knots

I am really glad to see someone else has found a useful source of material. Although I never considered making knives they make great emergency scratch awls, small chisels for weld spatter removal, small punches/nail sets, and my wife's favorite an auto clock setting tool that lives in each of our automobiles.

Neat Knife and scabbard.

Google : "Tremont Cut Nails" , They are the only source of 20d cut masonry nails that I have found. Bound to be others.

I recently went searching for a new hammer. I found that I like hammers and would like more of them. So what I am asking you guys is what hammers do you guys like/use? I would love to see some pictures of your hammers as well as hammer related links.

To start us off here is what my search has brought me so far:


A pair of Hofi's one is the 3 lb. cast model and the other the forged 2.2 lb version.




The hammers that I use for forging are blunt straight preen hammers. I draw my forging over the butt end of the horn. Drawing goes really fast when working this was because you are moving the metal more or less uniformly from both top and bottom.

It just never did feel comfortable to forge both sides of the work piece over the horn with a straight peen hammer. The Blunt straight peen hammer solved that problem.

Here is one of four that I have.

It really depends on how heavy of material you cut... You could hope to get maybe 20-30 feet of 3/4 plate but could cut hundreds of feet of 12 gauge.... They make special saws that use these blades.. I have a Milwaukee 8" saw and a Evolution 9" saw for steel cutting.. but the blades are much more expensive (the biggest advantage of the metal specific saws is they catch the chips which come off hot and tend to stick to any exposed skin They also spin a little slower and have more torque) I use a standard worm drive skill saw that I use the Bosch blades on and it works fine.. Harbor freight even sells a usable metal cutting blade but its not much cheaper than the Bosch and the Bosch is way better...

I use them to split tubing, cut channel.. plate, sheet metal... all kinds of stuff... I buy the blades 10 at a time....

The blade is ordered. Any advice on feed rates or other helpful hints.

I routinely cut small heavy stuff in my wet and band saws but not plate that is to big to fit into one of my machines. This is a first for me and I really do appreciate the information and support.

You guys are missing the boat here.. I cut lots of plate with a carbide toothed metal blade on a regular old skill saw.. I have a torch, and a track burner... heck I even have a CNC pattern torch... and I still cut most of my straight cuts with a skill saw.. its fast, easy, clean and cheap... You can cut 1/2" plate with a saw faster than you can torch cut it and have a machined looking edge... Dont knock it till you try it..

amazon blade info


I cut 4' of 3/4 plate with my saw just the other day.. took almost 5 min to cut the sheet in half.. but cutting 1/2" you could cut 4' in maybe 2 mins

OK - That is the ticket. Amazon - Hmm, that should be easy.

I have a piece of 1/2" thick steel plate that I want to make a welding table out of. 2 sides are mill cut the other 2 sides are torch cut. I want to build a welding table using this plate as a top. What is the best way to cut this plate to size using limited small shop resources ?

Has any one ever tried to cut 1/2" steel pate with a power hand saw and abrasive blade ? I have a good strong old industrial power hand saw. I should be able to jig it up and make a reasonably straight, square/clean cut with that se up. However have no Idea what to expect time wise.

The only other option that I can think of using my available resources would be to set it in edge and grind then file the edge true. I want to avoid this option if possible.

This piece of steel will require about 60" of edge preparation. It will supplement a nice piece of 1" thick steel which is drilled and tapped at 4" OC both ways for fastening jigs and fixtures in place.

If you get your new place how about a porch.

I have a Gorton 1-22 Master Mill with mechanical quill power feed. My manual covers only the electrical version of the power feed.

Does any one have the manual text and exploded parts view and parts list for this quill power feed system ? I need a copy and have checked all of the internet sources that I can find. If you don't have this document but have suggestions of other forums that may have manuals stored in their archives I am open to suggested sources.

Thanx

Try Trow and Holden air tools. These are professional grade air tools used for carving stone. For a given size different strokes are available. I would think that the shorter stroke would be used for chasing.

I never have used mine for chasing but it I believe that they would serve well for that application. They have three sizes. The smaller size would perform very delicate work. I have seen the smaller size T&H tools used for cleaning up fossils with tooling essentially like dental tools. The larger sizes should be more than needed.

I have used mine for stone and wood carving. These tools are not cheap but performance is strong and control smooth. Each size tool has a performance power range by varying air pressure.

www/trowanmdholden.com

I have done some anvil repair following Irnsrgn's recipe. There used to be a BP. Basically, preheat, build up with 7018 and then cover with one pass of Messer high impact hardfacing rod.

But I was under the impression that Fishers had a CI body welded to a steel plate? That would make welding a lot more complicated.

The weld damage does not go through the plate. Actually on this Fisher the plate extends over the cast iron body a fraction of an inch. Since the anvil was virtually new when damaged, the edge still had the crisp factory edge. I plan to grind the edge of the plate down to the face of the cast iron and then with a typical graduated radius most of that damage will be gone. There are one or two areas that I might have to touch up. But then again if it is not to bad I may just live with it. This is a case of less being more.

The grove back by the Hardy hole is a different matter. Although the anvil could be used as is, I just cant stand to look at the abused area. If I am to use this anvil that damage must be repaired. But as I said the cut is narrow, shallow, and relatively short. The areas requiring repair are not extensive and should be easily repaired after preheating.

Handling a 300 lb anvil at 400 Deg temperature is Not something this old guy looks forward to but it must be done.

Good morning all

Dan, here is a Link to the original Gunther/Schuler anvil restoration article.

http://www.anvilmag.com/smith/anvilres.htm

They recommend "Preheat a wrought iron base anvil to 400 degrees and a cast iron base anvil to 450 degrees."
Further, if one searches IFI on "Gunther anvil" there are threads that discuss this technique. -grant

Thanks for the references Grant.

I have what was a really nice clean Fisher before someone used it as a cutting torch table. The damage is limited to two areas. There is a narrow 3' long cut back near the hardy hole. There is damage along about one third of the length of one anvil edge.

In the past I have made repairs to two anvils by welding after preheating to the mid 200's Deg F. This was about 20 years ago. At the time I had no way to accurately measure temperature so I heated them until water danced on the anvil face heated a while longer then welded. The repairs were successful. Now I will use temp-sticks unless there are other suggestions..

This is such a nice anvil that I want to avoid heating above 400 Deg. I would prefer to weld at the lowest possible preheat temperature to avoid annealing problems.

The only marks on the anvil is the eagle medallion and the number 30 on one foot.. I believe it to be a 300 pound anvil.

I know that there must be posts on this subject on this forum but have been unable to find only one which does not discuss preheating. Are there others ?

Will these jacks function in any position ?

One method preparing an anvil stump.

The following outlines the process of how I have prepared anvil stumps to provide flat parallel faces at each end of the stump.

Tools needed: Router with 3/4" router bit.
Carpenter's Level
Shims (wedge/shingle type)
Level work surface ( a floor )
Dry Wall Screws and screwdriver
1 x 2 wood furring strip scraps
Section of tree trunk (Stump)

For the sake of clarity I will use: " 1 x 2 Way to mean the 1 x 2"s screwed to the stump. (a level surface on which the router rails slide)
" 1 x 2" Rail to mean the 1 x 2's screwed to the routed base

First shim and wedgie the tree "Stump" base, at the floor, until the Stump sides are plumb. Place enough shims and wedges to make sure the stump will stay in place while working to true up the first end surface. Use dry wall screws to secure the shims and wedges to each other . A piece of plywood on the floor helps secure things if available.

Prepare the stump Way 1 x 2's : Shim one 1 x 2 Way level on the top, high side of the "Stump". Fasten with dry-wall screws. Shim and level the second 1 x 2 Way level and in plane with the first 1 x 2 Way. In other words the second 1 x 2 Way must be level along it's length AND level with the first 1 x 2 Way. When level in both directions fasten with dry-wall screws. Double check that all is still level after fastening, adjust as necessary.

Prepare the router by screwing two 1 x 2' Ways to the router base. Place the 1 x 2's as far apart as possible while maintaining good stable contact. with the router base. Make the 1 x 2 Rails long enough on one or both sides of the bit centerline so that when the router bit touches one of the 1 x 2 Ways, the 1 x 2 Rails overlap the 1 x 2 Ways on the opposite side of the stump by a good margin. NOTE 1: You can cut from both sides. Note 2: I used the two board arrangement so I could see the router bit and clear the cuttings.

Rout the stump surface away between the Way 1 x 2's. by stages if necessary. Set the final router cut depth slightly below the lowest part of the top of the stump.

Once the center part of the stump is leveled remove the 1 x 2 Ways and screw them to the leveled stump surface (you may have to stack another on top). Re-set the router bit cut depth to match the depth of the newly leveled surface and rout away the remaining wood (ears).

You will now have a flat level surface on one end of the Stump. Turn the Stump over to place the flat end on the floor. Repeat the routing process on the other end.

When finished you should now have an Anvil stump which has the top and bottom parallel and flat.

Suggestions: The best routing procedure that I found was to pivot one 1 x 2 Rail off a 1 x 2 Way while sweeping the router in arcs. Seems like I used a dry-wall screw in a slightly oversized hole as a pivot . Sort of a third hand. Friction between the rails and ways cam be difficult to manage if you don't mechanically pivot one end or have a second person to assist. Maybe strips of wax paper would help reduce the friction . Set it all up and take a light cut to get the feel of how this works before making serious cuts . You really need both hands on the router to control the cut. Avoid climb cuts especially when taking deep cuts .

Sand is a good bearing media if contained. It will however shift if unevenly loaded. Even repeated hammer blows will, over a period of time, make the anvil shift. However on a blow by blow basis I can not detect any difference in the effect on my forging. I would guess that the mass of the anvil is the most important factor in the forging effectiveness over sand or on any other type of support.

The only really compelling reason to use sand is if you have an anvil that rings, and the ringing bothers you, the sand box base will reduce the objectionable/ear damaging sound. My impaired hearing provides enough ringing noise without the added ring being introduced by the anvil.

Don't really know about a metal stand.

It is hard to beat a good ole wood stump. If you decide to use one I have a procedure that I use to machine the top and bottom very flat and parallel.

Dan

Silver Hill Forge mentioned a Brooks that rings like a Bell. Mine did to until I set it in a sand box.

Also I have been reading posts regarding anvil stumps and metal bases. There is an alternative.

I originally mounted my 248 pound cast steel English anvil ( A Brooks I think) on a stump. It rang like a bell. After taking the usual measures to dampen the ring I remembered that I had recently visited a smith friend who had his anvil set in a sand box capped with plywood. His cast steel anvil had a nice solid sound without the ringing.

Years ago I found a stainless steel vat 21" high x 18" OD, 1/4" wall thickness. At the time I did not have a use for it but at $30 bought it any way. 4 or 5 years later I bought my Brooks and it just happened that the anvil base fit inside the vat with about a quarter inch clearance all around. Thought I would give the sand box idea a try. I filled with sand, leveled the surface of the sand, laid two disks of plywood to the correct height, fit closely to the ID of the vat, and set the anvil in place. It has been there ever since.

The results were good: Good solid and level base which and be raised or lowered by adding or removing sand.
The ringing is now gone replaced by a healthier solid sound.

Having the cylindrical container turned out to be a good thing. Over the period of a week or so of hard forging the anvil will begin to slightly list away from where I stand. The solution to this is to rotate the anvil 180 deg in the container, then rotate the container back 180 deg. With the cylindrical container this can be accomplished in seconds with out much effort. The sound dampening provided by the sand box anvil stand, in my opinion, offsets the inconvenience or rotating the anvil every now and then.

I theorize that plain loamy dirt might work well and eliminate the minor listing.

I love play in my sand box.