Walking Dog

Arkham - Use flux. Borax (not Boraxo) works well. You can find borax in the laundry section of some big box stores. The band name I get is "20-Mule Team." Try 1/2 inch square stock. Be prepared for frustration. Really, your best bet is get with a smith who is good at forge welding and learn hands on. Three critical issues are 1) Getting the right temperature (judging the color), 2) How and where to hit it, and 3) When to stop hitting and reheat and refine the weld. These things have been discussed a lot on this site, but hands-on with someone is the best way to learn. Walking Dog

The older the smith, the darker the heat. (In regard to forge welding.)

Your disc brake rotor would be a good start on a work stand or something similar. Remove the bearings and fit a pipe into the center hole. Make the attachment solid by fitting a scrap of round stock under the lug bolt, and welding its other end(s) to the pipe.

I punched a hole (hot) in a tie plate and screwed it to a heavy chunk of wood. I put this under my leg vise so the leg wouldn't have to rest on my concrete floor. Obviously this raises the vise a few inches, but that was also what I needed. Walking Dog

Opera, turned up loud enough to cover my yodeling.

I've made several tools from the track clips with good success (several center punches, several spring fullers, twisting wrenches). The material definitely has significant carbon, is tough to forge, and will crack if you handle the forging or heat treating carelessly. I suggest to treat it as though it were 1060. I forge at high orange, oil quench, and draw it back to magenta going on purple for a center punch. (The fullers and the twisting wrenches I just forged and normalized.) Good luck, and have fun with it! Roger

Zsartell - My wife and I are the keepers of the store for NOB (Northwest Ohio Blacksmiths). We have anvil suspenders in either black or red. I think there is also 1 pair of blue left. The club is charging $15 - let me know by email if you are interested. Grant notwithstanding, I think they'll fit in a $5 flat rate box! Walking Dog

Removing the chrome into an acid solution will produce toxic waste - not a lot, but something I'd hate to just dump down the drain. Couldn't you just get a piece of traditional stock material for your knife - say, an old file - and turn in your ratchet to recycling?

Tim, I would suggest a blow pipe. Use 1/2-inch square tubing, about 30 inches long. Forge one end down to constrict the hole to about 1/8 inch. Flare the other end and roll the lip around back on itself to make a nice smooth place to blow on it. You can put on a hanging hook if you like, and some prefer a 30-degree bend near the business end (I like it straight myself). The blow pipe is the handiest thing for starting a fire, or restarting from nearly dead coals. Roger

Phil The RARE- VINTAGE ZENITH VARIABLE TRANSFORMER- TYPE 36Y should work well on a 240-V circuit, if you are happy with the price. The "Brand new variable transformer, i.e., Variac. Input is single phase 110V AC, 60 Hz, output voltage can be adjusted from 0 to 250V AC." will be fine with a 120-V input circuit. Should be easy to apply this one. Another option, if you don't have a 240-V circuit, is to use the combination of a 120-V Variac with a 120/240 transformer, as long as the price is right. Roger

I'm an electrical engineer with a good track record in getting these sorts of motors to work. There are two good ways to approach this. Use a 220-V circuit with a 220-V variable transformer (trade names include "Variac," "Adjust-a-Volt," "Powerstat," and others). These variable transformers are widely available in surplus and old equipment as speed controls or light dimmers, and although a bit expensive, are efficient and don't put out the heat a rheostat would. The current rating needs to be about 1 A or better, GUESSING at the motor size. Use a rheostat with a current rating of at least 1 A (guessing at the motor size). Your experiments say that you need more than 50, but less than 2000 ohms. Maybe 200 or 500 ohms. These things are also available in some surplus outlets, if you look hard enough. To narrow this down, find a couple of fixed resistors in the 200-500 ohms neighborhood and try them. The value you want for the rheostat is the smallest resistor value that will slow the motor down to the minimum speed you would ever want. The rheostat may be marked with a power rating in the neighborhood of 100-200 W, but as you've discovered, the real test comes at almost full speed where the motor current is at its highest and only the last few turns of the rheostat element are in the circuit. There is no harm in running the motor on low voltage PROVIDED it doesn't overheat. Overheating might occur due to the lack of cooling air when the motor is slow or stalled, but as long as it doesn't overheat, it won't be harmed. You could also try an electronic type light dimmer (220-V). These may or may not work right with a motor, but it won't hurt to try, as long as there is no overheating. On a motor this old, be sure the bearings are free, the brushes are good, and the commutator is clean and not scarred and pitted. Bad brushes/commutator may lead to the case where the motor will run, but the speed control is very poor. Good luck. (Roger)

My wife and I frequently enjoy the visit to Holmes county. I have seen a couple of good anvils at what I thought fair prices in the antique stores there (imagine that!). I've gotten excellent deals on a few blacksmithing tools and a vise from antique stores there. Don't bother with all the billboards telling you to visit a working blacksmith shop (Wendell August), it's no longer there. Just various castings imported from somewhere else. Have a good time!

Hay rake tines are made of junkyard metal, so those rules apply. However, the hay rake tines I'm using seem to be quite high in carbon, make good knifes, and are notably harder to forge than mild steel. Forge it hot (high orange), but not too hot (it turns to cottage cheese, or sparks), and don't forge it cold (below bright red). I'm saving my hay rake tines for things that require a very hardenable steel.

Another dishing option is the bottom end of a gas cylinder, such as an oxygen bottle. My welding supplier gave me a scrap one for free when I described my blacksmithing activities.

And make sure you're starting the die on its correct side.