Innovational Iron

No decon needed with these chemicals. I guess I should rephrase that sentence and define what I meant by "hazardous". The previous formulas were using muriatic (HCL) and thats a far more aggressive acid than Ferric Chloride. There is no need to use an acid like HCL just to get a rust finish.

A Ferric Nitrate/Ferric Chloride + water mix (or either of the two by itself) will rust steel in a heatbeat. These chemicals are easier on your squirt bottle as well and will not eat up the internal spring for quite some time. (unlike the solutions with salt) No hazardous chemicals to deal with either. My pieces regularly go from bare steel, to patina, to Permalac in just a few hours. Leave some scale on as well for color depth.

I never weld copper anymore. I only use the Harris #0 Phos rods and use my Tig torch for heat. You need less amps this way because of the lower melting point of the rod. The connection is super strong and the color match is perfect. If you don't have a tig, an O/A torch will work fine as well just not as fast. The Tig also makes tacking things in place easier as well.

Hi everyone. I posted this on my forum but after a nice chat with Glenn yesterday I'm going to try to cross link some info or repost things here as well. Let's keep the knowledge moving forward!:cool: It's weird how inspiration can come. I was looking through a catalog I got in the mail that had lots of fishing lures in it. Some were very beautiful so I got inspired to make one. This sculpture is all copper except for the base which is steel and the eyes which are aluminum. It's about 3.5' from tip to tip and the body is around 3 or 4 inches wide. The body was formed from two pieces of copper that were formed with hammers on a shot bag, smoothed and formed on the english wheel, then welded together.

JPH, Make sure to leave a provision to be able to move your bottom plate around before you clamp/bolt it place. If you don't, it will be very difficult to align your tools and get them to contact each other perfectly.

Thanks everyone!

Gobbler, actually I don't use mine that often unless its a big project with lots a small pieces. However, one advantage to a tumbler is the opposite of your statement. They save time. I have tumbled an entire Chandelier in mine in less than 20 min. Its like anything else...they have their place.

That's pretty cool... Check out the third paragraph of this brochure for Niagara punch presses from 1925!

Here's a link that has some Flypress demo's and tooling.. http://www.innovationaliron.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?fid=30

Here's a 100 gallon tumbler I made last year.... http://www.innovationaliron.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=56&page=1

I thought I'd join and say hey. I'm a metalsmith/sculptor out of Chandler AZ. I enjoy Blacksmithing, Chasing and Repousse, raising copper vessels, sculpture, etc. My shop is well equipped with power hammers, a flypress, punch press, mig, tig, stick, plasma, and hundreds of tools I have made for Flypress or hand work. I love to teach and I love to learn. I join forums like this to stay connected with others like me and keep the knowledge moving forward. Its good to see younger guys coming on board. Man did I just say that? I'm 35!