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I Forge Iron

lbas

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    Dalian, NE China
  1. In the U.S. (and maybe Canada) I'd go for the middle Rhino. I spent a thousand or two thousand hours on a 100 kg (220 lb) anvil in Spain and feel that's the starting point, the default weight. I recently received a 242 lb Rhino here and am impressed by every aspect of it. You wouldn't go wrong with that anvil. lbas (smiling at finally having a really good anvil for the first time in my life - at sixty-five!)
  2. Hi, I suggest a two-pronged approach. (1) Make a hardy hole reducer to say 3/4" square to reduce your hammering requirements considerably to get started. Square tubing forges and tapers just fine as does pipe. Weld on a flange at the top if that's the way for you. Old rear axles are 1045 which is fairly easy to hammer, gets pretty hard, and the axles are of different sizes and (as I remember) tapered so you could eyeball a section to use that wouldn't require too much hammering to get to shape. OK. Your life's a lot easier right now, you get some hardy tools, and most importantly, you get to practice. Takes lots of practice. (2) 'Cause well, if you're crazy about this stuff, you simply gotta learn to bring the hammer down. Not trying to be funny. And it takes a lot of practice, practicing the right things, working up to being comfortable with a heavier hammer. For me that was six pounds on a shorter handle than the others which were 2 kg and 1 kg. I hammered a lot with the 2 kg before I was comfortable with the 6 lb. These things take time. Oh, we filed the hammer faces to a slight dome, reduces the possibility of edge marks and concentrates the force of the blow on a smaller area. After a while you can work with the paving breaker bits and not have to be overly strong to do it. Far edge of the anvil makes a really powerful and controllable fuller. Well near one too for different work. Frank Turley knows how to hammer and if you're not close to him could recommend others as good examples to watch and learn from. A power hammer's nice, a flypress is too, but there's no substitute for having the basic skills. If nothing more as a reference point. And there's a satisfaction in the process of doing it on the anvil that I don't get if I do it another way. Frank won't remember me but I remember him, and thanks for reminding me about Joe Volz. I enjoyed him a lot. Good luck! life begins at sixty (lbas)
  3. Just for curiosity, what's a bunch of screw presses doing in NW Arkansas? And oh, I wouldn't be afraid to try to build one, start with a smallish one and be ready for it to do unexpected things. I got a 1 1/4" dia 2-start screw cheap (getting the nut made was more expensive) that I'll bolt into an H-frame from channel to give it a try myself. Expect about a ton from it like my little green press I put up on the forum a while back (which turns out to be something called an "Engraving Proofing Press"). Wheel? Don't know yet. Whatever I have, just trying to establish rough parameters. Of course when you try stuff you have to take responsibility for what happens or doesn't, can't be silly and think someone else is liable (me or other). It's a real shame to have to say that, isn't it? lbas
  4. Not far. I'm in China. If airline prices permit I'll visit in a year and could come by. When I lived in Spain an old Spanish blacksmith tried to teach me a lot and I hope succeeded. He hammered out wickedly thin knife blades very close to finished size. lbas (life begins at sixty)
  5. If you go to Helsinki you must go see the famous sculpture of the blacksmiths working in the center part of town. It's not too far from the train and bus stations. The Finns have been famous for blacksmithing for a long time. life begins at sixty
  6. Dear Woodsmith, Seeing your photos via the gallery kicked me into this. Looks like you designed and built a nice belt grinder. One of the photos (18412.attach.jpeg - cute kid!) shows one side of the idler wheel mounting/adjustment. What about the other side? What does it look like? Is it the same? I'm close and that's where I've been stymied. No lathe, just a drill press. Already have the idler wheel (nylon caster wheel paid to have crowned) ball bearing mounted on a stainless steel pipe nipple. Don't have the mounting figured out. Thanks, life begins at sixty
  7. Grant, thanks for the posting(s). My end prevents me from viewing most videos and these are no exception. Is a direct link for downloading possible? My old eyes like big videos and downloading several gigs at a time is usually no problem. Thanks, life begins at sixty
  8. Grant, Could I get you to expand (expound) a bit about these little rascals in general? I'm thinking more about 30 T. and the typical scenario goes that I'm presented with one to buy or not and I have to know enough (hopefully) to do a good job. Do you have instructions, parts callout for the pic you posted here, set-up and maintenance info? If I said "pretty please" would you share it? I (think I) got through doing this on a No. 3 hand flypress OK but I don't have any experience with a motorized one. I took a photo down to the used machinery shops in the ship outfitting area to find the hand press. You know I'm across the pond. Thanks, life begins at sixty
  9. Robert, (Referring to original your post) Nice looking burner, nice pic with the parts callout. Hope you'll post again after you've run it on a forge a few hours and can give us some figures and observations on that. I for one am interested. Best, lbas (life begins at sixty)
  10. Andrew, how much do she weigh? This is one indication of what it could do. I like the heavy ram guides. life begins at sixty (lbas)
  11. lbas

    different flypress

    Thanks John, I filed down the bronze nut and now have the full (!) 2 inch stroke to work with. Yesterday got a couple of odd step nuts at the flea market for possible forms, today I'll go to the port ship supply area and nose around the section of shops with old stuff. That's where I found the press. I want to make something simple I'll enjoy and other people will too and have no idea what it will be. Belt buckle? Thinking about 0.401" shank air chisels for tool blanks, all I have is the kitchen stovetop burner for annealing and heat treating now. lbas (life begins at sixty)
  12. Yes, please look at the photo and tell me about this little press. The frame is 17 inches front to back, 15 inches top to bottom. Wheel 17 1/2 inches diameter, 3 start screw advances an inch per revolution and is a tad over 1 1/2 inches O.D. There is a flat table, no holes, that slides on the cast-in dovetail. The ram guide doesn't look strong enough to take abuse and the depth should be strictly limited by the stop nut so as not to bend the rod holding the springs. Ram arrangement limits travel to 2 inches. The frame weighs about 130 lbs and all together the press weighs about 180. The nut is brass and held by 2 pins.The piece of junior channel cutoff and rod are what I had for a first try on what it might do. The "tool" is a cutoff 1 inch bolt and it would bend or straighten the rod a bit with the flat tool face and over that span. Not cranking hard. First time I've ever spun a press, lots of hours on a hand hammer. The thrust washer was missing and the one I made from a bronze pipe cap is too big O.D. I measured and think I can file that down to go up in the nut and gain half an inch of stroke. But there's just not much clearance there. The hole into the ram is just under an inch diameter and 7/8 inch deep. I'll just have to play around and see what I can get under it and do. This baby was hiding among a lot of electric motors up on end. When I first saw it the motors made it seem small and I thought it was a No. 0. Then we started lifting it out and I realized it was bigger. I want to start getting a feel for what it can do. Very little wear. Thanks, lbas
  13. I live in Dalian, Liaoning Province, China. This is the old Manchuria, northeast China, more or less close to South Korea. The city was occupied by the Russians, the Japanese, as it is a strategic port. Lessee if I can find them quickly, coordinates 38
  14. Hello all, I'm from the U.S. and dabbled there, learned the trade in Spain, now live in Asia for the last nearly 10 years. lbas stands for "Life Begins at Sixty" which more or less happened for me. I have forged a lot of very thin knife blades from scrap, made a lot of knife handles from stacked horn washers inlayed with this and that, and made a lot of people happy in the process (including me). Now I'm starting to do the same here. Starting again the benchwork came easier, a way and place to forge still waiting. I'll start outside my apartment door (literally). Evaluating scrap for tools, knives - I was taught by an old master smith to draw out a thin narrow strip from an end, heat to critical and quench, test with old file, hold with tongs or in vise to hammer test break/bend a short part for brittleness, draw remaining length to different colors and test them the same way. We're talking a piece as long as a finger and of width and thickness suitable to your tools - 3/8 or 1/2 inch wide (10-12mm), not much metal. You can learn a lot in a hurry this way. We'd test each individual piece of rebar scrap this way, and each part of mine rail scrap, because the composition of the top, web, and base pieces could well be different. Yes we cut the rail into those three parts for further use. No power hammer. Question: how do I submit a story? Best, lbas
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