forgemaster

What about the movie that had Chevy Chase, Dan Acroyd, John Candy, Christy Alley and the 2 blacksmithing adult baby twins, can't remember the name of it though. Phil

Yeh blokes what ever uses need to do to be at moonies we doesnt give a rats, just so long as ya's turn up, thats the main thing, to get to Braidwood and give some hot steel a good larrupin. (see, if you know dale long enough you even start talking like him) Phil

I'm worried Moonys will be come all niminy piminy namby pamby, all shot in soft focus, look I got an A in needle work mummy (credit to the goodies belly bootton sundey episode). Showers rooms beds what is the world comming to? Have to get the new ute sign written by then and set up for camping. Hey I wonder if I could sleep inside Moonys out of use furnace, (done it before at work when I was younger, come into work early sloshed, broke into the shop, went to sleep in one of the unused furnaces, thats where they found me at clock on time,that morning, makes me all teary eyed with nostagia). We will have to have a bag of concrete there for any one that needs to eat a handfull and harden up. Phil

Hey Adam I'll phone the moon tomorrow and ask him the question, he's the man about town in Braidwood. Will let you know. Phil

Or like bending cold drawn piano wire to wrap a spring by getting it hot, getting it hot allows the grains to normalise and when it cools down its just ordinary wire (basically). The spring properties are caused by the elongation of the grains when being cold drawn. Phil

Onto it. Play nice now Dale, hope the break helps. Phil

Hey Dale Just wanted to let you know all of us in Newc are feeling your's and Sues pain. Don't know what to say really. Just that we are all thinking of you. Chin up mate, she needs you now more than ever. Phil

Hey woody Have you got hold of the sucker yet or not, theres 2 hammers in the latest plant and equipment mag a 2 and a 7 both are asking $15000 or so, bit over priced for where they are (Tas and WA). I have a piece I was writing for a blacksmiths mag on removing my 5cwt, I'm trying to find it. What sort of equipment do you have to remove this hammer, is it in a high roofed workshop or not, give me some idea of what you have to remove it, where it is, do you have access to a forklift, can you get some helpers, do you have any jacks, packing timber etc. Phil

Is the curve you are attempting a constant radius or a compound curve. If its a constant curve in my opinion I'd find a metal fab shop that has a section rolling machine. 4'10" rad is gonna be a hard thing to replicate over a number of bends with a pipe bender and get it looking nice and matching. I've been smithing for a fair few years now and I know when to get someone else to do a job for me now. If you can find a firm with rollers they probably can roll them quicker than you can even think about it, they'd do this all the time and can get the accuracy you desire, with minimal stress. That way you can do what you do best (bash hot steel) and they do what they do best. If you can't find someone with section rolls, I'd try making a jig to bend them on, get a fairly long good heat clamp one end and pull it around the jig, I've had a bit of success with this method especially when the curve is a compound curve (eg it is not constant and is not able to be rolled). If the curve is not too severe I have'nt bothered with filling the pipe with sand, 4'10 rad you should be OK. Phil

I can do that for you Dale my son. Will ring Mr Moon tomorrow on the dog n bone and have meaningful dialogue with him. Phil

EN36 subsitutes can be 4317 17CnM06, 8620 will do at a pinch, its the nickel that gives it its properties, normally used as a case hardening gear steel. The punch that we made that took off, was made from what we call Kroball, normally a high carbon silicon manganese steel specially made for grinding ball applications (Grades 5190 5080H) We heat treated that punch by normalising it all over then heating the face to a depth of say 1/2" and only that face that does the punching, to a high orange and dropping it into the quenching oil. After each time the hammer drives it through the tool the striker tosses it into the water tub to cool it out, that punch had probably punched maybe 500 slots and these slots are about 2 1/2" deep x 1" wide x 4" long and was getting pretty fatigued. It was my fault that it broke I should have known better, I should have renormalised it, or inspected it and retired it before it broke, but as I said in the thread it did'nt do much damage to anyone only me and then it was only a soft tissue cut, but it could have had dire consequences if it had hit someone in the head had they been sitting down. One thing I am pretty strict on is warming of hammer tools before they are used under hammers, especially in winter, and winters here are not like they are for some of you. Using a cold tool under a hammer is a sure invitation for a breakage. Depending on the configuration of the hammer we will also put heating blocks between the dies of hammers before we start our first heat of the day to take the chill off them so as to prevent fracture. Phil

Dale so I am to unnerstand that we is to ave sum Shelias comin to the Hammered, even it seems some shelias from the old country. maaate we'll need to get a cage or a pen or sumpthin, I'm thinkin of the dunny budgies mate, we need somthing to contain them after we catch em, otherwise the shelias are gonna have a string of rag dolls with them dunny budgies flyen around. Even the human forklift keeps it bottled up all weekend, cause he's scared of the budgies. Might have to get moonie to get better than the john wayne dunny paper too, you know the sort, its rough, its tough, and it takes no s__t from indian. The shelias won't like that sort of stuff. I lives with a sheila (1 big one and 2 little ones actually) and I knows Dale! Oh wait on, does'nt Moonie have a guzzunda in one of the dongers? Maybe the sheilas can use that then. Whatta ya reckon?

I'm just killing myself with laughter here, we often have to make dogging hammers, are they used to stop them from parking in your end of the street?

Offsider= helper, mate, striker, trained monkey. We've always called a round back a round back, only now its become a redback to our apprentice, (a redback is a very nasty venomous little black Aussie spider that has a red stripe down its abdomen that is commonly found on the underside of outside watercloset (dunny) seats, normally bites on the nether regions that are dangling ) He likens the roundback to a redback I guess. We normally just have a round bar handle welded to our roundback and we get someone to hold it, though I have seen some that blokes have made one with a pivot arrangement to sit on the bottom block. Chalk on the floor works good for me too Grant. I can't explain things if I don't have a piece of chalk to sketch with. Phil

xxxx yanks pinch all our good sayings, you watch, "go you big red fire engine" will be the next Aussie saying to go global. Oh it already did.

4340 when heat treating is recomended by the book "tempering in the range between 200 degC to 450 degC should be avoided. Tempering in this range shows a decrease in its impact properties and increase in the brittleness of the steel as evidenced by the downward trend in IZOD values in this range. What this means is it is not a good idea to temper 4340 between 200 to 450 degC if you want to use it as a tool subjected to impact or sudden stress. Using the colour method of heat treat will give you a temper range smack bang in the middle of these temperatures. We have used 4340 in the normalised or as forged as forging tools but not as punches etc but as stamping tools under the hammer. It seems to hold up OK so long as you quench the tool after each time it is used or at least at the end of each heat, depending on how long the job stays in the tool and how hot the tool is getting. We prefer to use EN36 for tooling under the hammer, from punches to stamping dies, to heat treat it we take it to orange, chuck it into the water, let it cool out get it out and weld the handle onto it and use it. It costs about the same as 4340 but is easier to heat treat, and stands up to impact longer in my opinion so long as it is kept cool. cheers Phil

When we first intalled our 5 we only put the wedges around the anvil to hammer baseplate. They soon vibrated loose, scale got under the anvil and we had a problem that the bottom die was never able to be kept in the one place. We then pulled the anvil out, cleaned out the scale and then reset it into the foundation with fitted and mitred wooden wedges around the base driven in with a jack hammer then wooden wedges around the gap between the anvil and hammer base again then a well fitting cover over these wedges made from 3" angle and plate. 10 years later no movement no scale problems, (though when we move I'm not looking forward to removing that anvil). I'll attach 2 photos of our cover

I'm in Newcastle (Kurri Kurri actually). I normally go to see the blokes at forge Bros when I am at a loose end with the outlaws in Brisvegas. I always thought it was strange that you guys never went to tafe, seeing as sydney Tafe takes apprentices on block from perth, New Zealand etc but almost never Bris. If you buy it don't forget that the anvil will be the hardest to remove as the base is about the same width (octagonal) as the base of the hammer, and seeing as it has been there a while it may be hard to move. If you want and you get it give us a kooee and I'll give you the good oil on moving them, (I've moved about 7 of them now) Phil

The anvil should go about 2.5 ton, the hammer should go about 5 ton. In NSW if i was selling a 5 I would try to get $5000.00 if I was buying I can normally get them for $2500 (around about) still installed. The hammers get more expensive size for size as they get smaller. Where did you serve your time, Forgebros or the railways? Cheers Phil

No, acutally we are only inviting Australians, but if you think like the Americans in their "World series ball games (base ball,grid Iron etc) when they only mean the USA, then yes we are inviting the world. I'm kidding Beth, we are inviting the world, and we mean the whole world, but they still gotta BYOG, no matter who they are. Phil

I as a professional working smith for 28 years and an employer of 3 more blacksmiths have to say every thing Grant has said is 100% true, different continent, same trade, same conditions. Full PPE does not a safer worker Jimmy make. We usually forge up to 150kg jobs wearing singlets, long pants, steel caps, yes we will wear gloves, (cause you often have to pick up hot tools punches etc) sometimes glasses, sometimes not, sometimes a hat sometimes not. The difference is we have the experience to know when to wear the full metal battle jacket and when not too. The most dangerous tool in my workshop is by my thinking the forklift. More people are injured, maimed killed etc the whole world over each day by forklifts than by any other means, yet they are classed as "like a little dodgem car" by most people. I have had fairly bad burns on my hands caused by hot scale, etc falling into the back of my gloves, I have had my face and eyes badly burned by objects hitting my forehead then falling down inside my glasses and staying there. Doesnt mean I wont wear these things again, I'm just saying that its attitude and an alertness to the risks that will prevent most accidents from happening, not PPE. Phil

Ha small world, our mature age apprentice is Josephs "son in Law", Ben.

Hey Adam. Short answer for which day, Saturday, we all feel too hung over by Sunday, (not that we have a bit of a big night Saturday night) and most of us are packing to go home on sunday arvo too. Having said that Sunday was when we forged the Anvil for young Darren last year. Go figure. As to smiths in sydney or Illawarra, thers a few, like Charlie down at Tomerrong I think is where he lives. Couple in sydney, couple up here, (newcastle). Cheers Phil Be nice to see you at AoCs little meeting at Rozelle if you can make it.

By my reckoning,(ie counting the months on my fingers) we have only 3 and a 1/2 months to go till it's on at Moonies again, how good is that?