Jeff Seelye

Kael, The best advice I can give you at this time is... give yourself an education before you play. Join a Blacksmith group, get some good books (many have been on the book review here on IFI) Start yourself off with mild steel. See how it works. Leave alloy and higher carbon steels (example: leafsprings) for later. That, by the way, is a good question. Heating it will not make it explode. Working it at the wrong heat can make it break. Quenching it wrong can make it shatter depending on Carbon Content or alloys. Or nothing may happen until you make a tool with it and it shatters in your hand because of the stress. Stay with mild (low carbon) steel for a while.

Hey Ngneer, You will love this site. It's almost as addictive as beating hot metal. Welcome!

Glad to see you on here, finally :-) See you at the next MABA meeting! Nice pictures

I don't know where you are from so it is kind of hard to tell you where to go to get a RR axle. Be careful what you ask for & be patient, some of the sarcasm might be because of the question. For my hammer I found 5" round stock at my local scrap yard. Yes a good base is important. You didn't say what kind of hammer you are making. I bought plans from Jerry Allen. He had good working drawings and it made my modifications easy. I asked a lot of questions here and got really good advice. Build it heavy, square, Plum, and level, put time in especially where your slide is.

Sounds good Southshoresmith, I was going on the point he made that "he saw it before he started". Will that be because of a cold forging? or delamination? Sounds like it was already there and not his fault.

I'm going to assume you came by this legally. I know there are different types of steel used in RR spikes. Without being there or seeing pictures, it sounds like delamination. If this is the case, then this was right from the mill. This especially sounds like it if you saw it before you started.

That's a great project!

If this is the bolt that comes off the manifold, I have tried many methods. Sometimes the penetrant works, sometimes the "weld a nut on" works. Two times I have ground the bolt flush with the manifold (both sides)took a small tip in my cutting torch, heated the bolt shaft and blown the inside out. Then I cleaned it as best as I could and ran a tap thru it. It worked both times. If you think about it, You can cut steel but you can't cut cast. Worst case scenario at this point would be drill the cast and put a regular bolt in it.

Thank you for the link. The part about how they made the threads and tapped the nut was cool. I had never seen it done that way.

Praying for you both!

So... let me get this straight. If I have an anvil with no slug holes is that like being a person without a belly button?

At one of our monthly meeting, I was watching the demo when I noticed that his quench tank was on a stand and he didn't bend over to quench, I'm guessing around 33". It also had a drain on the bottom side that a bucket would fit under for draining. It looked like it was made from SS from the food industry. If a screen was added to retrieve small lost parts, I think it would be ideal.

Propane sinks, Acetylene rises

Welcome Andrew! Always good to hear from another victim of this site. If you've been lurking, and still joined in, you need no other warnings other than what Thomas Dean said AND "if you build it, you gotta post a picture of it"

Keep yer mouse with yer computer :blink:

That's what I used. It worked great. Then I used a bushings on the inside to reduce it down to 1/4 - 28 and put a mig tip in it. The mig tip is copper (not affected by propane), and I can change sizes. Right below the elbow I made a cut 1/2 way thru the pipe, took a thin sheet of SS, and made an air gate with a hinge.

Steve, It's awesome. Did you happen to get any pictures while you were building it? Or is this where I need to "buy the book".

You can lead a horse to water but you cant make a duck wear a saddle.

Definition of Diplomacy: Being able to tell someone where to go , and having them look forward to the trip

Nuge, that's a cool drawer pull or handle for something!

Glad to have you here! Come back and visit us in MI sometime too!

One of the things I did was to break down the job into as many parts as I could easily do. Then I kept track of sketching and drawing, material, cutting, forge time, fit up, weld, finish prep, paint, overhead & the Governor. I figured out I loose more on final prep and paint. So... I quit painting! Told a customer what the price was without paint, he said he didn't want to get another bid for painting. So, I told him to let the painter forge it. He said the painter doesn't forge, to which I replied "and I don't paint" OK, that sounded funny, but, I did paint the job, but I learned that I am slower at painting and would rather give that part away, I also bid paint higher now or send it out for bids myself. Learn your weaknesses, get faster. Don't sell yourself short, for everyone who does makes it harder for the rest of us to make money off our work. We all are in this together ( Part time & full)

That is COOL! What are your plans for it, or the set? I see a lamp or candle holder or a fireplace tool holder or a hat rack. or ...