downsfish

Wesley, you know what they say "if you have to ask ...", as for when lets see it's taken me about 8 months to get this far sooo...

Mostly it has too much chromium and manganese which would make it too hard, rebar has to be able to be bent without breaking. I don't really know the details, that's just how our metallurgist explained it to me. I know that one of the first QC tests we do is as the bar is just coming to a stop out of the mill, the inspector imediatly quenches it in water then weighs it. If it's #3 bar most of the time it'll break if dropped on the ground, but after it air cools if it's heated and quenched it won't break, it's still quite hard but not as brittle. I'm guessing that has to do with the grain structure.

Thanks for all the kind words and encouragement, here's some progress pics of #2, still needs grinding, mill the top, HT, then weld some billets under it crossways for feet/upsetting blocks.

Yup, well kinda, to roll the rebar we start with a 5 1/2" X 28' +or- billet. The smallest we roll is #3 bar (3/8") I can't remember exactly but 1 billet ends up being about 150 or so pcs of #3 bar 180' long, the biggest is #18 bar (2 1/4") which ends up being 1 bar 180'. Since the #18 bar doesn't have near as much reduction/work happening to it, these billets require a substantially different chemistry to end up with similar strengths, to do this we test the "heat" several times before we "tap" it and add whatever alloys are needed. When the chemistry in a "heat" is off or unsuitable those billets are cut up, taken out to the scrapyard, and remelted. I told you all this to say that the chunck of billet I pulled out of the scrapyard was no good for rebar but obviously good for an anvil. While I'm on this subject I think it's a good time to say that rebar comes in different grades 75,60,40, and "no grade" depending on what the customer orders. The stuff you find at the big box stores is usually "no grade" because it's the cheapest which is also the weakest, in fact when we roll "no grade" we use old nearly worn out rolls and grind out the identifying Mill marks. I hope that answered your question, if not I'll try again. Scott

Matt Do you think that the anti-scale is unneeded if I put on a cap? I'm very sure I'll end up going over 1600 deg, a pitted surface sounds worse then the decarb.

Thanks again for all the amazing help/info, and as an update I've started on my second anvil this one patterned after Mr. Hofi's. I'm still in the shaping process which will probably take a couple more weeks to complete since I peck away at it when we're slow at work. I'm thinking once I get it shaped and ready to HT I'll coat the top with a boric acid mixed with toluene solution, then tack a 1/4" plate cap on top of that to help keep off the decarb. Then before I chuck it in the flume I'll knock off the cap so the water will hit the anvil instead of the cap. Any suggestions? Did you notice me learning, I'm asking questions before I do it instead of while and after. ;)

Yes sir, that is very beautiful indeed I love the contrast.

Ditto on the ribbon ends and spirals. Very sharp

very nice work, I think I'll make a stand like that for mine.

I had time last night for the first few cuts, it starts out as a 5 1/2" x 32" billet

markrose- thanks for the vote of confidence but I don't think my quality or quantity is quite ready for production, one small success doesn't really equate to competence, hence my signature. If however this one turns out like I see it in my mind, ABSOFRIKINLUTELY, I'll do just about anything for a buck these days.

so far it looks like it's overwhelming, no step, that's great 'cause I think it'll make it a lot easier to make. Gazilla and dphigh- arftist put in the first thread giving the details about it just ask if you want more. Avadon-it's the only one i've ever used/ had/ or made so I didn't notice wide. I work in a steel mill and sometimes the nights get pretty boring. So I typically find something to keep me occupied, usually it's for them but sometimes it's for me. It started as part of a 5 1/2" X 28' billet that was scrapped. I milled out the hardy hole then welded a piece of 3/4" plate on the side and I ended up with 6 1/4". This time I'm going to drill a 1" hole for the hardy and drive a drift thru it, just like a really big hammer. Well that's the plan anyway, seems kind of backward that my first attempt at drifting will be 5", but if I can do that everything else should be easy. This time I'll try to remember progress pics. Phil-great idea I'll come up with something.

So here's the anvil I built last month, I really like it, but since I just started I have nothing to compare it to and my opinion may be slightly biased. In another post you guys helped me work out those decarb problems from the heat treat, I hope. So I thought I'd build another one and I really like Mr. hofi's double horn design, pritchel holes, upsetting / straightening blocks with the pass-thrus, the right angled mini horn, etc. My question is if it were you would you put the little step in front of the horn? It seems like it's typical for the double horns to be without it. Why is that:confused: If I'm gonna make it, I can make it however I want. So how do I want?

I'm working on one also, and at first I thought it would be very difficult. I started looking at it as smaller individual shapes instead of the whole and it made it very doable. My first try doesn't look good enough to use but I think the next one will.

Mark we call it pour rock, rock tite, rock hard, its the same thing a quick setting mortar you can get at the local hardware store nothing special.

I use pour rock, it's cheap, sets up fast and I haven't had a problem with it yet.

We've got several broken thermocouples and i was wondering about rebuilding them into something more user friendly for us. They're pretty long about 2' to four' and in different stages of disrepair, some have a stainless sheath and some have a ceramic sheath, some of the wires are in a ceramic tube which then goes into a ceramic sheath. I'm told we don't repair them anymore, sooo what have been your experiences with them?:)

Matt please let us know how this works so that i can use too. thanks

I built this at work to fill a specific need in the rolling mill, which is to heat bits roughly 2 foot long anywhere from 2" to 1/2" dia for sizeing the mill. Right now we do it with a couple of torches on the ground. Anyways when the supervisors saw it they couldn't see it as anything but a liability / bomb and I had to get rid of it without even trying it. I've got 2" of kaowool with about 1" of refractory and a brick floor, it's got three burners and brick doors. After the forge was sitting in my garage for a couple of months I decided to try blacksmithing, kinda backwards huh, so I built an anvil and tried them out yesterday. It worked great, that coming from someone who only knows that it gets really hot. I really had a good time. I made a scroll out of 3/4" square and a couple of candle holders, I'll post those pics when I finish them. Thanks for looking.

Sooo when i make the next one the process should be?... -since i don't have control over whether the furnace is running rich or lean to avoid the decarb, which is a drag to remove. -bring it up to temp, non magnetic or 1500 ish. -don't let it soak. -take it out and quench or should i normalize once then quench?

Thanks for the kind words, I tested the hardness today and in 8 spots it averaged 54 on the rockwell C scale, low of 46 and high of 60. What causes the decarb? was it the high heat, length of soak time or do you think it might be how they were fireing the furnace (rich or lean)? It must not be a loose layer cause we pinged it right on some of the spots and they were as good as the rest. DennisG it started as a 5 1/2" billet which is what we run. I made a 30 deg cut for the heel, then I used that drop for the horn. I beveled the base of the horn back about 1" back and 2" into the root and welded it on. Then I milled the 1" hardie hole in the side and drilled the 5/8" pritchel hole. I full pen welded a 1/2" piece of key stock in to close up the hardie then welded a 1" plate onto that side with a 45 deg bevel all around and a 2" rectangle in the center. that left about 2" not welded on that side plate and that was the soft spot when I tested the hardness. Then I welded it to a 2" plate with some holes to mount it. The anvil itself is 5 1/2" tall, 6 1/2" wide, 14" long, with a 6" horn set 1/2" down from the face, setting on a 2" thick base 10 1/2" wide, 16" long with the back side radiused. I was just trying to make it look like an anvil Thanks again for all the help.

I tried again today and it worked great, I think, I mean it's a lot harder than it was. Our ping tester is broke so I came down really hard on a corner trying to chip it without success, so that seems good. I didn't have much time to work on it, just barely hit it with a grinder and wow did it scale up bad, but it'll clean up. So what do you think?

thanks for the advice i'll try it again tommorrow, what do you think the temp should be when i quench ?

I'll take it out and let it cool / normalize and try again later.

uh oh i just checked and i'm way past purple and right on into 1820 deg and glowing