jmeineke

Hi, There still seems to be excessive flashing on the forged strings,

This may be a combination of the beads being too small, the metal available for the ball being slighly more than required, and being overstruck. (copper is that easy to form, it probably seems quicker to just give it a whack or two, I would anticipate possibly six light blows as it is being rotated after each blow, may improve things)

What I mean by overstruck, is excessive force used and not enough rotation to form the the ball as a sphere.

The picture of the item show is more like that of a drop stamped item that is then placed in a second op tool to remove the flash, which will leave a shear line which could make the item appear to be a casting.

Nearly there, but not quite.

I didn't know hot-rolled could be hardened - I thought it was just 1020. Is that not the case?

She (and you) will be in my prayers.

I've been making some copper beads using mild steel dies (hot rolled) in a guillotine tool and I'm a little surprised at how quick the top die is mushrooming. I'm hitting a lot harder on the one side because I'm drawing out some copper stock (the die has three different functions).

Should I be using a different material? How do you deal with the mushroom effect? Is there any saving these dies, or do you just use them till they wear out?

Sorry if this has been covered before, but I've turned up a blank in my searches.

Still need some final shaping, but this is what they look like so far. I'm going to put them in a tumbler as well to give them a uniform finish. These will be used in a Rosary.

Yes that looks about right, just break the sharp corners at the centre and other sharp edges

Download the image resizer powertoy from Microsoft. Works with Vista & 7 as well as XP. Just right click the image you want to resize and you'll see an option in the context menu for resizing (after you install the tool, of course).

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx

There are other options too - GIMP, Paint.Net, even MS Paint (installed on every Windows machine) will allow you to resize.

Hope that helps.

Cool. Thanks for all your help!

How about this - Getting closer?

Very nice work there.

I increased the depth like you suggested and am getting much better results with a lot less waste and less effort (no pics yet, but will post some as soon as I am able).

Looking at your dies, would you recommend that I mill the entire length (or maybe just a wider section in the middle, twice the length of the ball?). What about a relief hole - would you still recommend one?

Based on what you're using to make yours, here's what I'm thinking (minus the relief hole - haven't mastered making cutting curves into curved surfaces in sketchup).

Looking at your picture 2, I would suggest deepening the rear(exit side)to give the 1/16" dimension,

I would also chamfer all around the edges to allow forging as you rotate the piece, if not you will be left with a lot of splines around the sphere
...

Glad its working for you, not quite what I had in mind but similar, I would have deepened the spherical holes to reduce the centre spindle length to probably a 1/16", and then I would try rotating the workpiece as you forge, it should also save on material wastage.

I would not have expected to have to remove the flashing, you should have a spherical section leaving a small diameter at the centre which can just be nipped off and will dress in with the hammer or a light filing, it would not hurt if it actually fell off as you forged the next one.

Nevertheless Well Done its all a learning curve.

Wouldn't telepathy be helpful in situations like this, or better still, I should make up what I mean and post a piccie.

I will see what I can do, I have a larger version of what I am talking about in the workshop or Westpoint I think, if I can lay my hands on it, basically it is very similar in principle and profile to yours, but a simple spring type, with a smaller length waist, it can be used to make balls, or round ended cylinders (catstails/ bull rushes?), or graduated ball tapers.

I finally got back around to this project. I built a small guillotine tool and made the dies like John B suggested. It seems to be working pretty well. I'm still getting the technique down, but I've made a half dozen beads.

I bought a 5/16" ball end mill and tack welded the dies together, drilled a small relief hole and then ball milled half a sphere into each side. I also had to drill out some swages to fuller the rod down to 5/16".

To do the final shaping, I use another die set with just two half spheres in the center (picture 4). After that, I file off the rough edges and then lightly hammer it in a 1/4 sphere (pic 6) to get the finish I'm looking for.

yah im pretty bummed. I couldnt have gone and picked it up before monday anyway so I didnt have much choice. I think they educated themselves. It went from bing listed as "antique anvil" to "peter wright"

Working 12hrs 5 to 6 days a week and looks like that until the first of the year.

Thomas Dean & trying-it: Thanks for all the tips - good stuff to know. Do you guys have any pics uploaded here? I'd like to see the different finishes you're talking about.

Those look similar to split crosses, you cut the bar in half except for the center, then separate and straighten the arms.

They look good how you made them. I like the diagonal texture pattern best. (pics 2 and 3)

I have mixed feeling about the base...it looks like a lot of effort to make it look like hammered finish paint. I hope that is just the picture not doing justice to the effect.

Phil

Been working on some crosses lately, experimenting with different finishes / textures. I know these don't qualify as traditional forge / anvil / hammer only projects, but they were fun to make. I've been giving them away as gifts.

The cross arms are mig welded and blended and the bases are spot welded to give a rocky / rough looking texture. I'm using a traditional beeswax / linseed oil coating and then very lightly go over the bars with a 120 grit flap disk to bring out the highlights.

I think I'm going to try copper plating one sometime down the road. I tried tempering them to get some colors but haven't had much luck with getting a nice looking color pattern.

The last 2 pics are the same piece just at a different angle.

Please know that you and your wife will be in my prayers.

I just don't get Google Sketchup. That may be because I actually learned on raytracers like Silver and 3DS Max... more engineering oriented. Circle, radius 3.45. Select Circle. Extrude 5.4. Etc.

My other addiction is cast iron cookware. Believe me that there are many sellers who think cast iron is steel and not very breakable. It is very disapointing when an irreplaceable piece of history is lost because of ignorance-especially after proper packaging techniques have been suggested.

Man that's a shame. The upside is you should be able to get your money back out of it with the insurance and have a working drill when it's all welded up.

MMO works good - available just about everywhere and has lots of other uses too.

check out the "features and benefits" - no hole in face plate! All this time I thought I had something useful on my anvils... Maybe I can weld them shut

I have a lincoln buzz box and love it. Started out with the AC only version and later upgraded to a AD/DC model. I pretty much leave it on DC all the time, but the AC only machines are good too. You probably know this already, but if you want to run 7018 you should look for 7018-AC. I also have a Craftsman 110v MIG with gas that I use a lot too - It's a good quality machine that you can get parts for and has a good reputation.

As for the Harbor Freight (HF) models, I'd have to agree - save your money and buy a 110v Lincoln or Craftsman (a bit harder to find) if you want something that will last and can be repaired. The HF models do work (my dad owns one and I've used it), but it seems that with just about any HF tool there's a gamble factor involved. You may get one that lasts the rest of your life, but you may also get one that goes 'poof' after a few spools like Sam said.