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Posts posted by Junksmith
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Making your own tools may be my favorite part of being a blacksmith!
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All wonderful ideas. Alan, yours in particular are going to be a game changer. Mr. Woolridge, I do have a v shaped jig made of angle iron welded to a flat. I just need to weld on a bit of a stabilizer so it doesn't walk on me.
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Thank you everyone. The pilot holes weren't the greatest idea, but at least they'll be on the inside.
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I'm in the middle of a garden trellis that requires pieces of 1/2" round bar to intersect perpendicularly at a few spots. The plan all along has been to slit the horizontal pieces of 1/2" round so the solid pieces can pass through vertically. Essentially a section of grate.
What's killing me is slitting and drifting the round bar. I can make a single hole that's not too off center, but I need three in a row and can't get them lined up. I drilled pilot holes which was probably a mistake.
the essential question is, can I take a length of 1/2" round bar and put 3 roughly aligned 1/2" holes in it? Wish I could use square.
thanks
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Off to a running start! Love the hammer. Let us know how it holds up with use. I'd like to redo an old one I have too.
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I have a handful of farriers rasps and I can't bring myself to burn them up because they work so darned well! They'll file and rasp mild steel well enough, and I used one today to shape out an axe handle for a project. I'm going to need to get a few more before I can bear to experiment on any.
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To remove the zinc from your fitting just soak it in vinegar. A day or two should do. Grinding is not good for you either!
If you're in a hurry, a shot bath in muriatic acid will do the job in minutes... Of course you won't want to breathe that either! -
I admit I do often have trouble with letter punches "skipping" away when I hit them. They're so tiny and I think my sausage fingers chicken out at the last minute when the hammer comes down. One thing that has helped is to make sure the item being marked is braced on a solid surface like the anvil. A wooden benchtop makes it harder to do.
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Good ideas all. Fortunately, the individual has opted to sell or give it to a gunsmith for re-use since it is in good shape. I do have an old 12 guage breech that I cut off, welded shut and use as a horizontal mandrel for forming uniform J hooks. The lug under the barrel is perfect for clamping in a vice.
Thanks for the input! -
Before anybody gets alarmed, I am NOT making a gun of any kind. I have a friend who is offering me a Ruger 10/22 barrel to forge something out of. I told him I would rather see it put into a working firearm rather than waste it.
If he insists, however, has anybody ever used an old barrel for a project? What kind of steel is it? I'm having trouble getting an answer for that online and I searched it here, but the term "gun" is banned in the search. I understand why. We don't want anybody getting blown up trying to forge one. Any thoughts?
Unless they are perfect for some unusual project, I'm inclined to sell or donate it to a local gunsmith.
Thanks! -
You could try heating the welds with a torch until the temper color turns dark. Often when I'm finishing a piece, I'll heat the entire thing to black and dip it in oil (or beeswax). It makes a nice uniform finish. We'd love to see a picture.
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Excellent rescources. I've downloaded them all to my tablet. Thanks for sharing!
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People I know who have been in combat say that despite the best of plans, all bets are off when the shooting starts. I think craft fairs are like that in a way - hopefully with less shooting though :P. Still, there are some common sense considerations that will help things along.
You can't have too much of anything. I don't understand the phenomenon, but I have observed that people seem more likely to select items presented in quantity (in a basket, on a rack, etc). Your best bet is to observe what sells and make more of it for next time, but remember that even items that prove to be poor sellers are worth bringing back because they add "bulk" to your overall offerings. My items range in price from $3 to over $100, but I find the majority of sales these days are in the $5 to $10 range and they add up! Sales of more expensive items then become icing on the cake.
To cite a relevant example. I was at a craft fair last week which put a big dent in my inventory. That's a good thing, but I have another fair this weekend! The first thing I'm going to do is bring my smaller shelves so they don't look as empty. Now as I go over my sales list, I see that $5 key fobs (iron baubles put on craft store keyrings) were the biggest single seller. I can only afford to take one day off from my regular job this week, so guess what I'll spend tomorrow making? You got it! Since I'm also demonstrating, I'm pre-cutting stock to make other popular items that can be finished quickly. I will not only enhance my inventory quickly, but will also have plenty of demo projects lined up for Saturday and Sunday that will go right to the shelf... I hope. It's going to be a long 3 days.
As for finish. Most times I just dip products in a can of motor & linseed oil as they are cooling down - like Frosty says: 'hot but not HOT'. Let them finish cooling off and wipe off the excess. If the item may be used close to the skin or with food (such as a meat fork) I just rub it down with beeswax while still warm.
Well, that was a mouthful. Hope it helps! -
I do most of my pickling in a 5 gallon bucket. As a way to speed things up a little, I gorilla-taped a vibrating motor from an old massager to the side. I get the best results when I suspend the bucket and let the vibration shake the scale off a little faster. Kind of like a poor man's ultrasonic cleaner!
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Gorgeous!
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Always on, all types, and as loud as my wife will tolerate :D
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Thank you for the information, I found the high temperature gasket material of special interest and have requested them to send me a catalog. I appreciate the information.
P.S. Hey Junksmith, I hope to see you at the Blacksmithing Conference in Westminster Maryland this weekend. I'll probably be only semi-conscious due to sleep deprivation, so grab my attention and say hello! My advance apologies to anyone that expects intelligence from me this weekend.
Wish I could make it David. It would be nice to see you too. Unfortunately (or fortunately) I have lots of production to catch up on and a demo on Sunday so I'm out. I know I need to get more active in the blacksmith community, but striking a balance between forge and family is tricky these days. Some people act like blacksmithing shouldn't be as high a proirity as my job for some reason! :D -
I have to take issue with discouraging the newbie in what is supposed to be an educational forum. While I agree with Mr. Powers that castable ceramics would likely be prohibitively expensive, they may indeed have refractory application - perhaps in a burner nozzle itself. Whether or not there is practical application for the material Mr. Cable has brought to our attention, it is premature to summarily dismiss his post as irrelevant. Any material that has a high heat resistance certainly merits discussion with relation to blacksmithing.
Mr. Cable, I hope that you will not be discouraged from making further contributions and seeking further information on our site based on this experience. We are all here for an open exchange of information for mutual benefit because we love and wish to preserve this ancient craft. I have looked at your previous posts and it is clear that you, like many of us, are getting your start with limited resources and employing the kind of inventiveness that makes this trade/hobby so fascinating. You will have failures and successes, good ideas and bad and it's all part of the learning process. I, for one, applaud your willingess not only to take initiative, but to give something back by contributing ideas. Thank you. -
Good ideas all. I use a lot of 7018 and while I'm not a welder by trade I've been doing some wrought iron gates/rails/etc. that require welds that look good as well as being strong - and yes, I buy in HSCs. It's a portable unit, but since I don't travel with it much I think I'll go with a light bulb until I can find a better thermostat option. For now I can just tie the 120V input wires to a light socket and drop it in one of the sections. Then I don't have to worry about modding the case for when I do find a thermostat. Great thinking everybody! Thanks!
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Morning folks,
Last year I managed to get ahold of a rod oven for keeping my welding rods dry. It definitely helps in terms of spatter etc. The problem is that the thermostat has burned up. I managed to locate a replacement for this 2 inch in diameter item and they want $90 for it! New heating elements aren't even available.
My question is, does anybody have experience with this kind of problem and is there a substitute part that might work for less expense? The oven is an AWS 50B Model 1 from Phoenix International. 350 watts and maintains an average of 300 degrees F.
At this point I'm thinking it might just be more economical to put a 100 Watt light bulb inside the box (it's very well insulated) It would mean giving up some storage spece but the capacity is 50 lbs. so...
Any advice would be apprecialted. Thanks. -
I use a crank blower most of the time for better control. I have an electric, but I found that even with a speed control set low it was moving too much air and burning too much fuel. The gate was the only thing that made a noticable difference.
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What's the piece of steel you are using for material? I have that exact piece and I've been trying to decide what to use it for.
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Free steel is free steel. No law says you have to make a $400 hunting knife out of it. If it's workable then it's good for practice and projects that aren't material specific. Garden tools maybe?
What can you make from a spanner?
in Blacksmithing, General Discussion
Posted
I've used old Ford wrenches from the early 1900's to make knives. I anneal then super quench with good results. Not like spring steel, but better than a spike knife. It's the Ford logo that really sells them.