HWHII

Would you ever consider sheet metal work under one? Thumbnail die...

I use a air over hydraulic foot pump to power my hydraulic cylinders they are all high pressure though. Its made by OTC.

Miss Rocky, It is very nice to see your work on this site and you did a wonderful job! ;) To all you other young smiths out there don't be afraid to post your work too. I am sure we all would like to se what you are doing.

My press is 60 tons. Keep in mind that means per square inch so if you squish a 3" square you can see how much power you've lost. There are times where I wish I had a bigger press. You can see it in operation on YouTube. Just do a search for "hydraulic forging press".

I'm also doing some large acorns in some dies that I made.



I'm going to a knife show in Easton, PA, this weekend with my pressed bronze belt buckles so we'll see how it goes there.

I have been teaching a basic blacksmithing class at a school for 6,7 and 8th graders at a school for 2 years now 1hr. long twice a week. At first I had grand ideas of all the neat simple projects we could make. I very quickly realized the hand eye cordination we all have developed over the years, these kids do not have. Just let them heat and beat some metal anyway they want. They will get a big kick out of it. I have found on average it can take 2 to 4 hours for them to learn just how to point, and draw a taper, then cut it off on a hardy.

Looks like paint to me. I would burn it off like timgunn suggests or you can wait till you fire your forge up and it will burn off. Make sure your outside eitherway.

I am not a big fan of paint either. Raw metal oiled is the best looking in my opinion.

The first time i used it, even after rinsing I have had a bit corrosion problem. I sprayed it with WD40 while warm and no more problems.

I have to agree with John here. Can't understand what the fuss is all about, because a guy hit himself in the head with a hammer. Heck, I have done it sober with all the right safety gear on. <_< :wacko: :lol:

Ohhh Man... I'm having a blast... I finally got all the electrical sorted, flipped the switch and the fan hummed this beautiful hymn, unlike anything thing I'd ever heard... Laid a few beads, got stuck... laid a few more... started to get the feel for the process... I just started getting really good with the mig, so seeing the globular mess again made me smile and say "that ain't right"... I went through about 10 lbs of 3/32 sticks friday, just getting the over all hang of it...


tis my Zen.

Here is one that I built. I got the plans for the water tuyere from Dave at Dave's Welding. They came from a old California Blacksmiths Associations news letter. Mark Aspery provided the drawings and article. Dave builds one's simular to this one and sells them. Mark Aspery likes and uses his type of forge when he does his demonstrations. Hope this helps.

Nice size, lots of space.

My sanity! :wacko:

Not to disagree with Frosty but maybe he made a typo, or maybe it's the birch tree again :rolleyes: :D . What he discribed is more along the lines of 6010 or 6011. 6013 is a generally considered a sheet metal rod, and general purpose electrode. Its great for AC welding and on machines having low open circut voltage, like a Lincoln Tombstone welder. I have mentioned in another thread all these questions can be answered and more in the book "The Procedure Handbook Of Arc Welding" By The James F. Lincoln Foundation. The cost is only $25.00 plus shipping. www.jflf.org/

Allright for you! The numbers on the electrodes are AWS (American Welding Society) classifications. Which will tell you the tensile strenght and the chemical make up each type of electrode. Lincoln Electric publishes a book call The Procedure Handbook of Arc Welding. If you were to have one book in your libary for welding this would be the one to have. It is available through the James F. Lincoin Arc Welding Foudation. This book will give you everything you would ever want to know about welding. Have fun with it.

If it helps any. In my opion, the Dial Arc will hold it's resale value more than a thunder bolt. If you ever upgrade.

The 5 year expectancy is a urban legend. My experience with Miller inverters has been very good. When I was working for another company I was involved with the purchase and testing when we started to switch to the inverters in the early 1990's. We had over 50 of theses units in service when I left there 5 years ago. Since I have left I know the have added more including some Lincoln's which I understand perform just as well. These machines are work horses and are still in service today. I have seen one fall off 20 ft of scafolding, smashed on the ground and the operator was still welding with and never knew it had fallen. They get turn on in the morning and might run 24 hrs over two shifts for 5 or 6 days. Some are hooked up to a semi automatic welding process and make continuous welds up to 30 or more minutes in one pass. Local mines here have been using theses machines under ground in severe service for years. The get kicked around pretty good but they still work. We found out early on if you have a good maintenance schedule they will last. The biggest problem we have seen, is they will pick up grinding dust through the air intake and it would sit on the circut board and eventually cause the board to short out. We started to serviced them by taking the cover off and blown out every 6 months, more in severe conditions. Now the boards are sealed to help prevent this problem. My XMT304 was made in 1998 and still works fine.

Everything that I've read so far tells me I should be good if I don't max it out. We'll see I guess...

10,000 lbs GVW?

Lucky you! Make sure you make him something as a thank you.

Sent one in for you!

I recently bought a 200 amp Thermal Arc inverter thinking I would use it for both TIG and stick and sell my old Hobart Stickmate. It seems to be a good TIG machine but I don't like the way it stick welds. I experimented with a few different rods and settings per the manual but I never could get the weld bead to look very nice. I don't weld a lot so I don't know if it is me or the machine, but I had gotten pretty happy the results on the Stickmate.

Oh ya a 300 amp or better Syncrowave would do. Is that XMT on top how do you like stick welding with it compared to a transformer machine?

Correct, the Hobart is not considered an industrial machine. I have a friend who is a Miller sales rep and he told me the only difference in the Hobart machines is the windings are not as large and so the duty cycle is less. They do have the same warrantee as Miller so if you can live with the duty cycle it is a good machine. I have had both a Thunderbolt and a Stickmate and have been very happy with both. I don’t weld for a living and most of my shop time is not spent welding so the duty cycle has never been a problem for me.

I do long for a hulking beast of a welder that sits in the corner and scares visitors to the shop. I’m keeping my eyes open for a Miller 330AB/P or other obnoxiously large machine.

I didn't even know my budget was in the ballpark of a new Miller machine! I might have to change my last name to Jones....

Forgive me for my ignorance, but with this setup, what additional equipment would I need if I wanted to run a tig setup on this machine? Obviously I would need a tig torch, foot pedal?,etc...???

See, the fab shop I worked in, for a entire 2 months (unstable boss), had top of the line stuff at their fingertips... tig specific miller machines (as far as I knew), fluid coolers, pedals, spool guns, and other machine attachments.... I felt like a retard in a room full of bouncy balls trying to understand it all... Just pondering what it would take to upgrade the machine to being tig capable???