arftist

Sorry about being so cryptic. With the internet, the world has become a small place. I need a pacemaker, but if I get it, I can never do electric welding again. Either way my life will be over. If my customers knew, I don't think I'd be getting deposit checks anymore. I have been trying to switch to just art since I found out, but to be efficent, jigs need to be welded, tools built,etc. I know there are a lot of possible solutions, and I have been searching,researching etc. Thank you for your reply.

Hello all. full time smith, millwright, welder,machinist, 30 years, served aprenticeships here and there, was there for a long time. Trained under a well known artist-blacksmith who was a student of Fransis W. Here to learn and share. Anon for good personal reasons, maybe someday,take it or leave it. Will submit pictures if requested. "there is a concept that is a bar to all knowlegde, that concept is a closed mind." Arf p.s. I love this site, addicting is an understatement, thankyou whoever is responsible. Frosty, did you get your shop built yet? Too bad about E and the list.

Actualy, a factory hossfeld #2 bender comes with two main bending pins; 1" dia. main body, stepped down at each end for a length of 1", in the following diameters, 1/2", 5/8", 3/4" and 7/8". When I built my hossfeld, wich is an exact copy, I also made an extra main pin, wich is 1" dia. and about 4" longer than the stock pin with no steps. This is the one I use the most. As a side note, I bend my hinges over the edge of the anvil, like a tight scroll, when it gets to a certain point, put a hard pin in there and finnish it using a special bottom swage and top tool. Someday, I will make the tooling to bend 1/4x 2 hinge eye in my hossfeld.

That looks good. I think building this hammer will give you valuable experience towards building a power hammer, and they actualy serve different purposes anyway. I too await your blueprint.

I use 60% of the door width as the overall length of the hinge.(pretty close to 2/3) For man doors, I use either 1/4 x2 or 3/8 x 2. For barn or garage doors, I use 3/8 x2. I usualy punch square holes for carraige bolts, unless I am also making the bolts. ( I make fake carraige bolts, no square part. Its just not worth it.) If I have to make bolts, I always use 304 s.s. I head them in my 75# mechanical power hammer that I built. I make mostly colonial style hinges, because of my location. Lately, I have been having my hinges color-galvanized(black naturaly). This is a great deal for me and my clients. Last week, 38 hinges, 30" long, hot dipped, epoxy primer, polyurathane top coat, for $214. About $5 a hinge. I can't paint them for that, and I don't like painting anyway. For colonial style restoration jobs, I believe the length of the hinge should be more like 90-95% of door width, as the oldtimers were far too practical, to not use the iron to hold the door together as well as hold it up. A note on installing strap hinges: mount the pintal first. With the strap on the pintal, hold the strap a few degrees above level. mark the pintal holes, bolt the pintal to the door frame. Put he strap back on the pintal. Push the strap against the door, pull the end of the strap down till it is level. mark,drill, bolt etc. You will like how the door stands and swings if you do this.

Find a welding or sheetmetal shop in your area. Pay them the ten or twenty dollars. If you want them to be "perfect", cut the flatbar 35 7/16", roll, trim off flats at each end, weld, re-roll.

Bummer. That explains why those three 9" a models all sold in one day for $500. each. The worst part was the guy that somehow pocketed the ten or so tool holders that were not for sale.

I almost don't want to say this, but I have no trouble holding .oo1" on my sixty plus year old south bend 16" with 5" factory riser blocks. My leblond tool and diemaker is even more acurate.

When I make pipe bending dies, I grind a form tool to a little more than half the radius width. I then rough the die,finnish the left side, turn the form tool upside down, reverse the lathe and finnish the right side. If the machine wants to chatter, then I swing the tool post to the back side, leave the tool right side up and run the lathe in reverse.

The nine inch south bend is a very popular lathe these days among hobbists. It is a slow turner and therefore hss tools are appropriate. Grinding single point tools is not that difficult. Rough with a hand held grinder, finnish on belt sander or bench grinder, hone on hand stone. If you have a lathe, and don't know how to grind tools buy a book about lathes or general machine shop practice. The clearence angles can be set using the table angle adjustment one the bench grinder or belt sander. I personaly use all three style tool holders shown, depending on the nature of the job.

Yes you could remove the punch holder and the die holder and replace them with a die stock, BUT, set up for a brake would require such presice adjustment, that It would probably be faster to put your brake attachment in an h-frame press, unless you were planning to do huge amounts of the exact same bend. before you mount other tooling, I recomend buying a die maker's text so you can determine the force required for the job you want to do, thereby not overloading and crashing your press.

I asume these hinges will be 1'' wide or less since they are only 1/8" thick. If so a hossfeld bender would do this quickly and easily. anvilfires iforge demo section has hinge rolling info in the flypress section.

If you are thinking about junking this or any other generator, please reconsider. This unit can be made to run on many different fuels, some of wich are available free. Also, large amounts of deisel and #2 heating oil, and jet fuel are hauled away at cost to the former owner, all of wich will run in a deisel. It would also serve greatly as a backup generator, for ocasional use, when some other alternative power sorce was temporarily out of order. The demand for generators like this in third world countrys is unfillable. Deisels can run on methane, propane, natural gas(methane), wood gas, coal gas, water gas, vegtable oil, used vegetable oil, algae oil and recycled motor oil. The gen end by it self can be used for steam or hydro.

Beautiful small american made vertical mill. Hard to find. Easy to use. Get any book about basic machine shop, the controlls are virtualy interchanable. You really lucked out, that for how old it is, it has x+y micrometer dials! If you still need help, find a retired millwright or machinist in your area.

Sounds like about 40 tons, should be able to punch .75" hole in .5" mild steel. Looks to be fairly complete, exept drive motor, switch, drive belts and guards. Requires 2 hp at 1725 rpm. To line up punch and die, manualy roll the larger flywheel towards you while depressing foot petal, slowly. Adjust for even clearance all around. Heart shaped guard should cover both fly-wheels and drive belts. Also VERY IMPORTANT, the cover over the notcher at the oposite end from the punch Must always be down, not up as in picture. Realize that when you engage the clutch, all three work stations engage. This is certainly a machine to be respected, but not feared. A very productive machine, in some ways better than a modern hydraulic version. Some where on the large flywheel, there should state rpms, you can use this to determine pully size for drive motor.

Have an electrician disconnect the transfer switch from the building main. Make sure you get the transfer switch, most of the exhaust system, and everything else. Have A tow truck operator move it with a large ramp truck. Keep the exhaust outlet covered, and it can be stored outdoors for quite a while. If it is a dark, damp basement, bar the engine over first, before you invest in removing it. Most standby generators have had very little use.

I like to blow the liner out with compressed air whenever I change spools.

Patents only last for 17 years.

I AM an artist, but I don't want to sound like a braggart, plus I think it is a little funny, and I smile inside whenever I read it.

I always tig weld bronze, brass, copper, thin aluminum and thin stainless. I often tig weld cast iron with silicon bronze rods. I sometimes tig thin steel if there is no mig available. I tig thick stainless if I need to weld out of position, or if I want to fuseweld only. I prefer to weld thick stainless with a stick. Thick aluminum with a spool on gun or push-pull mig. I tig weld mild steel if looks are critical(bike parts).

I go to the emergency room when I get flashed bad enough. I have had to call a taxi at 2 am a couple times. The medicine they put in your eyes is worth every penny. Things to avoid: other people welding while you are not welding (put up a welding curtain if this can't be avoided), White tee shirts, walls painted white, too low shade #( I use #12) and cracked or broken sheilds. The doctor said the more you have been flashed, the more likely to happen again.

Both of my tables have 1" thick tops. Believe it or not, this is not overkill. Any less than this will eventually warp. Even with 1" plate, I try to avoid tacking/grinding. I do it if I must, but usualy cut the tacks off with a sharp cold chisel. Both of my tables have I-beam frame work, six legs, and are 35" tall. One is 5'x8', one is 3.5'x14' They are easily the most important tools in my shop.

The easiest way to weld brass is to tig with silicon bronze. Multiple passes with admixturing if strenth is needed. If color match is important, it can be tig welded with "bare brass rod". This is not easy to do, but can certainly be done. The zinc, and also some lead will boil out of the puddle. Multiple passes, vigorous wire brushing, and pretend that you can see the puddle. Manual or auto pulse, and actualy dipping the tunsten into the puddle, just as you floor the current. Pulse hard, touch off, add fill at top of heat, back way off. Know that it works and keep at it till you get it.

R. Funk, Do we as blacksmiths follow all codes? I would certainly hope so. Codes are not suggestions or ideas,nor are they rules to be bent or broken,winked at etc. Do it right or do not do it. My old johnson gasser could not be run inside, so I run it outside.

I welded a chunk of stainless to the leg of my welding table. I clamp the ground there. If there is a ground problem, it is most likely in the connection,where the wire enters the clamp. sometimes you have to sand or grind the contact surface of the ground clamp itself. Also with high frequency it is best to ground the work itself.