thingmaker3

Sketching "for blacksmiths" is the very same thing as sketching "for artists." Only the subject matter changes. I second kraythe's suggestion of Drawing On The Right Side Of The Brain. Most importantly of all: practice sketching every day!

I don't enjoy dressing the struck ends of top tools, so I use a steel mallet.

The starting cap might be labeled with the needed info (microfarads, voltage limits) to order another. Plenty of places to buy 'em from IF you know the exact specs.

Irks me to no end when I need my doofarb and can't find it. Pleases me to no end when my doofarb is eagerly in its proper place. I am a big fan of doofarb racks. Current floor is a dirt floor. How hungry are you?

You are assuming my eyes are as good as yours, too. :blink:

To make your 3/4" numbers work with 5/8", dived ALL dimensions by 1.2 and you should be good.

No. I have not. But I'll keep an eye out in the future, just in case. And yes, I have welded mild steel without flux. I get about one "go" for every five or six "no."

First off, Welcome to IFI! Annealing is for making the steel as soft as we can get it. Normalizing is for relieving stress, thereby minimizing distortion and/or cracking when we go to harden the thing. Note well: normalizing does not work for those steels with the most hardenability. Their stresses may only be relieved with a full anneal. (Normalizing is sometimes called "process annealing.") For machining or other stock reduction, it is often better to spheroidize. Depends on the steel. Grain growth is caused by too much time at temperature or too high a temperature. We re-nucleate new grain each time we heat the steel into austenite. This is why many smiths prefer to thermally cycle some parts. (They call it "normalizing three times.") "Too many" heats for one steel will be a different range than for another steel. Decarburisation is something of a boogeyman. To hear some smiths talk, you can turn 5160 into 1018 by heating it once too often. For a better understanding of what decarburisation is all about, look up "Fick's Second Law of Diffusion." Yes, it is a problem (even a big problem) with some steels. But normalizing heats with oil-hardening or water-hardening steels will not see significant decarburisation. I hope this is of some help.

Not silly at all!! Foam rubber is very effective at transforming kinetic energy into heat. Cast iron is not as good as foam rubber when transforming kinetic energy to heat, but it is indeed better than steel. This is why cast iron is the material of choice for machine bases and frames - it "absorbs" vibration better than does steel.

Could be. Now that you've pointed it out I can make out the A and a piece of the Y. Thanks!

Now that's a darn familiar looking anvil! I think the fellow that made mine patterned it after yours. Can you tell me what the letters on the side say?

Charcoal or other oxygen getter is needed at the higher temperatures. If it is not hot enough for scale to form or decarburisation to be any worry, then no oxygen getter is required.

A couple of simple "yes" or "no" questions: Do you hit metal? Is the metal black?

A good quality tool well wielded... it just don't get no better! :)

"Soaking" is a term normally applied to the higher heats. But, yes, tempering is both time and temperature dependent. Tempering for an hour at a lower temperature can provide similar results to tempering for seconds at a higher temperature - but with much more controllable variables. (For most shops, that is. There are those fancy computer controlled induction tempering machines...) Palmer & Leurssen's Tool Steel Simplified has a good explanation of what happens during tempering. So too for Krauss' Principles of Heat Treatment of Steel. But the short answer to the first question is time and temperature do matter for simple steels as well as the fancy ones.

H-13 does not get nearly as hard as some steels do. Expect Rc in the mid 50's for as-quenched. The claim to fame of H-13 is that it what little hardness it does have it keeps even when glowing. Stays in the upper Rc 40s even when it gets up around 1150F.

Now THAT's what I call "signature ironwork!"

http://www.keytometals.com/Article71.htm You'll need to know which alloy your Dad salvaged out of those disconnects. Also, if you plan on him re-installing this copper in the same or similar application, I suggest you first look up electrical code requirements. They insist he use only equipment "listed for the purpose."

The specific heat capacity of canola oil is just over 1.9 Joules per gram per degree Celsius. The specific heat capacity of steel is just under 1/2 Joules per gram per degree Celcius. Quenching 5 1/8 kg (11.5lbs) of steel at 870 C (1600 F) into 17 kg (5 gallons) of canola oil at at 38 Celcius (100 F) should yield quenchant and steel at about 99 C (210F). (This assumes an adiabatic environment, which will not be used in the real world. Actual temperatures will be a smidge cooler.) I have no data on specific heat capacity or density for Parks #50.

I made a stupid mistake. Chiropractor says I should be okay in a week or two. In the meantime, my wife is having me write "I will keep my backside under my head when lifting" 200 times.

Once again, Darryl rules the roost when it comes to animal forms!

Transformer lamination composition is all over the map. Some has silicon, some does not. Some are mostly nickel, others less so. http://www.magmet.co...n/materials.php Page three of this pdf But yes, silicons steel was indeed widely used in the past. I had not heard of this before. Steve, can you steer me toward some additional reading, I'd like to know more about this effect of silicon in steel.

Not a bad article at all. Too bad about the hot bit of debris stuck in his eye, though.

Wow. Just Wow.

Have you tried abrasives?