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I Forge Iron

Charles R. Stevens

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Everything posted by Charles R. Stevens

  1. Red brick will crack and melt, but it will last a wile
  2. Regualar morter is made with cement, cement will break down. Plaine adobe dirt, fire bricks (get the 2x4x8" ones as they are cheeper than the 1x2x8" ones,)or kiln shell es from a potery place.just set them dry. Plane clay and sand about 3 to one makes adobe.
  3. That tire hammer will surprise you, the tire is mearly the clutch for the drive, think about how much hammer a 5 HP motor can move with a 12 to one multiplication. A foot long slug of 4x4" is 30# or so.
  4. Honestly if your going to do that, instead of a second stake, i would go back to your ariginal idea, a peice of 1 1/2 heavy wall square tubing set in the stump as a hardy hole. I still suggest sholdering it with a peice of 1/2 square bar. That would give you a hardy hole, that you could hide with the tool. If your tools, or anvil are taperd, you can use them to drift the tubing for a tigter fit. This would alow you to knock down your entire set up, and still have the look. In the mean time you might try sorcing a 1-2" bolt. That will give you an anvil, once the grade stamp is grount off
  5. Press the handles in, instead of milling out the bottom, woden wedge and a steel wedge works very well. Sand down to bare wood and oil
  6. That, sir is why we are all here. Realy just bent legs or wings would do. Even a 1/4 wire frame. Lots of ways to ad tooling. Think power hammer or treddle
  7. I Imagine Master Powers may also have some exelent imput on forging on a small period anvil as well, lol
  8. You might Pm Donnie and ask for some pointers forging on a small anvil. Invite him to open a thread their are plenty of folks that can learn from him and others that do "period" demos.
  9. Bottom tooling dosnt need a hardy shank either. Anvil devils being an example. Fullers can be a peice of rod bent into a "Z" so it sets on the face of the anvil and with a small post anvil other tools can have a socket to fit over the anvil
  10. Break drums are misurable, there are a lot of beter setups. In my openion what got every one started on break drum forges was the olf breakdrums that were riveted to the hub. This gave you a convieniant botom blast forge pot with little modivication. To day the only breakdrums that are built that way are trailer drums. (Knock out the baring races). Honestly, the work to make one work right makes bulding a diferent forge practical. Might i recomend either of Glenn's 55 forges? Particularly the sideblast. Tho the use of a rear break disk seems to work well.
  11. Cool, keep us in the loop. As Frosty says, we love pictures!
  12. Frosty, i doubt his parents will go for turning the family room into a smithy ;-) Good, so your young, ambitius, willin to do your home work. You will find plenty of help here, just pay it forward. My sugjestion is to make a demo kit that is period. And a working smithy that is just that. Remember you will only heat 4-6" at a time Oh, and dont forget you need a cuple of thrals, one to pump the bellows and one to act as a striker and to hold the tongs when you need a vise
  13. Steel is cheep now, so we get wrong headed about this. Think 10# anvil, 4# sledge and a 2# hammer. Bigger anvils have been found, but they belonged to the rich
  14. Just remember the average viking owned les than a pound of iron, an axe, sword or helm were valuable! Any one with a car owns a ton and a half or more steel. As to track anvils. Viking era anvils were small. A 3" section of heavy guage rail with the flange cut of and the web forged to a square is a fait aproximation, a slightly longer peice can have awasp stinger shaped horn, pritchel holes are not unknown. Google viking anvils and iron age anvils. You will get some junk, but you will get some good reproductions and some rusty old ones in museims. The real ones are usualy shown with tools. Most are very small. Seriusly check out the websight i referenced, he did all the reproduction iron work for the canadian goverment when they set up the museim where the vikings landed in newfandland.
  15. http://warehamforgeblog.blogspot.com/?m=1 As well as Warehamforge.com Mästermyr chest, some were in the ware harehamer blog is an arress were you can lay hands on a copy of the archaeological catalogue. But several smiths have taken on the task of reproducing the tools and chest. Its a mix of smithing as well as wood working tools. Almost any hand tool is on the table here. But remember, the anvil alone represented several man/days work to produce. Look at the experimental smelts, to get an idea of what it took in terms of man/days work. Gathering, roasting and grinding the ore, producing the charcoal, building the blumadary furnace, running the smelt, consolidating the bloom into wrought iron. Then forging it into an anvil. Or into money bars. Iron was worth its weight in gold at this time, so the absolute bare minimum of kit is appropriate. A couple pairs of tongs, a couple hammers, a sledge, a hand full of punches, chisels and drifts, a nail header, a rivit header and a few top tools. If you cant fit it all (including your bellows) in a 16"x16"x 32" chest you have to much stuff.
  16. Maybe drive away? A mobile shop might be the answer. So a cool link on another thread with a powerhammer on a tommylift. Then if you lose your lease, you pack up and leave.
  17. New hammers are softer than old, for I believe the stated liability reason. So striking two new big box hammers together may be relatively safe, but an older pair, or a properly heat treated smith made hammer... Second, why make a flatter out of a sledge?! What are you going to hit it with? You lose a lot of energy to inersa so a 2 1/2 to 3 # hammer might make a good flatter to be used with a striker, but if your hitting it wit a 3# hammer what should you be hitting? Think mor the size of a auto body hammer ( cheep ones are cast iron) a 1" bolt would be a better choice
  18. As you are in the Uk, heat may not be as much of an isue, but what happens is the sun heats the tin to a temp much higher than the ambient air, then the tin radiates the heat down into the shop. This is the same thing that makes a tent, without a fly so miserable in july. The second isue is that in the cooler seasons, water will condence on the undrrside and drip on all your tools. One must insulate the roof to have a confortable and effective. Secondly how secure is this building? Theives are a terible issue in the Us. Having a heavy equipment, tools and materials that you have invested good money stollen and sold as scrap is devistating.
  19. Dealer ship wont help at all. Beter to contact Moog, Federal/Mogle or one of the other front end part manufacures and ask them. Its surprizing what an eginear witll tell you when you tell them your a smith.
  20. Portland cement is clay and lime, heated to high tempt to drive of the molecular water, then finaly grount. When you ad water a chemical reaction begines that cases it to harden. Subjecting portland cement to high tempitures drives out the mousture and causes it to crumble.
  21. Stay away from any refractory recipy that calls for portland cement, you want "water glass" http://ezinearticles.com/?Depression-Refractory-Mix-For-The-Backyard-Foundry.&id=85797 try this.
  22. A sarcastic, troublesome question asker.... You'll fit in just fine...
  23. Mister Reynolds, coal, wood and corn have to be converted to relativly pure carbon to be used as forge fuel. It dosent mater if you comvert it in the forge, by placing it on the outside of your working fire and burn of the volitile chemicals, or if you buy coke or charcoal that have been converted for you.
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