Bryce Masuk

The only differences are a rectifier may last more than 100 year's in a good enviroment
and will use more power guaranteed over the course of its life

and a inverter will last for? probley not as long and of course has superior portability
ever the miller maxstar is something like 14lbs and you can burn 1/8th rods with a decent duty cycle

wow thats a nice looking refridgerator ;)

Thanks guys

Some Good idea's for brass on here I have a few 100 pounds stored away of 1 inch square that i am not sure of its intended purpose yet

This may be true for certain poorly built examples, but a lot of us have built mechanical hammers with every bit as much performance, quality and durability as factory made hammers, if not more so. Please don't generalize about others and their creations/craftsmanship.

This was not my intention hopefully you werent offended,

Its not easy to build a mechanical hammer that wont need some adjusting after a bunch of work you would probley be best to find a used mechanical because they are around for reasonable prices

Anyone can build something if your dedicated enough in fact you could build a self contained hammer if you chose to it wouldnt be easy I am certain you would learn quite abit in the process.

ultimately if building a hammer is a project you want to take on and dedicate yourself to and search for the right metal and pieces for reasonable prices because the price of fresh steel isnt cheap

Has anyone seen any interesting small scale sustainable energy devices?

Im trying to come up with a small wind powered device for a urban enviroment I have a few idea's but would like to hear some suggestions

Hi guys! First post here and I haven't seen a question placed just this way. If so, please excuse. My question is: What am I giving up, in a home shop setting, going with a quality tire hammer, like Clay Spenser's vs a quality air hammer like a smaller Big Blu? At something close to a 2 1/2 times difference in new price, the cost factor is obvious. What CAN'T I do with the tire hammer that I can do with the Big Blu and in your opinion, is it worth the extra cost in your home shop? Thanks for your replys!

What are you going to use it for? and how often? this will determine what you need

a self contained air hammer is the only real choice for a professional who is forging a couple thousand hours a year or more or a Factory built mechanical hammer depending on personal prefreance

a tire hammer or homebuilt mechanical is probley perfect for someone not wanting to spend alot and doesnt want to hammer entirely by hand

did you make this? that is fantastic!

I wish I could say yes but no I am not that good,

It made by a local (to me) metal sculptor named kevin smith

they say it took about 2 years just to polish the dragon with 2 people

Dont limit yourself take a look at what can be made from sheet metal

Well one thing is for certain it will out live you lol

seems like the way to go for blades for sure nice and narrow so you dont have to shift side to side on the anvil

I take it you stick/tig welded everything

looking at it makes me think it should be attached to a press brake or a powerhammer because the way its mounted makes it look like a die

If I were you I would suggest offering to buy them from her and see what happens and work to get what you would like

it took me 4 years to get an anvil

Alright the most frequent thing I have heard mentioned is college. I do wish to go to college, exactly for what I don't know maybe marketing or business. I am really an artsy kind of person, blacksmithing, acting, and writing are my favorite things to do, but all those don't really seem to be things that pay to well. So anyways, lets shift this questions around a little.

Could Blacksmithing pay for college?

That maybe seems more reasonable then going full out into a blacksmithing business.

probley not it might help you buy a sandwich or two but the reality of blacksmithing is it takes alot of tools and material's and a properly setup shop space to make money,

your best bet is to commit yourself to something take a student loan since your family isnt paying for it pay it off and go forwards.

if you want to do something you MUST HAVE a long term plan and have something that guarantee's you a paycheck,

you can jump into blacksmithing but its probley going to lead to failure, you need to slowly gain tools and skills and then you can progress on

you cant start any business with out having first working for someone else as a professional or at least have spent a serious amount of time doing the work and being competent in it.

My plan is to start a business making ornamental ironwork and such but untill my work load is entirely overflowing and preventing me from going to work consistantly I must continue to work a full time job.

When the time is right you will know. go make money save your dollars or wisely invest them in schooling or tools or whatever you choose

The world economy is changing and the middle class people like factory workers and tradesmen in the states are taking the brunt of it,

The Worldwide value of labour is slipping because we support buying cheap

if you really want to be a blacksmith maybe you should got o school for it it will certainly help your skills but it may not pay the bills.

you take the risk either way you may go to and entirely different profession and not be a blacksmith but have enough money to enjoy it on the weekend, or you could become a broke blacksmith entirely happy in life, ultimately you decide your fate maybe you will find the right people and make everything happen for you and become a wealthy blacksmith,

I think that if its what you want to do 100% go for it the reality of being 18 is if you do something and you decide not to do it later on if you cant make enough money at it or for whatever other reason it doesnt really matter,

A perspective employer who see's that you are driven towards hard work and commitment in anyway to better yourself will respect and place more faith in you.
And that goes in anywhere for any kind of job, people rember interesting people and blacksmiths if nothing else are interesting people.

if you walked into a fabrication shop and told them about yourself your desire to blacksmith and work with metal at home, people in the metal trades respect that and respect doing things on your own with metal in any capasity
you would be more likely to be hired to start at the bottom rather then sent out the door like most.

To them it shows rather than showing up looking for a A Job (which in your mind could be any job everyone needs a paycheck) your looking for a specific job to further yourself and commit to

I would suggest trying to get a welding ticket or a fabrication ticket of some sort or sheetmetal is another good option,

all of these will give you skills that you will need to be a productive blacksmith and will pay you enough that you can gain the tools to do the job

your idea's will change over time maybe you will find you are more driven to becoming a engineer or artist or whatever

I am getting better at it i will post pictures later

I have been practicing with my stick machine as well

the reality of welding is you must practice untill you realize you are failing at something take a step backwards gain the knowledge and then progess forwards

Will this TIG rule of thumb work for MIG?

Since I did a little stick welding before jumping to TIG, one rule of thumb that I was told for TIG was that you knew you had good penetration in steel if the backside of the cap plate of a T weld (piece that continues past the weld) showed a continuous layer of scale flaking, and on a butt weld where beads shows up on the backside of the joint. The line of scale told you that the metal was heated above the welding temp and the width of the scale told you how good the penetration was (a thin scale line [smaller than the bead] was risking a cold shunt, whereas a scale path 1.5-2.5 times the width of your bead told you you had good penetration)

I think the rule also worked with stick welding.

Rich C.

when we welded with tig we always had to prevent getting this much penetration because it looks bad and is not "Foodsafe" it needs to be polished and its pretty much impossible to get out of a tight corner

nothing we made was structural though and we never used thicker than 16 gauge

Now, in the case that you cant get the weld to break, there is liquid penetrant equipment available (I believe you can simply get it through your local welding supplier but not 100%). It is a two part testing unit: a dye penetrant and a developer. To use this, shake very well and spray the developer on the weld side of the "TEE" joint (obviously when the weldment is cool) and wait a few seconds for it to dry. Then, spray the dye penetrant in the groove on the opposite side of the weld and wait. If you get color showing on the developer, it fails test.

I hope this helps and I hope that anybody who was remotly offended by my previous post will accept my appologies. We are all only here to help one another. Information must be shared for anybody to get anywhere.....

-Hillbilly

I was not offended my friend infact anything critical should be seen as a way to improve,

These were my first two vertical welds I have welded for a few years but mostly light gauge stainless in the food industry,

then I began to learn about vertical welding and spray transfer when i began to work with heavier metals and began to use the mig machine more

more practice is needed I am thinking about getting my welding ticket but i may focus my efforts towards blacksmithing instead

Sounds like your doing a reasonable project you will accomplish it I am sure,

Some of us mainly me always try to take on things they know they havent done(read as cant do untill proven) in order to prove that they can do it

I gave back the money and realized that one person cant do the work of 10

how much does one of these little hammers usually cost before you find a wide load trailer and build a shop around it ?lol

seriously my little brain is ticking

Make sure you post your pictures as well mark,

I personally have never made a staircase that is all forged, or even mostly forged

you didnt mention whether you are going to be welding everything together or mortise and tennoning everything,

I have done alot of fabrication of gates and railings stairways, and stainless steel handrails all most all of these projects were what most blacksmith's would do with there eyes shut, but I would be a liar to say I didnt make any mistakes
making room for allowances can make or break you

Doing such a job will be quite the task you havent mentioned what style or what you are doing exactly but forging everything by hand is going to be an amazing amount of labour, even farbicating something like this for large job took me over week and that was just cutting and welding, not including polishing and measuring/designing

Naked anvil, you and I think alike

If I find a "deal" on something that is hard to find and I know I can use I go get it recently I got a set of pattern rollers with 5 or six patterns they didnt come with a machine but the bearings are in good shape,

I only invested 150 dollars plus all the other costs of my time and gear/chain drive and such that i will need to come up with, but having the abillity to make interesting cap rail's and pickets I know will pay off in the long run.

I have no life savings I just spent all of it on a anyang 88 and a couple dies

I have used the same hammer before a few times but i really dont have much experiance using one but its hard to find someone to teach you and my personal plan is to use my tools do some projects and earn enough money to go to europe and Re-learn everything apparently know,


In my mind doing such things is not a risk its just a reason to make sure I put all my effort in because failure is a choice and its one choice I refuse to take part in.

Those are pretty sweet,

did you use mild steel for them?

I posted them on my website
take a look if you want in better resolution
Masuk Ironworks - Home

Thanks George

I will take the lamp out of the garage and take a picture in the sun,

I have a bunch of other stuff I finished that i need to take some shots of

http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/7866/new003.jpg
http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/861/new004v.jpg
http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/2627/table001.jpg
http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/2950/table006.jpg
http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/1931/table007.jpg

Does anyone like the table? it was just something in my head

I have to run now I will post them in my gallery later with a better resolution

I havent heard of anyone doing this

but you might be able to buy a big hunk of metal and hardface it with the correct stick rods or flux core wire