superscifi12

Well today I went to go buy my first batch of coal, The only supplier in the area is sid at little giant. ( he said he's the only one crazy enough to carry it) All I can say is that sid is awesome. You pull up and in the parking lot there must be 20 -25 power hammers just sitting there. You go inside and sid is working in the shop and his daughter is answering the phones. He helps you load the coal. He showed me the whole shop, how he rebuilds the hammers, even told me where he gets the parts. He fired up a freshly rebuild "better than new" power hammer (not sure what size) and showed me how it worked. Showed me some of the things he's made. Told me about other smiths in the area that could help me. Told me about books that would help me. Showed me the anvils he sells. I must have been in the shop for almost an hour. I know where I'm going for anything I need that he sells, first stop without a second thought no matter the price.

unroar<<< Never checked them out, never even heard of them actually. I just moved to pacific junction, Iowa. Still have to make my first trip to see Sid in Nebraska City to buy some coal and finish gathering my equipment. finish putting together my forge, Still need air source. Need an anvil too, trying to get a line on a piece of RR track, for now. Hammer and tongs too.

the whole reason i asked is that i'm just starting and could get the bar ends(some times upwards of 4 ft) and thought that if i start with known steel that it might help the learing curve. Most of the steel used where i work is free machineing steel (not counting stainless/brass/copper). Didn't mean to cause unroar. Sorry. mike

The only thing is that no one has answered my original question. Has anyone forged with a leaded or TE steel? if so how did they work out?

but lets say you have a 5lb rod of 12l14 doing the equation 5 * 0.0015-0.0035 you would get 0.0075-0.0175 of a pound of lead, to put that in easier to understand term that would be 0.12-0.28 ounces per 5 pounds(4 - 8 grams per 5lb) In my mind I don't think you would need to heat the whole 5 pounds at once, am I wrong? If that little would cause so many fumes how do people cast pure lead safely? (I figured the temp difference but the concentration is significantly higher) Last but not least wouldn't the amount of lead change when after heating due to becoming fumes there by reducing them continually?

I know we refer to the L as leaded, so I assumed there might be lead. We do use air cleaners but also when machined most material is sprayed with oil or water soluble coolant so at work I'm not worried. Since I have no workshop the sky would be my roof and the privacy fence my walls so I'm totally not worried about home. From what I've seen Leaded is good for machining less chatter and higher speed, Tellurium is even better. 12L14 is about (Weight %) C 0.15 (max) Mn 0.85-1.15 P 0.04-0.09 S 0.26-0.35 Pb 0.15-0.35 and 12L14 TE I can't find a make-up but it must be close but with TE added We use a lot of L steels but only one TE. Of course we use 1144, 1215, 1018, 1045...... too

Hi all, This is my first post and have had a couple of questions about some steel types and alloys. First for a little background, I am working on making my first forge out of a break drum and a 55 gallon barrel and working on finding something suitable for an anvil right now. I am a full-time student in collage, a full-time machinist and father of two (like i really need more to do right?) Now on to the questions; One in the shop we use a couple of different steels that I'm not sure if they would be good for forging, Like 12L14 and 12L14 TE (TE stands for Tellurium). I might be able to ask the boss to buy remnants for pretty cheap, if I pay more then the scrap yard. Mike