HWooldridge

New thread for tooling:



The creaser is nothing more than a railroad spike flattened into a chisel shape with a piece of flat stock welded on the side to provide a stop. Can make several of these pretty quickly for a variety of sizes or put some time and thought into a nice adjustable one - you can see which direction I went. This idea came out of Otto Schmirler's book Werk and Werkzeug des Kuntschmiedes.

The rope tool is the head of a railroad spike forged into a rectangle. I used a small jeweler's hack saw to mark the lines (could also use a cold chisel or scribe the lines) and then filed out each mark with a 6" fine cut. One could make a right and left - but I only have the one tool, so applying it to both sides of a piece will show results in the same direction.

In use, you heat the stock, apply the creaser for whatever length you like and then come back with the rope tool. Don't worry too much about overlapping the little ridges, it will look appropriately random and the average person won't see any mismatch.

Yes, you can see the MIG dots on the other side - they are small but I didn't try to hide them. I also thought about drilling a hole in the frame and welding from the back but that would not have worked on the top fastening. If I was of a mind to do so, it would be pretty easy to install rivets now and grind the welds away but of course the finish would need to be redone. This was an exercise so maybe I'll do rivets on the next one.

Not that it applies in traditional work, but I was in an art gallery last week that carried quite a bit of iron and the appearance of welds was evident everywhere. Almost everything was done cold and the only hot work was mashing a few pipe legs on tables. Very little texture, lots of glass and shiny brass or stainless knick-knacks welded on here and there. The dealer said the stuff was flying out of there.

Ed,

Thanks, I think that was one of two identical garden gates I did for a local contractor. After I worked for a couple days applying a clear coat, they installed and promptly painted them black - oh well. Also my first gates and the largest things I had then done to date. It was purely coincidence that it was in an issue with the song 'cause I ain't moosical... :cry:

In some issue prior to that, I wrote a long boring account of restoring an anvil but I can't recall what year or issue - probably mid to late '80's.

Glenn and Ralph,

I agree about collars or rivets on the bracket - I just got tired and took the easy way out.

I'll take a pic of the grooving and rope tools and post them.

Final stage of development and where I used the element. For anyone who might want to create something similar, the basic steps are as follows:
1. Bend double a piece of 3/8" square and forge weld for about an inch. (2 heats)
2. Take a large fuller and draw the nose out then use a bob punch or ball peen to make the 'ears'. (2 heats)
3. Heat the whole thing and cool only up to the ears, then pull the legs out. (1 heat) The legs can then be finished however strikes your fancy.

No filing done anywhere on the piece - left in as-forged condition. I used the MIG to tack the element to the sconce and candle cup was fastened with 1/8 rivet. Piece was finished by sand blasting, followed by gun bluing and light abrasion with grit cloth, then a coat of clear satin urethane.

I listed the heats for the trilobe element only to illustrate how much time might be needed if you had to do a bunch.

Edit: photo resized, detail added

For anyone who has built or plans to build a home made belt grinder, please inspect your used casters carefully. I built my junk yard grinder several years ago with used parts. No telling how old the casters were. Couple days ago, the idler wheel decided to throw a quarter sized piece of urethane at me. Fortunately, it was as I was turning so the chunk hit me in the side just above the belt line - my deep rolls of fat protected me from serious harm - but it did draw blood and leave a nasty bruise. Today, I chucked the wheel in the lathe and turned off all the remaining rubber, then trued the caster and crowned it again. The plastic was still soft but there was enough embrittlement to cause the failure. Hopefully, it won't throw a piece of aluminum anytime soon.

Don't know what a footy is - unless it's a local bar :wink: ...but some folks consider copper to be poison in a welding fire. I have heard pro and con on whether it makes a difference but in any case, I don't put pennies in my fire.

Strine pretty much hit the salient points and either a chain link or faggot weld is probably easiest. People sometimes forget that the old time smiths almost always had some help for two part welds so a guy working by himself must be quite skilled (watch Bob Patrick sometime if you get a chance). I like to demo welding by taking a piece of 1/2" square, nicking over the hardy and folding back only about 5/8 or so in length. Bring it to temp, flux, weld, forge into a square lump and finally shape into a round snub. It will split if a bad weld. We have a fellow in our local group who has taught several people to forge weld successfully and he always starts with a chain link, then has them make at least 5 assembled links. By that time, the student should understand the basics.

Adding to what has been said, a clean fire is important (coke or coal), proper flux and moving promptly when the time comes. Remove any clinker before starting. Proper fire color is entirely dependent on an individual's eyes so is a little hard to describe - to my eyes it is when the fire is a bright white-yellow and the material is the same color. Some people use the flux appearance - when it is flowing freely, time to weld. It's also very convenient if your gas forge will get hot enough because that eliminates all the problems with solid fuel fires.

When it's hot enough the weld will be incandescent and almost always makes a "SPAT!" noise when struck. It also feels soft under the hammer - not like when typically forging. If it is sparkling like the 4th of July, it is burning and probably will not weld - in fact, it likely won't weld on subsequent tries either.

Once it sticks, don't forge down to size below a bright yellow. The metal is moving around and can be split by cold hammering - even if it was a good weld to start. It is also perfectly acceptable to take a second or third heat to finish.

These thoughts are for mild steel - I hope JPH relates his knowledge on damascus and pattern welding.

Might be hard to see from the picture but the first shape on the left is a butcher for setting shoulders, the next is flat, the next is a very large radius fuller and the far right is a smaller more aggressive fuller. Almost everything they did was on the middle fuller and flat surfaces. Using a sledge to assist, they drew 1" square down to about 5/16" in one heat.

These pics are to test my abilities to resize a couple of jpgs, but they are also good examples of the setup that the Brazeal brothers used at their now famous demos. Shows that you can employ something besides an anvil shape to do very good work. They only used the little anvil's horn for turning - all forging was done on the edge of the plate.




BTW, the top one is supposed to be 660 pixels and the bottom is 440.

Sorry about the picture size. These are fairly small .jpgs so I don't know why they are coming out so big.

I live on a caliche hill, which is about all we have around here. It's normally used in road base and makes a very fine dust when dry, which is probably a health issue but about the only thing I can do is spray water or oil (not recommended) on it to settle the fines.

I meant to add earlier that a very serviceable job can be done refacing anvils with a big (7" or 9") right angle grinder using cup wheels or a coarse disc. Put the anvil where you can lean with your body weight and try to stall the grinder... :wink:...in other words, make the sparks fly. When it's where you want it, get some fiber sanding discs and finish to your liking. 80 grit is fine for a last pass unless you want a mirror finish.

This Peter Wright got a completely new faceplate about 20 years ago and has seen regular use since. Note how high the step is and if you look at the hardy hole, you can see the plate edge. I wrote an article for Anvil's Ring many years ago that provided a complete description BUT like Woody said, it is a great deal of work and one can often do more harm than good. The horn is easy to fix because it is not hardened but my recommendation is to find another anvil in better shape and trade the battered one off if you just can't stand to work on it.

Edit image resized

I haven't seen your forge but I assume it doesn't have flanges on both pulleys (maybe just the fan and the big one is crowned) so you can glue the belt loose and then roll it on the pulley after it's dry.

Have made several clinker breakers and the easiest seems to be to take a piece of 1-1/4 or so shaft, cut to length and flatten into an oval. Drill a hole thru long ways for the shaft and a small hole perpendicular to thread for the lock screw. This will typically fill most forge pot tuyeres.

PJ,

I think the trangle C is a Champion make. Have no idea how to date them - most did not have serial numbers and I'm not sure they'd even be traceable.

A very good portable mount is to put a vise on a 55 gallon drum and then fill it with water. Cut the top out and you have a slack tub and hold down. Put a hinge on the lid so it won't fall in the water and you have a tool holder. Makes a good all around tool and is easily portable once the water is drained.

Use a leather dress belt (or two). I went to a thrift store and found a 1" wide natural leather belt that belonged to a very rotund individual - was probably a 50" belt. Cost me $2. Measure the distance around the pulleys and cut the belt that length, then cut a long bevel about an inch long on each end with a razor knife (like a scarf) and glue them together. Contact cement works well. Make sure it's around the pulley axles so you don't have to curse later when you are forced to recut the belt to thread it into the right place (don't ask me how I know this).

The belt will be about an inch shorter than the first measurement, which is about tight enough to drive the fan. If it gets too loose with use, just cut and reglue.



Here is one I restored for a local historic site. It has a crank instead of a lever but the principle is the same. The imbedded text is there for the public.

Things to watch on these forges - Make sure the fan blades are not rotten. They often deteriorated because hot coke fell down into the tuyere and burned up the blade tips or simply from age and abuse. The blades won't build any pressure if they don't fit the air way. New ones can be made of very light gauge metal. Also make sure the clinker breaker hole is not too rotten. It helps to add a piece of screen at the front of the air pipe to keep the cinders out.

If the fan blades fit the housing and the fan spins easily and the forge doesn't have many holes, they will make a nice fire which is plenty big enough for horseshoes and related size stuff.

Edit: photo resized

Good idea on the locations - the track plate is for upsetting long bars.

(You messed up when you told me how to post pics - I'll load the bandwidth now...heh, heh.)

Here is a small forging hammer I use daily:



I made this some time ago from an old 2 lb farrier's turning hammer that I reworked. The convex side was forged on the power hammer so it flattened slightly into the cross peen and the normally flat side was forged on all sides, which made the face bulge just slightly. A sledge can be used for the forging - I used the PH because it's there and handy. I did very little grinding or clean-up and basically just rehardened then installed a new handle. The handle was a "drilling hammer" replacement from Home Depot and I sanded it into an octagonal section before finishing with Birchwood Casey's Tru-Oil.

The nice thing about this design is it will draw very quickly by tilting the head to use an edge. The light head makes it fly and I use it exclusively for anything under 1/2". I still use a 3 lb hammer for big stuff but this little hammer doesn't tire me out and works well on all day sessions.

I know obtaining tools is always an issue and wanted to submit this so beginners could see that a good working hand hammer can be made with little effort.

I also might add that Tru-Oil is a very good finish for hammer handles. It dries quickly and does not react with sweaty hands so the surface is a constant against your palm.

Ed,

You beat me to it.





I have several at different heights.

The first is mounted at anvil height. It is a full length vise, mounted to a post that was buried in the ground with two bags of concrete. Allows a full swing with the hammer.

The next is mounted right on the forge and is at elbow height. I use this one for most work but long items sometimes interfere with the hood.

The other leg vise is mounted on a table at chest height. It is typically the one I use when long pieces have to be held or if I am filing. The Wilton is a little lower and a later addition (got it a year ago). It's mounted with two big C-clamps until I decide I want to take the time to drill thru the 2 inch plate that is the table top.

Ed,

I think this little form has a lot of potential - with either method - but I agree with you that it looks better with some welding - mine looks like I don't know how to forge weld or that it split. I also think square bent on the diamond for the branches before forging the acorn would look pretty cool.

First try...my wife has been in Alabama for four days and got back tonight - I jest cain't think strait when she's gone...da dum, da dee...

Double back the material until it is completely closed. This was a piece of 3/8 round that I forged square before proceeding. Take a fuller and pull the nose out first (the middle one). Take a ball peen or a bob punch and pull out each side. Heat the whole thing and then cool only the form so you can pull the legs to each side.

I needed a smaller ball to pull the sides because they wound up bigger than the nose and I want the proportions the same.

Y'all take a turn and play with this form - I think it can be added to lots of different things for a colonial look.

Ed,

Thanks for experimenting. What you described is what I think I tried - but I only got a shapeless blob when I flattened it. Maybe I didn't fuller in far enough.

Let's try this:



Not a good pic but my scanner in on the fritz...

Note the two double "C"s and the acorn/club. Definitely one piece and appears in the book photo to be made from square stock. As I study it, I think a fuller was used to pull the sides out and then the tip (middle) was flattened after the piece was folded.

Thomas,

That is one of the best list of rules I have ever seen - it should be preserved for posterity in a blueprint or something similar. I would also add "TRADE" because you can often score something really fine for something you didn't need. I once traded a plain .22 S&W pistol for a 250# Fisher and a 180# Mousehole in great shape - we were both happy.

I'll also tell about one that got away. I went to a junkyard one day and found the largest Edwards shear I have ever seen - probably would have sheared 1x8 flat and had a 1" punch setup. The ONLY problem was a set of broken blades. Instead of going to the front desk and putting my name on it, I went home and thought about where to put it, how to haul it, etc. This was Saturday morning so I figured Monday was safe but the yard already had it on a truck to the local mini-mill so it was really gone - melted down!

Yah, Ed - that's real close but it's done in a bend so the middle lobe is part of the parent stock and the other two are each on a branch.

How did you attach a pic to the text - is it a link to the Iforge Gallery or something else? Let me know and I'll scan in the pic from CWI.

Ed,

Plummer's book has a pic if you have it - I'll see if I can figure out some way to post something.

Three nice round petals that make a three leafed clover is about the best way I can describe it. Basically, it's a piece of stock bent tight and flattened after some sort of creative fullering to get the lobes pulled out. The final form is a tri-lobe that looks something like a "club" from a card deck.