Kozzy

That's a good one too--and follows the KISS principal well. In the first photo, you can see the last 6" of the "handle" has been squared off which to me, implies there might have been a wood handle at one time over that section. However, the end of that is simply hardy-cut and I don't see any provision to keep a handle on there.

Sorry--I forgot to add that the tiles in the first picture are 12" square so the overall length is 16-1/4". And sorry if my earlier response to you sounded snotty at all. That was not my intention. My only intention was to express that a power hammer was unlikely and I was still grasping at straws with no good ideas.

That's an interesting thought. The lump coal that people used in their furnaces around here was quite large and I can see a farmer using that in his shoeing forge and needing to bust the pieces. Explains the lack of any hammer marks on the back of the head too. He said point was a bit mashed and he "resharpened" it a bit before he brought it in.

By "forge" in this case, I mean shoeing forge at the farm. No possible way there was a power hammer (the 80 year old farmer would have remembered that). Also, this particular farmer didn't acquire any of the tools when the only shop in the county with a power hammer went out. He's cleaning out old junk from his Dad's days there and the family has had the farm for 100+ years. I agree that leather punches are generally tubular--but something to pierce leather was the only thing I could thing of that was farm related for such a tool. They ran a lot of mules and did do a lot of basic harness work.

A local farmer when cleaning out his old barn ran across this tool sitting in the old forge. Obviously, it's a piercing tool of some kind--but the back of the head doesn't have any hammer marks or wear. It's not particularly hardened, either: At best a low mid-hard toward soft. That implies to me that it wasn't for piercing metal when forging but you never know. Leather harness punch usually hit with a rawhide mallet? Heck, it might be obvious to someone with more tools in their toybox than me. I'd just like to be able to give a more definitive answer than "pointy thingie which would hurt bad if your Brother decided to test it on you" Thanks

Rehashing this old topic, I've recently seen a bunch of old pipe vices dropped in the local market area which are also of the spring over screw design. That changes my old assertion that this was a re-do and I would now guess it was simply a variant that was tried. I picked up the one below for a song and a dance on a lark. Yes, it has been repaired but that repair is quite sound. Interestingly, the bottom of the jaw casting is designed to insert a post like a post vice would be set up. Obviously cast and not forged, it's not up to being a real post vice but if they are showing up in other areas, might make for a middlin' solution to the current high price of post vices (at least high here). Or--might be a good vice for twisting. I haven't set this one up yet to see if it works or fails. Not sure if the ability to rotate the jaws will be a help or hinderance. For size reference, those tiles are 12" square and it is quite heavy.

In that case, you are forcing a reaction by shoving electrons through the junction (very much like electro-plating). In the presence of oxygen, you end up forming aluminum oxide and some variations on cupric oxides, both of which act as resistors to the current flow---and heat up. Heat is the real thing that causes the freak-out of these electrical connections. The main purpose of that jelly that's required on these connections is to exclude the oxygen from the joint. Without oxygen (in theory), the joint can't form ions which in turn can't react with oxygen and form more resistive by-products. Also, you aren't losing good metal to those by-products which could turn the wires brittle over time. If you put a copper plate and an aluminum plate separated in a kettle of electrolyte---saltwater in this chart's example, they'd act as a battery with a voltage as stated in the chart by using the difference in potentials--in this case, you'd measure somewhere between .36 and .62 volts. Copper potential = -.28 to -.36 V Aluminum potential = -.7 to -.9V Circuit potential = (-.9V) - (-.28V) at the top end = .62 volts. and (-.7V) - (-.36V) at the bottom end = .36V.... The bigger the potential between the two metals, the more that one will corrode over time and exposure. Since graphite is at the far end of the chart, that's why it was used in many of the old school batteries as one electrode (high graphite carbon bar at the center of the old C cell batteries for example). Lots of voltage potential relative to the other plate on the galvanic chart. That standard 1.5V battery you see is simply the galvanic difference between graphite and zinc (only 1.33V with seawater as the electrolyte but a little higher with acid) Similar in a lead-acid battery like used in cars. In that case you have plates (after charging) of lead and lead dioxide which have a voltage potential difference of about 2 volts in an acid electrolyte. 6 of those hooked up on series in the plastic box gives you the 12 volts and change. The difference is the ability to re-charge the dioxide plate while driving so it doesn't just continually eat away the lead (basically re-plating as you drive or have it hooked to a charger)

Ignoring whether the metals join together well and easily, it's all about the galvanic series and medium in which the metals are coupled. On the chart, the metal that is more anodic will tend to be the one which sacrifices to protect the more cathodic---and the potential (voltage) difference comes into play in that the further apart the metals are, the more reactive they tend to be when playing together. You can see why they put sacrificial zincs on steel ships for example. It gets a little more complicated also because surface area can come into play as well as shape but that is only a big deal in more specialized areas. As an example of that, if you suspend a steel part in a stainless steel bucket of salt water, the steel will go south really fast---because the area of stainless around it is so great. If you suspend the same part made from stainless in a steel bucket, the bucket won't rot through as quickly because it's area is so great relative to the stainless.

Second the call for citric acid as the passivation method. We do large stainless fabrications and while most other solutions are nasty and require waste disposal, citric acid generally isn't a big issue. We use the commercial product Citrisurf. It comes in different levels of acidity and varying thicknesses from thin liquid to paste. Not hard to make your own version from even something like "fruit fresh" at the grocery store. For localized passivation and cleaning, nothing beats good old fashioned toxic and nasty "pickling paste". We save that for something like cleaning an individual weld spot on stainless to remove discoloration of the HAZ. Works great and fast for small spots where you wouldn't be dealing with much nasty stuff to clean off after.

Yes, those are mentioned quite positively in a 1918 (iirc) book I have on how to properly run a kitchen. There is some description on how to use the cooker but it's so easy you can guess it for yourself. The way it's glowingly written, you'd think it was as novel, innovative and helpful as a microwave was to many of us a few years back.

I'm talking earlier stuff---the grass hut days so to speak. One might even call it "tribal" living days. Although there were obviously times when there was a flurry of work, average daily hours weren't that high because people didn't use that many resources to get by. For instance, Most on the American continents pre-columbian had extensive free time relative to today's workman. That allows inefficient methods of work such as the moving blocks shown to be viable--

One historical thing that gets poorly translated due to today's standards is work. For much of the world living a subsistence lifestyle in history, it only took about 3 man-hours of labor a day to feed, house, and clothe a family. That actually left a lot of "spare" time to put into other things---like moving blocks inches at a time or the stone fit-ups which people see today as "amazing". Media often plays this up as somehow a magical mystery but it's nothing but having the time to do the work....deadline free. In the modern world, we've been tainted by the notion that it takes 8 to 16 daily man-hours for a family just to get by. Well, depends on the lifestyle you "need", of course but much of that comes from the thought process of modern industrialization---including the fact that most people working are actually contributing about half the "added value" of their output to the company. In the USA, if compensation gains had matched productivity gains from just the 60's to today, the average work week would be about 8 hours. It'd be a bit like being able to semi-retire at 25 years old. I'm just tossing this out as a thought exercise and not some political rant: What amazing things would you be able to accomplish if it only took 3 man hours a day in your household to take care of the essentials? What skills would you have time to master? What would that extra 5 (or more if you include a spouse) work-hours of freedom a day allow you to do? In some ways we have gone backwards from those living happily in grass huts.

A friend does high-end pool cues ($ 5k each range) and swears by doing a CA finish on all his work. Maybe you should re-think that one and instead of change, find better final finishing/application methods. The cues come out like glass and wear like iron. You might also check into some of the musical instrument finishes available from Grizzly. Those tend to be wear resistant and more flexible than the usual home center versions of wood finishes. I personally haven't tried them.

Mohrbach makes a lot of thermoforming presses---for things like shoe soles. There is a youtube video of at least one style and you can take a look to see if it matches. IIRC, they also make pad printing presses (for putting logos on items) and similar "production" presses. There was one offered locally for dirt cheap pricing and I was pondering whether there was enough structure and pressure to be useful for forging but I never got that far..."snoozed and loozed".

Heat Affected Zone, HAZ from welding is actually a common issue. Most people discover the problem when the locally hardened area cracks near the weld, usually in what was good metal. It gets worse on some "farm" repairs where the person doing the work might have poured a little water on after welding so they could get on with the work more quickly. As TP mentioned, you can draw the temper if it's a problem---and I would do that any way at stress points that have already cracked and are being repaired. However, I'd bet that most people just battle the issue a bit and consider the drill bit a bit sacrificial to the hard spot. 6 one way, half a dozen the other. We actually had to go back to gas welding some critical stuff we make rather than TIG welding--the gas heats a bigger area so the metal doesn't self-quench right at the HAZ as much.

Patience & persistence. Those are your best friends. Even if an anvil is dangled in front of you, if it's not right (price or features), have the patience to pass. That can be hard when you are itching for a "real" anvil. As was mentioned earlier, you up the effectiveness of the persistence part if you use the TPAAAT (do look it up). And just so I feel more useful, take note of what the others have said about not getting too hung up on what shape your "anvil" is. Focus instead on what it needs to accomplish and that might open your eyes to a hogshead barrel of other options.

Does the tank sound hollow? Acetylene is not stable at high pressure and to get around that they fill the tank with acetone (usually) and the gas is dissolved in that similar to a carbonated drink. Therefore an acetylene tank would always be "full" of what is usually a liquid of some sort. I doubt it's acetylene unless there is an O2 tank or similar to go with it. Acetylene sucks on it's own. Propane will smell like...propane (actually the stinky part is the mercaptan that is added). Acetylene won't have that. In short, it'll smell like a gas leak. People describe it many ways and you only need to smell it once to fix it in your mind. Propane is compressed to a liquid in the tank so will be a bit like the acetylene above..but with room for sloshing. Propane tank will slosh, acetylene won't. Acetylene will also be a much heavier tank than propane.

I might be reading your issues wrong but I see nothing wrong with the design end taking much longer than the production end. Getting a design right can be a complicated process, especially when the variables are changing as the project progresses. Additionally, informed decisions have to be made many times along the way and those can't be "off the cuff" in most projects--they often have to re-review the overall picture to make sure today's new tweak hasn't affected yesterday's. Heck, I'm working on one right now for a farm equipment manufacturer in Belgium that has been dragging on for 6+ weeks--trying to get them to understand their initial mistakes, change those assumptions, revise their machine plans to match the new designs, review whether those new designs will meet their needs, lather rinse repeat. Measure twice, cut once. The actual parts involved will take about 4 weeks to make so we're right at that 1.5 times design to fab ratio. Monkeying on paper is a lot cheaper than re-work, shortcomings, or change orders--and does take just as much time (or more) than hammering out the actual thing once the plans get stamped.

The problem with a lot of the more modern farm stuff is that it often has some really tough metals with lots of manganese and other spices which make it not so great for casual forging. The stuff which is more of a "mid-century" vintage tended to use more common simple high carbon steels (in general but YMMV) so it leans toward being more user friendly when you need hardenable steels but not for something special enough to need certs. Older stuff varied a bit more but things like spike harrow teeth tend to be pretty usable for hardenable steel and already in a usable size and shape. And of course there were the spring tines on some of these which also tends to be decent material. If you have lots of one particular part (and friends with more), there are some interesting welding projects to be done. The photo is welded up old mower points which farmers around here had by the bucket full (friend's retirement project, not mine). Similar has been done with mountains of old horseshoes. This is where the benefits of MIG start to pay off and the OA welding you mentioned earlier might start to seem less appealing as your SOP.

The stainless isn't going anywhere so just let it sit until the right fabrication project comes up for it. If you have some bar or all-thread in the mix, you might play with it in the forge to see how it feels, but it's not the most pleasing stuff to work with. I used some 430 and T304 round bar that I had sitting around for a coal rake and such just because it was there and you can really see when banging just how much harder it is to move than mild. The old farm junk pile is the place to go for some materials, especially the digging end if you will be making any hardened tools. If you or a friend have a metal detector, it's also often quite productive to work some areas of the farm for the older stuff--some true wrought might pop up. I have found a ton of wrenches, pliers, etc. that were dropped 50+ years ago and disappeared into the dirt at my old farmstead. Those have come in handy as project materials. I assume the old farmer usually drank breakfast and lunch because of the beer cans among the lost tools (and everywhere else)--it's the only explanation I can come up with for those.

My take is that extending the posts to allow for a wedge would be better to do as a build-up rather than as part of the primary. You could easily cut the extensions as a separate bar with slot to weld on the stub which exists on the swages. Far better material usage at the cost of an easy weld. It also allows the wedge to be set to enter at a right angle to the swage if that's the way you want it to sit when tightened (at least gives you that option). If you don't want to "roll your own", extremely good wedges can be found using "drill drifts". They are normally used to pop out morse taper drill bits but are cheap and already exist so might save reinventing the wheel. Just file the bottom of the slot to match the angle of the drift. Yes, they are easy to make too but 6 bucks for a repeatable standard might be worth it--or at least make your own to match the industry standard. For people contracting CNC cutting, either plasma or water jet, be sure and let the cutter know your edge expectations. They can usually tweak for a better edge at a slightly higher cost but may not if you don't let them know what you want--they often get cost pressures from customers so sometimes lean toward the lesser finishes to speed cutting times. Example of drill drift wedges

Listen to Frosty on the induction heater thing---if you can sell the idea. It'd definitely pay for itself in short order. It'd also be easier to reduce scaling if that's been any problem. Might be a hard sell with the inertia of "we've been doing it this way for 50 years" thing but it'd be well worth the battle.

Be aware that pulleys vary a lot in quality. That cheap zinc casting is going to be nowhere near the roundness and quality of a machined version of the same. Pulleys are not the place to skimp. You don't want a cheap pulley introducing vibrations into the system. If it's really an issue, do wander the surplus markets and junk stores which might have old equipment. You will be trading your time for a few bucks in savings. It's a crap shoot but just about every industrialized area has a good "surplus" junkyard somewhere. If quality doesn't show up, don't be shy about plonking some $ on the real thing. It won't be a waste. You might also keep an eye out for an older model used (junker) drill press as those tend to have reasonable pulleys. Re-boring is not that big a deal.

Look up furnace curtains. The operator will thank you and efficiency will go up enough to definitely pay for it (but not remarkably)

Most people would be surprised to find out that statistically, the average after tax profits of business in the USA (sorry, I don't have Canadian numbers) for the classification of "fabricated metal products" is about 3%. It's one of the lest profitable businesses you can plonk your money into. Obviously smithing is a subset with a potentially higher return (especially when your salary is considered part of the profit) but the numbers still aren't very good. As a craft business, it's also feast or famine so you need to be able to cover long drought periods of no cashflow. The problem with this business, as with most small businesses just starting up, is that assumptions for sales are almost always inflated in the mind of the person starting that business. Many give advice to assume at least 2 years with zero income..I would probably say 5. Doing better than that is simply a gift from the ether. Having a spouse who makes good money in a "real" job helps a ton..but they have to understand the nature of the thing so you don't get accused of just playing at the forge all day while they do the real work. The other common mistake is underestimating the time which needs to be put into sales and marketing. Figure 50% minimum doing the same boring "bookwork" which one is trying to avoid to spend time at the forge. Nothing happens without a sale (in business terms) so the focus needs to be on making the SALE, not the part. If that doesn't appeal to a person, they really need to work for someone else instead of running their own. On the other hand, sometimes things do work out--they do come by word of mouth because your stuff is desirable. That basically means you have a hobby business and it happens to grow. You can't rely on that rare occurrence, though. There are only so many family members, friends and friends of friends you can sell a knife to before that base tops out (same thing happens in amway and avon. I bring those up because they are pretty easy examples of the concept of running out of easy people to market to). In short, I wouldn't. I would start a hobby business and try and make it work but would keep the other income in the meantime. You'll know when and if you can cross to full time on your own. It isn't when you start doing well, its when you consistently do well for a VERY extended period. FYI, I'm in fabricated metal products with about 20 employees and worldwide sales. It aint easy and its awfully hard to make "fun"when it has to be a real business and you need to make sure 20 families have stable lives and paychecks.