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I Forge Iron

millwright

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Everything posted by millwright

  1. Hey West-coasters! I just noticed what appears to be a 300# columbus tool arm and hammer on flea-bay. It is not mine and I do not know the owner but I have an arm and hammer, and I love it. The buy-it-now price seemed like a bargain too. Hope its the anvil someone on here has been waiting for. Here is the link: Arm & Hammer 300lbs Anvil and Custom Base - eBay (item 130339087683 end time Oct-28-09 18:06:03 PDT) J.W. Morris Sandyville, WV
  2. My wife and I got married two days after christmas so we really go oveboard and buy each other bigger combined gifts I got a big craftsman tool chest and a 60#ish swedge block, and she got a green house and a digital camera.
  3. Aluminum explodes with 300 times the power of a similar molten iron explosion I would suggest preheating to drive all the moisture out of your scrap especially if you are using cans. Many aluminum factories around the world have been leveled this way. All due respect but this procedure is the exact recipe to cause a molten metal explosion. Cans and the little swig that you cant quite get are so dangerous that the aluminum plant that I work at will fire you on the spot for having an aluminum can on the property. Pre heated and dried out cans cause no real danger but adding a can that contained a teaspoon of liquid to already molten metal is would be like lighting a stick of dynamite. Please be careful when dealing with molten aluminum. John W. Morris Area Maintenance Planner Alcan Global ATI Ravenswood, WV Producers of aluminum coil and plate products for aerospace, transportation, and industry
  4. My friend says he will serve as a striker if we decided to do his posts using a swedge. He is really looking for a "quick and dirty" solution to top off his fence posts. Any other solutions for a quick, high production, low skilled (me), way to top off a 3/8" round fence post
  5. Sask Mark, I have never tried oil coke but I have some experiance with metallurgical coke. While I was working in the steel mill I used it quite a bit for forging (3rd shift gets boring when everything is running well) The coke is a bear to get started and will require constant wind to keep it going. If you have not built your forge yet and you plan on running cokeall the time, build your fire pot twice as deepas a normal coal forge, it really helped me. With a thicker mass of burning coke a little less wind is required to keep it going. Heck when I worked art the mills coke plant we heated our belt lines in the winter with coke heaters or "salamanders" as they would call them, with no wind on them at all. The salamanders were basicly a large metal trash can made of expanded metal filled to the brim with burning coke. One of my jobs was to go shake them down with a pinch bar and top them off with coke every two hours. If I was going to build another coke forge I would devise some kind of shaker grate to shake the ash out of the coke mass as well. It seems to me like the ash would cling to the coke slowly starving it for oxygen. My coke forge at work would start to choke out after an hour or so and I would beat on the side to knock down the ash. If you beat on the side of a forge full of ashy burning coke be sure to turn your head. (Don't ask me how I know this) Good luck, keep us posted on the oil coke experiment! John W. Morris
  6. I have a friend that is building a fence around his historic home. He purchased a pile of 3/8" material to build his fence with He pre cut all the peices only to find out that no one carries a 3/8" size final that he likes. He approached me to forge a point or a ball on the ends of all the rods (about 350). I sugested he sell me all the 3/8" material at a loss and buy some 1/2" to build his fence,but he did not like the idea. My question is If I buy a 3/8" ball spring swedge and mount it in the hardy hole of my anvil will it be a 1 heat deal to swedge the ends or will I have to upset the material first then swedge the end? Will I have enough heat to dress each up a little after swedging? Is it a one hit deal or will it require multiple blows? I have never used a spring swedge, but I figured it would be faster than forging each (round) rod to a point. Let me know what you folks think. Thank you, J.W. Morris
  7. Thank you. The anvil is a beast, it will suck the heat out of anything that touches it immeditaly, not as bad in the summer but in the winter you dont want to try welding on it untill you have worked on it for a couple of hours. I bought a magnetic engine block heater to use this winter, hopefully it will do the trick. I found it in my friends barn, his dad got it out of a steel mill in ohio. He was only using it to straighten his sickle bar on. I had a firearm he wanted and a deal was struck. I am very fortunate to have found it. The far edge is a little chewed up, I think I am going to try working the on the anvil backwards (horn to my right) to compensate. I am still new enough to the hobby that I can switch, and if it dosent work out I will break down and fix the bad edge.
  8. I would grout one in flush with the floor to use for upsetting big long peices of stock.
  9. The good news about scale is, it only burns untill your skin cools it off. One or two swipes with a thick bristle butcher block will nock all but the most stubbron scale off. Copyrighted photo removed and a link placed into the text
  10. My old shop. It was 30' x 40' I had to move early this year and I haven't built a new building yet. The new smitty wont be quite so big...too hard to heat in the winter. P1010008 - Blacksmith Photo Gallery P10100143 - Blacksmith Photo Gallery
  11. The small anvil is a 100# Peter Wright the big boy is a 527# columbus tool arm and hammer.
  12. I named my forge the Jewett Forge Co. for Jewett,Oh the town that I used to live in. Now I have moved to Sandyville WV, So I have some decisions to make. I liked Sandy creek forge for the creek that runs through the valley at my new home, but I saw that someone is already using it. I guess I will build another shop first, then worry about a shop name.
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