arftist

Trades that can contribute to the knowledge of a future Master Blacksmith are... all of them! Plumbing, carpentry, electrician, mason, HVAC, cabinet maker, rigger, truckdriver, sawyer, mechanic, sheet metal, ironworker,welder, machine shop, auto body, even working as a plaster or drywall mudder, will add an understanding of surfaces and fairing, both very needed skills of the master metal worker. Additionaly, especialy these days, computer knowledge, drafting, engineering graphics, design etc. are all usefull. Meanwhile, practice what you have been taught by some means.

Interesting. Knock on wood, I have yet to have a problem with the solenoid valve. Maybe because I use a regulator?

Yes Frosty, Well said, indeed.

It's not that simple. The main factors which determine desired percentage of thread are: 1. Material strength. Soft Aluminum needs a higher percentage of thread than mild steel. 2. Length of thread engagement. 1/4'' thick plate needs a higher percentage of thread than 1'' plate. 3. Difficulty of tapping. No point using 75% when 50% would be more than adequate, or in more extreme terms, you may not even be able to tap the hole without the tap wearing out and or breaking. Small taps don't last that long anyway. Especialy in hard stainless or similar metals, would you rather get 6 holes per tap or ten? On the other hand, very large taps can be very difficult to turn, why waste all your strength? So, if I were to tap 3/8"hard aluminum for a 3/8 bolt, I would use 80% thread. For 1'' hard aluminum, I would use 60% thread. For 1'' s.s., I would use 40% thread. For 3/8 mild steel I would use 50% thread. For 1/4 " brass I would use 90% thread. See what I am saying?

Dodge; you guys are not talking apples and oranges, more like grapes and coconuts. There is a whale of a difference between .045 wire and 1/4" rods. The same rules just don't apply. By the way , I have welded 1"x1" fillets on heavy lifting booms with .045 flux core. One pass.

Actuly some blown forges do have jets. When I converted my Johnson #122 to propane, I called Johnson, and they told me what size to change it to. What I did was drill the old orifice out to 1/8" pipe tap size, tapped it, drilled my propane orifice size in a brass pipe plug, etc. If I want to go back to natural, I buy another brass pipe plug. Forgemaster, you may want to dig a little deeper.

One thing I would like to add to this discusion is theoretical percentage of thread. Most taps and tapping charts list the drill bit size for 70-75% thread. In many cases, this is more thread than needed, increasing the difficulty of the job as well as the likelyness of breaking the tap. Most jobs will be strong enough with 50% thread. A chart which lists all possible bit sizes and the percentage of thread which they yeild is very important to me. Additionaly, enough can't be said about using a high quality cutting fluid for tap and die work.

That size stock would also be good for makeing bolt and rivet headers.

Sorry, I seem to have misread your question. For the spring part itself, I draw the stock down to about 1/4"x3/4" .The lenght of the spring itself in 16-18 inches, before bending.

It would certainly be cheaper to get a good deal on a used machine. I personaly am not a big fan of cheap TIG welders such as Millers Econotig, but only because I weld a lot of thick aluminum, and bronze. For most everything else(except copper and copper alloys, they are fine. Inverters are a different deal though. See what is on sale. A 185 or 200 amp inverter will out weld a 250 amp Synchrowave, use less electricity (by far), cost less, take up less room, and weigh 1/10th as much.

Depends on what you want. I have some made from 3/4" round and square, and one which I made from 2" round. As to the carbon content, mild steel will work fine and has plenty of "spring". Higher carbon steel, if properly heat treated, may last longer, but you can reforge it anyway.

One way you can start TIG welding is to buy a junction block, an air cooled TIG torch with a built in gas valve, an inert gas regulator(or a flowmeter), a tank of Argon and a hose to connect the flowmeter to the junction block. This will enable you to scratch start TIG, with heat preset, all metals except aluminum, using DC negative. If you want to weld aluminum, and have the advantage of a foot petal, a HIGH FREQ adapter with a foot petal is an add on as well. You will still need the first stuff I mentioned.

Heart rending. My condolences.

One product, one or more successive users, many hammers, many, many years.

Frosty, I just have to add, you definitely contribute to a cozy atmosphere here for me also. Additionaly, when you open that encyclopedia of metalworking info you call a brain, we all benefit again.

151# Hay-Budden, good condition, main anvil.

As you have already discovered, the lathe is the king of machine tools.

The best for me are the thinnest, .040"x6" ,cut faster, strain grinder motor less, less nasty fumes and dust.

Allright Frank. Wellcome to the forth dimension of blacksmithing. For me, the doors of creativity truly opened when I got my power hammer, as I could now do things I never had either the patience or the energy for before.

That ones gone already. Must have been a heck of a deal.

My favorite place to get metal is at junkyards. Not so much car junkyards, but the industrial ones near big cities. Not that there isn't good metal to be had from cars, there is, in fact cars provide an abundance of various spring, tool, and high carbon steels. It is just that often a car part is worth more as a part than the steel in it is worth. Other possibilities are scrap metal dealers, especialy large ones, automotive spring replacement shops, car repair shops, and welding and fabrication shops. Expect to pay something at all but auto repair shops, which should be glad to have you haul their trash away.

Either way it's a steal for that price. The condition looks close to mint.

Hey Al, If you have plenty of 7", 3' would give an anvil weight of 450# plus the weight of your baseplate. I made my baseplate out of 1.5", and love it. weight down low where it belongs, and an ultra stiff frame. My nine inch diameter anvil is 3 feet high. I think the article you are looking for on built up anvils may be in the powerhammer section of Anvilfire.

Hey Al, Here is my input, for what it is worth. 7 inches diameter is a goodly chunk of steel. Part of the problem though, aside from the weight, is that it is most likely too short. The obvious solution then is to set it on top of another chunk of the proper length and weld them together. Be sure to allow for the thickness of your machine base(1/2" minimum to as thick as you can drag back to your shop) and the thickness of your bottom dies. When I built my hammer, I used an extra plate 1.5" thick under my bottom die. This gives me more room on top of the 9" dia. sow block to work on odd shaped sections, and also gives me more room to install or use oversize tooling if I remove the spacer. In conclusion, if you could find a chunk of steel larger than 7"dia., round, square or whatever, use it under your existing chunk. If it is somewhat smaller, but long enough, and all that you can find, such as 6" round or smaller square, add it to the top of your seven inch chunk. Since a proper weld preheat would involve an unbeleivable amount of b.t.u.s, weld them together as best you can, but also brace each chunk to the mast with something substancial, such as 1"x6" plate, properly beveled, and completely welded with 7018, 8018, or stronger. If you place the bar in a vertical position, the uphill welding will essentialy help preheating if you do multiple passes, which I would do.Good luck on your build, an please report back often on your progress.

These are the types of questions I like to see here. The essence of Blacksmithing; inventiveness, creativity, building your own tools, using materials at hand. Swage blocks were square or rectangular for a good reason; to provide more surfaces with upon which to place shapes. The more sizes and shapes in one implement, the more efficient use of the normaly small blacksmith shop. Early swage blocks would have been simply grey cast iron, and derived needed stength from size and design, rather than material strenght. In spite of this one will ocasionaly find broken swage blocks. With the advent of ductile iron, size(mass) and shape of swage blocks has become more flexible. Many modern swage blocks have features or shapes which hold no interest to me, and lack others I think might be usefull. As far as the hardness of ductile iron goes, some of the most popular modern anvils are cast of ductile iron, are quite usable, and yet not as hard as wrought anvils with tool steel faces. Frosty is of course entirely correct that annealing would be nessasary for machining. However, many shapes could be cut into a track section with a cutting torch and cleaned up with a grinder. Many other shapes could be acheived by grinding alone. Additionaly, one with carbide tooling and a stout milling machine could machine rail road track in it's normal state. Futhermore, annealing is not nessasarily an expensive proposition, depending upon the resourses at hand. The two frugal ways I anneal tool steel are as follows; After using the forge, I put the hard part into the forge, bring it to above critical heat, then shut the forge off. In the case of a coal forge, it might do to dump dry ashes over the still hot forge, or simply bank with coal. The next day, most steels will be fully anealled. In the winter, I use an even cheaper method, the woodstove. Insert the part upon a hearty glowing bed of hardwood coals. Add fuel (wood), open the air for twenty minutes or so, shut down air to normal. Remove softened metal from cold stove the next morning. Finaly, another idea which presents itself, sections of rail would make excellent stock for hardy tools. Cut off the mount, add steel to enough of the web, forge to fit your hardy hole, design from there. For hardy tools which are seriously abused, the properties of rail steel may be especialy helpful.