HWHII

Yes.  My copy is 1994.

I was talking with my friend who is a quality control manager and a Level III AWS CWI and he informed me that they stop the practice of welding titanium to stainless sometime ago because of weld deterioration and failure of the weld in long term service. He also informed me that can be done but it is not a recommended practice. So sorry for putting out some bad info.

I never mind sharing hours.......but I didn't keep really good track here. Maybe 12-16 hours. I wasn't concerned about time because this was for an art jury, not just for an art/craft show.

 

If/when I start producing these for art/craft shows, I will axe the copper nails and go with "forged looking" lags from blacksmith depot. I will make two jigs, one for the ring, and one for the half circle on the legs. I would then set up and do a half dozen or so at a time. I think with that I should be able to get the time down to 8 hours per table.

Thanks for the info Dave! Your time seems great for what you have. I think it could be a good seller for you. I need to get to my forge more to get my skills up to a level were I can make some as nice as your table.

Your talent always amazes me. Very nice. How many hours do you have in it, if you don't mind sharing?

I agree with Randy here. Get the Batson book. If you look at the thread I just posted on a Rebuildt Press, the original builder varied from Batson's design and used tubing. The tube was 4"x4"x 1/4" wall and seem to work fine but there are 4 pieces. There were also problems with binding between the tubes because of weld shrikage, which I had to address to make it work correct.  The tube also added unessasary weight to the press which is a bear to move.The original plans call for 3"x5"X1/4" angle. I am currently working on another 80 ton press in which the designer is using  2 pieces of 8"x8"x3/8" wall for the vertical supports which will also double as a hydraulic tank.

Welcome! Theres lots of blacksmithing activity here in AZ. Hope you have fun!

If your interested in making your own rings for chainmaille go to potterusa.com and click on Koil Kutter and his chainmaille tooling will come up. I you navigate around he has video's on how to use his tooling. He uses piston ring pliers to open the rings. He also suggests a tool which is a ring that will go on your finger which has a flat piece on metal on edge you can twist to open the ring.

Thanks Randy! Yes it is a 20 ton.

A bladesmith friend of mine asked me if I could rebuild his forging press and here are some photos of how it came out. Sorry I don't have any before pictures but they some how got erased from the camera. Just a suggestion, don't let you kids borrow your camera ;) . The press was first built from the James Batson plans and had the pump, motor, tank was on a seperate cart and the press sat on the floor mounted on a plate. If you look at the photos all the rusty material was previously there. He wanted the press to be mobile so I cut the plate off the bottom and mounted the press, tank, motor and pump, on a platform with expanded metal and casters. He also did not like the hand control lever so I borrowed a play out of Randy McDaniel's play book and made the foot levers. The original press had no plattens on it and all the dies were bolt on. So I made plattens, a set of quick change die holders and new set of dies. He was very concerned about fire, so the hydraulic hoses have fire sleeves on them and a shroud to cover the tank and motor from hot metal and mill scale. Now it's ready to go back to work.

I have a 2X2 and have spent alot of time with tech support learning how to operate it. The main reason I bought the machine was because of the reputation of their tech support. Don't be affraid to ask what you think are silly questions. If you don't know just ask and they will help the best they can. When you get it back up and running make flow chart to read and post with the machine for programing so there is no more guessing.

The only thing I could suggest is to try silver solder. When you were TIG welding did you use a argon purge? What was yout torch set up? I would be using a .045 tungstung and a gas lens and a very low amperage setting. I think you should be able to TIG weld it.

I just rolled my eyes. :rolleyes: and shook my head and told the wife not to get me started. Hollywood <_<

Sure would like to be there to see this one!  :)

I look forward to seeing what you come up with.

I have had 2 friends who have used containers as shops. One has made a 8'x 20' awning that folds down off one side, so he can just load it up and move his shop when needed. It would definitely be a option for me if needed. You cans see pictures of it at the AABA web site,  az-blacksmiths.org March 2012 newsletter.

Mine paid for itself in the first month it was up and running. I am constantly getting contacts from the site and refere potential clients there to view work. I do not sell anything on the site itself. I think this is why it works well for me.  If people remember or see my company name, because it is catchey and easy to remember, then they google the name it pops right up. It is 99% local work. I currently advertise in the local yellow pages but now I am getting more hits on my web site.

Over the holidays I was in Richmond, Va and on my birthday I spent the hole day at Williamsburg. What a treat. The gunsmith shop was one of the last places I got to visit. I wanted to stay and talk to the simths,did not get but a chance to walk through as my friends were impatient to leave.  :angry:  It was late in the afternoon and they were not forging at the time but the Anderson Blacksmith shop was earlier and spent a good hour in there talking. The next time I go to visit, it will be a 5 day pass for Williamsburg, Yorktown, Jamestown, and I will be going by myself. :lol:  This is a great place, as there are so many forged items to look at everywhere you turn.

If they are broken, people are always looking for parts to fix up brooken ones.

One thing I did with mine is, someone suggested dusting the top with coal dust when the mixture was still wet this will keep the clinkers from sticking. This proved to be good advise and works great.

Sounds like you have tried and been given alot of good suggestions. Last resort would be to heat the mass with a cutting torch and blow a hole through the center and then try to hammer and chisel out the remainder. It might loosen it up with the heat and by blowing out the center it will give it room to move. I know you are worried about ruining the temper but as long as your below 500 degrees you should be ok. You are heating up just the obstruction not the anvil. Good luck how ever you go.

Hate to be a spoiler here but I can give you a case where titanium is welded to stainless steel in a shop enviroment. When I worked for CAID Industries one of their products they manufactored are cathodes for solvent extraction method of minning copper. One of there designs envolved a copper bar 1" x 11/4" x 54" long wrapped in 16ga 316L stainless then TIG welded all they way around on the ends and fused the seem to make a water tight seal. Then there was a 1/8" slot horizontal milled 1/2" into the bar to except a sheet of 10ga titanium 48" x 50" then the titanium sheet was welded to the stainless wrapped copper bar with trailing gas. If memory serves me correct the filler metal was titanium a filler. I have personally welded thousands of these cathodes. More common we welded stainless sheets to copper bars with a 2% deoxidized copper filler in a water bath about 3/4" deep circulated by a swamp cooler pump from a lower water tank. I believe they have photos of this on their web site at caid.com if you are interested. If you go to their web site and click on Minning Technology and go to the photo gallery there are some pictures of some titanium cathodes at the bottom of the page. These have a titanium head and a stainless steel bottom. So in this case 10ga titanium sheets and 10ga stainlees steel sheets were welded directly together. If you need to now the titanium filler I could make a call and see if I can get it.

Fewood, I hate to be a pain. I get the 1/2 fuller of the original size. How much material did you isolate for the spatula? When Peter did his demo for the ladle did he isolate the same amount of material?

Fewood, could you please better explain I worked in 1/2 the finished depth? Thanks

 I like this and would like to try and make one. Could you explain the process for making it?  What material did you start with and so forth? Thanks!

Your Welcome! ;)