Awalker

The Watts square hole drill bit has been around since 1918! I wonder why they don't sell them at HF by now, you would think that we would all have a set in our tool boxes

It has been interesting doing art work professionally. I have made plenty of things that I have thrown in the scrap bin. I will not send out pieces that I think are flawed. They can have minor imperfection, but not flaws that take them from professional work to home hobbyist level work. There are two reason for this. First, I make mistakes with the best of them, the difference is that I know how to fix them seamlessly, or know how to cut back to a point that I can do so. Second, I have achieved a level of competence that things I do with metal come out professionally the first time, without as much effort, even things that I haven't done before. I have some bronze work that I am going to have to repair for a job near the end of the year. I have never welded bronze before, but feel quite comfortable with it simply because I have successfully worked wiih other more exotic metals in the past, which I hadn't done prior, with good success. This is not to say that the first weld is going to be perfect, or even that that alloy of bronze is even weldable, but that I know the process and if I fail at first and end up brazing or soldering that I have the equipment and know how to do it and the end product will be finished professionally. Now after you have achieved a level of professionalism in your work, coming up with original new ideas is the tough part

Well, just another in a long list of thing to prove my wife's point that I need to get my eyes checked, I though it said 12 blokes!

Nice train, but your definition of comfort and mine may differ a wee bit.

I managed to get the tubing bent this evening. I built a jig on a piece of scrap plate and tacked on a piece of 3/16 x 1 1/2" hot rolled flat bar into a 24"d radius. I cut 2 pieces of 1 1/2" x .250 square tube 5' long and put the first 12" into the forge. I did both pieces at the same time and it minimized my down time waiting for steel to heat. I built a bending fork out of 1 1/4" square tube and two pieces of 1 1/" pipe 5" long. The first bend went to about 22 1/2*. I took another heat on it and got to about 80*. I quenched the end up to a few inches away from the spot where the next bend was going to be. I had to do this because the tube with the bend won't go through my forge any more, so the long straight part has to go through the hole up the where the last bend ended. It took about 3 more heats to get it all the way around, and I had to straighten it up a bit as I did, as it wanted to twist a wee bit. I just used a big crescent wrench to untwist it. First pic show the last heat. Second pic shows both bends and the bending fork.

Very nice!

I'd bevel the heck out of the crack and stick weld it.

I had a job come into the shop today that requires that I bend two pieces of 1 1/2" .250 wall square tube into a 'U' shape with a 24" diameter. I was planning on trying the bend the same way as I did the ellipse, around a form using bending forks. I am a bit worried about the hollow tubing being crushed by the forks, but think that the .250 wall thickness will make it alright. I suppose I could try one and if it collapses I could cut another, fill it with sand and cap i and try again. Has anyone bent similar tubing to this, and do you have any tips? Thanks,

I guess my little cricket video offended someone and was 'moderated' Mod note: Yes it was and then you re posted it again, so we removed it again.

I don't think it would matter if it was decarb steel, as he has heated it and forged it, hence you have reworked the surface and likely lost the decarb layer. I think he just doesn't have 4140, just mild steel. Also, there is no need at all to soak a 3/4" thick piece of steel in the forge at that high a temperature. Here is the data for that material. Thermal Treatments. Annealing: 1550F (840C), hold 2 hours, slow cool 50F(30C)/hr. max. to 1200F (650C), then air or furnace cool. Hardness BHN 185/200. Stress Relieving: Annealed Material: 1100-1300F (595-740C), hold 2 hrs, air cool. Hardened Material: 50-100F (30-55C) below last tempering temperature, hold 2 hrs, air cool. Straightening: Best done warm 400-800F (205-425C) Hardening: (Atmosphere or Vacuum Furnace) Preheat: 1250-1300F (675-705C), equalize High Heat: 1550-1600F (840-870C), soak 10 to 30 minutes. For vacuum hardening, use the high side of the high heat range and soak times. Quench: Oil quench to hand warm, 150F (650C). Temper immediately. Water quenching from 1550F (840C) may be used for simple shapes and larger sections. Note vacuum furnaces must have oil quench capability to achieve comparable results. Temper: Tempering at 400-1200F (205-650C) for 1 hour per inch (25mm) of thickness at temperature is recommended (2 hrs min). Air cool to room temperature.

Whats a CCC building?

+1 for pin vise. I have drilled hundreds of holes in brass orifices with them when I was doing propane conversions.

Just put your switch on your input legs. This keeps the two phases that go to both the rpc and the load motor dead, so that if you switch on your machine there is no power to it at all. Kind of like just turning the thing off at the breaker.

Just make a washer for it out of 1/4 " plate, maybe a 2x2" piece. That way it will protect teh anvil from damage from the shoulder of the chisel. Then again, the time spent making that may as well be spent just making a hot cut. I usualy just use mild steel (get a piece the same size or larger than your hardy and forge the end to fit), then cut a piece just shy of the right length, then weld a ball bearing, or piece of spring steel to the end (just use something high carbon), then forge the end to shape. All told, you will spend half an hour making it (or 6 hours making your first one, then 30 minutes each after that).

I forged that ellipse that we discussed in last nights chat room after the BP. It forged fairly easily and I had no trouble with it. I made the jig by tacking on 3/16"x 1 1/2" flat bar on a piece of plate and tacked that to my welding table. The customer had given me a paper template to go by. I welded another piece af flat bar about 1" long next to the jig to keep the bars end held in place. Then I stuck the end of the bar (1 1/8" round) in the forge and heated as much of it as I could, about 10". when it was nice and hot I put the end in the jig held by the 1" piece and gently began to wrap the bar using bending forks, one to hold the bar onto the jig, so it wouldn't pucker, and the next a few inches in front of it to bend the bar. I was also gently pushing the bar with my hip. After I made it all the way around I quenched it and did a cut all the way through on my abrasive saw and then put that whole end back in the forge, brought it back to the jig and brought the ends together. Then I put the ellipse on the welding table, put a piece of heavy plate on it and smacked it with a hammer a couple of times to level it all back out (I had done this in the beginning as well to help keep it all flat). I then beveled the ends and welded it together, hit it with a sanding disk, and sandblasted it to remove the scale. It took me about 25 minutes, most of that time was waiting for the bar to heat. First pic is about 3/4s of the way through the forging, second is after cutting the ends, and the last is welded sanded and ready for shipping.

Its a light anvil, and he can skid it around by himself.

I just roll the top and bottom pieces, then cut out two arches and weld it all together. No distortion from rolling that way.

The only reason I shy away from the sand box for him is that it is heavy, and he is 6, and while he is strong for 6 I don't want to make it too heavy for him to drag around. At the moment I have a few 6x timbers from a skid that I think I may strap together. It would be light enough to move, yet stout enough to not tip over and make a decent base. It is the growth thing that gets me. I supposed I could make a bottom plate for it while 2x6s, then just add a layer as he grows.

Just polling for good ideas for a new anvil stand. I have one under my 220# Trenton that I like a lot. It is fabbed up from steel sheet (1/8") and is a square on the bottom with the sides tilted in to where it reaches the right width for the anvil at the top. I have it filled with sand, except for some chunk of 4x6 in the bottom (it was so heavy when filled completely with sand that I couldn't slide it across the shop floor) and there are 4x4s laid across the top for the anvil to sit on. It was nice doing it this way, as it was easy to adjust height until I liked it. The downfall is that it is HEAVY. One of the good things is that it is HEAVY. The reason I am asking is that I have a second anvil out in the shop for my son to use. It has been on a stump, but the stump split in half the other day and I now need to come up with a new anvil stand for him. It would be nice to be adjustable so I can raise it as he grows. But I will consider all ideas. Thanks.

Mine is to the left and I am a righty.The very specific reason why I use that orientation is that on the far edge of my anvil there is a section that has a goodly radius on the corner and the aft section is a fairly sharp right angle, the close side is all square and fairly sharp. I use the radius for starting scrolls and bends, and also when starting tapers, or using the hammer close to the edge it is not right on the sharp corner. Most of the time the anvil is at roughly a 45 to the forge ( point the horn at the forge then back off 45 clockwise), but I will move it around to whatever is handy for the job.

Nice! I'd wax it or hot oil it, or clear coat.

Here are some pictures of the hammer and valve arrangement.

I bought an air hammer from a friend of mine who was moving recently. It is a well made hammer with a #50 tup and a solid 12" anvil. It has the typical tubing arrangement for the versa valve, with a dryeregulator/oiler on the inlet. It has 1/2" ports on the valve, but only 3/8" tubing connecting everything . It works well overall but there are a few charachteristics in it that I would like to tune out of it. First, the first strike is not a ful strike, the tup goes halfway down then returns to the top, then the next strike is a full strike. Next,and I am not entirely sure how to describe it, but it seems to hold back on the hits when the tup gets close to the anvil. With my other hammer (#50 Star foundry)it hits hard when you push the treadle down, but when I push the treadle on this it seems to begin to slow right befor it hits. It is not stopping due to a mechanical limitation, but maybe because it is not getting rid of the air on the bottom side of the cylinder and it begins to compress it. I was thinking that it may be due to the small tubing size, and thougt I would replace the tubin with 1/2" and se if that helped matters. I have also seen some hammers with a regulator in between the valve and the cylinder, on the bottom side. Is this to limit the air pressure under the cylinder to avoid this problem. I have seen some hammers with it, but more without it. Also, I am running it a about 65psi. If I bump the pressure up more the hammer starts to not hit hte anvil, and do some ther funny stuff. What is the average pressure to run one of these hammers? The cylinder is a 2 x 10 as I recall. Thanks,

Go to the shopfloortalk.com site, look it the machining area for a post by Cutter about that sae mill.

Just a quick update, I cannot seem to find spring steel localy in a small quantity. My steel yard needs a minimum of 24' to bring it in at $4.90 per foot.