dablacksmith

sure its worth it... a little small in my opinion but should work to get you started !

looks like maybe a air tank for big rig air brakes???

its kinda like this http://phoenix.craigslist.org/nph/atq/2434231145.html 1200 $ for a rivit forge thats pretty beat up worth maybee 75 bucks.....

your crazy... but it can be done just not worth the work unless your a castaway with no possable way to get a anvil.....

ive seen barstock forged into sheet Pieter Ross hammered out from a bar of 1/4x2 some sheet metal to make a lock ... used a cross pien and did most of the drawing using the pien and the base of the horn ...lotsa pounding and he used a caliper to ck the thickness... good luck

s lot of the tools blacksmiths use are like that ...take your typical anvil ... if its not new (last 10 years or so ) it was probably made before ww2 (my shop anvil has a 1939 date) it was most likely used daily for decades ... almost all mechanical trip hammers were made in that era also (1880-1940)..to build that type of equipment nowadays would be more expensive than we are generally willing to pay... and also the buisness dosent warrant makeing these machines anymore ... i dont know if they have found something better or just cheaper (suspect the latter) its a sad state of afairs but its the world we live in ..

looks like ya got a good buy! nice flypress ! now you got to make some tooling for it!

nice work!ime really inpressed by the way you are tackling harder and nicer projects! nice leaves keep it up!!

the modern method is to start with all steel slit and drift or punch a handle hole and forge to shape ... it os easier if your going to forge weld to use mild and (argueably) it makes a better axe because the mild being softer absorbs impact better where on the edge (where you need it )the steel gives you a hard edge. forge welding mild to high carbon is easier than high carbon to high carbon also the mild will protect the high carbon keeping it from burning as bad... also mild is easier to form (forge) to shape ... also the traditional way was to weld insert of high carbon because high carbon was more expencive.for this discussion ive used the term high carbon to refer to a steel between .6to 1.0 carbon typically used for cutting edges on axes...hope this helps

ile get sumthin made....

i know you can buy new ones... but thant spike looks good might see if you can make um for the rr company..... :)

Eh, money isn't an issue for me. As I said, I'm poor. Cost effective is very different in my eyes. I have all that I need to make it. I can make my own charcoal/coke, mine my own ore, and forge my own tools. $0 plus hours of time making the materials vs $7.50 an hour 40+ hours a week plus the month or longer it would take to have enough money to buy the materials plus actually forging what I want? Tell me which is more cost effective for a poor man.

as far as buying steel ... 7.50 a hr will buy you a lot of steel for a days work ... does your property run to fireclay? how about a good blower?making your own steel is neat but dont pretend its anywhere cost effective ... steel runs a buck or two a pound and the work involved in making your own just to make a run is a few hours after everythings setup ! its not a question you would ask if you ever saw the work it takes to make your own steel...especially if you havnt done much (or any) smithing..good luck

true cast iron has a lot of carbon and is brittle and would be real hard to forge weld... having said that it would work if you could get it to weld... basically by doing the same as any damascus and folding and folding.it really isnt practical tho...there are much easier ways to get carbon in your damascus billet even using junk... as far as having mineable ore it really dosent pay unless your going to go way big .... i know there are smiths making theyre own steel but its just for ego and fun not practical at all ... ive seen this prosess and the cost for the amount of steel is really high .. were talking 100+ dollars per lb plus labor ... much cheaper easier and better product to buy steel.

selling things like that dosnt happen ... ive seen things on craigs list that are priced to high and they keep avertiseing over and over and over again...local phoenix craigs list has a hand crank drill press for 350$ been on there over a year... ant gona sell...

ide take some 1/8 plate and make a plate on the inside that covers all three holes and overlaps the crack an inch or to on the sides drill and bolt thru should work fine ... if you deside to have it welded i would still put the plate in (ive welded cast iron before and it is not as strong after its been welded ) also remember that it broke there cause that is the stress point when running the blower .. so reinforceing it wont hurt... in fact if you want to do a traditional repair clean out the jb weld make the plate heat the whole thing and braze it plate cracks and all ...good luck!

ya looks fabricated ... do the drop test on the face if its hard buy it if not dont...

i have done demos for most of my adult life the more common ones

is that a real fire ?

blacksmithing is a dieing(dead) art answer ime not dead yet!!!

can you shoe my (wife, girlfriend, friend, horse) my latest answer to that is a sandal i made from horeshoes i point to it and ask would you like to be hot fit !

my (insert relative here) was a blacksmith. my answer oho where at ? and what type of work did he do? (about half of um were farmers that just fixed stuff on the farm)

how hot is that ? answer the forge can get steel hot enuf to melt... or burn!!!

i always love (sarcasim here) the people that lovelingly explain(to children) as ime forging a complicated piece "this is how they used to make horshoes in the old days" i usually interject that this is how all ironwork was made in the old days from nails to guns

good luck and have fun with the public most wont buy anyway so injoy!

man i wish it was closer... its too bad it has to go to auction looked like a well thought out museum ...

it looks like a useable anvil.... for the price its a good deal especially with the blower and tongs and hearty tool all and all good deal .. id is gona have to wait till you have it in your hot(and lucky)little hands!!!!

ok blacksmithing and transport is easy there were (and probably still are ) blacksmiths working for the railroad and before that makeing tires and iron parts for wagons ... also model ford model T was repaired by blacksmiths ( in fact the magazines from the time talk about the growing automotive repair work) as far as demo goes most people wont sit still for more than a few minutes at most so you need a patter for that much time ... i can talk for hours to people about the history but most wont stick around that long...good luck!

ive seen this quite a few times over the years and the answer is sometimes you can and sometimes you cant... clean out all the little wood bots try to get the area to welding temp without burning it and give it a go sometimes it takes sometimes not... most times if it gets stuff in the seam it wont ... i should mention i see this in the mas produced tommahawks all the time ... that or some dont even have steel in the edges so they bend or fold over...good luck!

this is a massive hinge! how were the ones being replaced done? how/ why did they fail? i usually taper the ends a little and tuck um in but i dont know if its any stronger just that i like the looks better . most of the strap hinges ive done from 1/4 ive used 5/8 pins on 1 inch is kinda big i think ...have fun wit this!

you realize that if they get hurt and sue you loose everything... i bet there isnt a insurance in the world that will protect you... and just because they dont know english dosent mean that they wont find a lawyer (all over the tv here) ide not expose myself that way ...dosent matter if your hireing um or not...

well from what ive done along those lines its more prep and finish work than the method of welding what i suggest is welding at slight angles get a good weld clean up hammer well then heat and shape... the secret is getting the right angles and shape to make it look more natural forge welding works well but this instance i dont think it will help you to make a better product ... good luck!

unless your working for the railroad you dont need a forge that big EVER! i remember starting out (nearly 30 years ago) and wanting to make swords and was going to heat the intire length ... you cant work more than 6 inches at a time so your forge dosent need to be that big or long also hard to use that size... check out the forge plans on this websight ... even for forging swords it will work fine!!!!