arftist

Castable refractory to line your furnace with? McMaster Carr. A homemande version would be something like 25% fireclay, 25% grog(smashed up pieces of flue pipe work well, 45% mason sand, sharp and washed, and 5% iron clad cement. The ready made stuff will likely last longer and not be much more money.

Possible? Yes. Practical? No. Some people do this for fun. A crew of three or four will spend a few days and if they are lucky and very knowledgeable they might get a pound or two. The methods would take me too long to write out. Do a google search, there is plenty of information out there.

I don't see why you need caulk. Once you bolt it together,asuming you use large enough bolts and tighten them properly, it will be essentialy one piece. Caulking goes between an anvil and a stump, though I don't use it there.

Hang one over your shop door, to catch good luck.

Done a lot of large rail jobs, but better at answering specific questions.

Thats cool Hill, Thanks.

[quote=cilbuper;127070 Oh, one more question. I know that using coal, coke and charcoal with iron turns it into steel with the addition of carbon. Will using only a gas hurt the metal working process? Thanks again!

As it stands I have to step on the treadle pretty hard to get it cycling but I got a little paint on the clutch while painting. should I sand it a little or do you think it'll wear off. OR is it something else? I'm using 30w oil on the clutch but have tried both lighter and heavier with no noticable difference. Thats the problem with dupont linkage style hammers as far as I can tell. The inertia of the tup is greater than the little flywheel can smoothly move. With practice though, you should be able to play her like a fiddle. Congatulations on getting her up and running.

Always do what you oughta, pour acid into water.

See the "Fly Press Tooling" thread in the "Presses" forum. There is a lot of info on this very subject there. If that doesn't answer your question, ask it again.

There are several ways to attack this problem, but let me preface by saying that nothing grabs a steel stud as tightly as aluminum. Asuming that the studds are flush or below the surface, Grant's method of welding a nut to the stud is most likely to work. The key to this method though, is to allow everything to completely cool before atempting to turn the nut. To do otherwise is to garantee that the weld will break or the studd will break off a little below the weld. If the studd is broken below the suface, all is not lost. A very special (and expensive rod), MG600 can be used. The flux coating of this rod will flow out and fill the thread area, forcing the bead to build up in the shape of a pillar. Idealy one would orient the work so that one could comfortably strike and maintain an arc right in the center of the studd from staight above, continuing to feed the rod until the pillar is high enough above the surrounding surface to easily weld to a nut. Again, it is essential the the work cools fully before atempting the stud removal. Another method is to carefully centerpunch the center of the stud, drill as large a hole as possible, and remove the stud with an EZout type of tool. It is also possible to drill most of the stud out, leaving just a shell or tube, just inside the threads, which can then be collapsed with a cold chisel or a cape chisel. In using both of these methods, great care must be taken to center the centerpunch on the stud. If it sticks up a little, and is broken unevenly, grind it flat. If the threads are damaged in the process, they can be repaired by use of a thread insert such as a heli-coil or a time-sert, or in severe cases, welded up, and redrilled and tapped. The final method of stud removal would be EDM or electrical Discharge Machining. You may have to call around to find a shop capable.

For future reference, no, brazing can not be used on a forge. The temps are way too high. Brazing also should not be used for fireplace equipment, woodstove repairs or exhaust manifold repairs. If you have an oxy-ace rig however, you can do gas welding, which is almost as easy as brazing. While you are at the auto parts store, ask if they have any flex-pipe. It might save you some piping effort.

I have a lot of stuff hot-dip galvanized. And while it is there, I have them prime it with epoxy and topcoat with urethane. It is far cheaper for me to pay them, than to clog up my shop, and have no other work being done, while paint dries, plus they garantee the finnish for twenty years, which is a huge selling point. Powder coat does not offer nearly the protection of hot dipped zinc and arroud here, costs more. Spray metal for buildup cost upwards of $100 per pound for the powder alone, nevermind labor, fuel and profit.

Please, Hill, post some questions. Some of us live to answer blacksmith/metalwork questions. Remember, there are no stupid questions, only stupid answers. Boy, I hope I am not considered pompous. I try to give detailed answers to questions I know something about, for three reasons; because I want to help, because I enjoy writing, and to help preserve the art, and leave a permanent record for those who come later.

Glen, couldn't find the 500#. Where did you see it?

Welcome Doctor.

Thanks for posting this Bent Iron. Very interesting.

Did you make them a prototype already?

It's not that hard to build a ring roller, especialy if you have a lathe. You can use sprockets and chain instead of gears.

Well, did you buy it? That is a good workable anvil, a size big enough to do a lot of work, and a good price considering how hard they are to find in your area.

The distortion may not be very noticeable, depending upon the radius of the bend, but it will certainly be there. There is no way for it to not distort. Take your section of tube, pipe flat bar, angle or whatever. draw a line lengthwise through the center. Whatever is on the outside of the centerline had to get longer (and thinner) during the bending. Whatever is inside the center line had to get shorter (and thicker)during the bending. This is distortion. One way to clearly see this is to take a flat bar, say 3/8" by 2", heat it to forgeing heat, and hammer along just one side of the bar. The more you hammer it and the thinner it gets, the more it will bend in the other direction. I use this method alone to make curved strap hinges, even though I have other ways to edge bend flat bar, because it is easy and controllable and customers want "the hammered look" sometimes. Back to your question, yes you can bend tube that way. It will be slow, expensive, and with a learning curve. To understand what you are doing, the way heat shrinking works is; Upon being heated intensely, the steel will expand, in all directions, but mostly in thickness. Upon cooling the steel will contract less in thickness and more lateraly, with the end result being twofold, 1. the heated spot will be thicker. 2. the surrounding metal will be pulled toward the heated spot. The result of the heating will be essentialy the same whether quenched or not. The quenching allows the work to proceed faster. I think that for your purposes rolling would be preferable. Actualy, all that being said, if you really want to avoid the rolling, try the method mentioned by Francis, above.

The v block on the bottom will cause the pipe to neck in or reduce in diameter. Try it with a curved bottom tool as close to the o.d. of the pipe as possible and long too. The pipe will still get smaller but not as much as with a v block. A freind of mine makes bark by stick welding with 6011.

What about a variable displacement back cylinder? Too complicated I suppose.

Anacanthus leaves aren't they? A very good first attempt at what is known as the pinnacle of leaf development. I have made many simple leaves, by various methods, yet never attempted the legendary anacanthus, primarily due to a mental block I have about compound curves. Amazing the help of a good book.

What are you trying to do to the pipe? Taper it? Texture it? Bend it? Different tools for different tasks. Specific questions are easier to answer.