pjh66

easiest way I know is fabricate a square hole with flat bar weld together machine the outside round to a size like 1 3/4" drill hole of that size punch in weld top & bottom

I agree with others that you may need to lift your fire pot up a bit to get the level of the pot right.

Also if it was mine I would be putting some support brace across under the cutouts as wit heat & use it will bend.

If you are concerned about the table thickness you can put some flat bar on its edge across under it in a couple of places.

Dear Ronin,

 

Actually, I want to make shallow, flat bottomed holes to mount semi-precious jewel cabochons (domed, not faceted stones).  For example, cab garnets in the terminals of a penannular brooch.  Some of the materials may be rather thin and I don't want to punch through with the tip of a standard twist drill.  Also, a flat bottom may be polished up a bit to reflect up through the stone better.

 

Thanks to all the responses, I will chase them down.

For what you intend to do with them I would look into a slot drill or centre cutting end mill. I gather you are only going about 1 - 3 mm deep so a normal drill bit sharpened flat will not give the finish that you seem to want. You will need to use them in a ridged machine to be able to use them properly like a mill drill unit. Most small drill press units will have to much movement in the spindle for proper use. Have fun hope to see some posted results of what you come up with.

G'day Mates, what a great Forum!

I'm from Barellan Point near Ipswich, QLD; God's country.

I have recently retired from Defence after close on 35 years and can now pursue a number of passions, Blacksmithing being the main one. I have completed the annex to the shed to act as the Smithy and am populating it with 'heavy' stuff. I will be making tools in the first instance and then hope to do some leaf work, baskets, decorative stuff etc. Not Dragons and such but Australiania if that is possible. I have completed a couple of weekend courses at the Cobb and Co Museum in Toowoomba and found them helpful. This is the first time I have ever posted anything on a forum and am finding it great.

Regards to all, Ned Kelly. And yes that actually is my name. And no I don't think I am related to the original. 

 hi Ned Im bit further west of you at Minden There is a group that meet twice a month in Brisbane also know of someone in Ipswich that has just started doing courses again. Let me know if you need any more info. Have fun with the addiction 

The heel will be longer as well as thinner. That will be determined by the thickness of the top plate when its added. The reason I didn't mill the hardy yet is that the top plate will be 100% when welded later. The whole projects has just been plan as I go cause I had a little down time. Everything is just drop that I had at work but I'll refine everything later.

Hi TJ what I do for my hadie hole is to fabricate it from plate to form the square hole, then machine the outside of it to suit a drill size that I use to drill through the anvil so it is a hammer in fit, prep & weld top & bottom. I have fabricated all of my anvils & they are great even if I say so my self.

Peter

 Be good to see more small groups around

Wow. 20 pages of Australian stuff. Guess I'd better add my name to the list.
I live in Far North Queensland, a teacher by profession (retired now) but always have a liking for forging things. (Not always successfully.) There is a lot to be learnt on these forums and my skills have improved.
There aren't many blacksmiths up this way so I intend to head down to Toowoomba one day and do one of the courses offered by the Cobb and Co museum down there.
I have the luxury of being able to do blacksmith demos at our local heritage museum - I keep it simple and people seem to enjoy watching hooks, handles, ram's heads, snakes etc emerge from the forge. I never do forge welding (a) because sparks are too close to the barriers and ( B) I'm not good at it.
I guess we all have our particular skills - I can learn a lot from people on this site (and I could teach a few of them to spell too!)
Anyway, good to know there are lots of Australians on the forums. G'day to all of you from the Far North.

 

G'day Ausfire, If you get to do a course with Terry at the Cobb & Co you will enjoy yourself. And I need heaps of help with spelling :-))

Hey there guys and gals,

Weekend basher from toowoomba Qld, trying to get into it a bit more but hard to find good tools and I just don't get enough time. I built myself a forge from a few bits and pieces and works great.

I would love to get to some gatherings around the place, time permitting.

G'day Jimmyjames

Im about 45 min down the hill from you towards ipswich. If you want to drive a bit there is a club that meets at Pinkenba. Might even be able to team up a day here with you  some day. Send me a message some time if interested.

for a cheap fix of the hole buy a masonry drill bit & resharpen the carbide brazed in bit to the geometry of a normal drill bit ( for hard steels 135 deg to 140 deg  angle and thin the web) flood with coolant to keep it down at the tip of the drill bit. Make sure the job is secure on the drill press table so you can  keep the deep up on it. DON'T forget to use good PPE. I have drilled out broken taps & drill bits with this method.

Biggest problem I have seen when people drill harden  & or material that work hardens is they let the cutting tool rub. the heat generated by the friction of it rubbing will harden the spot almost instantly. For you problem I would try to drill from the other side & drill back through.

Just a few tips hope it helps. A lot of good points in other posts also. Have fun with your build.

From my limited understanding "whale oil" has a very high flash point. I have used what I was told was whale oil once. It was at a place that had it from about 50 yrs ago. It was very fine, smooth, and oily ( I know that sounds funny). This same tub of oil has been used at this place for a long time from what we were told. You can purchase oils designed for heat treating purpose now without trying to find whale oil. I bout a 20 litre drum of heat treating oil for about AUD$ 70.00 which was lasting well until my son knocked the drum over.

Hi this is one I made, might give you some ideas. 1" hardy hole couple of different pricket holes

Looks good to me. The swing arms my need a bit of padding or some rounding to make the edges bit more comfy for your legs. But well done 

I was in discussion with another local smith and I mentioned that no matter how tight I fit and wedge my hammer handles they always seem to work loose over time.  He came up with the brilliant suggestion of fitting them with some inner tube rubber between the handle and head so I tried it yesterday. Filed the handle so it was a firm but still a slip fit, cut a circle of inner tube from a 4WD tyre, bit of dishwashing liquid as a lubricant, put it over the hole and tapped the handle through (it came up tight three quarters through so I then had to belt it a bit harder).  Trimmed of the excess around the bottom and cut a slit in the top and viola! a really solid fitting handle.  I'll let you know how well it holds once I have done some more work with it but it seems that after a couple of short forging sessions it hasn't moved a bit.

 

Andrew

I have seen a old blacksmith that does this to all his hammers He said they last for ages like this. I haven't tried it yet myself but have used his. I have heard of using "sifaflex" to fit hammer handles as well. I think the rubber helps fill any gaps and take up any shrinkage and expansion that happens with the timber.

The Cobb & Co museum in Toowoomba is another place to see smithing done at times

G'day Lance. The group had a club day Yesterday (Sat 2/11/13) About 2 weeks time they will have another 1.

If you are interested PM me and I will get the club contact number for you.

For blades & some other more delicate items you might consider electro chemical etching them instead of a punch. IMHO they both have their pros & cons

Peter

Nice bit of engineering! Is the control your own design? Will it do single blows?

the idea was from some I saw on the net but worked it out with what I had.

No doesn't do a true single blow but can do a single blow if you work the control right

great views mate

Ram is a 2" air ram I made the Hammer/ head shaft is about 20Kg a piece of 2 1/2" square 4140.

Powered by a 14cf air compressor at 100psi through 3/8 air lines. would like to put a reservoir tank next to it and run 3/4" lines from tank to hammer.

Any other questions please ask.

Peter

Hi I am just posting a couple of pic of my Air Hammer that I made.

I still have to change the die system. Going to make a dovetail system top & bottom to change dies simple & quick.

Originally it had to much bounce until I added the 4" shaft with a foot plate to the ground directly under the anvil. It is sitting on about 6" of road base. I haven't worked out how many hits / minute. Stroke can be adjusted, ball valve on the side can be used to slow it down on finer work. Depending how hard you stand on the foot lever switch will depend on how hard it hits.

Question and comments welcome.

Please ignore my mess got to clean up when I get time.

That you made? how? and Wow! Nice looking anvil. Thats majo mate comes to mind. :D

Oxy cutter, 9" Angle grinder, mill face cutter, mag base drill & welder.

Thanks for the comments. Ended up about 56 - 58 rockwell.

Angled die grinders a good also your can get 2" & 3" sanding pads for a die grinder and the angle die grinders can get in around things better then a straight 1. Just a thought for what to buy. I have both types & use them for different applications.

Thought I would post some pics of my anvil I made in mid 2012.

Let me know what you all think.

Don't mind the junk in the back ground.

Peter

Looking good, Can't wait to see it finished.

Just a tip for your drawing. When I print a drawing out that I want to use to compare my work with, I glue it onto a piece of thin sheet metal then cut it out with tinsnips, centre punch any reference lines on it. That way I don't have to worry about it burning or blowing away. Then you can put a hole through it & hang it up to use again.

on my portable forge my bar grate drops into a recess so when scraping or poking around in the fire it can't move. But I can lift it out when  finished with the fire and the knock any stuck pieces out from either side. only a small 90 x 75mm grate out of 10mm square bar.

I know I probably not explaining it properly but hope it helps someone.