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I Forge Iron

Trip

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Everything posted by Trip

  1. I have been talking to Dave a lot on the different parts of the tire hammer, and he has been a LOT of help, and he even sent me a TON of photo's of his hammer, so that I would have a clearer idea of what all the parts look like. I haven't been doing much smithing in my shop, since I have been renovating my shop. Also, I have become very interested in forging tools (wood working, & blacksmithing), so I became worried that a tire hammer wouldn't have the control needed for tool making (driving drifts, spring swages, ect). So when I was at Dave Custer's shop last week, we talked about the difference's between his kinyon air hammer & tire hammer. We both decided that a air hammer would be better suited for me at this time, and that if I ever want to get a trip hammer, I can just save up and get a Little Giant. :) I have been reading through the forum about air hammers, and I'm thinking about going with the New Kinyon design air hammer. I also got the plans for the new and old style Kinyon hammer. I will keep yall updated on how this project goes. thanks, Trip
  2. By far, my favorite blacksmithing video!!!!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paCyA9ypEOE
  3. living at this place is what got me interested in blacksmithing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSdQlA3n_yE it was like living back in time. it had a complete blacksmith shop, and coopersmithng shop. The blacksmith shop was a 12x12 log room off to one side of the barn. My very first forged piece was a fire poker for the wood stove in my bed room. up until then I would have to wear a welding glove to move half burning wood in the stove, and after catching that glove on fire at 1 in the morning, i decided it was time I tried my hand at blacksmithing. The rest is history. :)
  4. well I have looked at it a LOT and with the issues I have with it, I will have to take it down. :( For now I am going to have to live with it, because I have to many other things that have to be done to my shop (insulating the roof, insulating the walls, and installing a heat unit that will be hooked up to the wood furnace). But when I do take it down, I will replace it with a steel forge, and if I like it, then I may "face" it with brick to give it that masonry look.
  5. I used a brake drum forge for several years, and it didn't have a clinker breaker in it. A coal forge can run perfectly without a clinker breaker, what you have to do is, if you start forging in the mornin, by lunch you will need to take a piece of 3/8" round bar with a point on it to "poke" a hole through the clinker. I did this for several years, and was even able to forge weld. I would though suggest that you make a better grate. Currently I use a grate made out of 1/2" rebar in my forge.
  6. Hey yall, thanks for all the idea's. My forge is concrete blocks faced with bricks, so I can't take down just a single row of bricks. Also, the top is brick. The way I did that was basically build a steel table that sat inside the block, then lay brick on top of it. the height is doable but for me to be able to see the temp of the metal in the fire pot, I have to pull the steel out and look at it, and it seems to make it scale up more, but that just might be in my mind. My shop space is kinda limited, so I can't really do a second forge, or it will be to cramped. I also would like to replace my hand cranked blower with a electric one, like what is on Dave Custer's new forge, and I don't think I can do that with this forge. Glenn, I kinda like your idea, but isn't that veneer made out of a cardboard like material? That idea though did give me a idea, of welding angle steel to the bottom of the forge, to hold bricks, if I wanted to give it a masonry look, but still have casters, to where it could be moved, if the need ever arose (I still have around 500 bricks left over from building my current forge). thanks, Trip
  7. Nice forge Dave, I'm glad I got to use it when we made the hammers. I really like how you did the air gate, and clinker breaker.
  8. No, I'm just looking for advice, or idea's that I haven't thought of.
  9. Hey yall, Yep you read that right, i'm thinking of tearing down my masonry forge that I built. There are several design issues that can't be fixed. #1: It's to tall. after using Dave Custer's new forge, I realized that my forge it to tall for me to be able to properly see the piece in the fire. #2: it's to wide. #3: If any thing goes wrong with the air pipes, it requires crawling in a bunch of coal ash, and working in a VERRY cramped space. #4: Can't add tool racks, metal holders, ect #5: blower changes can't be made (to much detail to get into, I can only use my hand blower the way I designed it, and it can't be changed) Those are just a few of the reasons's that I'm thinking of taking it down, and replacing it with a steel forge. The design idea I am thinking of is a steel forge with a electric blower mounted under the forge, a quench tub mounted on the front top ( kinda like old champion forges), tong, tool, and hammer rack on the "working side" of the forge, have the ability to be operated from both sides (control of airgate), and a oil quench tub on the back (for quenching knives, tools, ect). Yall got any idea's how I can fix my current forge, or design idea's for a new steel forge? thanks, Trip
  10. Hey yall, A friend of mine came over to the shop today to help me move some equipment in my shop, and when we were done, my fiend was looking at some of the hammer heads that Dave and I had forged, and he came up with a handle design. He drew a pattern on a piece of cardboard, and he made a very nice handle, at least I think so. I'm not sure how well it would work in a rounding hammer, but i know it would make a awesome hatchet or claw hammer handle. What do yall think?
  11. Looks good Dave!!!!!! I agree though, that you ought to do a little better polish on the faces, a mirror finish would be awesome, but time consuming. 6 Heats to punch the eye!!!! WOW bet you were wishing for a good striker huh??? ;) LOL
  12. Hey yall, Just wanted to share with yall some photo's of us grinding & tempering the hammers. We will try to keep yall updated on our progress.
  13. Hi there all Dave Custer AKA "Fiery Furnace" here with Chase Saxton AKA "Trip." So Chase had this idea to forge some Brian Brazeal style rounding hammers. He came over yesterday and is planning on staying thru Friday. We are using 2-inch solid 4140 in billet sizes 3.5-inch, 4-inch, and 4.5-inch! He's got all the pictures so far, so he'll be posting the pictures and such. Just wanted to let you all know we are working together on this project. OK Trip Here, a while back I came over to Dave's shop and we forged out his striking anvil, and then a Brian Brazeal style rounding hammer for myself, as was seen in my video, "Heavy Forging". Not long after that (as Dave just said) I had the idea to make some more. So yesterday I left my house around daylight, and was able to get to Dave's house by about 8:00 in the mornin. We finally got started forging by around 9:00, and within a hour and a half we had a new hammer. All in all it took us about 4.5 hours to forge 2 hammers, completely forged a hot cut hardy (I directed it, and Dave struck), and we got a good start on a second hot cut. So all in all it was a good day's work, but I will admit that my hands are a little sore this mornin, since I haven't done ANY forging in about a month. Enough talk, I'm sure yall want to see some photo's, We will keep you all updated on our progress throughout the week.
  14. Hey yall, Got a question. I am wanting to get more into knife and sword making, but I am missing a tool, a belt grinder. I know I can do with out one, but personally I would rather not waste my time hand sanding a blade. Now with building a house, my budget is limited, so I was wondering if I could use one of these http://www.amazon.com/PORTER-CABLE-Bench-Belt-Sander-PCB420SA/dp/B004Q0MXZU/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&qid=1358567541&sr=8-12&keywords=porter+cable+belt+sander for a belt grinder for the time being. 2 of my sisters gave me Lowes gift cards, so if this will work, I can use those cards to help purchase this sander. I know I would eventually like to buy one of these http://www.amazon.com/Grizzly-G1015-Knife-Sander-Buffer/dp/B0000DD0AL/ref=sr_1_1?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1358567896&sr=1-1&keywords=belt+grinder but the house has other plans for my pocket book. :( LOL Thanks yall for taking the time to read this.
  15. Hey yall, I was reading a old issue of Country side Magazine, and I wanted to share this article about a solar powered mig welder. This article is from Volume 94 Number 6 November/December, 2010, written by Rex A. Ewing Colorado. Hope yall enjoy reading it as much as I did. Article used with permission of Country Side Magazine. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a story built around a tool shed; a shed, where for the past couple of years, I've been welding, grinding, drilling and sawing all manner of materials, providing that, after 11 years of living off the grid, I can still be humbled by the power of a single solar module. The shed in question has evolved over time from a handful of meager expectations and a few modest requirements. All I really wanted was a tight little packrat-proof building to store the overflow from the farm we'd moved from two years before. Since we'd spent those previous two years building a log house, all my precious treasures- ranging from a moderate collection of tools to a cornucopia of nuts and bolts and assorted metalliferous oddieties sufficient to make a yuppie sneer or a redneck salivate- were crammed into a 12x16 foot fabric tent-shed. The fact that the fabric shed kept all these things (stored higgledy-piggledy on makeshift shelves and racks buildt over and around boxes and cans of every size and stripe) high and dry, only made it more hospitable to the legions of mice and packrates that took up residence almost as soon as the shed was erected. and in no time at all they were claiming squatters rights and getting disturbingly surly in their expression of them. The new shed was conceived with the singular purpose of doing exactly what the fabric shed did, with the additional expectation that its wood and stucco walls would prove to be a definitive barrier to that mountain's robust rodent population. And in that regard it has performed admirably since its completion. I decided to wire the shed for 120 volt operation, even though the nearest power source was our new off-grid log house, 100-plus feet to the west. Figuring that I would use electricity there only rarely, I terminated my wiring into an RV-style junction box with a male outlet. That gave me two options for powering the new shed: I could either run an extension cord to the house or plug the shed into the large stationary generator resting on blocks outside it. Neither option was wholly satisfactory. The generator burns gasoline and does so at an unpleasant decibel level. On the other hand, whenever the shed is plugged into the house that requires the big, beastly 220 volt well pump to pull water up from 500 feet down. So after a couple of years and at the least that many homespun blackouts, I decided to install a separate off-grid solar system to power the shed. Thriftiness was my guiding princible: a single 24 volt, 175 watt solar module to provide the raw wattage and eight 6-volt, 225-amp-hour T105 golf-cart-style batteries to store it; and old Trace C-40 charge controller; and an Aims 2,500-watt RV-style modified sine-wave inverter (the kind that you can't plug into a generator for battery charging) to convert the batteries 24-volt DC into 120-volt AC. I honestly didn't expect much. compared to the house system with 2,320 watts of solar, 1,000 watts of wind, and 24 big, heavy L-16 batteries, the 175-watt shed system was a real featherweight; good for some nighttime illumination and a modest amount of sawing, grinding or drilling from time to time, but not much else Or so I reckoned at the time without actually putting a pencil to the matter. The first glimmer that my system was brawnier than I was giving it credit for came whenI picked up a small 120-volt Lincoln MIG welder at a fire-sale price from a friend who was moving. I already had a MIG in the garage, set up for stainless steel, but my friend was hurting for money so I took the welder off hise hands and set it up in the shed, rigged for mild steel. Rated at 20 amps, even this small welder can draw down a fair-sized generator. Still, I calculated my cheap little 2,500-watt inverter-with a commendable surge rating of 5,000-watts- would run it easily, which it did. The question was, how long could I run the welder before putting the batteries in jeopardy? Slowly and cautiously, I tested my small system and the new welder, pushing it a little more every few days, just to see how long it would take the batteries to charge back up again. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that, as long as it was sunny, the batteries would invariably reach full charge the day after each o fmy progressively more energy intensive projects. but that sort of pampering wasn't really telling me what the system could do. So I devised a more serious test, an endurance trial of sorts where I could stress the system while constantly monitoring its vital signs. I did this using a Watts-Up meter to measure various loads the system would experience throughout the "test," as well was th cumulative energy usage. B being plugged directly into the inverter, the meter would be measuring every last watt, including the energy consumed by the compact-fluorescent lights overhead. To test the system, I built, appropriately enough, a welding cart on casters to hold the MIG welder and a small oxy/ acetylene torch. All told, the cart required over 20 separate pieces of pipe, square tubing, angle and flat iron, all of which had to be cut with a bench-mounted cutoff saw (1,800-watts at full load). I also drilled over 30-1/4" and 5/16" holes with a 5/8" drill press (480-watts) and did a considerable amount of grinding using an eight inch bench grinder (480-watts max). the project also required a small amount of wood cutting using a worm-drive saw (1,350-watts) and, of course, the equivalent of a six-foot-long 1/4" bead of weld The welders energy usage was the most surprising measurement Although it had laid down nice, smooth beads with hardly and spit and spatter (working, as it was, in an inert co2/argon environment) the energy usage was all over the board, jumping between 850 and 1,800-watts which, in any case, was considerably less than I had anticipated, particularly since I was suing the highest voltage setting. All told, the entire five-hour project consumed 1.224 kWh of solar electricity- a reletively small amount of energy; certainly less than I would have thought. But then again, i'm not a solar battery; I just used the energy, I didn't have to hastily supply it via a steady cascade of trillions up trillions of rapid-fire chemical transformations. How did my small bank of T105 batteries weather the ordeal? just like the stalwart powerhouses I've always known these batteries to be. The total energy usage was well within an acceptable rand. At 225 amp housr at 24 volts, giving the bank of eight batteries a total of 450 amp hours at 24 volts. since volts x amps= watts, 450 amp hours x 24 volts =10,800 watt hours, or 10.80 kWh of capacity for the entire battery bank. Dividing my total energy usage (1.224 kWh) by the total battery capacity 10.80 kWh), I found that I had used a little over 11% of the batters total capacity: 1.224 devided by 10.80 = 0.113. Since I build the welding cart in the middle of a sunny day, the batteries were charging at over 120 watts the entire time. And by shutting the inverter off when I was finished (as I always do), the batteries were back up to charge by the end o the next day. the total cost for the system at today's prices, including the solar module, charge controller, batteries, and inverter, plus circuit breakers to isolate each of the system components (but excluding wiring and other materials, that a lot of folks already have on hand) should run less than $2,000.00, depending on how savvy a shopper you are. Solar modules in the 200-watt rand for instance, can be had on the internet for around $2.00 a watt. Got an old outbuilding on the back forty waiting for a spark of illumination? A little stand-alone solar system might be just what it needs. Rex A. Ewing
  16. I disagree with that Clif. The reason being is because at that height you will "snap" your elbow, shoulder, and wrist joints. I know this to be true because when I first started smithing, I had my anvil set at that height, and I would get a sharp stabbing pain in my for arm and wrist after only a few hours. Your anvil should be set at a height so that you elbow is slightly bent when the face of your hammer is sitting on the face do your anvil. Trip
  17. I have never seen any thing like that!!! What is it called?
  18. I might try to get that book soon, but it will have to wait until I get paid for some stuff I forged.
  19. I clicked on the "add to cart" button, and it sent me amazon with a price tag of 75.00. Strange huh?
  20. I just looked that book up and it costs anywhere from $125-$200!!!! I can put up with a LOT of trial & error at that price!! Lol. But thanks anyways.
  21. Ok so from what y'all have said and from some other info I have read, I think I am going with 1080 or 1095. Now can I anneal, harden, & temper 1080 & 1095 using my coal forge and a map torch? If so what's the process? Thanks yall!!!! Trip
  22. I thought about using a leaf spring today while eating some turkey. If I make some out of seaf spring it will be on tools for my own use. I did some research last night and from what I read, most woodworkers prefer chisels made out of A1 or O2 steel. The only problem about that for me is I will have to buy a heat treat furnace. :( Happy thanksgiving every one!!!!!!! Trip
  23. As for my skill level, well I can't judge that part but I can scroll, bend, forge weld, do mortise & tenon joints, and I have hardened and tempered spring steel for knives I've made. And as for my equipment, well. Got a coal forge basic hand tools and a cutting/heating torch set.
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