dkunkler

Trip, sounds like I need to come pick you up and we can then go on up to visit with Stan.
Better see about getting an invitation first.
He is in southern Illinois. About 250 miles from you.

Stop by and pick me up too, I'd like to test drive Stan's treadle hammer.

Great video, l hope the cone improves performance.

4'x10' sheets take a *big* rotating magnetic base!

Come on Thomas, you know I meant chop it up into squares on the shears first. You would have a little more waste than doing a whole sheet on a cnc machine.

You could have the plasma cutter fixed stationary and put the blanks on a rotating magnetic base.

Here is a photo of the base fixture and one of the bender bars we used. Once the blank was up to working temp, the long leg was lowered into the hole in the base and the split was started with a handled hot cut. The bars were then slid onto the arms and bent open to about 90 degrees of each other. Next the bars were used alternately on the top/bottom and arms to open the rest of the way.The base and bars were finally used to get the cross square and straight.
You can see the bender bars are angle iron with round pipe added on. On the first cross we did
we didn't have the pipe extensions and I imagine it was somewhat comical to watch us struggle with it.
We had plenty of help, but you can get only so many men at the end of a 4 foot piece of angle iron.

I agree with Steve on the Hugh McDonald plans, it's a proven design. I've built one and like it. The plans have several pages of text on the hows and whys of the development and design. Even if you want to experiment with design and do your own thing, build the McDonald mill and learn how hot steel reacts in rollers, then go from there. "Stand on the shoulders of giants"

As I recall the smaller in diameter the rolls are the more HP you need. I once saw a book on rolling mill design that had the angle of reduction/HP calculations in it.

I agree Thomas, the smaller the rolls the steeper the "climb". Larger rollers reduce this but put more metal in contact with the rolls,increasing the force on the roll bearings and more contact absorbs more heat from the metal.

The sacrificial metal is the anode or plus side and can be multiple anodes connected together and against the sides of the tub.
Multiple items may be derusted as long as they have a good electrical connection to the neg terminal. You may try forcing the punches in the holes of a piece of expanded metal or wiring them to it. If the items are really rusty, sand or file at the points of contact to get a good connection.

I have a 24 volt charger and was thinking of using electrolysis once I get power to the shop; got some old mechanisms that could use it on to try to get them working again.

Get a good size tub to start with Thomas, because once you get started you'll be derusting all kinds of stuff. I use expanded metal mesh scraps as anodes, lots of surface area.

i think that was the one i had for sale some guy bought it he said it was art. i dont get modern art

If you got a hundred bucks for it, you're a great saleman. :)

The method I prefer is to drill a hole in a block of steel as thick as the length of the rivet shank, cut your round stock long enough to form the head. Heat the end of the rivet stock,drop it in the hole and shape the head, flip it over and pop it out with a punch. It helps to have a circle marked around the hole the size of the desired head to keep it centered and uniform size as you hammer it to shape. The circle can be inscribed in with a curved chisel or just a series of center punch marks.

If you want to throw away $100, here's one.
http://louisville.craigslist.org/grd/3223471807.html

Yes, download the PDF and print it out.

Any tips for getting the horns so long? I've been trying to make decent dragon heads for years now, and the horns always mess me up, ending up short and stubby so that my dragons look more like dogs.

I've tried flat chisels and curved chisels but I never have enough "horn" to be able to draw out or even manage to hit the little ear like stubs with a hammer.

Thanks

A sharp thin chisel made of something like H13 would help. It will tolerate the heat and still hold an edge. Also, start farther back on the neck than the expected length of the horn, because as you shear it away it is compacted.

Our thoughts and prayers are with you and your family.

Here is a link for a good step by step on building a ribbon burner.
http://blacksmith.or...gas-forge/page2
I think you will have problems getting equal pressure and flow on four 1/2" tubes split off of one 1".
You may be in for a lot of experimenting, testing and tweaking.

I agree with Macbruce, I've never seen anything quite like it and I like the way the blade flows into the handle. It's a piece of functional art.

Geez...I didn't expect a pissing match.

Whatever you do, don't cross the streams, it would be bad. (Ghostbusters)

What is this quad state? Is it a swap meet?

Here is a link to info about last year's conference. This should give you an idea of what it's all about.
http://sofablacksmiths.org/conference2011/2011index.htm

A copy is on the way via email. It was good to see you and your work at the IBA conference.

I have a #6 (P6) press that will slit 2" round stock for hammers and would not want to use anything smaller for that.

Try Louis Meyer in Louisville, who often writes on this forum.

Lewis is fciron on IForgeIron.

May I suggest you take a chunk of 2x6 and mount that and then move the drill up and down along that until you decide it's just right and then bolt it in firm at the spot you want to have it.

Good idea Thomas. A good starting position would be with the crank handle in the topmost position, level the crank handle with the center of your shoulder joint. Your hand will be shoulder height at the top of the rotation.

A ham and cheese sandwich walks into a bar, bartender says- sorry, we don't serve food here.

To reduce the possibility of racking and binding, you could make the sides of the ram assembly longer and add X braces. Something like this

I'm kind of missing the point on that drawing in the link, the torch and bunsen burner are seperate from eachother, making not hands free right?

The last photo of post #13 in the linked topic shows it setup for treadle mode. The visegrips are weighting the lever in the off position until the treadle is pressed.