Rutterbush

Making a squared right angle bend (L shape) hasn't been a problem. I would like to know of a formula that gives a starting length so that when the iron is bent the legs work out to approximately the correct length. EXAMPLE: Use 1/2" x 1/2" square stock. I need one leg to be 11" from end of iron to outside end of bend. The second leg should be 15" from end of iron to outside end of bend. What length of iron do I start with to get these dimensions? Please point me in the right direction if it happens to be posted somewhere already. I am also interested in any other formulas for forging to size. Thanks

Any of you who are in North Carolina please feel free to stop by Blue Ridge Community College in Hendersonville. I've sent at least one Personal Message about the cracked anvils. I will not put the name out because I don't want the supplier getting a bad rap because of something he imported.

Three years ago I purchased four of kind import cast steel anvils for the school. These are used by new and also knowledgeable students. These anvils see their share of missed hammer strikes, but have held up decently well. Several months ago I was demonstrating and noticed a small straight line across the face of the anvil. I contacted the supplier and questioned him as to what type of metal the anvils were made of and was informed they are cast steel. After explaining that one had developed a crack and that I was not looking for a replacement I was informed that the metallurgical makeup of the anvil was unknown. I explained that it would be nice to know so that I could purchase a matching weld wire to repair the anvil if things got worse. No help. This week I found two more of these anvils had developed cracks. One has an almost identical straight line across the face like the first anvil has. The second has two thumb size cracks which look as if there was a void inside of the casting. The crack has bent inward on one side and the opposite side stands above the anvil face enough to feel the raised edge. I don't really want to weld on these anvils so I'm having students work around the defects. These cast anvils rebound at approximately 85/90%. Even though new and fresh off the boat an anvil can have defects. The older anvils have been tested, proven and generally cost 1/3 the price of new. Of course, now that I'm in the market for six new anvils I'm gonna contact Jymm Hoffman about his H-13 anvils. The college will purchase brand new, but not used. I've now been to Jymm's website. I'm putting six of these anvils on my college wish list. Now the problem is which style. JYMM, don't get excited. I said WISH LIST. Working with a state funded school is like being in the military, hurry up and wait.

Go over to far west forum (blacksmith's forum). A person who goes by Plain ol' Bill has built his own CNC plasma and has posted pictures.

Frosty, No E-mail. Try this one. psrrfrATbellsouthDOTnet

Play nice, Butch. I can't help it. I think of Butch in the "Our Gang" films.

I have a retired fella in my blacksmithing class who says he will be in the Anchorage, Alaska area in May of 2009. Are any of you kind folk in that area or do you know someone? This retired fella would be real excited to have a solid contact with a smith in that area who will allow him to stop by and watch or participate. Fella wants to learn. He is willing to jump in and help if he knows what you want. He has some very basic skills and lots of room for improvement. Feel free to contact me here at the college of welding knowledge and I'll get the info to him. Hopefully, you already know how to make the following address work properly. Thanks for all help. Steve steverATblueridgeDOTedu

The liquid acetone will try to find its level and that can put it near the valve when the cylinder is on it's side. Having the porous material inside of the cylinder doesn't let it slosh back to the bottom when stood upright. The acetone wicks its way back to the bottom. Takes a little while. 15 minutes is a minimum amount of time to let the acetone settle or start it's downward path. Acetone being a solvent should not be allowed to flow through the regulator, hose and torch.

Everyone has great input about welding aluminum. I'm gonna stir the cooking pot just a little more. Can never have too many chefs. Grinding aluminum and power brushing aluminum look as if it gets it super clean just like steel, but there's a catch. As soon as the grinding disc or wire wheel clean the surface the oxide rapidly reforms faster and slightly thicker than normal due to the air turbulence created by the rotating wheel. Only a hand held wire brush should be used. The brush should be pushed or pulled in only one direction just like using a file. The reason being not to drag particles of oxides back into the weld area. This information was passed to me by two of AlcoTecs field technicians who helped me when I started the boat propeller repair business. Called them up and they drove down to my shop and worked closely with me welding cast aluminum propellers. Castings are full of hydrocarbons in the porous areas between the grain. Just like any gases they tend to expand when heated. Doesn't matter how clean you think you got it. It has oxide and hydrocarbon working against you. A crack that can't be hand brushed or filed is a nasty waiting to happen. I understand that what you're working with is not a crack, One reason that your weld bead won't fuse with the metal is as stated earlier, there's oxide or hydrocarbon built up on the edge. Sorta like cleaning the weld area then painting over it to get ready to weld. Ain't gonna happen. The idea is to clean it so that oxygen will hopefully not mix too rapidly, hand brush or file. Use as large a cup as possible and have a low steady flow of pure argon, a small cup and high pressure will start a venturi affect and suck air into the weld area. a #8 cup and 25 to 35 cfh. Keep the end of the tungsten a maximum of 1/8" above the puddle. Doesn't matter if it's balled or pointy (technical term). Yes, you do need the higher starting heat, but back off asap or preheat and weld. Weld with the lowest weldable heat. Just like any other metal too much heat does strange things to the grain. Another thought is since aluminum is red short (won't support itself at high heat) use a piece of stainless steel to support the weld area. Keeps it from falling through, keeps it flat on the back side and won't weld together. Don't use copper. Copper particles will alloy with the aluminum. Not good. One final note. Never pull the filler wire out of the argon shielding gas. It only takes a split second to oxidize the hot end of the wire, then put it back into the puddle. I hope you've got it finished by now and can tell me how full of it I am. Of course, I'd mig weld that sucker and be done with it. ;0)

Well stated indeed Mr. Gomez. Also, the tig and mig process share the same filler metals. ER70S-x is put on spools or cut to 36" length. This next bit is slightly off topic, but... The problem with mig is that people don't know, or choose to ignore, the fact that the metal *HAS* to be clean to get proper fusion. These are usually the people who I hear complain about mig making bad welds.

Hey Quench, Haven't heard from you in many ages. Still the on-line metallurgist on the knife forum? I have one of these anvils at the college of welding knowledge. This anvil serves well with various skill level blacksmithing students, but does take the occasional ding. Good review.

While I'm at it, take a look. This should be eye opening to those who think it will "never happen to me". You need to see this one if you never look at the others. Scroll down to the exploded vehicles. www.eiga.eu/pdf/TP_17_08.pps 1010 WINS - On-Air, Online, On Demand - Smoker's Car Explodes after Welding Gas Ignites Port Chester Westmore News: Car explodes behind P.C. apartment house How To Use Oxygen Acetylene Equipment Safely The next one is a MSDS for acetylene. Scroll down to “other information” about transporting cylinders. http://specialtygasesofamerica.com/msds/acetylene-msds.pdf A Bit More Dire - The Daily WTF

Thomas makes a perfect point. BOB, Of course, with all of the free info on the Internet about not transporting compressed gases inside of a vehicle I'm sure you're just joking. DOT is in charge of gas cylinders. Their rules say the cylinders may be transported laying down or standing upright, but must be secured in the back of an open vehicle.

Francis Whitiker, blacksmith most high to some, always championed doing blacksmithing the way blacksmithing was intended. There were many discussions about this on the ForgeMagic forum several years back. Those who had a problem with anything not original blacksmithing soon started calling it "True Path" blacksmithing. Wish I could remember who coined that phrase. Recently, I was flipping through some old Anvil's Ring magazines and stopped on an article by Saint Francis. This in itself was very unusual for me. Something was said about tack welding or wiring multi pieces together for forge welding. I can't quote the statement made by St. Francis, but in short he said it's only extra metal and that's good. Until I read that, I really didn't give a hoot nor holler about how Francis does/did things. Still don't hold him up as "St. Francis", but now I will read some of his writings.

Breaking that coal into walnut size may help with keeping the fire hot. After a period of time checking to make sure that a clinker hasn't blocked the tuyere may help the air flow. Of course, now that you're a blacksmith, you already knew all of this. "Is it ever like the first time again?" NO. Thankfully. It's like kissing women(for me). It got better with practice and I found out that there's more than one way, then the wife caught me and I took up blacksmithing. 8o)

I am referencing ASTM specifications for reinforcing bars. There are three ASTM specifications. The ID stamp is for re-bar produced inside the USA. A615 plain new billet steel bars (ID stamp-N) A616 rail steel bars- made from A-1 (ID stamp - cross section of rail) Carbon .55-.82 Only the head of the rail is used. The flange and web are kept separate and recycled into other things. A617 axel steel bars- made from A-21 (ID stamp - A) Carbon .40-.59 As you can see, the rebar made in the good old US of A has a decent quality control. If you get the stuff that so many purchase because they're buying price, who knows? The blacksmithing classes at the college of welding knowledge use rebar for most punches, chisels, slitting tools, hardy tools and just about anything needed. I've got *my* set that I made over a year ago. Center punch still has a point, chisel still has a nice cutting edge, slitting tool can still cut through hot metal and hold an edge with prudent cooling. I forged to rough shape, ground to smooth, heated to non magnetic, quench in room temperature water, draw to medium to dark straw and quench. No normalizing stress releaving. The only real problem I've had is these things grow tiny little legs. They tend to run out the door with no help, and they're fast little scudders. Even tried painting them hot pink in hopes it would embarrass them into staying at school and not venture into public. I overheard one instructor tell another instructor, who was busy etching the schools name on a box of new sockets, "Don't waste your time doing that. It only makes the thief mad when his tools have the school name on them".

May not be what you want, but it's something. RoadsideImports Automatic Switchblade Conversion Instructions

I'm repeating what several eye doctors have told me over the past millennium. Potatoes have the possibility of bacteria. Why would you put this in your eyes? However, cool potatoes help remove heat. A cool wet cloth does the same. Visine is advertised to "get the red out". It does this by making the blood vessels contract. The reason the blood vessels expanded was to allow the blood to carry more oxygen to your eyes. Oxygen helps the healing process. Tears are one way the eye attempts to wash away something that's not supposed to be there. Tears also carry chemicals, minerals and help lubricate the eye. NOT Visine, but Man Made Tears do help. This is packaged in the same type bottle as Visine, but is clearly marked as Man made tears or something that identifies it. I agree about the gold lens. If it's polycarbonate it's usually marked with a statement such as "Discard if scratched". Unless you buy the $100.00 gold plated glass dark lens with the permanently attached clear cover lens the gold scratches way too easy. Going to the doctor is the best thing to do. I've worked with several welders who got Ponacaine (spp) to numb their eyes. It works, but if you don't cover your numb eyes you'll never know if something gets in them and cuts them up. Don't self medicate. Doctors paid a lot of money to learn how to put those drops in your eyes. They also pay huge malpractice insurance saying they won't intentionally hurt you. At least that's the way it's supposed to work.

Not exactly what you asked for, but interesting. http://www.oseh.umich.edu/OSEH%20Presentations/Rhonda.pdf

Funny that you read SMITHS. I thought it read SANTA'S. I'm guessing that since everything is electronics and plastic he didn't need it. Or one of the elves had to have an adult beverage. Nice anvil. How did you come across it?

I've always heard welders who worked the natural gas and oil lines were pipeliners, because of how many miles can be put in the ground per day. The Alaska pipe line comes to mind. Welders who worked process piping, water, steam, chemicals, etc, were pipe welders. That's how they're distinguished in this area of the world, or at least used to be. There are so many people moving here from around the world that I've heard all sorts of names. Thomas Dean, No HYPpie rods?

My thoughts also. I had never seen a square anvil on the originals. I thought it amusing to read that thread. THANKS

Anyone know if this hammer is all original and what brand it is? This is a really old thread that I stumbled on. I've posted this on a couple of other forums, so you may see it again. Machine Builders Network

Older wrought iron bodied anvils may have been of the type called six piece welded anvils. These anvils were made of six separate pieces; the horn, body, heel, 2 feet and the steel plate. The older anvils, that I've seen, which have been left out in the weather, have rusted under the steel plate, if there were cracks, and started to separate from the wrought iron. Some had poor welds or hard use that may have separated the weld joint enough to allow water to enter then freeze or rust. The freezing could have pushed the weld joint apart a little at a time and with the continued hard use broken off. It's possible. If it is cast iron, that may be the answer in itself. Thomas Powers?

I am referencing ASTM specifications for reinforcing bars. There are three ASTM specifications. The ID stamp is for re-bar produced inside the USA. A615 plain new billet steel bars (ID stamp-N) A616 rail steel bars- made from A-1 (ID stamp - cross section of rail) Carbon .55-.82 Only the head of the rail is used. The flange and web are kept separate and recycled into other things. A617 axel steel bars- made from A-21 (ID stamp - A) Carbon .40-.59 I would write more, but Big Ugly (the dog) just crawled up on my lap to inform me that I should shut down the computer because we are having a large thunder and lightning storm.