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I Forge Iron

Borntoolate

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Posts posted by Borntoolate

  1. We just had two oaks cut down.   Now working on the firewood.   I got the hydraulic splitter out and suddenly it occured to me that it could be a powerful press.   Not a power hammer but certainly a 21 ton press!   Could be used with certain tooling as a powerful blacksmith tool?   Ehh?  I am sure I am not the first to think of it but this is the first I have heard of it.   Anyone else?   Better think safety first but the potential seems there.

     

    post-16782-0-06484000-1390869679_thumb.j

     

  2. I am a little curious about how folks create and then expand the hole in relatively thin stock.   And also how much metal you leave towards the outer edges/sides of the hole?  Then what tooling you use to get the hole big enough to fit the horn..   or however you finish?

     

    I punch about a 1/4" hole.  Maybe a bit more...

    Then I drift with a 5/8" drift by hammering into the pritchel while moving the drift about 90 degrees after each hit.

    Not too many hits or the hole wants to waller downwards and you can get a cold shut if not careful.

    Pop it off, tap it flat.   flip it over and repeat.  But yes don't get too cold.  If to cold back to fire.

    My challenge is to get it big enough quickly to work on the horn.

    Then... Work it on the horn, when it fits....

    Sometimes I squat and look into the point of the horn and tap gently to make it right sized.

    Making the hole uniform is a bit of a challenge.   Not hard but for me requires slow, thoughtful, attention to detail to get reasonably right.

     

    So this is a tired ramble from me at this point.   Just got back from a work related travel/meeting.

     

    Does anyone have advice on how they make, drift, Make concentric, roundover the edges....   of the hole?

  3. U need 1 :D

    This is a very functional item! I like it


    My latest. I have landed on this concept lately for whatever reason. Kinda on the big side. Kinda on the manly side. Not lookin for a mini.
    post-16782-0-03944900-1389140438_thumb.j
    post-16782-0-03874000-1389140749_thumb.j

    post-16782-0-90008200-1389141983_thumb.j

    The other piece is done on both ends in a similar fashion. Just need to cut and add the opener.

     

    I love making bottle openers, so here's a bunch:

    These make me think of...
    Chess and Aztecs

    For whatever reason.. I like!

  4. So after doing this do you clean your anvil up?   And if so how?    

     

    I try to keep mine dry.   If a drop of sweat gets on it then the next day it will have a rusty sweat bloom on it.   Assuming this was late in the day.    

     

    And of course people are always wanting to put cold sweaty drinks on metal surfaces in the shop.   I try to keep them waxed and in some cases oiled if they only get used occasionally.   Of course constant use is the solution I think.    That pesky day job once again gets in the way!   

  5. This is great!  Lots of new ideas!   Been outa town so tomorrow I can try some out.   Thanks everyone.   But don't stop....   please!

     

     

    I love small useful projects that allow this much creativity.   Something everyone needs.   Something useful, functional...  Something that just about any level of blackmsith can make.    Perfect.

  6. I recall Brian saying that the whole clinker thing and forge welding was BS.   He was saying something about making forge welds all day with a huge clinker building up in the forge.   Now that is what I recall.   If I am mistaken then I apologize in advance.  

     

    But if I put my engineer hat on I could make some sense of that.   Maybe?    

     

    If the clinker is all the waste that can no longer be burned then it must be sort of unburnable and therefore kinda inert.   Don't know that to be true but if it is then it is just an obstruction in the forge not so much a contaminant.   And if it is a contaminant why is that any different than a flux that is really just meant to keep air away from the weld area.   I think that is the main reason.   And if clinker is kinda like glass which then is also kinda like sand which I have heard can be used as a flux then why is it not helping more than hurting?    

     

    But what do I know.   My forge welding is not all that great regardless!!!   :rolleyes:   

  7. Yeah. just like said above.   Another way to say it is don't practice failure.   Start back easy and only move on when you do well.   This should be quick if you make it easy to start then easy to step by step move back towards where you thought you were.   Incorporate this work into a project if possible.    

     

    You might also just take a piece of rebar or other hunk of metal to just get back into the swing by squaring up a long section.   Try to square it up and make it useful for something.    

     

    The other things is....   MARCH!      that was 9 months ago.   Your problem ain't performing at the forge it is getting out to the forge and getting started.   So that is might first thought actually... which I will submit last.   Get Started!!!      Like Bilbo Baggins he just needed to get one step started and then another.   Get started.   Have an idea of what you want to accomplish either that night or preferably that week if you are slow like me.  Have a goal.   But get started!  Make something, learn from it and go from there.

  8. So let's make this simpler for those that have simple things.   Take a box store bought propane torch.    The flame has several visible colors and a very distinct flame pattern.    

     

    If you are using a simple torch like this, as many folks will... what part of the flame and what color is the hottest?  

     

    Maybe even slightly more complicated let me ask how you would use such a torch to impart the most heat to a given object?

  9. I have remade this tool now for the third time.   I would be interested in anyones thoughts.    It's all mild steel except the contact points which are about 1/2" coil spring.    Do you think the spring part will last?    Pics of others similar tools would be good.    I find I use this one rather frequently.    The last one had very thin metal as the spring part and tended to crack and bend at the weld to the coil spring.    I made this one stiffer and added upside down u-shaped guide to keep it aligned.   Haven't really used it yet.   Thoughts?

     

    post-16782-0-27396400-1384008775_thumb.j  post-16782-0-58312300-1384009040_thumb.j

  10. I work at an oil refinery in the Pipe/Vessel/Tank inspection department.    Many of the folks In my department came up through the ranks as operators, welders, pipe-fitters and such.   Most of them find blacksmithing at least intriguing if not down right respectable.   We have a couple of Corrosion and Materials engineers in the group and they at least understand blacksmithing as forging and get that whole running the colors bit.    I haven't got any dumb questions from them at all.   In fact one is a knifemaker and I am probably headed over to his house today or tomorrow to check out his set up.  We are going to be making two knifes from the leaf spring that I flattened for him in my gas forge.

     

    Anyway, not meaning to just be contrary but there are some folks out there who get it!   As a mechanical engineer by schooling and as their "Manager" this also helps me be part of their club so to speak.  I hate that title!   I have a clue what they have done in their lives and they know I have a clue.   We get along great!  .

  11. I think have done what you are talking about myself.   Often looks like numerous cracks going perpendicular to the length at the narrow transition.    My belief it is caused by.

     

    1. Letting this area get to cold while working other areas near by.  This area gets yanked around a bit if your hammer blows are not perfect and true between both hammer and anvil.  Even then it is going to get pulled, vibrated and tugged and stressed causing cracks in the direction you are seeing.
    2. Working this area to cold.  
    3. Letting this area hang off the far edge while cold but working behind it on the anvil.   This thin area hangs off the far edge and vibrates or whips about causing cracks.
    4. Too many heats maybe but I think that is a symptom of one of the above.    You should be able to get where you need to go with a couple heats on this one.   Others would probably do it in one I am sure. :)  Depending on how detailed and elaborate. Rather than work this down to it's finished cross section you could just begin this area, established the thinner area and section it out then come back to it.   Heat will be against you since this area will cool fast.

    I think the solution is as above.    Fewest heats possible without working cold, fewest heats reduces the number of hammer blows and therefore stress cycles.    Don't let this area get cold.    Work thin transitions last or late if at all possible.   Don't let the thin area whip or vibrate while working other areas.    

     

    Changing type of steel might have some impact but I think the above is most important.  

     

    Did you cracks look anything like this?

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    One other thought.   Even if you don't see a crack or don't have a complete failure you have to believe that cracks are forming under above conditions.   So avoid the above in order to preserve the long term integrity of your project. 

     

    My two cents based on info from this site and my interpretation of past personal failures (Also called learning!).   I am fine with failure as long as there is learning!

  12. No you are not being stupid.   But you would need to look under "feedback and support" to find the tailgating section.  I have been where you are TYB.   This is not an obvious place in my opinion to buy or sell stuff.  Glenn maybe you could make it more obvious?  BTW if I wanted to buy a tee shirt to help support IFI.   Where do I find that?   Same place.  

     

    On the other hand I super duper appreciate that IFI doesn't go out of it's way to have pop ups and sales gimicks and in your face capitalism.   But...?

     

    I do think that maybe IFI needs to make it just a bit more obvious where capitalism can be found.    "I'm just sayin"    :wub:

     

     

  13. AndrewOC, but how you gonna handle it not falling through.   Making the insert size fit is easy.   Just math.   It's the interface between anvil hammer surface, insert tool and the 1" hardy tool that I am really asking about.   Proly was not clear from my post... and also how the tools go in and out that I am wondering about.  I can make something fit but there are always brillient  ways to make this fabulous vs just ok/fit. 

  14. I have a 275# anvil that has 1" hardy.      I also have a portable 140# anvil with 1-1/4" hardy.   Does anyone have a decent insert pic or design for this?   I wanna use my 1" tools in the 1-1/4" hardy hole.   I have several ideas on how to do this but I bet someone out there has been there done that and has a better one.  

     

    Oh, and BTW...   I am hoping to have it built by tomorrow afternoon!   Yeah poor planning on my part.    :unsure:  But I have the whole day off.

     

    So I am interested in how anyone handles this using inserts or what have you on tooling and bigger than 1" hardies.

  15. I recently managed to split the fingernail of my middle finger of my Hammer hand.    Was working a railraod spike.  These things often seem to be "Tough" to work imho.  But the comedy of errors was as such...

     

    I somehow managed to make a bit of a glancing blow while not holding the spike quite flat enough and also in such a way that the spike had a little bit of a bend away from the anvil allowing it to teeter.   The spike jumped, twisted, rotated and my hammer bounced off, twisted and somehow... in all that... I managed to smash my middle finger into the hot end of the spike plenty hard and splitting the finger nail in two directions.   Actually caused it to bleed right through the split in the nail.

     

    I think I was lucky I didn't really hurt myself!

     

    post-16782-0-47227100-1375375989_thumb.j

     

     

    Pure operator error!   That was about a month ago.  It still looks ugly.    I put a dab of superglue on it to hopefully preserve the nail.   So far so good.   And luckil the split does not go all the way to the edge in either direction.

     

     

    Mostly what I run into is small heat scale burns that tend to land on my hand bewtween my thumb and index finger knuckles.   I tend to ignore them and let them cool down in place.   Mostly just a bit annoying.

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