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I Forge Iron

forgemaster

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Everything posted by forgemaster

  1. We have made a 2 handled sledge, not bad to use but you need to have someone else on the other side who is going to pull their weight, if you have a bludger on the other handle you soon know about it.
  2. So does this mean you guys are no longer going, or is it just that you are not posting on I forge iron.
  3. Found the photos of my little punch episode. We still have'nt found the top part of the punch, we know it hit the wall about 20 feet from the hammer, where it went from there, is anyone guess. The cause, punch made of hard material, cold morning with cold water in the quench tub and a new guy who didn't know what it is made from who quenched it out in water instead of oil between heats. Could have been nasty.
  4. Iron Dwarf that must be one real good press, 30 ton with a 3 horse power motor and can bend 8" bar into a loop in 6 seconds. I have 80 tons and it can't do that. I think even the 450 ton press may struggle if its not hot.
  5. Having just read all that above, I really stress, that you dont have to be a blacksmith to attend Ironfest, we welcome anyone with an interest in blacksmithing.
  6. Its on again, Ironfest at Lithgow, dates are 18th to the 19th of April 2015 gates open at 9am till 5pm Saturday, 10am to 4pm Sunday. Ironfest is held in Lithgow NSW Australia. Lithgow is about 3.5 hours west of Sydney NSW Australia. Ironfest is held in Lithgow showground. All blacksmiths that call themselves blacksmiths should attend, and even if you dont call yourself a blacksmith come anyway. Theres also jousting, gun battles, stalls, food, horses, falconry, weaponmaking. The theme of Ironfest this year is Gypsy Dreadnought. If you need info you can contact Ironfest direct via their facebook page or their website, or any questions that I can be helpfull with you can contact me. The Artist Blacksmiths Assoc NSW will also be attending as far as I know. (Better Glenn?)
  7. I'll add to this, make sure you warm all tools before using them under a hammer, especially in winter. Cold+tool steels (even alloy and carbon steel)=brittle. This top of this little sucker (H13) took off across the shop early one morning, but it kissed my arm as it went past.
  8. Have done, what did you want to know. When you are talking about a 5HP motor are we talking 240 or 415? What sort of hydraulic components are you looking for, pistons, valve banks, hoses, pipes, pump, fittings?
  9. Damastang where abouts are you in Aus? Theres lots of mining and related users of Hydraulics here, the prices are pretty good. Give us an idea of where you are and we'll go from there.
  10. It is the week leading up to and including the 14th and 15th of Feb 2015.
  11. Obviously where ever it is the wages are cheap and the cost of the steel is high, and the rail must be able to be got for next to nothing. We used to use rail for forging some tools, I found there was too much work with cutting, grinding etc to make it worthwhile, also some of the rail can be quite old and you don't always know the quality is there, and rail can have cracks in the head that you don't necessarily know are there until you forge it out. I found it was just cheaper in the long run to use new steel that had a chemical cert, was the grade I needed and I could just go out to the steel rack grab what I wanted, bang it in the saw and go to work. Still it is keeping those guys in work, so who cares if it is really labour intensive.
  12. I get my back up when tradespeople or engineers from other industries or anyone really asks, "so you just sort of get it hot and kind of bash it a bit into that shape"? I cant resist answering, "yeh we just sort of bash it a bit into that shape, kind of like you just get that bit of steel, stick it into that lathe machine thing and just sort of wear it away until it looks like you want it to". Phil
  13. Naked anvil showed me this years ago. I've worked out it is a forge shop in Japan. They have a drop hammer that has been converted to open die configuration, hence it runs so slow. Really cool action with the bars though, I tried it at work but our hammers run/strike too quick for it to be effective. Yeh it seems as though they have a mechanical problem at the end. The hammer is basically a board drop hammer that has had remote electrical lift and drop controls fitted to it. The hammer drivers actually sits a fair way away (compared to normal practice anyway) and drives the hammer off a console with 3 buttons or so. I have a bit of a vid of it making other stuff that I'll see if I can find and put that up too. Phil
  14. We use what the guys call the drinks trolley, (mainly when we cant be bothered to put the grab onto the forklift). If you have had the fore thought to make your forge/furnace the same height as your anvil/powerhammer bottom blocks it makes it all pretty easy. If you need to manage long rolly stock onto the trolley it sometimes helps to tack/weld some little plate V blocks onto the surface of it. We mainly use it for lumps of stock over 30KG as these are getting to heavy for my poor old body to lift up and down all day. Photo attached
  15. Its one of the very early models with the rotatory valve rather than the vertical shuttle valve, as such it is not in the same field as the later models, couple this with the fact it is flat belt drive and looks a bit like a project, I'd try to get the price down a bit. The flywheel being seized is not a real biggie, and the tup locking pin missing is no big deal, the later ones did not have them anyway, (just relied on the taper of the rod, Its hard enough to get the tupand rod apart anyway, let alone with a lock pin in it). Phil
  16. Yes they are throwing saw dust into the dies, helps to prevent sticking, also works as a sort of scale release, you can use coal dust too, or grafite some times, saw dust is cleaner. The hammer driver is driving the same as our steam hammers drive, I cant figure out why you guys in USA have the 2 handles, all ours and all the hammers I've seen from the UK work with one. 2 Handles just seems to complicate the operation. I did like the flip in ringing tool though, flip it in use it flip it back out. I like the timing of the guy flinging the saw dust, he gets it in just as the hammer is halfway through its down stroke. Dont know if anyone else noticed it but the little hammers frame is fabricated, all plate and fillet welds, makes you wonder if it was an upgrade from a broken frame, or it was a new hammer made from an old design, (the open frame in slides design is fairly old). Phil
  17. found the other photo, the guards on this hammer are a real pain, they were not made by anyone who was going to use the hammer. The guard over the tup basically does nothing except for get in the way, the bottom bar of it is right in your line of vision for the edge of the bottom die. The guard over the back piston rod needed some kind of gate/door in it so as you could get access to lube up all the bearings etc that need lubing there. The guard over the foot pedal was not easy to work with either, it was way too high and came out too far. Other than that this was a really nice hammer. Phil
  18. Massey 2cwt with slides I know there are some more photos some where, and I second John, getting the tup off the rod is a difficult job, we have done it with hydraulic jacks and heating torches after having no luck with the dolly method. The dolly method works better when the hammer is larger. Better to polish it with emery paper where you can reach it, it is possible to unbolt the gland and let it slide down the rod allowing you access to all of the rod that goes through the packing.
  19. When they are cut in half or broken in half as some are found they make a pretty good anvil, with a flat face, a kind of a heel and a horn/bick. They just need some sort of a base welding onto them and they need that washer up where the transition from round taper to rect is taking off. I'm talking here about the big axle, not the little sulky ones. Phil
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