jeder

Good start on explaining how to prepare the work for welding for beginners. But you failed to mention : Keep the wire at the leading edge of the puddle. You talk about Penetration and fusion in passing. How about commenting on how to get good penetration using Mig ? What constitutes good penetration for this process ? Seems like there could be a lot more discussion on this subject that would benefit us all. I am not an expert either maybe some of the pro's can fill in more detail.

Starting with your sledge hammer is more difficult than starting with raw stock of the correct size. As beginner making a hammer from raw stock, even the correct size, without an experienced smith showing the way would be a very ambitious project. However modifying an existing hammer will give you some good experience and a good useful tool as well. Why not look for a cheap hammer to modify, I would suggest something like Harbor freight 2 1/2 or 3 pound drill hammer to start with. I made my first straight peen hammer from a 3 pound Plumb engineers hammer . I was not a very attractive hammer but if worked really well. I used it for many years until I got my power hammer which made forging large alloy steel a lot easier. I know a smith who used to forge only with modified Pedinghaus hammers. When he bought a new hammer the first thing that he did was knock the handle out out of the forge the face to a rounder profile and mushroom the cross peen. To harden and retreat the working surfaces he would heat the working surfaces to critical temperature and quench them under a slow stream of hot water directed at the center of the hammer's face. He would withdraw the hammer from the stream before totally cooled down. and let the residual heat equalize. He said the object was to have the center of the face hard and the hammer edges some what softer. The hammer face and edges were then tested with a file. The hammer would be polished and the the colors drawn if needed. Modifying hammers to meet your needs is a common practice. For my own hammers, after forging I test with a file for hardness. Some I use and soft untreated if they the alloy is tough. Others I quench in oil and run the colors. This depends a lot on the steel being used. The thing that you must be sure of is that the the hammer face edges are not to hard. I am generally very cautious about heat treatment because the danger of flying shards. I learned that lesson while in junior high school when I hit an anvil with a hammer , the resulting shard ended up in my left index finger. The school coach happily carved it out all the while lecturing me about the stupidity of my actions. My main hammer is a straight peen. Most of my drawing I do with my straight peen over the base of the horn. I t works well for me. Happy forging

Grant, a worthy nit picked,

Dear Friend, Please accept my condolences. I am sorry to be the first to confirm what you must already suspect. In short you exhibit classic symptoms to a dreaded terminal illness. Be assured that you are not alone in this circumstance. I think that it is safe to say that all who post here are afflicted with the same symptoms and final fate. All is not lost. This malady has been known to exhibit severe symptoms for may years. Although few actually pass from the effects of this condition It is likely that you will suffer the effects for the rest of your life. The only known treatment is to forge hot iron. Best of all things to you

Hi Miguel, The easy way is to find a shop that has a ring roller that will roll angle iron. If that is not possible I would make a jig from plate and heavy flat bar with an accurate segment of the arc needed and heat and clamp the angle to the jig working around the the arc in short sections until the ends meet.