John B

Do you have garage sales / car boot sales? !/2" by 1", what about trying the sliding part of an old mortice lock? Or, Old brass candlesticks and ornaments, old beer pumps, old gas cylinder valves, old electric plugs have brass pins, melt and cast, brass scales, old shell casings, old door handles, finger plates loads of stuff is made from brass, but it may not look bright and yellow, scratch the surfaces, use a magnet. Good hunting.

Hi Paul, I will pm you with the details as I don't know wether it has yet gone or not. I will be picking up some more tools including, pedestal and bench drills, grinders, chop saws, anvil and stand soon, So keep looking on Blacksmith Guild UK group on forum for further details of tool sale bring and buy event, some time in October I think.

Download free from http://www.countryside.gov.uk/Images/BlacksmithscraftPart5_tcm2-18916.pdf Page 6 on in this section deals with square corners

Bank holiday weekend, August 23, 24, 25, at Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, OX20 1PX. Another opportunity to join in,

Hi Moya, welcome, I would recommend having a look at Tim Zowada's site, excellent information, also loads of info on this site.

A note of warning to the machinists' vice user, particularly if working in a shop that can have an overnight drop in temperature. If a vice is left with the jaws in the closed position, especially if you have been using it to hold hot metal, then with a temperature drop and the shrinkage involved, then there is a danger the moving jaw will fracture at its weakest point.

Here is a couple of pics of my home made anvil, courtesy of and with thanks to, the BP on this site (Can't currently acces the relevant one, no doubt someone can add this for me) Someone once said "Start small then work up" Good advice

Machinist or engineers' vice are made from cast iron, with parallel jaws and are not designed for impact or shock loads, they will crack, post vices are made of suitable 'iron' to withstand shock, and do. They are the proper tool for the job

Glad you found the information useful, you may be able to pick some up from any old engineers, or yard sales, You can always make a pair for yourself, or modify a pair of dividers, one way to do this is to weld or braze a small piece of metal to one leg to form a shoulder stop, about 1/8" to 1/4" up from the end, to allow it to sit on the edge of the metal being marked, the other point can be then made to be level with this shoulder If you make your own, a tig tungsten can be used as the scribing point

Hi Simon, Welcome to the site, hope to see you and all the other smiths and ironwork on show at the Dorset Show on September 6th and 7th, Don't forget to post some pictures of the exhibits here for all to see, I know there will be some classy stuff on show, and a good live competition too.

If you are going to make something using this principle, think of incorporating a stop device or attachment (to govern the length of the working/approach stroke) to ensure an even repeatable pressure to be applied throughout the length of the curve being produced as the material is fed through. A consistent increment of feed through will assist in making regular smooth curves.

Top and bottom swage to profile required. Use on power hammer or sledge teamwork.

Having completed the previous post about friction butt welding, and re reading your initial question, I think what you are describing is what I would term spot welding, A spot welder I believe just puts an induction weld in between two parts, (I am not a welder, and rely on the adage beginners luck and if it is already broke you have nothing to lose if you try and fix it, just make certain of the potential dangers involved and avoid them) In the past I have adapted a small car body type spot welder to weld prickets for candle holders (Basically a carpet tack) into the centre of a sheet steel disc, to enable mass production of these items in someone's workshop. Sorry if the previous post confused anyone.

Some years ago I was involved with a company in the UK making equipment and tooling for a machine for friction butt welding items together, the company the machinery was made for was called Blacks Equipment Basically the machine was a lathe with a rotating headstock as per norm, and the tailstock was used to secure and hold rigidly the second component to be welded If I remember correctly, the "tailstock" assembly on the machine was a hydraulic controlled unit. The headstock was powered up with the first component securely held, the tailstock with the static piece was then advanced slowly into contact under steady pressure, and the friction thus created rapidly raised the area to a glowing red heat, and at the critical point of heat (Forge welding heat) the pressure on the tailstock component holding mechanism was released and the fused item allowed to freewheel and then come to rest and allowed to cool in air. The same method can be adapted and used to fuse rods to discs on a drill press.

Oddleg calipers (sometimes called hermaphrodite calipers) or angle backmarkers or dividers used carefully

Just a few pictures from the exhibition of work at BABA's AGM this weekend, over 100 smiths in attendence having fun, the work on show is from different members.

August 9th and 10th at Bowood House, Calne, Wiltshire. SN11 0LZ Show Competition is to make a doorknocker in 2 hours, bring your own material and tools, Forges, anvils, and fuel supplied.

Sorry, I haven't got any from that show, but these are from a typical display at a previous show, and made by various Guild members,

Thanks for that, hope you enjoyed it and made yourself known, maybe see you at future events.

The clues in the question hot punch, requires heat. 1/8" in 1/8" plate can be done cold on a mandrel press, fly press, hydraulic press or make up a holder and sledge the punch over a die (5% per side on punch diameter for clearance) just ensure punch and die are in line. You will need to put a stripper plate in place to prevent plate sticking to punch

Whilst 1/8" plate will work fine, in my experience it tends to distort with the heat generated from the fire if you use it seriously, (Basically it sags with the weight of the fire and the heat expanding the plate whilst the perimeter is rigid due to the sides for retaining the fuel) The pics show why this happens, the forges shown are prototypes for taking to demos and competitions and will forge weld 1" square + easily, which is probably why they get warm, For the home workshop I would make the sides higher. The forges usually use coke as a fuel. The side cutouts were put in to allow long workpieces to be heated in the central areas, this is the weak point, legs are inserted into the tubes on the corners, this allows the forges to be stacked for transporting or storing, second pic. You could always put some webs on underneath the cut out areas to help prevent this happening, in practice it is not a problem, the distortion is not great.

When we made gears they were usually flame hardened on the teeth, so the material would have been a carbon steel, relatively tough as well to accept the stresses involved with loadings, so they should be suitable for forming tools, hardies, or texturing tools

Hi Valentin, It seems I am having difficulty with your problems on this one. your sample being shown from the dies has apparently gone from square (original) to faceted/roundish. And I am an infrequent powerhamer user, and feel like I am trying to "show Granny how to suck eggs", so feel free to ignore these ramblings if you think they are not valid. I have made vaguely similar shapes under a fly press to produce square items for wall lights etc, and found that they work quite well to produce a square or round feature, the key is to keep them in line, (work up to an end stop if possible and this will push the excess metal in the same direction. Rotate slowly with frequent light blows rather than trying to do it in a couple of strokes, working down to the finished size, particularly easy for the round version, not so for the square. From the last two pictures, The marling around the edges would indicate that the relief/shape of the die is too sharp/square at that point, and the workpiece is not consistently located, and also the die profiles are too deep, the evidence for this being the thin diameter end on the finished version, which in turn would indicate the dies are the wrong size for the profile being formed, Try a smaller section bar to prove this. Other observation is this type of "picket" I would consider to be a central feature on a bar, not an end picket, and the dies are designed by the manufacturer to produce that, although they can be succesfully used in other applications. Finials were produced traditionally by drop stamps and the excess flashings sheared off with a second stage stamp, or they were produced with fullers or between swages nowadays 'smiths do similar work on powerhammers, which works well for the swaging process, not so well for the drop stamping. It is always a problem trying to copy others dies and getting the same results, mainly because of the unknowns of material size and if any preworking was done I would not think preworking is appropriate in this case if they are used as the manufacturer intended. To sum it up I think the main problem is the material size/die profile ratio which is causing problems, one way around this would be a two stage operation, preshape the bar to a suitable dimension, necking it in to reduce the amount of material where required. (Without getting a "hands on" its difficult to be more specific). I hope this hasn't cofused you more, and Good Luck with the job.

Weld the three bars together at both ends, longer than what is needed, and Take a piece of tube which will allow the rods to fit into, the length of the finished twist (at least), with not too much slack/clearance in. This will keep the item straight when twisting. Place the bundle of rods into the tube, Fix one end securely into a vice, support the tube with a suitable hold up horizontaly and make a twisting bar from a substantial piece of metal and twist it cold, the longer the twisting bar, the easier it is to twist. Points that may help; Try to keep a steady constant twist once you start. The tighter the twists get, the more difficult it will be to manually twist, particularly if you keep starting and stopping. When making the bundle make a good solid weld on each end, and if necessary forge it to a suitable shape to hold securely at each end, So long as one end will pass through the tube it will be OK, the other end could have a twisting bar welded straight on to it, or a square nut, or other suitable shape to locate your preferred method of manipulation. Or if you have a lathe, hold one of the ends in the lathe chuck, and engage low revs, support the securely held end at approx same height as lathe centre height, and off you go. Cut off the ends after twisting.

Basically work it from both sides as required, if you work on any backing, the trick is to hold the workpiece in place against the backing with the pressure of the tool you are holding/using, try working on a bench rather than your lap/knees. You can sit or stand so long as it is at a comfortable height. Try to remove as many variables as possible A common mistake when hitting the tool or marking out is to "Double strike" the blows. What I mean by this is that the tendancy is to place the hammer face lightly on to the punch end prior to hitting it with the working strike, this tends to dislodge the tool from its original location and consequently is not effective, or accurate. Classical example of this is someone inexperienced, marking out with a cold chisel, and when they look at the work, it has a number of lines and it is difficult to determine the correct one. The chisel has jumped from where it should be struck hard with the first touch of the hammer, it may only be a small amount, but it will make a difference to the proper location. I hope I have described this adequately for anyone to understand what is happening. Be confident and strike your tools firmly with the first blow, you control the tools, grip them firmly but not tightly and the shock won't transfer through your hands/wrist/arm. Same applies when holding your hammers, and don't work when you are tired (or the work is, anneal it when necessary)