Bryce Masuk

I totally agree with 2 passes being better than one,

the whole reason of this post was to hopefully get knowledge and opinion from those who have been there and done that,

I like using the stick welder as well but its just not practical for some applications because you need to ensure all the flux is gone inside of small area's and the speed is much slower, but sometimes i use it just because the mig torch cant fit in there

the speed of the weld when welding with stick in vertical position is really noticable as well not only in the time but the motion of your hands

I have a really nice stick welder my great uncle gave it to me, its a miller 61cf he made his living in the 60's in St louis while getting his education as a chiropractor

At first I honestly thought I might have a chance at being purely a artist blacksmith if I invested enough time, now I realise inorder to make enough money and still have somewhat of a free leash I will be doing alot of fabrication and some projects will have small forged pieces added, and others will have none at all because many people are simply looking for utillity and that for them is enough

What machine are you using? and what is the amperage with what size rod?

if you have a machine that runs on 220 you will be able to weld them if you know what you are doing

you can weld cast iron with Nirod with a stick,

or you can mig weld it

for this applicaton you should be fine with a mig or stick weld
typically a disk brake is more dense than most cast iron items, because of this it shouldnt be a problem to weld as long as you clean it as best as you can grinding it down abit would be best

when I have time i will cut them up,

typically you can tell when you are welding whether you get good penetration or not or at least i would hope so,

mark Is the drill press table square to the bit? either that or there could have been something under it or your pushing to hard too quick with a small bit and its walking away from you,

I screwed up one set of tongs I made (actually about the first 4 sets)
eventually I heated them up with the torch and drifted the hole to center and used a larger rivet,

it might work or maybe not at least you can try

Yeah, you can get a fruit basket at the grocery store. Try getting a vise there!

Some fellow on craigslist was selling an "antique vice" it said for trade or whatever price and such

I talked to him on the phone and it seemed like he would take 80 dollars for it because he had no use for it and it belonged to his grandpa

however I figured if people want to spread goodwill in general the very least I can do is do the same So I took my fruit basket with me and I gave him 60 dollars and the fruit basket for the vice,

so both of us got a good deal and a story,

He even gave me a hot cut and said he probley has some odd hammers and tongs and such and to call him in a few months after he fully cleans his garage



btw it weighs about 120 pounds it needs a spring adjustment but the threads are in great shape

Personally lot of my day is spent welding (aluminum lately too which i hate because of the white smoke and aluminum dust and such)however I am only 23 and i cant say i have done it for 20 years,

when i welded both pieces I know they both achived good penetration however the one on the left was done afterwards and the heat from the other weld sunk into the center piece of metal

I also welded slower on it which is why there is more metal upon it because I was trying to improve my technique I should have probley increased the wire speed and the speed of my hand when I was doing it,


I spend at least half an hour a day drawing but its never enough for me, I have a pirates chest full of drawing's but I am still not on the level of being able to draw or create, what i can visualize but one can hope to step closer towards it though out life

thanks everyone I can only improve from here on out, and forever and ever I hope 'wink'

will do why not learn what i can from experimenting,

this was done at 19 volts with 290 wire speed .030 wire and c25 gas

Im really focusing on becoming the complete metal fabricator

Improving
My lay out
Welding
Blacksmithing
Sheet metal forming
Artistic design
Looking at interesting things such as the works of euclid, studying human anatomy and figure sketching

Im thinking I may even take some autocad classes and set up a plasma table when i start to be well enough organized

I havent measured it to be honest after it was finished it was just one of those saturday in the moment type deals,

the long bars started out as 20 inches long and the cross bars are 15 inches

I know it holds a large bag of hamburger buns without problem and you can stack 2 in it
lol

anyways I just secured more jobs one modifying an existing inside railing, and a sprial staircase

Boy would I like to see that in action in real life,

seems like you have the method more than down

This is the first time I have done vertical welding with a mig
the only other times i have done it was with my 1950 something miller 180 stick

is photo 1 weld too crowned?

is photo 2 weld better ?

alot of guys i have seen doing vertical welds keep the weld like the first inch bit on the right side of the picture above is this what i should be shooting for?

Looks pretty sweet james, I cant wait to get my 88

do you mostly do sculpture?

Usually i go little past straw for tempering

I had a problem with chipping chisels and snapping punches untill i let them go a bit darker

even blue is alright for some uses

Im really thinking i need a platen table or something similar

time to get a cnc plasma so I can make it

yes I searched and noticed your interesting jig my friend i like it

perhaps you can give me an idea of its size for my own purposes

Yeah it seems to me I am always missing something, i would have figured that is made using a jig but i guess i am just not on that level yet.

so typically one would first make all the frames then begin bending and fitting the pieces into the frame?
this is some thing I really want to progress my ability in merely because I havent had the chance to do it and I want to see what I can do and how much I can improve it within the next couple months.

I am a fairly good welder so I have been practicing joinery everyday to make myself more well rounded,
im hoping i can make a few more elaborate panels then the simple things i have made in the past

Thanks Frosty, I work as a fabricator and they company I work for is become more and work concerned with production we make gates and railings and such but they are just straight bars for the most part,

For me its fairly obvious about some parts of what you mentioned, such as wastage and figuring out how to get the most out of what you have and figuring it out on a calculator from your cut list.

the process method also makes sence as typically I make all my frames and tack everything in place finish all the work and then fully weld everything at the end

I have worked in a production machine shop as well but when it comes to blacksmithing I honestly try to do everything entirely by hand, I dont even have a scroll jig because i try to prevent myself from using them in order to better understand the material and its nature.

I know I am missing the core idea's of repetive paneling which honestly I know I cant do yet because I havent done it

so just for example because I was talking to this fellow yesterday and realized that his skill in this type of blacksmithing is far beyond my own

and perhaps someone could explain how one might make all the different jigs that they themselves use for this kind of work



I wouldnt steal anyones design to use in actuallity but at this moment i dont have a 100% clear idea of what i want yet but i am almost there I also want to draw it on the computer so everyone can see what it is clearly and also so the design will be quite consistant

how do the true professionals set themselves up make many of the designs that are so common in wrought iron style work?

doing it all entirely by hand would be quite the slow process and it may not give the same desired look

making many jigs of sorts ensuring accurate measurements of scrolls and such?

what do you do personally I would like to hear it to further my own idea's of how I should be doing it

You guys mention a tig, - Harbor Freight Tools - Quality Tools at the Lowest Prices would this be a suitable tig? I am not planning on welding metal that is very thick, probably nothing thicker than 1/16th of an inch for most of my applications.

There was a book put out by J F Lincoln Arc Welding Foundation many years ago called "Arc Welding Instruction For Beginers"
In the book was an exercise to steady the hand and to hold an arc gap.
You take any size washer that is 1/8" thick, set it on a piece of lined "notebook" paper. Place a stick welding rod in the hole of the washer...you push the washer slow and steady in a straight line[follow the lined paper] WITHOUT TOUCHING THE PAPER OR SLIPPING OUT OF THE WASHER AS YOU PUSH IT ALONG.
It sounds childish but is good practice for holding a constant arc length and steadying the hand.

I saw someone local selling one does anyone know anything about this brand of forge?

I tryed fixing one of mine after many failures it went bang with a burning smell of rubber,

I figured the spring had weakened as nothing inside was damaged or leaking

could have been one of those mistakes worth a life