Tubularfab

I like the contrasting color so I only used the brass on these. I will have to pick up some heavy single strand copper wire to have on hand next time. I was up against a time constraint when I did these. They seem sound... I actually have made steel rivets before, just not ones to be visible.

Thank you! They are pretty simple to make, but I really like the look of them. I also like the mechanical aspect - and the fact that they have a cool heritage/history just adds to them. I gave those 4 as Christmas gifts this year, and they were well received. I included a federal style candle as shown, and a printed out copy of the story of the courting candle was wrapped around the candle. The hard part is keeping the "pitch" of the spiral consistent as deviation will easily show. It was my first attempt at making rivets, and all I had on hand was 3/16" brass. I annealed it, but I would assume copper would be more malleable? These tended to get a little brittle on the edges. I guess I'll try purchased rivets and see how they go.

Weird - they are all the right orientation in my photo album. Guess I can blame it on posting from an iPhone! I'm just impressed the forum will upload pics from IOS devices!

More Christmas gifts! Courting candles always intrigued me so I gave them a try. It's also the first time I tried making brass rivets - I like the look! First candle I made: Then I simplified a bit and made 3 more: I like the mechanical aspect of the moving holder. It took some fiddling to get them to work right.

Those are 6" long lag bolts - shouldn't pull out very easily. I just wanted to keep the chain and bolts to a minimum so they weren't the most prominent feature you noticed. The wood is still drying, but I do plan to go back and cut in a "seat" for it to sit in. I just don't have much in the way of tools - specially for woodworking at school. I also plan to run bands around the stump to keep it from splitting. I'm no expert, but I really like that anvil. It has great rebound, and is in like new condition. It's about the same weight as my personal Wilkinsons, but is almost 1" wider on the face making it much nicer to work on.

Hmm - not sure someone in England wants to hear his work is "colonial looking"... Actually, it just struck me as amusing since I've worked around quite a few Brits and am used to hearing them call someone a "Colonial" as pretty much a swear word. I like the candle holder by the way!

Nice! Did you mill the slots in the sides?

Found the post that I got the idea from: http://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/24463-its-time-to-think-about-christmas/?hl=christmas

I was searching for Christmas gift ideas and found a post from last year showing some nice holly leaf candlestick holders. That poster credited a newsletter for the inspiration... Anyway, I drew up a similar shape in CAD, and used my plasma cutter to cut the blanks: http://youtu.be/gCbhcdxcLEM Is there any other way to cut a complex shape like that? It's a very old machine for cnc (1990) that I picked up cheap and retrofit a hobby pc cnc control to. Makes my life easier! Used a chisel to vein them while hot, and add some life by making them a little more 3d. Here is the finished piece: Oh, the copper candle holders are made from 3/4" copper tubing from Home Depot. I machined a mandrel on the lathe that sizes the tube up in a taper, and flares the top out and bottom in. So, I cut the tube to 1.25" long, anneal it, and press it over the mandrel. If anyone is interested I can snap pics of the mandrel and post them. So, not a very blacksmithy project really, but I like them. So have the recipients so far!

So, my wife and I rode around today and hit a couple of local antique shops looking for anvils. We did pretty well as far as spotting, but no purchases were made. Antique store #1: first found an old cast iron anvil of very poor quality an condition. It was probably 70lbs, and had no price on it. Didn't bother to ask... Then found a decent looking Wilkinsons of about 80lbs jut like mine. Had heavy wear on top plate, but definitely usable as is. Had great patina, couldn't read the weight stamps for the buildup. But, it had fresh grind marks along opposite sides of feet where it had been welded down. Worst of all it was welded to a new piece of 4" pipe, going down to a cross fabricated from 1" x 4" rectangular tube placed the weak way for feet. Tag said "antique anvil with custom stand, $450." Antique store #2: found two Trenton's, a 163 pounder I rather want, and a smaller one around 80 lbs. I didn't bother polishing up the #'s and logos as the guy said they weren't name brand, and I didn't care to contradict him. The smaller was in great shape $300, the bigger had nicks on corners, but top was really quite good. His best price he'd give me on it was $500. He also said he had a 300lb one with an eagle on it at his house an a couple of others. Said he also was trying to buy a 1000lb one from a tractor store in Alabama. Here's the bigger Trenton I want: So, for going to 2 antique shops I'd say I did pretty well hunting! Oh, also saw 5 post vices and 3 blowers...

Here are a couple of pics of the anvil on it's stump. The booths in the background show this is at school, btw...

I have edited the original post with a disclaimer at the bottom. To reiterate, this anvil has not left the school - it merely changed classrooms. No theft has taken place!

Btw - anyone recognize the brand? Has raised lettering that I believe says "CWT" England, 38kg. Has good rebound, no top plate...

This is the anvil I inherited into my welding program at school (I teach welding at a technical college). I say inherited - I waited until the auto collision instructor retired, then stole it from that shop while there was no instructor... Anyway, this is apparently how body shop guys go about mounting one: 84lb anvil. Loosely strapped to 1/8" steel plate, welded to exhaust pipe, welded to 1/2 of a 13" steel wheel. This thing was a blast to chase around the shop while using it! The anvil would rebound back after hitting it and actually lift the base off the ground! It's now on a stump and works way better. *** Just to clarify - this anvil is still school property, still on school grounds, just moved down the hall. Also - the new auto collision instructor has blessed the transfer since he has little use for it.

It does have a "squarish" hole up through from the bottom pretty much centered. Why do you ask? Now I'm curious!

It's just a build-up rod. The 90 part means 90,000 psi tensile strength, the 18 explains position and flux type, etc. You'll find most build p rods on here mentioned are 7018, which is a lower strength rod (70,000 psi) with the same welding characteristics as the 9018. Another way to describe these rods is low hydrogen (helps avoid embrittlement), all position rod for structural welding. Oh, and the deposit from an E7018 is going to be the same as your basic MIG weld deposit (designated ER70S6). Yes, I stacked up firebrick around it and heated it with a propane burner. Did the welding, then let cool in the makeshift oven. Any info on what the rods are? You really want a rod with manganese for the impact resistance rather than a typical abrasion resistant hard facing to get the ideal surface. I'm really surprised how much rebound was retained even though its just "soft" filler I added.

The pictures did not show how damaged the top plate was. There were long cracks like delaminations that were quite large. Had big gaps after grinding them out. Now it's been built back up "close" with E9018 and ground fairly flat and square. It still has about 3/16 sway at the most in the middle. I'm thinking of leaving that in it as a little character! I didn't go crazy filling in all the slightest marks between welds, so some flaws still show. I'm going to leave it like this for now. I figure a little work hardening can't hurt it. It has surprising rebound left after all the welding, but does mark a little as you can see below. Ought to be fine for working hot steel...

It may still have functioned as a hard surface to beat metal, but there was almost no surface even close to flat. Will have almost nothing in the repair so might as well give it a shot. Should be educational for my students as well. Did I mention I'm a welding instructor at a community college?

This is a roughly 140lb chunk of 4150 discarded from the machine shop dad worked for. I ground and polished the top surface, and it's holding up very well. Great rebound! The working surface is 6.5 inches diameter, bottom is over 12.

I just got this Wilkinsons anvil and am going to try to rework it. It's marked 0-3-0 so it was about 84lbs new - not sure it is any more after I attacked it with a grinder! The top plate is really bad with several horizontal cracks or delaminations. Anyone know how thick it would have started life as? I thought it was pretty thick, but turns out the edges were so mushroomed ove that I was misleading. I ground out the obvious cracks and was abl to follow the horizontal cracks by watching the blue color flash between passes. (A quick flash of blue is a sign that you're on a thin cross section). Plan is to brin everything up level with some E9018 I have. Then I'm going to use Lincoln Wearshield 15CrMn to do the final surfacing. This is supposed to be an impact resistant, work hardening rod very similar to the Stoody 1105 most recommend on here. The reason for going Lincoln is, besides liking their products, I think I can get a sample box to do the job.

Thank you for all the suggestions. I had come across references to the Sculpt Nouveau products, but I was thinking they mainly worked on copper and other non-ferrous metals. For instance, the green I looked at said it turned iron bright orange? I'll have to go look more closely. I'm still trying to stay away from paint - I don't know why, but I have always preferred bare metal. In fact, here is one of my toys that shows this. I polished out all the aluminum but had to go with paint on the fiberglass fenders: But, I may have to give in on this one to get the color I want in the timeframe I have to do it. Thanks again to all that replied! Jason

Ok, first question for on here, and I hope it's in the right forum! I'm looking at some holiday themed items, and would like to be able to "stain" the steel with a greenish tint before waxing. I'm not a fan of actual paint, and do want to see the steel through the tint. Are there any ways to accomplish such a color stain? Where's the green Dykem when I need it? I'm going to experiment with some inks and such, but figured somebody on here had already done this. I wouldn't be surprised if it's already in a post - but I've yet to find it searching. Thank you, Jason

Updates? The school I teach at just purchased a new forklift to replace the 1964 model caterpillar that was long since worn slap out. I was trying to get it purely for the iron counterweight and forks - but we are a state entity and things just can't get scrapped that way. I then tried for just the forks and still failed. So, instead I think the school is paying to ge rid of it! Doh!

Guess I ought to make my first post in here. In my current life I'm a welding instructor at a community technical college and really enjoy it. My boss is interested in building up the ornamental side of the program, so I've been reading up every chance I can get. I also have a fabrication shop where I specialize in mandrel tube bending projects. I definitely have the family history to make this a natural choice. My father's side of the family all were involved with metal working - old school machining and welding. My mother's side has the artists - my grandfather was the first art director for the Zippo lighter company. So - gotta see if I can combine the two in this medium! Past life? Engineer at a small sportscar manufacturer. Heavily involved with fabrication there as well. Guess that's enough for now. Thanks for all the great reading on this site!