Ric Furrer

no flux? Ric

My shop is far from clean and though I have moved the angle grinding a few feet out the front door I still use the belt sander inside. That said...the rolling mill I have has exposed bronze bushings (no zirk just an oil squirt now and again) for the top and bottom roll and I run hot steel through them..so thee is a major scale issue...yet no scaring of the roll or bronze. My 50 weight Molag has bushings and when the shaft was pressed out it to was clean as were the bushings...though there are grease zirks on that one. With the LG and Beaudry we used in Florida we had thick wool cut to fit the oil opening and that acted as a wick and filter of sorts..I do not recall any issues with them either. One can make a coupling of rubber or some such and place the oil drip cup on that...making the pathway very difficult for any shop grit. A few months back I was quoted under $2 per pound for the ZA12 material....but then again I'm getting 400 pounds of the stuff which may make a slight difference in price. Ric

You mentioned the new equipment they bring in and the long hours and diversity of work they are willing to do....so I would think you are looking for a comment there. I do not know the specifics of the situation, but $50 seems low. Then again, judging by the production and investment by the owner, in another month or two I would think they will be set up in another shop all their own. I worked with a Cuban while in Florida (he was legal just in case you are asking)..very hard working and smart man...three years in he had his own shop on the side and last I heard he was at it full time there. I expect the same from these folk. I have seen similar smiths in Panama and Guatemala (years ago when the US Army sent me there)..very few tools and filling the needs of the population quite well. One even had an electric "welder" made with some wraps of copper in a bucket of water and a thin wire to the overhead lightbulb for juice...coat hangers as rods for joining and a borax slurry for the flux. Very much a "have a need find a solution type of arrangement". Ric

How can grit enter? You have a grease zirk forcing in the lube and it exits at the ends of the bushing...all out flow no in? I have a small rolling mill with bronze bushings ..the top half is open to the world and I have a large pile of scale and grease on that from use...after a year of use I removed everything an looked for wear...none visible..no damage at all. I think if you get a proper fit the oil/grease will prevent contamination quite well...again..all the forces is pushing the lube out of the area and not allowing things to get in. Also..Make sure you have shims so you can remove them as the bushing wears. Ric

I'll be pouring some bushing for a rolling mill here and will use ZA12 form these folk http://www.eazall.com/diecastalloys.aspx ZA-12 is the most versatile zinc alloy in terms of combining high performance properties and ease of fabrication using either gravity or pressure die casting. ZA-12 is the best gravity casting alloy for sand, permanent mold and the new graphite mold casting process. It is also a good pressure die casting alloy (cold chamber) which provides a sounder structure than ZA-27, as well as higher die cast elongation and impact properties. For these reasons, die cast ZA-12 often competes with ZA-27 for strength application. An excellent bearing alloy, ZA-12 is also platable, although plating adhesion is reduced compared to the ZAMAK alloys. Ric

So your selling me your 200 ton press then...well,sniff, thank you, its the best thing anyone's ever, sniff, done for me.... Since there is a certain desire for the induction units I suggest you go play with one of the 25Kw units and then the 35 and see which makes you more happy. Thoughts from someone who owns a non-running 50kw unit: So I was impressed with the 3,000hz 125kw unit the university has here in Wisconsin so I looked into the tech...interesting stuff there. Such a unit would be about $150,000 new..give or take and melt much metal and heat about anything you care to heat. After some more research and calls and emails to India,China and parts of the US I began looking for a 3,000 hz unit rather than the higher freq units which seem to be more common. I want to melt and heat and because there is a drop in power to the part when it goes through the Curie Point I figured I'd wait and see what presents itself. A few years passed and I heard of an auction in Massachusetts ,five days after it happened, and tracked down one of the 50Kw 3,000 hx Ajax units..which broke in shipping and I had to loge and insurance claim...so now its a matter of feeding it 50Kw of 480 power when I have no three phase. Another year passed and I found a 50kw generator and this year, hopefully, I'll get the natural gas line plumbed to feed the genset to feed the induction unit...so I can heat bars of steel to forge..which I could already do in my $10 per hour propane forge. I think induction is a wonderful technology, but there are sliding scales of hz rate(lower the hz the deeper the eddy penetration),kw of input,voltage of input, coil coupling and water quality which need to be dealt with. Larry, the end result is that no matter what unit you get and how you work the coil there will be parts you can not heat efficiently and can not heat at all and some things it will work just peachy on....and you can sell the unit if you wish to get something else later. Architectural work has completely dropped off in my shop as has some of the other stuff I have done regular...so I am moving toward things I never did regular..teaching,more sword work,more steel-making,more odd bits and pieces. I used to make these trap net anchors every year for Commercial Fisherman around the Great Lakes..now not so much as their rules are changing as well. http://www.doorcountyforgeworks.com/Trap_Net_Anchors.html Ric

Sandy was in my shop last year? or the year before....known him for years..interesting dude...one of the more useful folk I have ever met. I have a 50Kw Pachydyne by Ajax that I am slowly getting operational...need a coolant pump and to make up some coils (and a coolant for that as well)...hope to have it powered up this year....got a generator just to provide it with 50kw of 480 food. Sandy likes you...he describes you as the madscientist type. Ric

Simon, I suggest using steel that has carbon in it already. I have been hosting classes here making blister steel and bone charcoal is a very poor pack carburizer ..couple that with the short time at the low temp you cooked it at and you get three times failure. The added cost of using a known steel with a known heat treatment is quickly offset by the chance of failure doing it any other way. There area commercial case hardening compounds out there that should do what you need..casnit among others...you could hard face the sections with electric weld. I have heard of folk running the oxy/acetylene torch with a sooty flame and holding it over the bright orange metal for a minute or two...this may work..may not..it is not something I have ever done. Ric

I hope Sandy is happy with that tool.... Ric

Tim, I used to help out a friend at a rodeo in Florida where he set up his traveling forge...having the fire there helped a great deal as it allowed the public to see some things being made and buy the rest. We never did many sales, but he was pleased with the results. There were folk who said all that he made was poor quality, others who said it was expensive and more who just walked on by uninterested. The kids loved it and that brought the parents so we started making things for the kids to bug their parents to buy...rings made from nails, tiny swords from double headed nails etc (think cocktail olive size). You have to feel out your market and then go from there...not everyone will like what you do no matter what it is. Some men can not walk past another guy made thing without letting him know he could do it better left handed and with one eye...its the way with some folk. I suggest you have one spectacular piece..whatever you wish to make...be sure it involves some twisting or wiggling or forge welding some such technique that you are both good at and proud of to point at when the other men who can do everything come by. When the man says "hmph i can make these".hand him that object and see if he can give advice on making this thing faster "Cause the whatever technique right here takes me a while...how would you do that Sir?" and stare at him with open eyes waiting for an answer. Take a common thing from your area and play with it....not sure what that something is, but I am sure you know what your local folk like...take that item or critter or some such and make it in metal......peach pit? something to do with Fort Mountain? Your smart..you will think of something with local flavor. Making things folk need is another way to do..maybe the is not a hook, but a grilling tool or a garden implement or some other nifty little device that you have needed and made for yourself. Figure out if you are in the $5 sales area or the $20 or the $1 range and challenge yourself to make something in that price range....which is not simple to do. Ric

No..its obviously a "One Horned Purple People Eater". Nice looking tool there. Ric

Do keep in mind folks that our "mild steel", A36, whatever material can, given an edge, without ANY quenching cut your arm clean off. What you call a mild steel wallhanger can do quite a bit of damage.......humans are soft and squishy. So...can you tell by looking what is a polished mild steel blade and what is a piece of any medium or high carbon steel "properly" forged and heat treated? Make the type and style of work you wish, but if the job is not making what you like to make then either do it as the client wants, talk them into something else or pass on the gig. You do not have to say yes to anything. Ric

I had heard that Ladish in Milwaukee had to buy the bowling alley some 1/2 mile away during WW2 production because the hammers there knocked over the pins....of so my Dad told me..he is of that vintage. The tour I took there years ago showed a line of "small" hammers..maybe 2,000 weight?... in a row stretching at least ten hammers long, maybe more...no photos allowed in that place though. I would think at some point hydraulic presses have replaced large hammers... Ric

As I said above..."when ready to weld reach in with stout tongs and pinch the parts...its called a "pinch weld" " If you melt dis-similar metal into the interface then it is a braze....if above 850F...and a penny would not be my first choice..better to use a known material I think if you wish to do that. Ric

I think the pinch weld is your best bet..you are dealing with very different cross-sections and you have close to no time to stick the weld. Ric

An air filter for those of us with facial hair. I find mine drips a bit with condensation, but its OK. Ric

Wire them together (or a light tack weld as a clamp), put them all in the fire (gas or coal) and bring them up to temp, flux as normal, when ready to weld reach in with stout tongs and pinch the parts...its called a "pinch weld" and they will stick. Let them come back up to temp and go a few more times. Once it is mostly touching then you can remove and finished the weld "properly" on the anvil...which should be very close to the forge. It is the closest thing to standing in the forge as you will get. Ric

Having suffered through two losses of data I suggest you deal with photos as they are downloaded and save them on an external hard drive...the one terabyte (1TB) are good for quite a few pictures and are cheap now. "Back up" your business files on an external as well...it more than pays for itself when computer issues occur..and they will. The important things I burn to CD of DVD so I have two copies of that stuff....its not paranoia its preparation. Ric

Is this it? http://www.youtube.c...h?v=OQIbOVYtu1w Ric

Michael, Is there no-one to draw from in the area to assist? I understand the desired to do it alone, but maybe a good assistant for a weekend to help with the grunt work forging would be better? Ric

What about a clamp/bolt on handle to the billet and a heat shield on the handle or on you so you can be right on the work still and have a foot on the treadle? I am picturing a yoke type clamp like in Lillico plate 31 http://www.scribd.com/doc/33772464/Blacksmith-s-Manual-Illustrated-1930-by-J-W-Lillico Of course the trick is to have the end behind you secured from jumping in some way (a stand bolted to the floor over the bar by a bit to keep the bar end from jarring you up or down too much as you are on the wrong side of a lever working near the center of the long bar so you can reach the treadle)..make sense? Ric

That looks like it is page 140 out of "A Blacksmith's & Hammerman's Emporium" Douglas Freund (Book, 2001) Douglas states on page 119: "With more than 1,000 Beche self-contained pneumatic forging hammers in operation in Europe, the Nazel Engineering & Machine Works obtained a license to manufacture the hammer sin the United States. Initially Nazel represented Beche&Grohs, of Huckswagen, Germany, and supplied German built machines; but in the Spring of 1090, Nazel draftsmen began to prepare drawing for hammers to be manufactured in Philadelphia. The Nazel line of power forging hammers was proudly advertised in a series of brochures entiltled, The Nazel Hammer Book." the 1914 edition in what is in the above book and "reveals the Nazel line in transition". Has anyone seen a "Girder Hammer" for "Heavy and Large Plate Work and Hollow Ware" page 154 of the book or the "Speed Hammer"..which looks like a planishing machine? Ric

This is smaller that you wish to do..and they make more than ten, but perhaps you can draw some ideas Or this at minute three or so...typical ring rolling piercing that I am sure you know how to do. I am sure I have seen what you are asking for on a video or series of stills..just can not locate it. You will either have to have the work done in several heats or make a set of containment dies or specific swages to either keep the shape while forging or reform the shape after piercing. Obviously for just ten you will have little use for dedicated closed dies to do net shape forging...I think you will have to pierce undersized and still have a bit of boring for your client. Ric

Phil, Here is what he has to say: "Ric, I am not able to jump online and answer this directly right now. If you don't mind, could you post the following information in response to the question: To add a hole to a tool job you use an approach much like you would if punching at the anvil except that in our case we punch completely through the forging from one side and out through a die on the bottom. The tooling is simple, a cylinder with a flat face and straight sides of the diameter you want to make. There usually is a small step machined in to reduce drag as the tool moves through the metal. A bolster is placed beneath the work and the tool is driven through. We keep our tools short so it is often necessary to have some follower blocks to allow for punching a hole that is deeper than your tool is tall. Depending on the equipment capacity and available material you could vary this process by punching from both sides with tapered tooling, leaving a web in the center of the hole that is removed in a second operation with a straight sided punch or your may punch multiple times using two straight sided tools of two different diameters. It all depends on exactly what you are trying to accomplish. Patrick" And more from me.. I know there was a recent forging study on this as well on lubes used in this use.. http://www.forgemag....000000000502144 I recall and article on forging hubs in this "Forge Mag" as well, but can not find it now. Ric

My 3B has marked its territory like a Harley motorcycle..I do not think the oak under my hammer would rot anymore...maybe I will squeeze the oil out one day and pour it back in the hammer. I did worry about the wood on the concrete so I tarred the underside and did wrap of plastic..so it acts like a pool liner now I guess. good score on the Fabreeka. Ric