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I Forge Iron

DSW

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Everything posted by DSW

  1. Understand why tools like this get stuck. As metal cools it shrinks, and as it heats up it expands. So your ax hole will try and shrink while your chisel tries to expand. While the ax is nice and hot the metal will stretch easily as you try and drive in your drift, but as it cools it doesn't want to stretch as much any longer and shrinks.
  2. I don't think you are looking at it correctly. The rail is laying over on it's side. What I see is that the bottom flange is facing us in that pict and you can just see the underside of the top of the rail above it.
  3. What do you plan to use the striking anvil for? If you plan to do 20 lb sledge hammer heads, it might be a bit on the light side. If you are doing simple bottom swages to go in the hardy hole you are probably fine. My "portable hole" that I use to upset and form hardy tools is a piece of 1" mild steel on a piece of 4"x4" heavy wall square tube. I have yet to deform that piece of 1" plate. Maybe double up the 1" plate and weld it all together. A good design can often make up for a lack of material thickness if the material you have is used wisely. Doing things right the 1st time is a laudable idea. However you probably don't have an exact idea what you want/need yet, so there's nothing wrong with a few test samples to see how things work, especially if you are getting the material free or for very little cost. At that point all you are really loosing is time. Now if you are dropping a couple hundred in material, it becomes more important to have a good working plan before starting out.
  4. Gas powered demo saws can be rented from most rental places fairly reasonably. One caution though. The abrasive blades for gas saws run at higher RPMs than standard 14" abrasive chop saw blades. Make sure you buy the right one. When you spin up a low RPM blade in a gas saw, it will wobble and start to look like a wet noodle about 1-2 seconds before the blade grenades on you. Those blades can seriously injure you when they let go. Don't think that you can go cheap and only make one "quick cut". You'll never get it done as the blade WILL explode almost instantly when run up to speed.
  5. The modern ones I've seen are made up out of 2" tall "stock" with notches at the top and an offset hinge pin so that they fold up, but when folded down, the base of the bar hits the door and holds it horizontal. I can easily see that idea applied to a rectangular solid forging.
  6. I messed my back up years ago when I fell in an open footing. Most of my issues come from pinched nerves. Lifting doesn't get me, but twisting will. Sometimes simply walking across uneven ground can cause me to twist my back enough to start issues again. I've had mixed results with chiropractors. Some don't do much, others can make things worse, but I have found one who does wonders on my back and joints. Many times he can straighten things out with only one or two adjustments. I actually have an appointment with him this morning to deal with a back issue that's been bothering me for the last 2 weeks ( he's been away all last week). My biggest scare is that at almost 90 years old, he'll drop dead unexpectedly and leave me trying to find someone similar to him that can help me when I have problems.
  7. Next two PABA events aren't all that far from you. The June meeting is out in Lancaster and the Aug meeting is up near Reading. There are a couple of members here out in the Lancaster area who will probably chime in at some point. https://www.facebook.com/PABlacksmiths/events?ref=page_internal
  8. RR spikes are good for coat hooks, bottle openers, toasting forks/steak flippers just to name a few.
  9. Edges of cast anvils can be deceiving. Talking to Josh about Fisher anvils at one of the PABA meetings he mentioned that Fisher used to deliberately cast a "step" under the tool steel plate that makes the top look like it's thicker than it actually is. Like so many things it's all about perception and marketing... People think bigger is better, but why waste money when it's not needed if you can make them think it's better than it is? What most people see as a thick plate is mostly just a sightly wider cast iron section just under the steel plate. He was showing this on Fisher in the shop where the plate had slightly shifted in the pour and you could easily see the true plate line above the area that looked like a thick "plate" cast in the iron.
  10. Compressor is mine if I want it. He wants $400 for it, or about 2 days worth of cleaning and grunt work at the shop. The guy I'm working for thinks I might be able to talk him down a bit more, but the guy we are also working for is my regular mechanic and I'm not sure I'd feel right about trying to beat him up over this. I'm just hoping it doesn't have any major issues since I didn't get to see it run for any length of time. If it does, I'm sure we'll work it all out though. He also has a beautiful large bench vise he'll probably sell. Must be at least 6" wide jaws. Vise slides on what looks like gibs on a cross slide for a big lathe. I'll have to remember to try and get picts Monday. I really don't need another big vise however. I already have 2 or 3 spares plus the big 5X Parker on the heavy steel table. I'd be really tempted to take the big vise as well if I wasn't trying to save my pennies to build a shed at the house this summer.
  11. My forge table has angle iron edges to keep the coal on the table from making a mess on the floor. However I have two notches cut in the angle across from each other set up so the steel goes thru the heart of the fire. My table is long and narrow, so I do loose some stuff out the notches, but not so much that it's a big deal as long as you pay attention to what you are doing. The pict is a bit deceptive. The sides aren't quite as high as they look in that picture.
  12. I have a vision of the stereotypical Italian mob boss in his pin stripe suit and fedora working the forge while in the back ground there are two over sized knuckle draggers who could crush bricks with their bare hands, in cheap suits standing politely there waiting for instructions. Welcome to IFI!
  13. hey Steve. Beautiful work as usual. If you ever get around to taking picts of your work setup and torch holder again, start a thread on those here as well. Many here will probably love some of the ideas you came up with. Your air system setup would also probably find interest here as well. They aren't real big on links to other sites here, but you can always cut and paste with some minor editing to save time. They wouldn't have an issue with that. I'm getting lined up with a big 5HP 80 gal commercial IR compressor out of a shop I'm working on right now. 18.7cfm @ 175psi is what the tag says. That combined with my 60 gal existing tank from the dead compressor should give me all the air I'll ever need. It's coated in oil/grease from the shop and I'm hoping it's not blowing oil from gaskets or seals. I got to see it start up, but they had to tear it out before I could see it run all the way up to full pressure. I'm hoping I can make space at the house to forge so I can play with my air chisels and needle scalers myself now that I have enough air power to run them again.
  14. Where storage breaks down is when you have to pay for it. Years ago I ended up with a room mate who stiffed me on the rent for the house we were renting. I managed to eventually get out of the rental lease but it didn't leave me with enough ready cash left to rent a similar place. I had a ton of stuff that suddenly had to go into storage. Looking back in hind sight, I'd have been better off if I'd sold almost everything but a few key items and just bought new stuff for what it ended up costing me in storage rental over time. In the end a lot of that stuff got trashed or disposed of anyways. I'm beginning to look at a similar situation again. For the last few years I've had storage space at a friends place in exchange for work around the house etc when I have free time. They are beginning to look at selling the place as it's really too much for them to care for, and I'm starting to look at what I'm going to do with all the tools/materials that have collected up over the years. It's starting to look like it will cost me between $8K and 30K to get a large trailer or build a medium sized shed to store all my stuff in. I'm weighing that against what I have in tools and equipment in value. True I'll never be able to replace 1/10 of what I have for what it cost me to buy the stuff originally. For example my scaffolding, tile saw, sheet metal brake etc have all paid for themselves multiple times over the years, but only occasionally make me money. To replace one, or even rent when needed for work, would cost me way more than what I'll make from the sale. On the other hand, $8K would buy a lot of replacement blacksmithing tools for example.
  15. There are a number of us in the Philadelphia area here. I'm up in middle Bucks, J and Pete are out in the Lancaster area, Stash, Nick and Marcy are south of the city, and there are a number of others I'm not remembering at the moment. You might want to look into PABA ( Pennsylvania Artist Blacksmith Assn). They have bi monthly meetings, and the location depends on which member is hosting the event. Next one is June 25th at the Hans Herr house. Aug 6th is the one after that. https://www.facebook.com/PABlacksmiths/events?ref=page_internal Bryn Athyn College just north of the city in Montgomery Co runs week long blacksmithing classes that I'd highly recommend. I've taken several of them and always had a great time.
  16. Obviously it's growth was stunted due to smoking when young.
  17. As far as slitting and drifting rebar, I've done it. I have some big #8 or #10 bar that I've slit and drifted to make bottle openers with. It's decent quality bar however. Having worked with rebar for years doing concrete, I know some of the smaller cheap stuff can be vary variable with hard and soft spots even in the same bar. Higher quality bar is often a lot more consistent overall, but it can become brittle and break easily after being heated. Depends a lot on what was used to make the bar.
  18. A lot of fire prevention comes down to common sense. If you have piles of stuff lining the walls, places under shelves that collect leaves and dust bunnies, you are asking for trouble. A clean clear work area removes a lot of issues.
  19. I've seen it done both ways. In some cases guys will just clamp the end to the jig with say vise grips or even a small U shaped clip. In others I've seen guys forge the end of the bar and manually start the scroll, then this hooks to the end of the scroll jig. This is often don say if you want a penny scroll, as the penny helps lock the stock in place as you start the bend. As you said the hooks shown would do the same thing.
  20. You might contact Gun Parts Corp. They specialize in selling parts of both new and old / obsolete guns. They often buy nonfunctional firearms and part them out to gunsmiths looking for parts to restore firearms. They may have barrels that are in too poor or damaged shape to sell usually, possibly from police guns that have been cut/torched. You can also try army surplus stores. I bought a new barrel for my 1903 Springfield that was a take off barrel from a 1903A3 Springfield from WW2 from one dealer. The dealer had a whole barrel of these 30-06 arsenal rebuild barrels that he was selling to guys who wanted to build their own bolt action rifles. There used to be another dealer not to far away from me who would often get in "demilled" fire arms that he'd sell as kits for people who wanted to have say an MG 42 machine gun to display, but didn't want to go thru all the hassle of owning an operable machine gun. They'd buy a dummy reciever, then use the parts kit to make a realistic looking display. Often things like barrels were cut as part of the demill process and guys would buy 2 or 3 demilled barrels and cut and weld them back into one barrel that looked correct even if it was non functional. Get yourself a copy of Shotgun News. There's usually dozens of full page adds of surplus dealers selling parts kits and so on. You might call and ask about generic barrel "parts" that they may not have listed in their add. Often these guys have all sorts of bits and pieces that come in when they buy this stuff bulk that they don't have an easy way to advertise or sell, and many times odd "useless' parts just get pulled out and scrapped.
  21. Stupid disappearing post bug is still around I see. It won't let me post the youtube link. www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKfMt1epUus I know I've seen better demos on line but I can't find them this evening. Pretty much just make up one scroll to use as your jig by hand, and then weld it to a piece of angle iron you can clamp in the vise. If need be you can use a vise grip to lock the start of the scroll in place.
  22. When you say "lined" are you using the brick in the fire pot to reduce volume, or on the table to support the brake drum?
  23. I think collars would be the way I'd go as well. I might fuller the stem where the collar goes, then set the collar. That would easily lock it in place so I wouldn't have to weld it.
  24. Matt, I'd be more worried that the rubber hose would melt than the teflon tape on the fitting next to it. I think I'd have done the front door a bit differently. I'd have a "shelf out in front that you could sit the bricks on. that way you can configure the bricks in different configurations to change the forge opening. Lets use 2" x 4" x 8" bricks as an example. One brick on each side in the 2" direction up, and one on top and your opening could be 2" high and anywhere from 1-6" wide. Turn the 2 side bricks the other way, and now your height would be 4" high and you can still adjust your width. Also if need be, because they are out front, if need be, you can remove and replace bricks to put stock inside. Say you have a heavy chunk of steel for a sledge you want to forge. Stick it in the forge, then close down the opening to build up heat faster. then take your tongs move the brick out of the way, and pull out your material. Work it and put it back in, closing the door again when ready to reheat. This is usually how I see doors on many forges done.
  25. I can clearly remember 6th or 7th grade science class where the instructor taught us about dust explosions with a 1 gallon paint can with a hose into the bottom, some flour and a small candle. he'd blow into the hose to aerosolize the flour and the flame from the candle in the can would ignite it. We thought it was great in class as the explosion in the can with the lid on it made a great bang. He continued to do the demo with greater amounts of flour until he blew the lid clear up to the 8' over head lights and took out the bulbs. At that point we moved on to something else. LOL. His was the same class where we made thermite as a class experiment. If I remember correctly the topic had to do with how many atoms of FeO3 you needed to react with Al so you ended up with Fe and Al2O3 after the experiment. For the demo he had a steel plate suspended over 2 bricks and burned a hole thru the plate. Probably a REALLY good idea I didn't read this thread at that time or I'd have set fire to all sorts of things with a ready supply of powdered alum. Could you see the mess something like this would cause in todays class rooms? He'd have the whole county locked down and probably end up on national TV in cuffs. I've never really thought of thermite as "explosive", though I knew what it did and that the military used it for material demolition. I also never really thought about the dangers of grinding two dissimilar metals on the same machine. I do remember a buddy of mine burning up his delta bench sander when he used it to grind down and reshape the edges on a new magnesium trowel and then touched up the ends on some steel pins. he was lucky to get that out of the shop before he set fire to the whole place. At the time I was thinking it was more the fact that magnesium burns even in a solid state than the fact it was a dust reaction. I knew you could set fire to steel if the surface area to O2 was high enough and you added heat, like when you use a battery to set fire to steel wool.
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