forgemaster

Why not buy round its cheaper and readily available. You have a power hammer. Forge it to square any size you require, within reason of course. Phil

Hi Micheal We wedged our anvil down around the base as well as around the octagonal with fitted wooden wedges (that means 2 places top and bottom) with fitted angle rings on top of both. The bottom wedges were driven in either with a sledge hammer or a jack hammer addapted to hit the wedges. The top angle ring we made a very tight fit on the anvil, (still able to lift by hand but well fitting) stops 99% of the scale from falling down into the bottom void. We also used rubber conveyer belt under the anvil. Moony found that his anvil did move, we should have put all the sand and tar around it before we put the hammer onto it, don't know if it has settled down now or not. When we 1st installed our 5 we only wedged at the top and the anvil started bouncing about, had to lift it and re do as above. Our 5's anvil has been in for over 10 years now with no movement or miss alignment. The stuff used at Ultimo 1st time around was a cork based compound. Phil

Hey big rough tough berly Andrew, was wondering what you were doing with yourself, we were looking at going up to Wauchope for their winter (july I think) forging day, were you thinking of going. Phil

Builders sand will work fine, but not fatty sand as used for brickworking mortar as that has a fair % of clay in it. Beach sand can be used as flux but it needs to be sand not 75% crushed shells as is most of the sand around on sydney's beaches, I don't know what the beach sand is on your side of the creek. Sand was all we ever used for fire welding when I started my apprenticeship back in 82, we used to do a lot of fire welding repairing lifting chains, links etc. All that we used at Tech was sand as well, we used that for welding spring steel to mattock faces and picks etc, even had some success usimg it for welding stainless steel to mild (just as a tech exercise). If you can't get borax sand will be fine. Yes sand will easily melt in a forge fire ("trust me I'm a blacksmith") Phil

Here in OZ we could get gasworks coke once upon a time, I still have about 5 tons of the stuff but we don't use it much anymore (furnaces are quicker). We used to have to crush it and screen it before use as it was coconut size rather than wallnut size and full of fines. We could also get steelworks coke when newcastle steelworks was still operating, that would clinker heavily, was very hard and dirty, as it was made for a purpose, supporting a charge of iron ore, flux etc in a blast furnace. The gasworks coke was the best coke that we could get around here though. Clinker will also tend to stick to steel as it approaches welding temperature.

I would give that hammer a 5 x 5 guarantee, 5 minutes or 5 hits which ever comes 1st. Don't know how long that weld holding the dovetail to the tup will last, not long, I feel. The shaft across the top is a little light to. Funnily massey used to rate their 1CWT hammer in slides as capable of forging 2" square effectively, yet this bloke feels his will handle 4" square. Amazing, I wonder if I scale it up by say x 10 can I have a hammer to forge 18' square. Phil

A mate of mine bought a mini steam hammer as a kit some years ago, he's a newly retired machinist now. I'm hoping he'll finish the project. I belive he purchased it from an english firm of model suppliers. Phil

Hi Zarc Thanks for letting me know location of Hove, unfortunately it's a little to far from OZ for me to get you to commute to work. I asked as I am often on the look out for interested young,ns who want an apprenticeship, I'd prefer to employ someone who is already interested rather than a bloke just "lookin for work mate". Your work shows a good eye for detail finish and pride of wrokmanship. You also seem to have a good eye for proportion and shape. Pride of workmanship I find is one of the hardest atributes to instill in an apprentice. Most don't seem to get the drift till a year or so after finishing their trade. Keep trying in your quest It took me quite a few goes 27 years ago to get a blacksmithing apprenticeship. cheers Phil

Old arsonists trick is to leave rags soaked with thinners, turps, linseed etc, tightly rolled up and balled in a place where they won't be noticed and some fuel eg timber scraps, to get it really going. Even better when the weather is hot. Or so I'm led to believe. Phil

Ah,,, and where would "hove" be located.

Piano wire is however given its spring qualities by cold drawing it. If you heat it up you will destroy the cold drawing properties by essentially normalising it. I would assume that music wire would be taken to be piano wire. If you have to make a spring out of piano wire you must do all of your forming cold. No heat treat it is ready for use.

Fire weld the spalls back into the head. Get the head hot and forge the spalls back into the head, then take a wash heat (a light fire welding heat), flux it and fire weld the spalls back into the head of the tool. After fire welding allow to cool slowly then close anneall and re heat treat the tool before using the tool (close annealling can be carried out by burying the tool head down in the fire after finishing for the day let it get to about cherry red and allowing it to cool VERY slowly in the dying fire). This was a job we always used to get at TECH College when I was an apprentice, if we had finished our jobs early and were begining to run amok, "hey you blokes either get some fire welding experince fixing up some anvil tools or I'll be sending you back to your boss for the afternoon", (ahhhh the old days). When the tool gets so far down as to not be able to reweld the head we used to forge up a block of mild steel and fireweld that onto the top of the tool. Phil

hi bro damoscus meek if you just put on yo jandles and grab the chully bun, yo cud gut on dun to the chummust und ask hum whut borox us culled. Sorry Mike just my attempt at speaking kiwi, go see your local chemist, ask him whats the NZ local name for Borax, If you have a Woolworths close I'd check there 1st in the cleaning products isle. And if theres none there you can always buy some fush und chups on the way home. Cheers bro

Them thar pan drol clippy thingnjigs shure do make ure mouth smart when one flys on when yars installen them with an amma and it doesnt go in on the 1st hit. Now i's nows why mar grandpoppys got no front teeth.

Here in Oz, we were constantly running behind time with all orders. Every time the phone rang I would flinch answering it knowing it would be a customer chasing their order. That was pre Christmas. Post Christmas a different story, still busy, but we are on top of everything. All of our hydraulics customers have cut back on ordering forgings as have all the gear cutters, our railway customers still seem to be ordering. Time to pull the head back into the burrow let the storm pass over then stick the head out when its all passed I feel. I know our competition has gone to a 4 day week to stave off lay offs. They are bigger than us, about 15 blokes running 4 hammers ranging from 1/4 ton to 2 ton in size. We are 98% industrial forgers, I reckon locomotives still need new gear boxes, industry still needs to keep up with maintainence. It will just get harder to win quotes so we will have to sharpen our pencils a bit sharper. Phil

We normally will grind out the crack and mig or arc weld it. Make sure you get good penetration and have a clean weld. After welding it we don't grind it but get the rein hot and forge the weld to the size of the rein thus refining the weld metal grain. Very rarely have any problems with this method, we are using these tongs under largish power hammers every day. You should always inspect your tongs for cracks defects etc before use anyway. Phil

Hi all A piece of 1045 is good enough for a flatter. Working from a bar long enough to hold, we would start with approx 50mm square billet, neck in around all 4 sides to about 1/4" deep with a 1/4" raidius fuller then draw out the stem to fit what ever you have that will fit that square stem, (we have a square bolster with a nice radius where the stem meets the head that we use under the hammer). Calculate how much 50mm sqr you need for the head of the flatter, cut it from the bar, get it dripping hot, stick it in the bolster, and upset it with what ever (sledge, power hammer, press etc). Get it out of the bolster dress it square, back into the bolster and flatten again. Then either punch and drift a handle hole or fuller some groves on the corners and wrap a handle around it. Just normalise it to finish. Flatters don't need to be heat treated as such. Phil

British and Australian standards regarding crane hooks both state "hook to forged cleanly from one billet of steel with the macroscopic grain flow lines to follow the profile of the hook, profile cutting of the hook from plate is not permitted, nor is welding. The hook may be after forging and bending be faired by means of machining or flame cutting or gouging". Don't know about American standards as we have never been asked to produce to them. When we forge shafts we are always required to forge with the grain, if we are forging rings or discs we are required to jump the billet up to force the grain to loop out into diametre of the ring or disc (rings and discs are normally forged for gear cutting applications).

Will we be at moonys, is the pope a catholic? Hope that answers it for you. Beer, hammers, forges, fire, other idiots who like to bash hot steel, can't see a reason to stay away, hopefully we'll bring some others with us from up this way too.

Hi all Now that I have figured out how to put photos on here I will add some of photos of what we use to hold stuff on the hammer. One photo is of a plate that we have around the bottom block,really useful for when punching and stuff as it is just like having a bench with a power hammer in the middle of it. The other one is of a tool holder that we use where everything is on a hinge that can be flicked in or out, stopper pads, swages, bottom tools etc. ......The second photo I can't find at present, must be on the system at work, I'll upload it tomorrow. Phil

We've had apprentices wearing pendants or zodiac signs around their neck. Told them son don't wear that when forging, won't listen, forging away under the power hammer wearing a t shirt or singlet in summer. Stood up, yep now you have a nice little rectangular burn there. Overalls with brass press studs will perform the same, kids come to work next day with a verticle row of small circular burns down their tummy. Will not wear any jewellery at work or at play. My wife got a very nice wedding ring, I got a really nice stereo for my wedding present, still reckon I came out better. The current fashion for the kids is the stretching rings in the ears, waiting to see what injuries come from them. Cheers Phil

A few years ago when I was working for a boss we had a job to do on a crane at a local aluminium smelter here. The crane happened to be over what was called a friction welder. They were welding new ends of 100 dia mild steel onto the ends of their anode stems. 9 ends to each stem, approx 1000 stems in use, these ends were rewelded about every fortnight. To weld they held the 100 round in a large lathe chuck mounted horizontally and pressed the anode stem onto it with a press, while the chuck revolved at I guess 200 rpm. After about 2 minutes the 2 faces were at about 1400 degress, press a bit more and hey presto a welded joint not unlike a fire weld and all due to heat from friction of the particles rubbing together. With a decent hammer we can, if we get into it, have a job finish at a higher heat then when it came out of the furnace, and I'm talking say 100 to 150 mm square here. Easier to do with a larger stock size and a bigger hammer too. When steel is rolled, the rate of working can actually cause the billet to melt and reweld as the rolling progresses. We have picked up billets at the mill that have a crack (or a pipe as we call it) when I asked if they were reject I was told, "Oh no that crack will reweld when we roll it as the core will get above melting temp as its rolled." Phil

He was a lot younger then probly a 1st year apprentice and thats only a 5 cwt not even as big as moonys.

Geeeez and here was me thinking it was just cause me mum dropped me on me head when I was a bub!!

If anyone is driving between Sydney and Brisbane or around in the Hunter region we are more than happy for other smiths to call in and say Hi and have a look at what we use and do. We are located in the workshops at the old Richmond Main colliery site, on Leggets Drive Richmond Vale NSW. Richmond Vale is approx 4 KM south of Kurri Kurri on the road heading towards the Newcastle/Sydney freeway. We work 5 days a week and I am normally here on a Saturday but the workshop is not always operating on Saturdays. You can call me on 02 49362124. Cheers Phil