Torin

My understanding, given that I've never actually done it myself, is that is a technique for making mosaic damascus. You make a box or can, and assemble the pieces of your design in the can, and the forge weld the entire assembly. This looks like a good video of the process (please excuse me if I screw up the embedding): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpgXXa5wliA Sorry, I couldn't figure out how to embedding. Longer video, with more detail, can section about 1 hour into it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qq111sRGiE8

Nice forge! Definately something to be proud of. Looks like you are well on your way.

Now that is an impressive anvil. And looks to be in pretty good shape too! I'd say you got a good deal.

This looked to be the closest forum, so if it is the wrong place, feel free to move it. When I first learned how to silver solder, I didn't have much of a budget. So, I got the cheapie Bernz-o-matic Oxy-MAPP rig. Given that their O2 bottles have almost no gas in them, I cut the O2 connector off, and attached a real Oxy regulator and switched to Propane for the fuel gas side. Mainly for cleanliness of my soldering and cooler flame color. Well, it worked after a fashion. I could solder with it, but it always took me a lot of time and usually left a lot of fire-scale, even when I was using the spray flux like Prip's. (Actualy Cupronil) Recently, I picked up a multi-fuel Smith brand Little Torch. I just have to say I'm amazed how much EASIER it is to solder now. Especially now that I can change the tip sizes to get different heats. With the larger tips I can get enough heat where I want it that the solder just jumps into the joint before the rest of the piece heats up to where I'm risking popping previous solder joints. And with the smaller tips, I can jump solder 28ga bezel wire without worrying about melting the ends away. I can't believe I took so long to switch, given how much of an advocate I am for buying the right tool for the job! I'm giddy with joy over this! I'd been putting this part of the job off for way too long. Especially since the first time I tried to use this torch I didn't grasp that I had my flame size way too small until the very end of the job. Armed with that knowledge, this was so much faster and easier with less heat damage to the piece. I still have a ways to go with my technique, but I'm now well on my way.

I don't know how Frosty did it, but here is how I would do it for a PC: http://www.bluestacks.com/ It is an android emulator for your PC. Should work well with the app.

Also, you get the title when you hover the mouse pointer over the picture.

Description says it is a paper towel rack.

I believe you will be very disappointed in that anvil. Cast iron is not good for rebounding the force of your hammer back up into what you are working on. It will require a lot more effort to do the same amount of work on what you are forging. Also, cast iron is relatively soft and will probably get marked up quickly. Pretty much any type of steel should work to get you started. If you have access to a small ball bearing, you can test pieces of metal to see how much rebound you get. The more rebound, the better.

Well, it has held up at least 6 years at this point. I suppose I can weld some cross straps on it for additional strength.

This is a 'before' picture of cleaning up the shop, but it shows both my anvils:

Yep, that was how I voted. Kinyon style home made.

80# Kinyon style air hammer.

Haven't died, but I've been working a lot of hours at work. For the past 2 years, probably about 65-70 hours a week has been average. Reason for necro-threading. Hammer has a few tweaks it needs. I've got to come up with some easier way to adjust the height of the control switch. I've got about 1/2" range that the hammer works well with, after that, I need to adjust the switch height to get it to cycle right again. Maybe something to retard the speed of the switch acting? I've got access to milling and lathe work at my work, just may be a bit of a wait to get it done. Also, my compressor started making some nasty knocking noise the last time I turned it on. I shut it off right away, but now I need to pull the head apart and see what is wrong. On the plus side, I've already got a rebuild kit for it. And something else, but I'm forgetting it at the moment.

I'm grinding 15n20/1095 pattern welded material. The 50 grit belts I'm using are the yellow ones from K&G that you recommended to me. I'm also using the belts from industrialabrasives.com that JPH recommended to me. They aren't the greatest belts, but Jim said they have a good price/performance ratio. I'm using their plain aluminum oxide belts for my 36/100/220/400 grits.

Do many people here use the technique of covering your work with black sharpie before switching grits to make sure you get all of the deep scratches out before moving on to an even finer grit? I've started trying it, and it seems to be helpful. But I thought I'd check and see if I'm missing out on any downsides before I star laying in a bunch of new sharpies. Also, speaking of grits, what are your favorite grit steps when trying to minimize grinder time? I'm current running 36/50 to start, then 100, 220, and 400. Are there better steps? And how do you decide when your belts are too worn out to use anymore? Thanks in advance!

I'll probably be on a bit more now. I've got the shop up and running, and I'm actually working on product, and not getting the tools made/repaired enough to work with them. And the weather is better. :)

According to the guy who took this photo The mother of all gorilla welds It didn't even work, there were brackets higher up that were actually holding it in place.

For some reason I thought it was Cerium, and not Thorium, but in any case, in the 90s, they switched to Yittrium.

Not really is my guess. Dual Shield is not your normal fluxcore wire. You have to use it with gas, and the fluxcore is to make sure you get the gunk out of your weld. The slag just peels itself off of the weld, and it doesn't spatter all that much. Also for the wire he listed, you run electrode positive. It really is an easy wire to weld well with. I used ESAB Dual Shield 7100 Ultra to weld up my power hammer. ESAB Dual Shield 7100 Ultra

Good luck! I don't have the 211, but I do have the 251. I went with it because it is rated for 1/2" at a single pass. I got it planning to use it for welding up my power hammer. It did a good job of it with dual-shield wire.

I'm over in Souderton.

I had a MifCo/McEnglvan crucible furnace that worked as a forge as well (2 side doors as well as the top crucible lid). I had no problem forge welding in it. It had a blower, and 3/8" orifices (4 of them). It ran on regular household line pressure for NG. In my area that was 7" WC. Just a data point.

Jayco, you should get ahold of Don Foreman, who hangs out on the newsgroup rec.crafts.metalworking. He did a lot of research and field testing before getting his implant. He even got to present his findings to the makers of his implant. Here is a link of his comments about talking to them. You should be able to find the rest of the information from it, or e-mail him directly: An interesting afternoon - rec.crafts.metalworking | Google Groups Good luck. Edit: Yes he can weld stick and MIG with his implant, with some precautions.

Sorry, but that post was almost a year ago. I actually have 2 of them right now. 1 on the hammer, and a backup one.

Very nice! Thank you for posting it!