monstermaker

21 hours ago, Frosty said:

1045 makes nice axes and such, especially if you weld in a HC bit. Drawing down from 1" for tongs is a bit much unless you're a teen ager. 

Good score. Must be nice to have access to a scrap yard that'll sell to the public.

Frosty The Lucky.

Yeah, I don't have the energy for that, as much as I would like to think I do..  Having access to a scrapyard is wonderful. We have several big ones here in town, but most won't sell anything to the general public.

8 minutes ago, Frosty said:

4140 makes excellent tongs and 5/8" round is a good size. 1045 is darned good tong stock too. They're both springy so you can forge tongs thin and light without sacrificing grip strength. 4140 doesn't work harden like low alloy steels and is very durable.

Either would make good trading stock with the blacksmith community. 

Frosty The Lucky.

Awesome! Thank you. I'll snatch some up. The smallest diameter of 1045 was 1", so more than I want to draw out.  They had 4140 in 5/8" and 2", and  1045 in 1", 1.25", and 1.5". I picked up some of the 1045 for making some drifts.

There's probably 100-200 ft of each if anyone is near Cincinnati.

I've tried searching for this, but haven't found it yet. My local scrapyard just got in a bunch of 1045 and 4140 in various sizes. There are several hundred feet of 5/8" round 4140, that I was thinking of using to make some more tongs. Is there any reason that 4140 makes for a bad set of tongs?
 

2 hours ago, ThomasPowers said:

We're making a bunch of ball stakes for armour making and using the ends of sucker rod for the shafts as they have a square shaft section for the wrench to turn and an upset bump built in.  Just fit the square shaft to hardy hole size. (It's amusing that every anvil I have has slightly different to way different hardy hole sizes 7/8"-1.5", the Vulcans had 3/4" but I don't keep them...)

Now are sucker rods an oil field thing? I've never seen them around Ohio.

That's all really great information. I'm definitely going to hit up the rental counters in my area to see what I can come up with. Thanks. 

I have loved and killed several of those angle grinders over the years. Since you've never used one, it's definitely a good size to start. A 7" can feel really torquey and be a little scary to start with. Make sure you wear nothing loose to get tangled in it, get a face shield, keep the guard on, and use hearing and breathing protection. An exploding cutting disk or wire brush is no joke. Stay safe. 

I do mean a hardy to go in the hardy hole. I'll definitely keep an eye out for a jackhammer bit. I have some 1045 that I'll probably try to use to make one, but I've been leary of upsetting the shoulder on my actual anvil since I have no swage block for that. 

3 hours ago, Frosty said:

Welcome aboard Monstermaker, glad to have you. 

There's your problem right there, if you want to swing a hammer you  need to find your hands NOT your legs. 

What are you lacing for your set up? 

Frosty The Lucky.

Well, xxxxx You mean I've been doing it wrong all along? Hands, Huh? That explains a LOT!

Thanks for the Welcome.

My setup is coming along nicely so far. I bought an old Peter Wright anvil, and 2 hammers - a cheap cross pein and cheap rounding hammer. I've built a gas forge: It's  fabricated steel shell, with fire bricks and 1/2" refractory lining, and a ribbon burner. I bought one pair or wolf jaw tongs that I've used to make v-bit and flat jaw tongs so far. And I've built a 2x72 belt grinder out of mostly scrap from work.

I have a 1 hour lunch break every day, which seems like the biggest waste of time, so I use it for building projects like the forge and grinder. I enjoy that kind of thing.

I'm lacking in hardy tools, which I'll need to address soon. I really need to get a cutoff, and maybe a fuller. I just hate buying things that I know I'll be able to make given enough time and practice.

My local scrapyard has about 50ft of 1045  1.625" round that I can get to 40-50cents a lb depending on who's at the gate. I grabbed a bit of that for future tool making.

21 hours ago, JHCC said:

Welcome to IFI!   Where are you in Ohio? 

Thanks, JHCC. I am in the Cincinnati Area.

Hi everyone, I'm excited to be here as I'm just getting started in blacksmithing and it seems that here's a ton of great information in these pages. Over the last several months, I've started to put together a modest setup and am in the process of making the necessary tools (tongs/punches, etc.) to get into really making things.

I have a background in sculpture and design, but have never been able to swing a hammer with any grace. I'm working on that now.

I hope that as I start to find my legs in this, I am able to contribute to the site.