arftist

Tonights tip is another easy but useful idea that has served me well. A blacksmiths square is made by welding a 6" long section of 1/2" square stock, perpendicular to the center of a 12" long piece of the same. This gives a tool in the shape of an elongated T. Hard to explain how useful this is, til you use it.

See if you can find a local metal shop and buy some scrap from them. Should be able to find some one in the phone book, go there and if they are not too busy, give or sell some metal to you real cheap. Good luck. Make sure you tell them why you want it.

Right, guess I just never heard the term before, thanks for the info.

The cross pein hammer, aka blacksmiths hammer is very handy, but sometimes a straight pein is better for a certain job. Needing a straight pein in a hurry one day, I took an engineers hammer, left the handle intact, locked the head in a vice, and using a hand held grinder with a cutoff wheel, cut the head to the shape of a straight pein. I cut carefully, to not raise the temperature enough that it would "lose its temper" i.e. need to be rehardened and tempered. I then finished shaping the head on a belt sander, giving me a usable tool, far faster than making one from scratch.

HWooldridge, what is a swamp cooler? I am a swamp yankee, but I've never heard that.

I am ready to hear why I get insulted for welcoming and complimenting this guy and asking him share his knowledge in a blueprint. And who questioned your experience?

Hopefully one or both of my children will someday take over the business,

I give out a lot of business cards. I spent a lot of time on the design of the cards, and often people are impressed just with the card. I have my website adress on the cards as well.

For iron, you would have to find it laying around somewhere or in a junkyard. No one really sells it any more. Mild steel is available from Steel Service Centers, in volume or from a local welding shop for small amounts.

BTW Gray is not a name, but my hair color; maybe you don't have as many years as you think. Care to extrapolate upon your supposition? I'm ready.

Hey unkle Spike, great idea.

Hey, GrayR, glad you are here. I asume you are grayer than most, but my beard is white too. It is tough to join a new group, and get the instant recognition you most likely deserve. I know, I joined this one recently. Sounds like you've got a darn good grasp of metallurgy and this is a good place to share it. Ed, as an example of what I think quench crack means, I once found a drive shaft from something, 1.625" by about twelve feet. I knew it was tool steel from the drive spline. I have made a great many blacksiths tools from that one bar, and still have about 3' left. I am not sure what it is but am able to harden it readily. In another case, a customer comes in with a tool a freind of mine made 20 years ago, just before he died suddenly. The customer claims the tool is too soft and wants me to harden it for him. After checking the hardness and thinking for a while I agree, but I have no idea what this stuff is, as my freind died before he ever told me what he used. I agree with quenchcrack, write a blueprint. I make my living doing this and the more we all know the better.

High freg converters of the type you are using have an adjustable spark gap under a flap some where or behind a window. Yours may need an adjustment. I also sometimes remove a gfi and replace it with a regular outlet, unless it is by a sink. By the way if you have one gfi in a circuit, all the receptacles in that circuit, become gfi. As far as being broadcasters, that is exactly what they are. They are used in tig welding to broadcast a beam of electrons from the end of the tungsten to the work, that the welding current can then follow, illiminating the need to "strike an arc". High freg has the aditional benefit of helping to break through Al-oxide, which is why there is a start only setting, for welding on dc. If you want to witness the broadcasting ability, point the tungsten at your finger from a half inch away (do not ground yourself) and step on it.

True, but the center of the metal in question will not get 50-100 degrees hotter unless it soaks long enough anyway. Long enough soak time is equally important as temp, for if either of them is inadequate, proper hardening will not be achieved.

Shopping at the local industrial junkyard, I picked up a 30 gallon stainless steel barrel, and a ten gallon s.s. can, almost as big in diameter. I drilled a bunch of holes in the can, attached a bail, and it sleeps in the bottom of the quench tub. Now when I forge a bunch of rivets or whatever, I just drop them in, and when I'm done, lift the can out. I made the bail extra long so I don't have to stick my hand into the water. On the side of the quench tub, I welded on a rack to hold the few tongs I am using at that time.

When I first found this site I read a lot of the blueprints and I have to say, nice work, and thank you. But, I look to this spot every day, and nothing personal, but I am not interested in crowd control. How about some shop tips now and then? I will start with something simple, which many of you probably already know , but maybe get the ball rolling. When I need to make a simple jig for hot bending, I use a piece of angle iron as the base. Then when I use it, I just clamp the bottom leg of the angle in a vice. If this is a repeat, please ignore.

I just wanted a better looking weld. Ten Hammers, if you have a dc stick welder, you can get set up with a gas cooled tig torch, and a little juction block (can't remember the right term for it), argon hose connects to one side, torch to the other side, and weld current, and scratch start tig all you want. Make sure you get a torch with a gas shut off valve built in. Should be around $200. Of course you will also need tungsten, filler rods, an argon regulator or flowmeter, and an argon tank.

Fabbing up a medium end indoor railing today. Often mig weld, them spend lost of time cleaning up. Always wondering if I should spend more time welding(tig), and no time cleaning. So today, I sprayed some mig filler in there, then went over it with tig, fusion only, washed the welds around, beautiful result, no clean up at all. Yes I use anti-spatter spray, etc, but nothing looks as good as tig.

Tigman, I've used pure helium, care to elaborate on the properties/benefits of the 75/25 mix? Thankyou.

Hillbillysmith, I am sure you meant to say part of the fluxe goes in the weld, right?

It's kind of hard to explain what the chicken killing rig had to do with smithing, except to tell you that when you know, you will know.

I was working as a millwright in a lightbulb factory. I was buiding a new hopper for a drum grinder at the end of a reject conveyor. I had snapped a padlock on what I was told was the correct lockout. While I was standing on the drum, in the grinder welding, a computer engineer decided to start testing programs. I got out of the grinder, just as it came on. Uninjured but shaken, I didn't even bother to pick up my tools, headed for the door, and never returned.

For a beginer, The complete modern blacksmith is an exellent book. Easy to read, easy to understand, beautifuly illustrated, very complete, shows how to improvise any equipment you don't have, insirational. A good follow up would be Bealer's Art of the Blacksmith.

By the way, you can blow up a battery with welding current. I can't explain how this happened, but with the welder on, I connected the ground clamp. The stinger must have been in contact with the body or the bed of the truck. As I walked arround the front of the truck, with the hood open, the battery exploded in my face. But for the grace of God, I suffered no permanent damage. I dove face first into a snow bank, and by the time I was standing up, a mechanic grabbed me, and got my face under running water inside the service station. I will never weld on a vehicle with the battery connected no matter how many times you say that nothing will happen. Been there, done that.

My first car disaster involved an aprentice who cut through a gas line with a torch. Complete new interior, I picked up the tab. Second time, replacing a section of frame, some type of tarred felt glued to the inside of the sheetmetal body, about six inches away from where I was welding, ignited, causing paint and again interior damage. The car owner was a machinist who was very understanding, but I still had to pay for the repairs AGAIN. Will there be a third "accident" ? I hope not.