forgemaster

Not sure on that one John, I have a feeling that the master class is already fully booked and I believe that was only available to members, but the demo days I'm not sure.

For you to do that Andrew it must have been a small light bench and vise.

They're all gone to gut fush and chups in thu chully bun bro, all NZ Aussie jokes aside there have been a few blokes from over the ditch on IFI over the years. There was a couple of Kiwis coming over to do the trade course at Ultimo Tafe in Sydney a few years back too I recall. You can always chat to us Aussies, at least we both speak the Queens English.

As an aside to this discussion I have also found railway line and tools forged from rail to be very prone to being notch brittle, eg if it has a notch in it (eg chisel cut, grind mark etc) it can snap like a carrot. We made years ago a batch of rail ballast pneumatic tamper tools basically 7/8 hex with collar for a jackhammer like tool, other end has a largish foot on it to push the ballast under the sleepers(ties). They all came back broken at the same spot, (where we had stamped the hammer type into the shank the stamp was a capital V with 2 little horizontal lines on the 2 tops of the V, all breaks were across the 2 lines on top of the V), I did some trials on the broken tools, we could press/bend the shanks back and fore a number of times no problems, but when I made a chisel cut on the shank, it would snap at that spot like the afore mentioned carrot, when only the slightest bit of force was applied to it. Hence I do not use rail as a source of material when making impact tools any more. May be some thing to keep in mind.

Andrew stop longing for it and start doing it. "if you build it they will come"

I find one of the best things to do is as said to photo or video someone who knows what they are doing, has done it for a while and has a good stance for the anvil, then get them to photo or video you and compare the pickys. We have had to do this for 2 apprentices so far who had shocking stance at the hammer and the anvil, no amount of advice could make them change although they compalined of sore backs wrists and of their work not coming out straight etc. It took footage of them to see what they were doing wrong, before they started to heed what I was telling them. Sort of like when mum or dad refuses to believe that they snore until the kids video them during the night and then play it back to them in the morning.

Very good guys, though I will say be careful of saying "such and such was invented by so and so", blacksmithing has been around for a while, and I'm sure that most things you have come up with have been used or adapted by someone else somewhere else before. I have never invented, I see other peoples ideas and tools and adapt them for my use and aplications, but I would not say I'm an inventor and I have adapted lots of stuff. Its a standing joke in our workshop that when ever we use a round back under the hammer its refered to as "the really cool tool for smoothing tapers under the hammer invented about 6 years ago by some bloke on IFI" Good to see you young guys having a go though, wish I had the technology available to me all those years ago to document my work like you guys can now. Thankyou. Phil

The only down side I have found from profiling/cutting tongs out of plate are that they lack the springyness that you get in the reins of fully forged tongs, they will develop something like it after a bit of use and heating and cooling and resetting etc. They are OK for using on the anvil, but be careful using them under a powerhammer especially if you use a "link" on the reins as the reins and jaw tend to bend easier than forged ones.

Just found him, Rob Browne, he shows up on page 2 of Hammered at Moonies, dont know if he's still around or not.

JImmy who is a lurker lives in Penrith or there abouts, there is or was also a guy in Katoomba or Blackheath I think, if you seach back through "Hammered at moonies" post about 2 years back there was posts from him coming to Moonies but he had a car accident on way.

Going.

Hey john Keep us informed, here to help if you need it. Phil

Hey John I did get a version of a forging package software, however it requires a fair bit of sitting down and fiddling with to get all to work, and we did'nt get any instructions with it nor a manual, (give you an idea of how we got it) the application we wanted to use it for was we were making large washers, and we wanted to know how far we needed to upset the starting blank before we punched the hole, so as we could then ring it to a size and squash it again down to our finishing thickness (2.5") and then only have to give the washer a light rering and a light flatten to finish at our forged sizes, rather than ring flatten ring flatten ring flatten etc. By the time I had sat down and figured how to get the program to run, drawn punches, set up press parameters, etc it turned out quicker to get the info by actually doing the forgings and jotting down our measurements as we went and just tweek the sizes in 12" to the foot scale. Stuffed up 2 rings but we managed to reuse them in another job. So yes we did get something, no I did'nt pay for it, yes it may have worked for the need I had but I needed the tech backup (which I did'nt have, you get what you pay for) to get me past the hurdles that we were getting (eg when you punched the slug out of the hole you were punching, the sim would stop as it would class that as a material rupture, and we had to figure out how to tell the sim that that was OK and it was what we wanted to happen).

If you do decide to have a go at repairing it, I would look at "studding" the weld faces before you weld?braze it, (google it, and weldingBrazing cast iron) You will need stacks of preheat, and at least a somewhat controlled post heat cool down, at least. I have welded mechanical punch and shear side plates successfully but I pulled the whole thing apart, and stuck the whole plate into a tempering furnace to preheat the whole thing, then welded it using arc welding then stuck it back into the furnace, to cool down which took about 24 hours till the job was able to be touched with a bare hand. Those shears are still going 10 years later, but I have had a fair bit of experience in this sort of weld. This is by no means a go ahead and weld it post, but a if you do decide to go down this path take all precautions and try to learn as much as you can about it from all sources you have available before you jump in.

What happens when the management and the employees get off side with one another, the big boss (owner) lives in Sydney and only comes to that branch once on race day, so long as they are still putting out the work he does'nt see the need to worry, also he is not a blacksmith only a bean counter really, so he has to rely on his managers to see that all is going OK, my mate who took the photo kept on telling the young guys on that hammer to fix the knock, they all work production bonus, and he was not going to give up his production to fix their machine (fair enough I suppose) he also told management that the big ends were loose, but they just passed it down to the crew on that hammer. Sort of like the young guy who's parents buy him his first car and he does;nt bother to check the oil, check the tyre pressures, check the water until one day it just ceases to go, then he wonders why, same mentality,and probably about the same age. My mate stops forging early on Fridays and spends the last 2 hours of the week just doing maintainence on his hammer and manipulator and grab fork. He realises that this is what earns his pay and what puts food on the table, when his hammer etc stops, so does his production bonus, and its easier to do your job with good equipment that works well. then with machinery that is one step from the scrap bin.

Hey Fit Where in the world are you? Yes it can be brazed, it can also be electric or oxy fusion welded, but either repair needs someone who knows what they are doing. If repaired they can be a usefull tool to someone how has the use for it, we have one and use it for bending rail waggon brake shoe keys after they are forged. I see lots of them set up in spring makers shops where they use them to scarf the ends of spring leaves before they roll an eye in the end of the leaf.

Today we had to jump up 6 bits of 630 stainless from 130mm dia x 122mm long to 145mm dia x 95mm long, always a fun job. Procedure for 630 stainless is heat to 1200 deg C hold for one hour, do not forge below 1050 deg C, after forging air cool to below 32 degrees, then solution anneal (heat to 1040 deg C oil quench) Moral of this story is try to find out what grade of stainless you have and forge as per manufacturers specification (thats if its going to be a critical bit of gear), if its just ornamental, forge away, just keep it hot.

Richmond Main, it is true, we are forging almost every day, (the furnace gets lit every day anyway) as I said if you want to drop in feel free, though depending on what we are doing I can't always spend time chatting, but I can always manage a 10 minute hello. Friday is normally a good day for visitors as I have 2 tradesman as well as myself on that day, so am able to talk more. Our guys start work at 7.00am and i am normally here till at least 5.30pm.

Loose big end bolts and bearing, its OK we'll tighten it up on Friday, This is a con rod off a 15 cwt massey at the compertitions workshop

Just bumping this back to where we can find it again. As a conversation starter who is up for Moonies this year, who is going to forging in July at Eveliegh? Discuss!

Ever tried talking on the phone while using a 5 cwt Woody, all you get is "what" I can't hear you", "it must be real noisy there", then there is the problem of hearing protection, and yes it does interfere with the forging fez.

So little to do, so much time.

Different countries, different terms, different industries. In underground mining (coal in NSW anyway) thills were the shafts used with horse traction underground for moving rakes of skips, the thills stayed with the horse after he was unhitched from the rake of skips, it was held up by the britching that he wore, it also allowed the horse to apply a braking force to the skips on a down hill section. Thills used in this way are probably similar to the thills/ thill irons used for coaches, only on the coaches the thills would have remained with the coach not with the horse. As can be seen I have attached photos showing a set of wooden thills with thill irons at the back where they attached onto the skip, where as the photo of the skip shows a set of all steel thills, notice the eye on the front of the skip where the hook on the thills goes through to attach the skip, also note the coupling hook at the bottom of the skip, the skips had these hooks both front and back for making them up into a little train (called a "rake" of skips) they were coupled by a chain of 3 links. Each skip weighed about a ton fully loaded. Pickys attached (Having a workshop in an old colliery can be an advantage) (only now just went and took these photos for this thread)

If any of you guys want to call by and have a squizz or I can answer any questions etc feel free to contact me, via IFI or via telephone, look in Newcastle yellow pages for forging,or blacksmiths. I wont put my phone No on here, had one or 2 PITA callers that got my No. from here. If I dont answer the phone on your 1st attempt leave a message as we are probably working a job under the hammer, and I ain't going to stop in the middle of a forging to answer a phone. Phil

The flat belt sound interesting, they always are a noisy beast.