Thomas Dean

Howdy form EAST TEXAS!! and welcome to IFI. Check out the "Dallas Historical Village". They have a blacksmith shop that is set in circa 1860, I volunteer there at times (plan to be there March 16 & 17). Check out the North Texas Blacksmith Assoc also North Texas Blacksmiths Association They meet the 2nd Saturday of each month at a different place. Some good, some better! Private message me for more info if interested.

As mentioned several times above, Lincoln, Miller, Hobart. I would stay away form the Harbor Freights and the like. I would not recommend a MIG machine unless you know what the weld puddle is doing and that comes with more experience. You can make a weld "look" good and it will have cold lap or non-fusion. I have a Miller 251X MIG machine in my shop that has the capabilities of welding 1/16" wire but if I need to make a critical weld I will use my stick machine and 7018 rod. Oxy/fuel welding is not as fast as stick welding as a norm. May I suggest that you go to a welding shop and ask to observe one of the better hands welding, any process, to see what it is supposed to look like. You might even take some bar-b-qued ribs or something along that line. Tell them what you are wanting to learn and why. Be sure to wear your appropriate PPE (safety glasses, hard hat, ear protection, cotton shirt and jeans. Leather gloves would be good to have also.) As far as your rig cutting 3"-6" material, yes, with the proper tip. Liquid Oxygen would be advised and serious preheat. Chances are though you will most likely never cut anything thicker than 2". Good luck!

JWBIRONWORKS, know what ya mean. 2 years ago we got broke into and the low life stole our TV, VCR/DVD player and remotes. Didn't get anything else. Wife and I were out of town on our way to Tom Clark's school. Had to replace a broken glass in an antique door. Later that year, in August, he came back! Got the computer, 2400# pressure washer, then went to my shop and ONLY took a set of 1/2" shank drill bits and a 'china freight' chop saw. When he got that saw he didn't know what a BLESSING that was for me. I bought a nice saw that 'ain't afraid to work!' I love GOOD QUALITY TOOLS! shame we have allowed the likes of HF to pollute the supply.

PBARNHART, Not sure but I would think that it would work. Just make sure not to have too much penatration as this would fuse your backing plate to your piece you are welding. Possibly if you have say 3/8" or thicker backing plate it would be better, it would draw the heat faster but not get so hot that it would weld to the working piece. Does this make sense?

Horn to the left. But I stand mostly at the tail of the anvil. Was taught that by Tsur Sadan at Tom Clark's school. Am comfortable that way for most of my forging and have learned to do most scrolling off the edge of the anvil and not the horn, (saves steps). Guess this (horn direction) is like belly buttons, everybody has one (preference) but they are different and for various reasons. Main thing is BE COMFORTABLE.

We used to weld 1/8" copper on a VERY regular basis here but have since shut down the plant where it was used. After much frustration we went to welding with TIG and using a light coating of flux. The flux you need is Bay State #11. You can also weld 316L SS to copper by this same procedure. Buff the area to be welded, lightly flux, weld. Helium is an excellent shield gas for welding thicker copper as it produces a much hotter weld arc but for your application 100% argon is good. If you are set on welding with the MIG process you may want to try to make your welds more down-hill instead of flat. As for the "black soot", buffing the area to be welded may help or you may need to go to a tri-mix shielding gas---something like 92-6-2---argon-CO2-oxy. Like I mentioned before, we found the welds to be much better using the TIG process and flux. I've been at this welding thing since 1973. Good luck!

Do a google search on "anvil repair" to get Rob Gunter's procedure for repairs. Also there is one here in the blueprint section but not sure what # it is....I'm sure one of the gurus will come up with it. Irnsrgn? Glenn? Anyway, good luck! Let's see some before/after pictures of this thing when you're done.

You can do a google search on "anvil repair" to get Rob Gunter's repair outline.

Howdy from East TEXAS!! You will be glad you bought that one for $.15p/lb!! WHAT A DEAL! Even if it is not in "prestine" condition. As stated before, you can work around the rough spots and learn the 'sweet' spots as you learn this fine art of blacksmithing. The point of the horn being "flat" was done on purpose. Most likely the original owner did it to keep form poking holes in his leg. Very few, if any, old anvils have a sharp point on the horn. As far as the 'dip' or sway in the face, don't worry about that either. I have several anvils, some flat, some with a slight sway, very little difference in the end product from working flat or swayed. Possiblely if you worked 10-12hrs. forging every day you would notice a difference but then you would be good enough that it wouldn't matter to you. Enjoy your new find and learn all you can of this great art!

cheftjcook, How good are you with a welding lead? For $350.00 you can build your own and even buy the firepot! Look in the BP section for some plans, sorry I'm not sure what the BP# is but there will be some one to chime in with that info. In my area that price would be pretty high, about $250.00 too high, but that is my area. YMMV

Candidquality, I volunteer at the Dallas Heritage Village (for the past 40+yrs it was known as the Dallas Old City ParK! ) whenever we are in town and I have the time. They use coal in the forge there and have not heard of any problems. The blacksmith shop is set circa 1860 and is a great place to "play in the fire". Check them out, I'm sure they would enjoy having a 'traveling blacksmith' form time to time. As Glenn mention, good fire maintance will elliminate most smoke. Good luck. Oh, and atta boy on the score of the band saw!! P.S. I live in Longview, Tx. PM me.

Leaves, sticks, pine cones, sweetgum balls, all of which we have here in East Texas, would not be a problem as they all burn and turn to charcoal. Rocks, gravel, and dirt do not burn and can explode depending on the rock/gravel. Wet coal is not a problem as you are going to wet it anyway to control your fire. I have 2 plastic 55gal drums full of coal now and a pile I built a 3 side "pen" that has about 2 tons of coal. All outside. The 4States Iron Munchers has several tons in a concrete block "pen" outside, uncovered. No problems. The "pen" can be 3 sided or 4 sided and is for keeping the coal in one place. Think LARGE box. Thomas Powers makes a good point with the run-off so a plastic cover or pieces of tin would solve that problem if there is one.

Me too primtechsmith! Mine is 2lbs. and I got to help make it! Tom was making 12-15 of them when I took his class in May of 2005. BEST money I have spent, for the class and the hammer.

From my understanding it has to do with fluxes in the rods/wire and the actual burning as would be the case in plasma cutting and air arcing. If I can find the info I'll try to post on what the hazards are and the effects they have on you. The real hazards are in your plating shops. "HEXACHROMES" are the culprets which pretty much incompasses all materials with any chrome in them. sorry for the late post...been away for a few days....

Yes the chromium IS dangerous! I work for a major chemical company (Fortune 500 company) as a fitter/welder (34yrs exp.)and ANY time we plasma, airarc, or STICK or MIG weld we have to barracade off a 20ft. radius area, wear a resparator, use a smoke ventalation system, vacumm our clothes off when finished with job, clean up floors/tables with floor sweep, shower, put dirty clothes in a marked plastic bag, (the bag is water soluble) and all this for ANY material that has chrome in it, no matter the amount of chrome. Grinding and tig welding causes no problems as far as our industial hygiene department has determined. This procedure has been put in sevice only in the last month or so but any violation will result in "extreme disiplinary action". we comply.... SO... take this for what you think it is worth but please BE SAFE!!!

Buy them! I got 8 last year for Christmas and one of thm was of Bob Patrick. As mentioned by all above, it is not 'professionally' done but still well worth the price.

If you plan to forge the piece after you have welded it the better rod is a E9018. Discolorization is less. One problem some folks have when forging after arc welding (whether it be stick, tig, or mig) is they don't think it has to be as hot to forge it, there lies the problem, cold forging a weld. treat it as if you had forge welded it. When stick welding CLEAN, CLEAN, CLEAN the weld before forging. TIG is best but not everyone has access or the knowledge for this process. I use MIG as it is faster (and I don't have to hook up my TIG rig! call me lazy) YMMV

THANKS folks! got some great stuff going here and I appreciate ALL of the response. Some of it goes a tad over my head but gives me great stuff to research. (Bauschinger Effect.) Sorry about some of the confusion but the twisting is done HOT (bright red to orange), decorative (same direction or reversed twists. The pieces in question are to be table legs, starting out with 1"sq bar, forged to round with approx. 1/4" 'wings' on opposite sides down the entire length of 4ft. (=O=, looks similar to this, sorta, kinda, maybe a little ) Quenching (if any) is done only after cooling well below 900F.

Had a friend ask me if twisting your material makes it stronger or weaker. I am not sure if it does or not. Could some of you gurus please explain.

Sweet, nice looking job! BTW, do you have a cleaning service to come in and clean your shop!?!? Man, it looks as if you could eat off the floors. amazing.

Howdy fom East Texas! and welcome to IFI! Glad you came aboard and lookforward to learning from you. Where ya from?

Finally got around to posting pictures of some of my work. Comments are welcome. I am always open to suggestions too so you don't have to worry about "hurting feelings". After all, it's how we learn!