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Chinobi

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  1. Chinobi
    great vid of the rail weld process in this thread: http://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/29787-railroad-thermite-welding/?hl=thermite search 'thermite' at the main forum index too, this has been covered a few times in the past and there is a lot of expanded information already available.
  2. Chinobi
    having done small batches of the stuff, and having 200 grams of it ignite in a fume hood in front of my face im going to flat out say do not attempt. im sure it can be done (however your reaction as stated earlier is indeed wrong) but it is very difficult to control in an amateur setting and the resultant solid is very brittle and full of inclusions and will pick up plenty of sand (or whatever) you let it puddle in. i dont know what the forging characteristics of aluminum oxide are either, but your resultant slag is going to be iron and Al2O3 (IIRC), which is far from pure iron. i really need to make a point to chase down the photos (somebody shot a video too...) from that project :(
  3. Chinobi
    id put some strapping or tie wire around the brick to help prevent it from coming apart if it does end up cracking. some kind of masonry bit is probably where you will end up, is there a hardware store with competent staff nearby that can provide some more reliable direction? maybe you can pump the guy that gave you the bricks for something a little more descriptive than 'big' too :)
  4. Chinobi
    only thing i can say is that it will depend on the type of brick (soft vs hard). you want to avoid having it crack when you drill to prevent it from falling apart at temperature. never asked how much you are actually planning to melt either. are you going to need to drill out a 1/2" cavity to contain a little metal, or a 2" cavity to contain a lot of metal?
  5. Chinobi
    thanks :) ill put up more details of how it works when its done, had to get creative with the rear leg to allow for the wheels to actually work :P
  6. Chinobi
    none taken savage, i dunno what the supply is like or shipping pans out to get something to NZ, but i can get 7.5oz crucibles for around 9$ pre-shipping here. doesnt look like they ship beyond USA/PR/Canada though. the fire brick cube sounds like it could be a good solution though.
  7. Chinobi
    broke ground on the vice stand a week or two ago and worked several evenings on it so far. got it to the point of being free standing this friday! still needs a table on top, foot pads, and a few other little refinements, but its functional and im really excited to finish it up! :) plus my friend gave me a crash course in mig welding, so i did all the welding on friday, which was a lot of fun! heres a couple of WIP shots showing it standing and collapsed:
  8. Chinobi
    busy week so my apologies for circling back around a few days later than promised. i didnt end up attempting the original project i mentioned, but i did get to take a swing at the hand bottle opener in the shape of 'the horns' :) i had a lot more difficulty chiseling the fingers out using the vice than i had anticipated, so it got a little sloppy. identified a few things to improve on and hopefully the next time i try it i will move a little faster and burn less metal. i had originally cut a thumb as well, but it looked like a ragged hangnail, so i just cut the rest of the way through and filed off the evidence. :ph34r: what appears to be a third finger folded down is actually a stretched area that got folded back on itself because the piece slipped in the vice instead of shearing. had to figure out how to scroll a short taper on the diamond on the spot as well, i made sure that the twist ended up square to the original stock and was quite surprised when i went to do the scroll and was 45 degrees off because i flattened the hand on the diamond instead of in line with the bar!
  9. Chinobi
    thats a little too DIY for my tastes, id order a small one online personally. stay safe!
  10. Chinobi
    some alloys are formulated with a specific use in mind and have elements added that make them more suitable for that use. for instance 360 free machining brass has lead added to make it softer and easier to machine, but makes it less desirable to forge/form. http://www.anchorbronze.com/c36000.htm versus something like 260 cartridge brass which has an 'excellent' rating for cold work and is pretty close to nominally 70/30 copper/zinc, they dont even give it a machinability rating. http://www.anchorbronze.com/c26000.htm so melting something like 360 can expose you to lead, and then whoever handles the knife afterwards has been handling a lead product as well. take a guess as to what brand of supplies you tend to buy and look those up so you can get a ballpark estimate of what you are working with. http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=torch%20rosebud&oe=UTF-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi rosebud's are gas torch tips
  11. Chinobi
    if you can pull the manufacturer/make/model numbers or compare them to similar items you might be able to look up the specs for them. you are referring to things like mig tips or torch rosebuds and the like? i wouldnt hold my breath trying to recycle that kind of material, not all metals are intended for casting. but so long as they are not alloyed with known hazardous materials give it a try :) (ventilation still a must regardless)
  12. Chinobi
    I figure it should forge as well or poorly as a mokume billet of the same materials, and in small quantities you should be able to just pour them into the mold simultaneously and the metals should freeze before they can start to homogenize into a new alloy. that part of the process is going to be the lions share of the experimentation. savage, see if you can track down the exact alloys of your starting materials and check online if your mixture already exists and has photos. otherwise, I would make up several test batches with increasing ratio's of starting material and track what went into each for future reference. you can stamp numbers or percentages/descriptions into the final billet afterwards for clarity. if you just start with a lump of copper and toss in some brass, check the result, remelt and add more brass rinse and repeat you lose the opportunity to keep the samples, and photos are only so useful (cant test a patina on a 4x6 glossy or a jpeg). plus extended and repeated trips to melting temperature can cause burnout (think zinc) which will introduce another variable into your alloy ratio.
  13. Chinobi
    alloy colors do not necessarily behave like pigments, so don't expect the same results, after all brass is gold/yellow generated from copper (kind of a salmon-y pink) and zinc (silver/grey) its not so clear cut as blue and yellow make green. you can heat treat plain copper with a torch to pull some really vibrant red's, you will probably need to experiment with the timing to get it at the right temperature and expect to lose some of the potency if(when) you put a finish on it. if left unfinished the colors will fade and be vulnerable to wearing off or tarnishing. take a read through the stickies at the top of the list and search for 'brass' and 'copper' and 'flux' when you are on the foundry and casting thread index to narrow the search results to this section only. make sure you are using sufficient PPE and work in a well ventilated are if you are melting alloys containing zinc. if you are as green as it sounds like you are I would HIGHLY recommend not trying to make your own crucible (and that's honestly not intended as a jab, just observing that this sounds like your first attempt at serious casting with a controlled outcome, not to mention attempting to alloy your own ingot) you can pick up small crucibles for around 8-10$US online, you can make your own handle for it or buy that as well. shipping to NZ however.....
  14. Chinobi
    you may adjust the shade a bit, but i cant quantify by how much. you can try looking up the alloy contents of your brass and then see what the final content of the mix would be and check if that is close to a different existing alloy and what that looks like. one of the items on my ever growing test list has been to cast an ingot from two different metals poured simultaneously into the same mold to see if i can generate turbulence patterns with swirls and the like. that would probably give your furniture a lot more drama (provided of course that it works...) post pic's of whatever you end up doing though, sounds like a fun exercise in metallurgy :)
  15. Chinobi
    bingo! i love the fast forward version :) and if you think about it, its really just a colossal self powered smithin magician :)
  16. Chinobi
    yup that will keep the nut from trying to rack and bending the bolt or wrecking the threads.
  17. Chinobi
    im having zero luck with forum search results today(I was going to recommend a tusk and tenon design I saw another member employ for a hardie mounted hold down, but I dunno how well that will work in the pritchel) :( you could put a fat washer and a nut on the bolt you are using as the axle to lock it down, weld a big grippy shape to the nut so you can quickly hand tighten and loosen as needed. im not a big fan of those types of clamps on sloped surfaces (underside of the heel) especially under vibratory loading, pretty good potential to slip. something like actually bolting the plate to the anvil will prevent it from lifting and bouncing, but a secondary pin of some sort to prevent rotation would really make it one with the anvil.
  18. Chinobi
    maybe some kind of spoke or handle to facilitate spinning, and a way to lock it down once you have it in position. make sure you pay attention as well to the orientation of the square holes relative to the hardie hole, IE don't line your largest square up to be radial from the center point if the hardie and pritchel are not actually in line with each other.
  19. Chinobi
    just blew the majority of my lunch hour madly searching for the video from that facility that was posted sometime last year. they were forging turbine shafts I think, there was a fair amount of discussion regarding their quenching process potentially warping it because of the size. I cant for the life of me find it though :( it was definitely worth watching again. I particularly like the shot of them forging the cylindrical section, that thing is HUGE! http://www.stahlseite.de/galerieareva5688.htm
  20. Chinobi
    Yea, I was kinda leery of quenching for that reason. ill probably let it cool to black heat or less and then quench. I don't want to use the new chisel on hot work because im sure I will be distracted and forget to quench it frequently enough.
  21. Chinobi
    thanks frosty :) I might be able to sneak out to the swap meet this Saturday so ill be keeping my eyes open for a number of things! thanks to all who contributed, I have added a few tools to my mental and physical toolboxes :) ill put up some pic's of the results from the demo early next week for you all to pick apart :D
  22. Chinobi
    picked up a stanley bostich 3/4" cold chisel and ground an inverted V into the point, then put a gentle radius on the outside vertical corners. i figure the V will bite a little faster and deeper and be easier to keep in the same hole without it bouncing around after every swing. makes it easier to reset even if it does hop out. plus i think that shape will shear better and with less force than a flat profile. i tested it a little on a piece of 1/8" flat bar on a piece of wood and my little anvil, but it was way too late in the evening to be sledging away in the garage so i only got 4 or 5 swings off before i felt like i was being a total #### to my neighbor. i wasnt really giving it 100% either because of the noise =/ you can see the initial bite, on the back the metal was bulged in the same places so i might need to refine the process a little more to get it to shear a little cleaner. im thinking put as much of an initial punch in with my slot punch HOT as possible, then quench or let it cool and move to the vice and the cold chisel/punch to take it all the way through
  23. Chinobi
    try twisting the wire in the groove of the steel twist? that would keep it fairly snug at the sag point. if you want a permanent connection you could use some kind of epoxy or caulking, no guarantees of how well they will stick to the linseed finish though. you could also get some small but powerful magnets and use them as clips if you want a connection that can be removed should something get damaged in the future. ill let one of the electricians chime in on if putting a magnet against an electric wire will affect performance or not, my gut says no, but im no EE. that's a bloody fantastic chandelier you have put together there, that came together beautifully :)
  24. Chinobi
    you read my mind Frosty, but I didn't know if it would be safe to heavily reshape and repurpose something like a cold chisel to such an extent. good call on using the vice as an adjustable bolster too, might need to get a helper to hold onto the stock though, im tall but my crotch cant clear the top of a vice! that's a fun looking piece Alan :) and definitely do-able at my present skill and equipment level too! I have a lot of friends that are into heavy metal (music, specifically) and I see potential to cut those fingers all the way in and turn it into the horns :D m/ (>.<) m/ thank you both :)
  25. Chinobi
    Frosty, Alan, Martin, thank you for your suggestions. it sounds like im going to have to adjust the project a bit and probably switch the opener to the other side where I have some more meat, and actually forge a church-key type opener ring (think wizard bottle opener) or a curved tab or something. I was informed of the opportunity to participate in the demo on pretty short notice so it has really been a scramble to get things in order! as such I don't have enough time to fabricate special tooling :( I could pick up a stout circular punch and punch in a series of holes cold to make a bumpy slot and file it clean. might go with plan B and dish it into a spoon if all else fails
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