MetalMuncher

That is some great looking work, Randy! Keep it comin´! Cheers, Michael

Forging a barrel is tough stuff...best of luck to ya. Cheers

I did warn y'all it was a brain fart! Hmmmmm, junkyard here I come! Thanks for all the help guys. I figured it needed to be a good solid hunk of metal. I guess I just have to look harder I will let you know how it goes! Thanks again for all the help! Cheers

You are right George, but the joy of it is that you can simply pull the hammer head out and slap some more concrete in there. You can compact stuff only so much. It has nowhere to go because the base will be a solid 1/4 inch steel plate. Sand is another option, but I think I might have to keep adding until it gets really solid. Any thoughts? Cheers

Hahahaha! Half the fun is trying to figure out to make the bloody thing. But I will indeed take pictures with the goal to help others Ummmm, I think I had an idea...err...brain fart. Have a look at this pic: This is my idea for my anvil. I have seen people weld huge billet looking chunks of metal together and all sorts, but that is just not an option for me. So this is what I came up with. The 10kg hammer head would simply slide into the pipe and only a small portion of it would be sticking out. I will fit snugly in the pipe. Any thoughts? I think the concrete would provide sufficient mass to make it effective. Any thoughts? Thanks again!!

Thanks again dudes! arftist and George, I think the configuration that will best suit my needs is the double nut. It makes sense and should hold fast. I will be sure to counter-rotate them Thanks for the note on the roller and tire. Im not even sure about their dimentions yet, so I can make ajustments as I go. Pictures might only come with time, but I will be sure to shoot plenty! They will, hopefully, prove useful to others. Great! Thanks for all of your help! Cheers Michael

Thanks for your help guys! Nice to have some good ol' straight forward answers Grant, I meant motorcycle spring. I thought shock was the word hehehe. Good to know a horse power is a horse power, I thought that simple bench grinders were of an inferior quality or something. George, thanks for pointing out the rocking bit. I was even going to buy a 2 Hp grinder! I think I will be purchasing a 1hp grinder...I figure I could always ajust the size of the contact wheel and hone in on what works. Am I right? P.S- About the bolts, would a regular nut and bolt do the job? In my mind it would come loose with all the vibrations. Thanks for the help! Cheers Michael

Greetings! I have been having pondering the idea of making a tire hammer. Seems relatively straight forward, cheap-ish to build and looks sufficiently harmless so my girl wont complain I just need to confirm a few technicalities and was wondering if you guys could give me some advice. The cheapest and most readily available motor for me would be an ordinary bench grinder. I was thinking about 1 or 1 1/2 HP one (2,500 rpm give or take). The question in my mind is whether a grinder can handle the torque when contacting the tire. Would the grinder even be capable of moving the tire, or just stop all together? Secondly, concerning the spring connecting the upper linkage arms, could I use a motorcycle shock? And finally, bolts. What kind of bolt does one use for the moving bits? This hammer will consist primarily of scrap. I would be using leaf springs (forged or cut to shape, length and thickness) for the linkage arms just to save on money. As funny as it sounds, even being in Brazil, iron still costs an arm or a leg Any advice would be great guys Cheers, Michael

I agree. You should do some reading. Not to be mean or anything, but reading is very helpful. Quench (you might want to edge quench) and do a few tempering cycles (in the oven or other controlled apparatus) at 175 C (light to dark straw). About the spine being blue: Once quenched and tempered, fill a tray with water and place the edge of the knife (half inch or more) into the water. Then proceed to differentially temper the edge from the spine by gently heating the spine until the colors run blue. This can be done with a blow-torch, or a large piece of glowing hot metal. Those colors are oxides. The dark blue indicates a softer portion of the blade, while straw color indicates a rather hard portion. These methods have worked well for me. However, everyone has their own preferences. Let us know how it goes! Cheers P.S-Read, it is very helpful ;)

Phil got to it before I did, ha! Mr. Furrer is a wootz Jedi. Cheers

Cheers! ;)

Pardon me! I wrote your name ``cape´´. I meant Kape! :P

Hey cape, I was reading your post again when I saw that you mentioned that your edge melted slightly. If your heat treating temps were that hot, then you are doing something wrong. Assuming you are forging with charcoal, the only thing to do while heat treating is to put the piece in the forge...you might not even need to add air. You only need to get the piece to about 800C (curie temp, easy to recognize becuase steel becomes non-magnetic)Heat the piece slwoly and evenly. Make sure there are no dark spots. However, an excellent start. Just a tip B)

Excellent contrast, elegant shapes.Well done indeed! B)

Your third? Excellent! Cheers!

Sam, Of all the Kuhkris I have seen, being all over-sized and fantasy looking, that is a darn good looking one. That is something I would take into the bush. I think that Kuhkri closely illustrates what a real one looks like. Good job mate! Well done indeed! How thick did you forge the bevel before putting the edge bevel on? Is the blade forged high flat? Keep us posted with the finished product and tests! Cheers

Wouldnt be too worried 'bout fluxes....keep a good eye on your fire. It is possible to weld without flux. But regular borax is fine. You want your piece to be in the reducing bit of the fire. Not even a half retarded sea-sponge with all of the flux in the world could weld if his piece wasnt in a reducing atmosfere. Cheers

Looks like a very functional axe! Far better than my first try hehehehe. Good work Cheers

Ah, looks like mine too. Based upon my small handful of experiments, it is a very good design. Will you be using motor or veggie oil? Good luck, cant wait to see that burner going. Cheers! P.S- Matt, thanks for the tip about the light. I will try it in the shade next time. ;)

Hey guys, thanks for the tips. No worries about "hijacking" my topic hahaha. I made my moya burner (shame I dont have any pics) and I gave it a go. I preheated with wood and I used old motor oil and it put out some good flames. It heated a piece of half inch rebar to a light orange heat.....I am looking for yellow. Two things might have caused this: I made a rather stone age-ish forge to try it out. It was just a pile of bricks with the burner coming in from the side. It wound up facing a brick dead on, but I wanted to fire it up anyway. It was a simple forge, so I didnt bother angling the burner....I am pretty sure thats why it didnt get ever so hot. Secondly, it was a pretty sunny day so I might have not been able to percieve the colors all that well. My next try will be with veggie oil...lets see how that goes. What do you guys think? Thanks again! Cheers!

Good job. Might I make a suggestion? Folding a couple of times will spread the carbon content more evenly. You will also wind up with a nice grain in the end. Cheers

Hey Phil, thanks for your help! I dont mind using grog furnaces for actual smelting and ore reducing, but I dont want to use it for my forge. I guess I will just go ahead and order some decent fire bricks. One quick quesion about my Moya burner though...My oil feed pipe comes about 3 inches short of the end of the burner. Is that ok? Or does it have to go all the way to the end like the dude below made? Thanks again for your help! P.S- This is a Moya burner: http://home.comcast.net/~moya034/burner/ http://home.comcast.net/~moya034/burner/moya_burner01.jpg Cheers!

Hey Bob, thanks for the help. I live in Rio de Janeiro...but a further up a bit north there are serious metal working areas. Dont think I would even be able to get in though =[ I might have some luck looking for a ceramic potter. Great idea! Thanks! Phil, where I was living before, there was some decent clay. But it tends to get all full of cracks after a few burns. Do you think it hold up better if I mixed it with regular cement? Thanks a heap guys! Cheers!

Hehehe, does sound kind of silly now that you put it like that Thomas... Well, I live in Brasil and refractory items are hard to come buy. When you CAN find them, they cost an arm or a leg. There is some low grade refractory cement, but it can only handle 400 Centigrade...about 800 F. I guess it would withstand higher temps than regular cement. I am now looking at Don Fogg's forge, looks pretty neat. I want to make something similar, but using bricks made with cement I mentioned. Any thoughts? Cheers!!

Greetings! Been a while since I have posted, but I'm back! I have been taking a serious interest in oil forges. I have all of the pieces for my burner, and testing will be underway soon. I chose the Moya oil burner design. However, I really like the propane forge design. It resembles a piece of pipe layed on its side, with the burner entering at an angle from the top. I was wondering if I could use that same sort of design for my oil forge. Heres my main question: Could I use a 1 foot section of 1/4 inch thick steel pipe for my oil forge? The diameter is about 7 inches or so. Most oil forges/foundries I have seen were made of refractory cement. I dont want to use cement. The oil needs to be at its flash point before the burner can self sustain, and I think a metal forge shell would heat up quickly. I dont think that the heat would be wasted, even though the forge shell would release heat into the air. Any other forge/foundry would do the same. Any suggestions, pointers, ideas, doe's or dont's, please feel free to chime in =] Cheers dudes! Tell me what you think!