evfreek

These broken drill bits are kind of hard to say goodbye to, huh? I have found that most drill bits are high speed steel. This is difficult to forge and heat treat. But, they are fairly easy to sharpen, especially if you understand a little bit of drill geometry. There are many good resources on the Internet about drill sharpening, but I would caution you about Teenut's instructions. They are flippant, hard to understand, and maybe a little detailed for the beginner. The drill bits that are not very useful are old fashioned or junk import steel bits, especially those made out of plain carbon steel. They can be "unwound" hot and forge welded as the bit in a wrapped hawk or a simple knife. Spark test to figure out what you have. If you really need a broken drill bit, I have a burnt carbon steel one that I got in a $10 box from a garage sale. It cannot be sharpened since it is burnt. Most of the bits were mangled, but I could make out a few nice US made HSS bits in there which were useful. Also, the seller threw in a pair of real wrought iron tongs that were rusted shut for free . I'll send you the bit if you provide a SASE.

Around here, it is less expensive to buy some other kind of scrap. Sometimes it is better to feign ignorance. One of my students was asked for $1 per pound for scrap railroad rail. The scrap dealer squinted at him and said that wannabe blacksmiths are coming in and getting the stuff for anvils so he can charge more. You don't happen to be one of those fellas, do ya? Being an ornery old cuss, my student turned and walked out and bought a new Euroanvil. One of the guys on Iforgeiron, I think it was Clinton, recommended me South Bay Metals, and they sold me a chunk of non-hardenable steel. I am pretty happy with it and with the price. Also, the people at the yard are not so slimy. Do not reward slime. :angry:

The drift was drawn out as a hexagon? Was this only on the struck end which had to finish up round? It said on the comment that a hexagonal cross section is easier to round. So, I would guess that the business end will be still drawn out square. Really nice sequence of pictures. I liked the one with the grease on the 5th day.

You have a great selection of anvil tools there. These really cut down on the stress on the cast iron face. You probably already know that the most challenging operation is using the anvil edge. In that case, a nice round fuller in the hardy hole may substitute for that fragile edge.

Hi Ferguson. It looks like you might have this problem solved. That is good news. One thing that made me nervous about your process is using an oxy-acetylene torch to heat the 1045 bar for upsetting. I would be very careful about upsetting anything other than mild steel unless the heat was pretty even. Somebody at a demo told me this, and it made sense, since the outer fibers of the metal are suffering extension that may violate forging rules. Start big and draw down. Trying a different bar of different steel is also a good idea. I have seen beginners mess up similar leafing hammers made out of A36. Maybe going with mild steel might be a good idea if you are just starting. Many don't heed this suggestion, including me. The blacksmith who helped me make my first hammer (out of 1045) made his first mild steel hammer years later. He told me that someone suggested it has a "stickier" sweet spot and was much less likely to send a punch skittering across the room with an off center blow. After he tried it out, he proclaimed that it, indeed, worked exactly as advertised.

I'm afraid that Thomas is correct. He has had a lot of time to think about this stuff. I have a few comments from my particular experience. First, I am not as good as he is at finding anvils. So, if you have a nice big welder sitting there, and your mean time between anvils is more than a few years (anvil free half-life), it becomes more attractive to start welding. Most people are a lot better at finding anvils than I am. They are also a lot better at welding than I am. I took one class at adult school. Each guy was allowed to run about a foot of beads on a lousy old piece of plate, then it was the next guy's turn. The instructor would critique the beads, and you might have gotten one more try. When he looked at mine, he said not so good, but good enough for a blacksmith, next... So, I didn't learn too much in that class. What does this have to do with making anvils? Well, the old timers say that you shouldn't complain about welding until you have burned a full 50 lb. can of rods practicing. Not 10 lb. And certainly not one foot of beads, done in a rush. So, the 50 lb. of rods is not an additional expense, it is part of training expenses that the old timer told me I had to burn anyway. I can either burn it on a bunch of junk plate, or I can make an anvil. As for the price of rod, 50 lb. of rod (get 7018 AC) is not much compared to the price of a class. And, you mentioned that you are short on cash. Around here, junk welding rod is pretty cheap at garage sales. Even close to free. If you can get it for .25 per pound, it is as good as free. I remember seeing a demo where the smith had made an incredible array of tools out of junk. I noticed that the welds were ropey and porous. I asked, garage sale rod, huh. Yup. One thing about the welding to watch out for: do not just box in the ends of I beam, fill it full of junk bits of metal like nails, screws, galvanized pipe fittings, dead mice, etc. and go to town with the welder turned up high. Even though the fill will be strong and dense enough, it will not teach you anything, since it will not be like any real production welding job. And, you will end up breathing a lot of nasty fumes. Instead, get a copy of Lincoln's new lessons in arc welding and procedural handbook, and do the welds right. Cut, fab, or scarf out the correct bevels, and clean slag at least every three passes. Try to keep the rods dry and avoid porosity, even though it won't matter in the end result of the anvil build. Remember, this is also a welding class. As for electricity, don't worry about that. Lincoln's book tells how to estimate electricity costs. They are a lot lower than the naysayers say. Electric arc welding is really an efficient way to deposit metal. As for shop time, and its high cost, remember that you are learning. The old timers will tell you not to do anything production until you have burned that 50 lb. of rod. From the sound of your post, it looks like you haven't done that yet. Good luck and have fun. Try to find a big chunk or chunks from that bountiful scrap pile that you mentioned. And, remember, that torch that you mentioned will be used a lot in this project. Make sure that you know how to use it safely and efficiently. Just the other day, the neighborhood welding pro saw me heading to the backyard with a bunch of 7018 rods and a spark lighter. He pointed at the spark lighter and said, that's the wrong tool if you are planning to weld with those rods. Ummmm, I replied, it's heavy steel. How heavy? he asked. I replied, an anvil. Oh. OK...

Hi fellas. Thanks for all the tips. That's a good one: as dangerous as a monkey with a machine gun. I'll have to remember that one! Anyway, I looked up some of the OSHA regs, and welded up some guards. A lot of the old sheet metal came from an old dishwasher, and it is pretty bad. The ol' buzzbox was tricky to avoid burn through, but it looks sturdy. You can see the belt guard, all the pinch points shrouded, the adjustable tool rests, the wheel covers, and the top tongue guards. This looks a bit safer, and I feel more comfortable running it. Gotta watch out for that monkey with a machine gun .

I have heard the recommendation to start small, for example with a stake anvil. If you goof up (and you probably will, just from the tone of your post), you only mess up a few pounds of scrap steel. If you succeed, you have an awesome conversation piece that will really be useful. No need to shut up if you fail. We will all love to hear you squeel since we (or more specifically I) would probably also fail in the same situation, and have a lot to learn. For example, I tried something similar, and I had a very difficult time getting the weld to take evenly. It would weld in one place, then pop off when I was hammering it in the other place. The problem was probably due to uneven temperature in too small of a forge. It stuck, but it was ugly. The next time I try something like that, I will use a larger forge with more banking, and I will do it when there is no one else around :lol:

I would keep an eye on the handle of any cheap hammer. Someone warned me about the cheap Harbor Freight engineer's hammer, and I heeded the warning. The handle came loose, and I shaved it with a drawknife and rehandled using a decent wedge. It worked out just great. I also shaved off a piece of the hammer to test it. It was good steel, about 1070, and had a good temper. Hard, but it did not shatter when I notched it and hit it. I agree. Those Chinese hammers are not ready to use out of the box and have to be watched very carefully. But, for a balanced viewpoint, I bought a good ol' American cross pein at a garage sale for 2 bucks. Its face was all chewed up and it required a lot of grinding. I also rehandled it, but it had one of those ridiculous undersized eyes. Anyone who knows vintage hammers will know about this problem. A lot of them just have tiny little eyes. Maybe wood was stronger or smiths were weaker, or this hammer was intended for a special purpose. Recently, I talked with a master smith who specialized in vintage tools. He told me that most beginners handle their hammers incorrectly. They see these Hofi or Tom Clark or various other modern hammers with huge eyes, and get a thick handle. Invariably, this handle has to be shaved too narrow, and gets a weak spot right outside the head. Impact causes the handle to break at this point. It is just a case of improperly mixed technologies. He has a strong arm and knows how to whip the hammer hard. The secret is to use a long thin whippy handle without a sharp thickness transition at the head. The handle is narrow coming out, and gradually widens when it reaches the grip. This keeps the weak spot from appearing, and allows the hammer to whip and flex to take up the shock. He makes all his own handles, and loves vintage tools. He has had no trouble. His advice: keep the Hofi handle on the Hofi hammer. Oh by the way, I did have an accident with this hammer. Fortunately nobody was struck by the flying head. It was OK for years until a smith who I visited showed me a photo sequence of how to hammer. He forced me to raise my arm higher than I ever imagined possible, and send it down with accuracy. This really improved my smithing. Shortly afterward, the accident occurred. So the moral was that there is no best technology, there is only appropriate technology.

Hey Clinton, no I don't have the number. It is funny in retrospect, but at the time, I was pretty angry and almost swore off craigslist. Would have been a shame, since I have gotten so much great stuff there, and sold a lot of stuff at good prices as well. Unfortunately, there have been other negative experiences as well. Once, I called about an anvil, and there wasn't one. But, the guy got my unlisted number from his caller ID. Then, he started calling me regularly, late at night. I was very patient, because he seemed to be a down and out blacksmith who was going through some hard times and had to sell off his stuff. I wanted to come over to give him a hand, but my family wouldn't let me. They also started getting worried about all the phone calls. Eventually, he stopped calling.

What a beautiful job. Now, this is a nice anvil. Probably increased the value 500%. That's good rebound as well, and another confirmation that the technique is very workable. Oddly enough, I was browsing through the California Blacksmith archives, and noticed a negative story on the repair method.

Rebound is good, although I only tried it with a hammer, not the ball bearing. I'm not a huge believer in the rebound theory, however. I've gotten a huge amount of work done on dead anvils, but the metal does have to be hot. As for the TPAAT and talking with everyone, I have not had all that much luck. In fact, I have not even come close, so that means that this technique may not be for me. Perhaps one of my problems is that I talk to the "wrong" people. Once I was planning to go to LA, so I checked the LA area craigslist to see if there were any anvils in town. The Bay Area is pretty anvil poor. Well, there was somebody with an anvil, so I called. A lady answered the phone, and told me that the anvil was gone. Before I could thank her and hang up, she asked me if I was a "real blacksmith". Ah, umm, I guess so. "Wow, a real blacksmith! How did you get started? What do you make? bla bla bla?" About half an hour later, she went on about being a single mom and being stuck around the house are really bored. Then, she wondered when I was coming to town, and so on. I got this creepy feeling, and besides, I was paying the phone bill Eventually, it appeared that there really was no anvil, but she figured that she could get some calls from "real blacksmiths". It was working! I'm afraid I am not all that sociable of a person, and it took me a while to recover from this one.

You bet there is one. Someone once said that if you pass up a discarded piece of junk saying you will pick it up on the way back from work so that you don't get dirty, it will be gone by then. And, you'll need it within the week! A couple of years ago, I saw an anvil missing the horn advertised on craigslist as pick up at some address for free. It was about two hours away, so I did not think that it was worth the risk. Anyone could pick it up before I got there. So I posted a heads up on Iforgeiron, and one of the fellas successfully picked it up. Hmmmm, I guess that could have been me... Oh well, good karma. One of the local guys really was miffed at me since he wanted a bladesmithing anvil. It seems that with the collectors and all, the damaged but still functional anvils are less likely to be snatched up to be hoarded or resold at a "more appropriate" price. This anvil rush is really getting to be annoying. The local scrapper has started charging $1 per pound for RR track pieces because he heard that they are in "huge" demand by beginning blacksmiths trying to make an anvil on the cheap. It is a better deal buying a new euroanvil than $1 per pound RR track from an overexcited scrap dealer.

Hi Rob. That sounds pretty funny. I saw an anvil that had split in half, and the owner welded it back together again. For some reason, it was really tricky. Something like chasing a crack around and around finally being solved by skip welding. No, this wasn't it. But something unpleasant like that. I got it written down somewhere. Next time I go to the guy's shop, I'll ask him. Anyway, he is a better welder than I am, so it is a little scary. It is worth a try using it as it is. It looks like it will be just fine. Now to scrounge up the wood/metal to make a stand. Just in time too, since the shop I work in has to lend out the large anvil for 6 months. This will go by in no time at all, but it still makes people nervous.

Hi. The good half is the top half, and it came welded (with a fine weld, I might add) to an I-beam. The web is not very thick, but I know how to calculate its max deflection and energy stored, and it should work just fine. If I have any trouble, it is just a routine welding job. But I didn't buy the fab shop's old welder: a DC only 699 amp Hobart. It was three phase. I will attach a photo.

I have been semi-successfully trying to apply TPAAT for several years now, and have finally managed to acquire an anvil of my own. It is fair to say that I have only been looking hard for an anvil for the last 6 years or so. At first, I have complained that the TPAAT doesn't work for me, because nothing has happened for such a long time. Really, I should get with the program, and pay more attention to practical statistics, which states that the likelihood of improbable events can be estimated from the sequence of more probable but correlated sub-events. In other words, coming close counts toward chances of success. Nothing against Thomas, of course. I hold him in the highest regard. But sometimes it is important to realize that not everybody can be like him. Anyway, I was looking for a way to attach the hardy hole to my newest generation fabricated anvil, and I saw an ad for a fab shop out-of-business sale. As I had done for so many years, I responded to the ad and headed over in my car. There was the good half of a nice London pattern anvil welded on to an I-beam. The seller said that the scrapper was coming, and he would sell it for a decent price. I thought back to the discussions about beam theory and welded anvils, and decided that this anvil world work fine for me. I got this funny feeling, and figured that I should buy the anvil and load it in my trunk before I did any browsing. Good thing too, because 15 minutes later, another fellow showed up looking for an anvil and was very unhappy to find out that I had just bought the only one. So much for brotherhood among blacksmiths. The look he gave me was priceless. It reminded me of all the times I had arrived 15 minutes late in the past. So, it is marked "AY-BUDD", has good rebound, the requisite amount of weld spatter and torch cuts in its face, and in total weighs over 170 lbs (can't find my scale, and yes, I'm overweight). Since I have finally bought one, I have an observation to make. I have seen a many interesting posts recently about anvil resellers, including the recent one about matchless antiques. Especially interesting were the ones about Anvils-R-Us from Clinton and others. These guys make it difficult to find real anvils at estate sales, auctions, out-of-business sales, etc. But, since the market for "not real" anvils is not really there, these gems are still available. I don't want to buy an anvil from Anvils-R-Us. It just gives me a bad feeling. I have run into anvil collectors at estate sales who smirk at me after besting me in seizing their latest (40th) anvil. I don't really have a good feeling about these people either. I just want an anvil to use, not to display or collect. So if it is a little beat up or in pieces, as long as it can be used, it is good for me. And it should be good for all you other aspiring beginners too. By the way, for Thomas, I have not been inactive for all these years whining about how hard it is to find an anvil. I have been able to "make do" although without a real anvil of my own.

Hi bajajoaquin. The paper is about anvils specifically. The title is "The Physics of Anvils". I am thinking of submitting it to Eden's new online publishing venture. Feet are an interesting concept. How effective is the mass when distributed in feet? It does make the anvil more stable, but is a pound in the foot as good as a pound directly under the hammer. Obviously not, but why? The answer is that off center mass causes the anvil to rotate around its center of mass. It resists the motion by adding to the moment of inertia. By using conservation of angular momentum, rather than conservation of linear momentum (no linear momentum is imparted by generating a rotation about the center of mass), the effectiveness of off center mass may be computed. Here's a preview of the result. The loss in effectiveness of off center mass is proportional to the square of the distance of the mass from the line directly between the hammer path and the center of mass. In other words, double the distance, and the effectiveness of the mass drops by a factor of four. When the distance is zero, obviously the attenuation is zero. A quick comment about rebound efficiency versus forging efficiency. Many smiths think about the two interchangeably. The two kinds of efficiency are not quite equivalent. The first is associated with a target with unit coefficient of restitution. The second is for zero. For most hot forging operations, the coefficient of restitution is 0.1 to 0.2. Thus, the second is more applicable. I am not quite sure, but I seem to recall that the loss in efficiency for small hammer to anvil mass ratios, e, is 1 - 4e and 1 - e respectively. In other words, forging efficiency (energy into target) suffers much less from comparatively small anvil masses than does rebound efficiency (energy into hammer rebound). Finally, a comment for Thomas about forging horns rather than torch cutting them. This is hard, even with a striker! I forged a horn and it was a lot of work. I got a tiny little fishmouth and it cracked down the mouth. It was surprising how deep the crack went even though the lips were quite tiny. Fortunately I was able to cut it out. What a drag. A torch would have probably been easier.

Wow, what a lot of interesting replies. I don't know where to start. I need to run along right now, but I will make 2 comments. 1) There is no energy loss in an ideal elastic system. That is why I put "" around the loss words. The problem about energy diverted into bowing is that it rebounds on the wrong time scale to be useful. 2) As you can probably guess, somebody has already done experiments. More details later. Gotta run now.

Hi Bob. Thanks for focusing the discussion. It is amazing how warm people are getting just sitting around, drinking coffee, and chatting. Since everyone has been so patient, I will give you some more verifiable facts. The comment about plates flexing and taking up energy is right on target. The observation that this effect is larger for a horizontal stack than a vertical stack is also very appropriate. What you are looking for, probably, is some approximate numbers, and perhaps an academic reference. There are two key steps that we need to realize in order to quantify the loss of forging efficiency. These steps are absent from most mechanical engineering textbooks, but some of the older ones include them. The first step is to apply the principle of conservation of energy. This principle says that, for deformations of the plates restricted to be elastic, the most energy that can be stored ("lost") in a deforming plate is that associated with its bending. In other words, for a given force, beam theory tells us what is the total amount of energy stored in the displaced beam. There can be no more, but there can be less, due to various factors. The second important concept is that for linear deformations restricted to the elastic region of the stress strain relationship, the energy stored in the beam is just that stored in a linear spring with a spring constant given by the material properties and dimensions. In other words, F = kx, E = 1/2 k x^2 , where the caret denotes exponentiation, implying E = 1/2 F^2/k. This not so familiar result has the very familiar conclusion that the energy storage is inversely proportional to the stiffness. For example, the requirement of stiffness in hydraulic systems is equivalent to the restriction against excessive elastic energy storage. Moving on, let us estimate k. For a simple beam, x = 1/48 FL^3/EI, where L is the length of the beam, E is the elastic modulus, and I is the moment of inertia. Thus, k = 48EI/L^3 If we assign some sensible dimensions, the longitudinal welds support the ends of a very short but wide beam. L = 3", b = 10", d = 2", and I = 1/12 bd^3. The dimensions are approximate from the photos. Substituting the numbers in to the above equations and eliminating a lot of steps, we get E = 0.2 in-lb. We use F = 12000 lb, from the approximate impact force of a 2 pound hammer swung at a reasonable speed. This computation is beyond the scope of this document, but can be found in various textbooks or web pages. The total energy of the hammer is equivalently 60 in-lb, which corresponds to a 2 pound weight falling 30 inches. Of course, nobody drops a hammer 30 inches, but the speed was calibrated from photos taken at MIT of a blacksmith's hammer swing. It is reasonable that the speed would be higher than that at free fall. This computation shows that the energy loss is 0.33%. Small, but perhaps not negligible. Lets examine a couple of key assumptions from above. First, the assumption of the validity of a 1 dimensional simple beam calculation. This is obviously not correct. The impact is a point, not a line impact. But, it will spread through the plate. In that case, b is overestimated. It is likely that only 1/5 of the beam is actively involved in bending. This drops k by a factor of 5, and it is possible that the energy loss is 5X larger, or 1.7%. This is the difference between a 100 and a 200 lb anvil, so it may be noticeable. Second assumption: what about the second interface? The stack has more than one plate. Well, the picture of the karate demonstration is misleading. First, the plates are in elastic deformation. In the photo of the karate demonstration, the wood planks are obviously stressed past their elastic limit. Linear elastic deformation theory is completely inapplicable for the karate picture. Fortunately, it is in our case. The verification of this fact is left to the reader. The reason why the second plate does not deform as much is that it is probably not contacted by the first plate. Why? Back calculating gives x = 27/32 x 10^-5". There is no way that a backyard blacksmith can fit two plates to an accuracy of 8 microinches. This is even beyond the capability of most machine shops. Instead, most of the "dissipation" goes into the two welds supporting the simple beam. These may be considered to be a simple compression spring, and the same analysis applied to them. Using reasonable values of 10" x 2 x 1/8" area and corresponding thickness gives even smaller energy losses than above. Third assumption, we considered the energy loss for a hammer directly impacting the top plate. Nobody does this, not even backyard blacksmiths . Typically, there would be a softer target of hot metal in between. Thus, the above calculation is pessimistic. So, the horizontal plates are worse, but not that much worse. How about vertical plates? That exercise is left to the reader, with the hint that the Euler buckling criterion is applicable. It will be found that the energy "dissipation" is really quite negligible. As for a reference, the following text is great, but any strength of materials text, such as Timoshenko's classic may be used. Mechanics of Materials, Mansfeld Merriman, John Wiley & Sons, NY, 1914. The above analysis is mine, and will appear in a forthcoming paper, so don't sue me if you steal the copyright and discover it later.

If it is a Lotos, he probably did not just pop a capacitor. He probably burned out a switching transistor, and will blow another if he replaces it. There are a lot of sleazy people selling these welders. There is one small shop in my neighborhood. The seller is very pushy and says the welders are made by Miller. Generally, the pushier and more abrupt the seller is, the less chance you have of receiving good after sales service. Fortunately, the search engines will help others find your post. Unfortunately, there are a lot of confusing positive posts on the same subject. And, lots of people are trying to save money. Next time, instead of calling with a credit card number, come up with a fake sob story instead. I know. It is sleazy too. But this can often draw out a disreputable seller and cause him to reveal his true intentions.

Wrong tool for the job, but it could be done. I think that you are just trying to weld the block flat to the RR track, so this weld will not be taking all that much abuse. You aren't trying to weld two blocks together with a full pen weld. Cause if you were, you should use a big stick welder like everybody else says. You will probably go ahead and weld it with the little MIG without preheating, and it will break on you. Just make sure your foot is not under it when the block falls. Those blocks can hurt.

I wouldn't use it without grinding all the cracks out. Even then, it is risky. Why don't you get another cheap hammer? There was a kid in my class who had the "exploding hammer" problem. He had all these streams of blood trickling down his forearm. The doc said the pieces were in so deep that it was not worth taking them out. Of course, he was wearing safety glasses, so it was only a sobering warning for the rest of us. Anyway, the metalworking teacher said that by far, screwdrivers were the most dangerous tool in the shop.

Yes, it will. Ever worked with a physicist? For example, when designing the bottom anvil on those popular air hydraulic bottle jacks, a physicist will not over-design the beam and end up shearing off the 1/4-20 bolts holding the outer guide plates on. The physicist will see the assembly as a compound simple machine, and either beef up the bolts at the expense of the beam, or go with a more appropriate design for the guides. Hunter, welcome, and note that there's a lot more physics in this stuff than it might otherwise seem.

Bimbo air actuator.

Hi everybody! Thanks for the helpful suggestions. These are semi-modern wheels that still have the speed markings on them. I will run them a little slower, maybe 1725 rpm. I did a ring test after searching around the web a while and learning about the hazard of wheels breaking apart while they are spinning. Cutting the speed should also cut down the energy considerably. The idea I get is that it is much more important to guard the wheels than it is to guard the belt. I always wear a face shield while grinding, even with a dremel. I had a small stone shatter, and the dremel has no guards. At the RPM that these things run, those fragments really zing around. That was a preventable accident. Those little mounted points in the big box at the flea markets are so much less expensive then the carded dremel brand. Now I know why :angry: