Luke March

Ok, there's one! Here's the spec sheet on the stuff I've got. 98% Iron oxide! Would it be worth segmenting it out and putting it up on the tailgating section? Shipping would be killer, but if anyone is having trouble finding magnetite for their smelting project, it might be worth it. I might do some smelting eventually; but I can't imagine I'll be smelting 1400 lbs! MagnaDense 2 Data Sheet 08-03US, 16-05.pdf

So, due to a project at work, we now have about 1400 lbs of magnetite that we don't need; I have access to as much as I want. What are your favorite uses for magnetite?

hmmm, I would only be able to swing friday - but don't make plans on account of me! I'm not even entirely certain I'm going yet. Actually I was going to skip this year, until I saw that Brian is demoing, and now I really want to go... but I have final exams Thursday and Friday morning (last exam Friday at 7:30-9:45 AM).

Divermike, I may be interested in a ride - what day are you leaving?

Check the thread at the top of this page.

So, I got Colin Peck's book, and I've been working on gathering the needed parts to build one of these furnaces. The biggest issue, of course, is the refractory. Because shipping would be killer to get three 50+ pound bags sent by mail, I've been checking my local suppliers, and came across a company that keeps this stuff in stock: http://www.sparref.com/uploadedFiles/File/Products_Document_1214321489.pdf Would this work for the furnace refractory?

That's exactly what is puzzling to me. By all accounts, the etchant was strongly corrosive. I don't know what the exact alloy was; it was part of a 4'x8' sheet of 16g steel I bought from the local steelyard. I didn't think to ask what it was when I bought it, but they only had one type of steel sheet. By the way its finish looks and by the way it work hardens, I would guess it's hot roll - I don't know if that means A36 or some other alloy. It's certainly not stainless. To test my acid I took another scrap piece of the same material and stirred the acid with it; the surface oxidation was dissolved to show bare metal in under a minute. I also took a bar of layers of this same steel forge welded in a stack with a different steel (sort of a damascus-prototype-test-piece), polished the end, and dipped it in the acid. The layers showed up immediately - though that may have been due more to the other steel. Bubbles showed up on the workpiece constantly, though I knocked them off occasionally (every 1/2 to 1 hour). They always reformed after just a few minutes though. I'm beginning to wonder if the presence of the bubbles prevented the acid from etching properly.

Thomas, Thanks for the tip, I'll have to try that sometime. Perhaps it will work better than what I have done so far. Do you think my shallow etching was the result of the metal being incompatible with the acid? Or should I have left it in longer? Or, perhaps there was something else I failed to do? Woody, I learned the H202 + HCl trick when learning to etch my own circuit boards. It was one of the recommended formulas I found when researching the subject; rest assured I did not simply say "hmmm, maybe if I add this chemical." I am aware that combining chemicals together when you don't know their effects is a pretty bad idea (for example, mixing ammonia and bleach can produce vapors causing death.) Just a side note, the peroxide really does help, at least on copper; none of my circuit boards have turned out correctly without it (in an HCl mix). Thanks for the description of electro etching; I had thought about electro etching, but figured that (at least to begin with) I would do acid etching because I already had the right materials. (Or so I thought, anyway).

So I decided to give etching a try. The goal here was to etch a design into a plain piece of steel. The particular piece of steel was a belt-end for a costume my brother is working on. I am using Beeswax as a resist, melted onto the piece of steel; I then use a scribe to scratch in the design. For the acid I am using Muratic/Hydrochloric acid from Lowe's. (I think it says something around ~30% concentration) For the first test, I tried the acid diluted, about as much water added as acid. After an hour, nothing appeared to be happening, so I added some Hydrogen peroxide (the diluted stuff in the brown bottle). After about another hour, we removed it from the acid, rinsed it off, and removed the beeswax; the design was visible, but was so shallow it could easily be sanded off. For the second test, we tried to let the acid be more concentrated, and let it set overnight. In the morning, after several dreams in which strong acids and their corrosive effects figured strongly, I rushed outside to check the progress. I could not really tell much of a difference from the night before. Dissapointed, I let it set out for a couple hours. A few hours later I came back to do the third test. The lines were all rusted. Some of the wax had flaked off when I sprayed it with the hose to get the acid off, so I took it back to my toaster oven and let the wax re-melt and flow. Then I re-scratched the lines, being sure to actually scratch the steel itself, so I knew the lines were there. For this test, I only used enough water to cover the piece, then added more acid than there was water. I then added peroxide, since that seemed to help before. I had also read that adding table salt (NaCl) to such a mix could speed the process, so I added that until it stopped dissolving. After four hours in this bath, on a warm day in a black plastic container in full sunlight, this is what I got: After some cleanup with fine sandpaper: Now, I am not totally dissatisfied with the result, but I was really looking for a deeper effect, such as can be seen about 2/3 of the way through this video: http://www.wetanz.com/assets/videos/swords/LOTRSwordVideo.mov So I've been thinking about what I could do differently to get a deeper effect. Obviously I could try to leave it in longer next time, but one of the resources I read indicated that an etching should never be left in longer than four hours. I also considered that maybe for the particular steel I'm using, a different acid would work better, perhaps Nitric Acid as in the video above, or Ferric Chloride as gets used for etching circuit boards. So, does anyone have any thoughts on how to get a deeper etching?

If you do a google search for помредников, the translations show up variously as "Mediator," "Intermediaries," and "Agents". Wikipedia says, "Mediator -legal (Company, organization), or a natural personand to contribute in making a Deal. An example of an intermediary in commerce : the broker , dealer , broker ." I get the feeling that the word means something similar to "middlemen." So, a complete translation would be along the lines of "My dream is to work without intermediaries. So let's create a resource without middlemen, a thread that will direct customers to collect there! Does anyone have a thought!" The idea (I think) being to have a place where people can post work for sale? So people could find forged work without going through a third party, such as ebay or Etsy? (This is my reading of the question, take it as you wish!)

Wow, this thread came back to life. I started with some belts from usaknifemaker; they seemed to work pretty well, but for a college student, $15 seems kinda high for a single belt. Right now I'm trying out some belts from this local place: http://www.fintechabrasives.com/sanding-belts They actually make sanding belts and drums, and it's really close to where I live; I don't have to pay any shipping costs. I can't say how well they hold up, as I have not used them a whole lot yet, and I also do not have a very good point of comparison with other belts; but being able to afford multiple grits allows me to do some things I couldn't before... considering that I can get a pack of 6 2x72" belts for $12. By the way, they have a really good deal on sanding sheets; $20 for 10 lb of sandpaper. It's all cloth backed; I think most of it is cutoffs from when they make the 6" or 8" wide sanding belts.

Here's the link for "On the Construction of Locks and Keys" that Neil mentioned above: http://www.anvilfire.com/eBooks/Chubb_Locks_and_Keys/

HWoolridge, Thanks for the tip! I will check that book out. Edit: Bentiron, Looks like you posted right at the same time I did. I'm hoping to get some good books on the subject from the library, since that's free. I really like the look of the viking bronze, if I can figure out exactly what materials to use for things like molds and crucibles - it looks to be almost "dirt cheap." I suppose the reason I was not terribly keen on sand casting (which we did in an introductory class at school) is the surface finish. Whatever I end up doing, it will probably not be something that I have to spend money on, at least for now.

Randy, We actually don't have an art department; it's a small university centered around STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math). I think the only non-STEM program we have is business (well, and pre-law, but that's really small, and so is business). I did take a look through the course catalog for casting, and here's what I found: IME-405 Casting Processes 204(4) Prerequisites: IME-301 Corequisites: None Minimum Class Standing: None Green sand casting, lost foam casting, permanent mold casting and die casting are discussed. The interrelationships between part design, solidification mode, casting process parameters and the resulting microstructure and properties are examined. Terms Offered: Winter, Spring, of even numbered years. Unfortunately, it appears that I have missed the boat on this one; if I graduate on time (which I am planning on doing), I will not be there for the Winter or Spring term of an even numbered year. (2014) Bentiron, Was this the site that you were thinking of? http://web.comhem.se/vikingbronze/

Frosty - I'm a troll! Though I have been over the bridge a few times - there's a nice blacksmith shop up on Mackinac Island. I'm actually from the Grand Rapids area, currently going to engineering school in Flint (Kettering University, formerly known as GMI), and I'm on a schedule where I move every three months between Grand Rapids and Flint. How late in June is it? I'm working full time until June 22, then I'm spending a week volunteering at a summer camp, then I have a couple days off, after which I'm moving back over to Flint for the summer school term. A trip out to Minnesota would be dependent both on timing, and on whether I've earned enough by then to pay for school, rent, and gas with enough left over for a trip (the joys of being a college student :rolleyes: ). The bright side at school is while my shop is on the other side of the state, there is the welding club, where I got decent at MIG last school term, and the school does have a foundry, which can do lost foam and green sand casting (mostly aluminum I think).