matt87

Standard blacksmith's answer: get it hot and hit it! Can't realy hurt to try I guess, supposing you observe suitable safety precautions for working an unknown material (full face mask, good ventilation, bucket of sand etc.).

I've used a couple cast steel anvils. Some ring, some don't. I think the quality/clarity and volume of the ring depend upon many factors including the type of steel, and the exact design of the anvil. (My rail iron anvil rings if I don't dampen it. Not sure what steel it is, but I suspect it's a fairly high carbon though annealed.)

Oops sorry RF, I misread that part of your post! That'll teach me...

I've only used coke in English back-blast forges, and there the fire is normally hot enough to keep clinker melted. If you back the air off for a few minutes though, the clinker solidifies and you can hook it out in one lump using a right-angled poker. It's found just in front of the tuyere and feels very different from coke. Also I've found it sticking to the work when it's hot. Once you see it, you'll know it.

So... it's a gasser? Home-made I'm guessing. I'm also guessing it's forced-air. Mor einformation would be useful :D

The search function is your friend. I've never seen a railroad spike in the flesh, but I know that the HC ones are specced to maximum 30 points carbon and 20 points copper... purely from the number of threads like this! In other words they make good letter openers and such but not a 'real' knife -- one that'll hold much of an edge, though you might be able to get something more useful with a brine quench.

HI there Mullins and welcome to IFI. Probably the best thing you can do to start is scroll to the top of the page and click 'blueprints', and start reading! There are several hundred of these useful articles written by knowledgable persons on a variety of topics from smithing principles, specific projects, tool making, metal casting etc... all available for free! BTW, it often helps to give advise if we know where you're from; go to the top of this page and click on 'user CP' and give your location. We don't need your exact address, just the country and city or nearest town will do. This isn't a method to track you down, it's just that environmental conditions, local availability of goods and proximity to shops and other metalworkers influence replies. I don't know if you are interested in forging as well as casting, but usually a heat source for the former is called a forge and the latter a furnace; thought this might help you find the results you want!

Nice. What depth of fire you got there? Have you tried heating metal with it yet?

You could build one of these for much under $1000... http://www.vintageprojects.com/machine-shop/lathe-modelling1.pdf Not uber-cool CNC or anything -- not even a built-in scale -- but I'm sure it'd be fairly useful. Am considering building it myself.

This DIY fly pres idea may be more or less dead for many good reasons already mentioned, but I just had an idea of how to make the 4-lead screw. Take an appropriate length of, say, 2" square . Put it in the gasser for a nice even heat, clamp end in the (securely mounted) vise and twist. The square shape probably wouldn't give you the best thread cross-section, but I suppose you could swage into something better first. Not sure on how to make the internal thread. Perhaps tacking 4 lengths of stock that mates with the male thread, heating, wrapping, and then offering it up to the body of the receiving part. Tack weld the wrapped threads to receiver at the other end and grind off the tacks holding the threads onto the male thread, and remove the male thread. Put the receiver in the forge and braze.

I built mine out of a

Interesting. I wonder if it would work with less potentially toxic oils?

Don't forget also that iron was very expensive until c.150 years ago, and steel c. 5x more expensive than iron. I don't know what economic class these might be wielding this enormous hammer, but it's my thinking that only nobility could afford such... or possibly courtiers and high-ranking, highly skilled 'peasents'; armourers etc.

Apologies if this has already been proposed, but I think I have an idea: Take a piece of suitable size mild or wrought rod (perhaps 1" square), and make a tight pineapple twist for about 1-2". Upset this twisted end so it's fairly bulbous and cut off. Drill it down the centre so a suitable piece of cable is a close fit. Pass the cable through the hole so it sticks out maybe 3/4" and braze or solder in place. Fray the cable ticking out the top and finish. You could cut a few wires in the cable long the 'stem' and fray them out to represent leaves.

This may be a little left-field, but does the thread neccesarily need to be cut? Would a wrapped-and-brazed thread like on old vises work I wonder?

Tape measure is for scale (inches top, cm bottom).

Anvilfire sell 'reasonable' sized quantities IIRC.

Hehe there's so much black crud (oil + dirt) in the screw boss there could well be and I'd never know about it! Pics will follow tomorrow. BTW, anyone here know of anyone doing typological studies on post vises? (If you don't know it's an archaeological term that means looking at the various features and so developing a way to determine the age of an artefact. For instance, the tenon-mount appears to have gone out of fashion in the period of 1820-1840 therefore if your vise has it it probably dates from this period or before.)

Well I didn't expect this! I got a leg vise recently in pretty good order for little money. Only problem except some dirt was that the spring didn't spring enough to push the jaws any (I figure on it being stored too many years tightened up all the way). So tonight I finally managed to drift out the wedge (no mean feat in itself; the wedge is bent and the whole wedge/clip area was choc-a-block with rust and dirt). Pulling the parts out to get to the spring I notice something odd; the spring and non-moving leg are punched for one of the older-style mortice-and-tenon mount. () I reckon the old one must have gone missing or broken at some point and the owner just decided to make a new wraparound mount. Anyone ever heard of this before?

I find my little charcoal forge lights in a few minutes. I clear it out, place a firelighter and bit of charcoal in front tof the tuyere, and apply a match. Once it's lit I switch on the air and add charcoal on top of the fire. I then get tools and stock I will need out and about 10 minutes later I am placing the first iron in to heat. Shutdown is quite simple; switch off blower I usually douse the fire and save as much fuel as I can unless I'm leaving somethign to aneal overnight. I usually have less than 3 handfulls of fuel in the forge at a time though, so just switching off the air doesn't waste much.

Welcome, Scott! What do you want to do with the forge? Temper steel? Bring metal to forging temperature? If the former you're better off with a toaster oven (or even your kitchen oven), if the latter there are many simpler designs around that are tried and tested. Not to rain on your parade or anything, ingenuity and DIY (even for the sake of DIY) is to be encouraged, but if you have a forge which is known good and you work with it for a while, you'll get a feel for how to design a good forge.

That must be one xxxx of a gasser you got there!

Happy birthday! Did the Birthday Faery bring you any WI? :D

Don't forget oil forges; like gas forges but you can run them on waste oil you can probably get free or cheap from your local takeaway joint.