RobbieG

I have been working on a few lately, the slit and drift one is my first attempt of this type so is a little rough, but overall happy enough - it actually opens a bottle so meets the most stringent part of the brief!

The pendant especially looks good, the first photos of the earrings they don't look great but the one of all together they work really well. This is relevant to me as I made a treble clef coat hook as a housewarming gift for my brother last night - one thing I would say is your central scroll could be a half turn less and still look good - less work for you:

40 minutes ago, Shogun71 said:

I'm working on some ideas and sources!!!

Now I have to figure out the proper size of container.  I don't drink coffee and my welder does not have a power source yet and is in a storage trailer...

If this is promising and works reasonably the maybe I will buy a larger burner and work from there...

Talking this out has definitely helped!!!  Thank you for not killing me!!!

I actually found sourcing the parts for a burner (Frosty T) easier than sourcing the forge linings, but that could just be my location. It's nice to make your own things, especially when its a proven and simple design.

You could have a look at a Devil forge - they are not the best out there but are fine to get started with. They are based in Lithuania but ship worldwide. (I am not associated with them I just bought one of their forges!)

Not sure but my anvil (suspected Brooks but no markings to confirm) is definitely cast and also has a handling hole. I'm also interested if anyone knows why that would be.

Do you have the means to harden and temper a piece of steel that weighs 40lbs?

You could use one face for a while to see if it marks up badly and then decide if you want to harden it, by then you may come across something else or if not, flip it over and harden the other side. I had something similar (5" diameter by 6" tall mild steel) for a good few months and just redressed the face if required - I now have a London pattern but the little post still gets some use. I had mine on a 6x6 piece of wood with another taller piece behind that the anvil was strapped back to - the concrete option you are suggesting will likely move less but be a lot less mobile too.

23 minutes ago, Zeroclick said:

Ok that does make sense.

I have been on the steel hunt this afternoon and might have a lead at a local scrap yard so I will be going down there tomorrow. Hopefully hammering some steel by the weekend.

Have a look online to see if there are any metal fabrication companies nearby who may have heavy stock left over from jobs. The smaller shop the better as you are more likely to be talking to the guy who can say OK to what you want. That's how I got the piece I mentioned. I would recommend calling in person rather than phoning, and offer money at least equal to scrap value -  though some guys will give you stuff for free if you tell them what its for.

35 minutes ago, Zeroclick said:

Thanks I like the idea of making some bending forks, I have a vice that will suit it perfectly.

I will look into getting a sledge hammer or a big chunk of something hardenable.

If I did use a big chunk of mild steel wouldn't that deform quickly with use.

I used one (120mm diameter x 200mm high mild steel) for the past 9 months and it took the odd ding but that was from me mishitting with the hammer. If you hit steel that is too cold that will mark it up too, its easy to redress the surface if it gets a little messed up anyway. It's better to be doing something and learning than waiting around for the ideal thing to come up.

17 hours ago, Zeroclick said:

40mm x 64 mm x 114mm 

 

That would only weigh about 2.5kg, the money would be better spent on a much larger piece of mild steel, or a sledge hammer head etc

It's a little disappointing based on how they advertise them but I never considered it as a permanent solution anyway, more of a way to learn what I want 

On 30/09/2016 at 10:28 PM, Mikey98118 said:

I look forward to hearing what you find out.

Well I decided to try out the Frosty T last night, I had left the regulator set from use with the devil forge burner (if I'm honest from more use now it hasn't been as hot as I would like). Such a change, the dragons breath was about 18inches long! Had to turn it way down at the regulator and was definitely achieving much more heat. I was running low on gas so only got to do a little bit of tinkering but any recommendations on getting it up to welding heat? I have closed off one end with 2 insulating bricks and current volume is about 280cubic inches, thanks

2 hours ago, Peter Bui said:

Question about the T burners, the holders/sockets with the screw/bolt. Is that going through the holder and burner pipe?

Looks more like a locking/grub screw, you wouldn't want the bolt going through the burner.

14 hours ago, Mikey98118 said:

And the best part is that after you build your own forge, getting your money back buy selling this one will present no problem at all...if you're even willing to let it go by then. How do you like its burner?

If I'm honest I'm still learning how best to operate the burner, but so far it seems good (Mine is the DFP so up to 80k BTU, although I wouldn't like to be running it at around 25psi all the time to try to achieve that!). I was getting alot of scale at the start but closed the choke down to control the burn better - the instructions haven't translated well to English because they indicate more air equals more 'power'. I have built a Frosty-T in the background for the new forge but may run it in this body first to give a nice comparison.

I bought one of these a few months ago, apart from the lack of rigidiser I'm pretty happy with it. Its not a big job to sort the ceramic fibre and you would need to replace it at some point anyway. I couldn't find anything close to the price elsewhere so for a tiny amount of effort on my part it was worth it. I will be making my next forge myself but this allows me to get some forging done in the meantime - I have spent way too much time bodging/trying to get other solid fuel forges working that would probably have been better spent actually hammering hot metal.

So far I have found it's better to just make tools as they are needed - figure out what is required for each new project and either modify what I already have or make from stock I have gathered up.

10 hours ago, ThomasPowers said:

 I make bottom swages for those large hardy holes 

Hi Thomas, you have piqued my interest with that, how large are the hardy holes on one of those?

Here is a photo in a little different light. You can make out the blue paint a little more clearly.

10 hours ago, ThomasPowers said:

As I recall Brooks liked to paint their anvils blue and I was thinking it looked like one...However we don't see a lot of Brooks down here on the Mexican Border....

That is a real possibility based on the few images of painted Brooks anvils I have looked at. Although the anvil I have has no visible markings that I have seen as yet - any of the brooks one I have seen online appear to have quite prominent lettering on the side.

I'm pretty happy with it anyway; the rebound is good, edges are mostly in good condition and it cost about £0.80 per lb (roughly $1.06 per lb) not including the stand, which was thrown in for free!

20 hours ago, ThomasPowers said:

Different methods of cleanup?   Any blue paint traces on that anvil?

Yeah there is actually, is that relevant? I collected earlier it is a real brute! Also the colour difference is simply due to grey/white dust on the lower half

12 minutes ago, Foundryman said:

If could just be me but the proportions don't look right, the to half looks almost too big for the bottom half to my eye. I'd expect the waist to be an inch or two taller.

With the relatively thick heel that anvil could be a brooks cast steel, but it could be any number of other makers too.

Do you think the colour difference might be throwing your eye a little? Genuine question.

Are there any functional disadvantages to the short waist? It doesn't appear to have been repaired from damage or anything.

6 hours ago, aessinus said:

I was on Queen's Island once-st, maybe early 90's.  Looks to me like it might have stood in a bit o the brine for a bit...  The old Newtownabbey facility had a load of warehouses on the waterfront that were deteriorating.   Very fascinating place and history.

Could be that, we do have the shipbuilding heritage here and it's current location is only about 5 miles from the shipyard!

Hi there, just wondering if anyone can recognise by shape the brand of an anvil I am going to see later this week? The guy selling it has said it is 200Kgs so quite a size! 

1 hour ago, Alan Evans said:

Set up a trommel with various mesh dimensions to sort sizes of material. Or simpler version of tilted mesh panels mounted on springs with a motor with an eccentric weight on the spindle for vibration.

I would suggest the trommel as the better option of the 2, in a previous job I designed vibrating screens for quarry materials - if you get the eccentricity wrong they are scary dangerous bits of machinery.

5 hours ago, Kailthir said:

I know stainless steel will melt in such a high temp.

 

 

 

 

Normal A2 (304) stainless has a melting point of about 1450C, you will be fine with those

Those bricks are likely acting as a massive heat sink so you will never reach the temperature you need. Why not stick to a proven design until you learn more about what you want your forge to do?