on. Their very heavy as a whole 4' x8" blade, around 50 lbs. I was thinking about using some to make a trough for a coal forge instead of a square.

After reading another thread about flame straightening/shrinking and the incomplete understanding of the process that some had, I thought this website would be instructive. Free advertising removed is the best in the business, and the damage they can correct using torches and come-alongs is nothing short of miraculous. Having used some of these techniques with varying degrees of success, one thing I can say for certain is that while the torch alone can move some metal, the process is way faster using mechanical means(winches, come-alongs) to hold the work in tension/compression. Another good resource is the AWS publication C4.4 Recommended Practices for Heat Shaping …

Some of you may remember the Great Wrought Iron Rescue of 2017, where I salvaged a hundred or so short pieces of wrought iron bar from repairs to the roof of a 1916 building at the college where I work. It just occurred to me to see if the screws and nuts I removed therefrom were also WI. After doing the cut-and-bend test, I’m pretty sure the screws aren’t, but I’m not sure about the nuts. What do you folks think?

The problem is that I have a bunch of these quite decorative joiner pieces (do they have a name?) that join the sections of 3/8" wrought iron bar on those old Victorian era bed ends. I had ideas of forging some hooks, using the decorative bits as part of the design. Problem 1: Drawing that wrought to a point to make a scroll end on the hook is a nightmare. It wants to split, and if the fine point is scrolled at anything less than yellow it likes to break off. As you can see from pic 3, that double hook was not successful. Well, a learning experience anyway. It also split in the main section. Problem 2: The joiner piece is obviously cast iron, as the cast lines a…

I'm on the hook to make some curtain rods for my wife (only been three years since the original request - is that too long?). I don't seem to find much in the way of descriptions or videos on this subject. The threads here seem to be a bit scattered on info (perhaps I missed something). There seems to be three somewhat different techniques on attaching the finials to the curtain rod: the finials are an extension of the rod material, the finials are inserted *inside* a hollow curtain rod, or finally, the finials have a cap that goes over the end of the curtain rod. Any pointers on the best technique for attaching the finials would be greatly appreciated. Th…

hello, a friend of mine owns a small excavator model komatsu pc 75, should use it to clean up and clean up a long-abandoned agricultural farm, should weed out ailanthus type shrubs, weed weeds, bramble bushes, should free the soil from stones roots stones, for this motif asked me if I could make a rake by hand to make it easier to clean, the standard bucket is not suitable for this purpose, a rake about 1 meter thick 15 mm thick, teeth about 40 cm long, to be hooked to the strssa bucket of the excavator, some constructive suggestion for the bucket rake to slaughter and tear the soil ask about 1000 € uro, we want to spend less thanks to those who want to collaborate in our…

Evening, looking for a bit of advice on a bit of an issue I have - an engagement ring for my girl. I could go out and buy one, but what I'd like to do is take the money I'd spend on the ring and spend it on a much nicer stone, and try to set it myself in either a stainless or titanium ring of my own making. I've never made a ring before, but it doesn't seem too difficult, and I've got plenty of stock to practice with. What I'm more concerned about is the actually setting of the stone in the metal. Any advice you guys have for the project? I'm a rather novice blacksmith, and anticipate doing hundreds of trial runs with many cheap practice stones, so any sage advice would b…

I guess I wear blinders. There's a thrift store less than 2 miles from me. Never knew it. Until over a year later lol Found these there with a set of tongs... Any idea of what they were...roughly 2" and 3.5" size solid

I know some people make knives from old files. I have some old Nicholson pipeliner files that have damaged and rolled teeth. I'm thinking about annealing it and grinding down the tang to make a graver (may have to forge down part of the body behind the tang so as to have enough length for an engraving chisel). My question is, would file steel be good enough to work for this application? Edit: obviously would need hardened and tempered afterwards

So I picked up some new 2lb bolts as scrap. The seller gave me some info that was on the box but didn't know much about them. He did not give me the box. Unbrako brand, the box they were in had A2LA (which I think is a certification group), vendor code on the box - 66245. ANSI B18.3.1M A574M, Stock no 40418, size M30 - 3.5 x 120mm. Pics below... I googled Unbrako, "A2LA", the vendor code, ANSI code, etc but, unless I didn't read far enough, didn't see anything to indicate what type of steel unless I'm misinterpreting the "A2LA". I was thinking I could make some hammer heads or some other tooling out of these. If they're crap steel, I can just practice h…

So day 2 at the forge I worked on 3 projects. 1) continued drawing out handles on the tongs...2) made a flint striker...it worked...gonna do some more shaping though 3)tried straightening a piece of random coil. Maybe 1/4" thick and maybe 2.5" diameter stock...however it started to break in a spot. I KNOW i did not burn it. Had someone show me burnt metal. Can anyone offer any idea?

So I got some garage springs today . I’m wondering if this is like all the spring metal I’ve heard about that you can make tools from. Is that the case with these . It’s not as thick as a coil spring from a car but I have a lot of it .

I put together a little electro etcher. Tried it out on some mild steel (A36?) with electrolyte specified for carbon and mild steel. The results were less than I was hoping for. I was looking for a deep etch and then blackening after. I'm wondering why the etch wasn't deeper and it didn't blacken at all. Maybe my pad was too small for the size I was etching? Not enough current? My technique needs work? Or just expecting more from the process than is realistic? electro-etcher_circuit.pdf

Hello everybody its dillion again, to mark my metal i have been using a grey or white sharpie but they do not last long and the marks dont seem to last very long after the piece rusts some the mark is all but completly gone , I was wondering what does everybody use to write on your steel for instance when writing what type,of steel it is