petere76

First class, real nice job. Peter

I have seen ship wrecking yards in Bangladesh cut 5 in steel components. They use big torches but the trick is , they have large acetalyne banks set up in parralel to supply the necessary gas volume. A single bottle set can't supply the volume required. The extraction rate out of the media is too low for the demand. Preheating is another option you may want to look at. Ask if anyone has experience with deep sea submersibles, they have to preheat and post heat for both welding and cutting procedures on the pressure hulls. Peter

Trip, The Clay hammers are a very good buy and it will serve you well. Consider attending a sponsored build. You get a hammer and the group dynamic reduces the time it would take for you to do it all yourself. Additionally you save on the cost of materials because of the bulk buy. Best of all you get to meet Clay and a group of like minded individuals involved in a labor they all enjoy. I built mine along with 12 others at the NESM a few years back and i have been very pleased with its performance. The group build concept is the way to go and I am sure you will be pleased. Good luck with your build. Peter

Frosty, The Vermont castings folks still make stoves with dampers. I have a couple of the older models, a vigilant and a defiant. The defiant is large, takes a 24 in stick and will heat a 2000 sf house in a Maine winter. Their new models all have some sort of catylic device to reduce the creosote issues. They aren't cheap but they work great. Peter

Yes, a great movie. The press on the reviews was not favorable but the film itself was well made. The depiction of the blacksmith was historically accurate because they were central to the community for many reasons. Goods, joinery and weapons to name a few of the more obvious functions. Additionally, because of the training and commitment of the individuals pursuing the trade the individuals tended to be both astute and politically savy. Traits which no doubt served them well in turbulent times. No matter who was the ruller of the day, the skills of the blacksmith served all masters. If you want to be a survivor and prosper at the same time, pounding out the iron was a good way to go. Peter

Duck, In the shop for small work, gas shielded wire feed machines work great. They are quick to use and the welds don't require a lot of clean up. Flux core leaves a lot of splatter. Get a good rig from Lincoln, Hobart or Millet. They all have reasonable duty cycles that will suffice for small jobs. Run it on 220 and it will be easy on the power bill. Should run between $600 and $800. Treat the units well and they will last a very long time. Get a supply of tips for your preferred wire size, a few spare cones and some anti splatter paste. Keep the business end clean and you should be good to go. For heavy welds we use an engine powered AC DC machine that puts out. In our shop it's a bobcat 225. These are essentially back of the truck rigs that you can take to the job site. Some are set up for Full wave rectified TIG but not all. You can still scratch start the non rectified rigs if you only want to do steel. Any jobs involving non ferrous require the full wave rectified set up. All the players make these rigs but new they aren't cheap. $4000 to $6000 depending on the set up. Plus you need cabling, clamps, connectors, stingers and the racks for your truck. It's a big investment so if you don't have a real need for one consider saving the money until you get a job where you can amortize the cost. Do your research and select carefully. A fellow I worked with once told me that the job should always pay for the cost of tooling. Peter

Dk, The weight of the door is transmitted to the web of the leaf and onto the corresponding barrel of the stationary mate. The weight is an up and down force. The pin really only aligns the two parts because there is little radial force involved. Think of the stationary side as the pintle, it carries the weight. Don't rivet the pin tight , keep it loose and put some oil to it, and it should work fine. Peter

I have used pneumatic hammers fitted with chisels to slit bars. They work slick when used in one position on a stationary item. Not sure how well the would perform if you were moving the piece. Some welding procedures peen between weld passes using a modified hammer form. Some of the repousse workers use air hammers as well. Peter

Free stuff I use a lot for tooling. Axels in any size. Front end torsion bars and steering components. Coil springs any size. Leaf springs any size. Jack hammer bits. Old broken chisels and drifts you find at yard sales. Worn out plow scrapper blades. Broken and beat up commercial chipper blades. Once you get a good supply of this material reduce it to usable lengths and mark it so you know what it was. On the leaf springs, watch for fatigue cracks and cut them out. Anything you torch cut has to be trimmed after the cut because the cut part is not much use after it is burned. Old chisels and drifts are great to repurpose, just make sure to anneal and then heat treat when you are done forging. Most of the time you can just run the colors to get a decent edge. Keep the struck end soft so it doesn't chip. You are always making tooling in the shop its half the job. The cost estimate on many big projects involves weeks of shop time dedicated to fabricating jigs and tooling. A good supply of scrap steel and pieces of purchased tool steel will serve you well. Good luck. Peter

Frosty, I see the 2 in tubing spuds sticking up and welded to the rebar grid. How does the exhaust component of the design work? I get the downdraft principal but where is the ducting, I.E. how do you get the vacuum on the spuds if they are nested into the crushed stone? Thanks in advance. Peter

Thanks Glen. Oakland isn't far from where I live and some of the old surviving mill buildings and foundations still dot the shoreline. Nice to see the history come to life. Peter

Ed, Looks good to me. Two axioms that have always worked well for folks like us, " Form follows function and work with tools you got" . You are certainly on the right track. Peter

Glen, The "calipers " might actually be a set of micrometers. Big sets like that would have been found in machine shops that did marine work or other large industrial repairs. If you come across a complete set of brown or starett mics in their original wooden case they are worth a few bucks. Happy hunting. Peter

The question on cold clearance set up. Shim the set up with paper or fussiness card stock. Then stitch weld so you reduce heat draw. Paper runs at roughly .001 to . 002. In the end, the fit will be better than some engine tolerances I have dealt with. Good setup and a slow and steady approach will serve you well. A well made tool will lady you a lifetime. Good luck with your project. Peter

A few ideas. On the anvil, consider a quick change style lower die holder. Not sure of the head lift. Design the lift height so that you can accommodate a few variations on the lower die side. Anything you can do to increase anvil mass is a good idea. I think the min spec is roughly a 17:1 ratio, hammer to anvil. Bigger is better. Base plate, get as big as you can afford. It helps to stabilize the rig from the oscillation moment. At 200 to 300 BPM this machines do want to move a little. Anything you can do to increase the mass. on the lower end will significantly reduce motion inertia and enhance stability. Good luck with your project. Peter

Zach, Nice job. Like the bent iron offset and the aggressive high traction wheel, very resourceful and well executed. Nice work. Peter

Great job! Very functional and it looks well made. Have at it. Peter

Milwaukee, works well for our shop. It's heavy but reliable. Variable speed and quite reliable. We end up using it on the layout table for large or awkward pieces that will not fit under the radial drill press. The table supplies the iron mass for the mag base even if the piece being drilled is thin. If you are going to use any of these mag based rigs offsite in an overhead position off the deck, make sure you have the drill secured with a safety chain in case the power goes out. Remember they are heavy and they can get away from you real easy. Peter

Milwaukee, works well for our shop. It's heavy but reliable. Variable speed and quite reliable. We end up using it on the layout table for large or awkward pieces that will not fit under the radial drill press. The table supplies the iron mass for the mag base even if the piece being drilled is thin. If you are going to use any of these mag based rigs offsite in an overhead position off the deck, make sure you have the drill secured with a safety chain in case the power goes out. Remember they are heavy and they can get away from you real easy. Peter

I have a question. Are the English made anvils the only ones that use the stoneweight system? We have, a Hay Buden and an American in the shop. They appear to have their weight in lbs stamped at the waist. The PWs both use the stone weight system. Just curious . Peter

Nick, I'm using a 10 inch uptake with a super sucker design . No problem with smoking. 12in should give you some serious draft if its designed right. All the direct overhead vent systems I see in service have issues with smoking when the stack is not hot or the shop is tight. The sucker designs usually involve a size reduction at the throat opening, I.e. 12 to 10 or 10 to 8, the reduction creates a venturi effect, hence the term super sucker. Most of the direct vent overhead hood designs have side panels and a few older rigs I have seen lower and raise. The modern overhead systems use mechanical ventilation to get the job done. This one shop that was quite cold in the winter, was almost impossible to keep smoke free. You went home coughing for a few days. Try the solid fuel forge section of IFI, they used to have some good photos of different designs. Peter

Nick, I'm using a 10 inch uptake with a super sucker design . No problem with smoking. 12in should give you some serious draft if its designed right. All the direct overhead vent systems I see in service have issues with smoking when the stack is not hot or the shop is tight. The sucker designs usually involve a size reduction at the throat opening, I.e. 12 to 10 or 10 to 8, the reduction creates a venturi effect, hence the term super sucker. Most of the direct vent overhead hood designs have side panels and a few older rigs I have seen lower and raise. The modern overhead systems use mechanical ventilation to get the job done. This one shop that was quite cold in the winter, was almost impossible to keep smoke free. You went home coughing for a few days. Try the solid fuel forge section of IFI, they used to have some good photos of different designs. Peter

May peace be with him and his family. Peter

Yves, Congrats, you have moved forward. Keep going and enjoy the ride. I look forward to seeing more of your work. All the best from Sugarloaf USA. Peter

Does anyone know if the door studs (Clavos) were nailed and bent over or were they threaded and bolted? We always see pics of the front of door and not many of the back panels. Peter