JNewman

I always burn myself when I give off the cuff quotes/ estimates. Better to say I will send you the quote. It is hard to work things up with the customer standing there and I always find I under quote when they are standing there.

I would think electric is a good way to go. There are plans for an electric heat treat oven on a British bladesmiths website, that might be a good starting point. A good pottery supply place should have the elements and maybe even a controller. I would either shield the elements completely or make sure you put a shutoff relay attached to the door so it cuts the power when you open the door. You don't want to electrocute yourself. Another option would be to build a muffle furnace. Your burners would operate in a chamber but your parts go into a chamber inside the burner chamber.

Then why did the die steel I bought a couple of weeks ago come with the grain flow painted and stamped on the blocks of steel? http://www.asminternational.org/portal/site/www/AsmStore/ProductDetails/?vgnextoid=4ef77e0e64e18110VgnVCM100000701e010aRCRD Read the description of the ASM Book linked to "CONTROL OF GRAIN FLOW is one of the major advantages of shaping metal parts by rolling, forging, or extrusion. The strength of these and similar wrought products is almost always greatest in the longitudinal direction (or equivalent) of grain flow, and the maximum load-carrying ability in the finished part is attained by providing a grain flow pattern parallel to the direction of the major applied service loads when, in addition, sound, dense, good-quality metal of satisfactorily fine grain size has been produced throughout". ASM is the one of if not THE top authorities in metal materials science.

Don't forget to mark up the steel as well. If you are doing as Glenn says that is a markup. But if you are using full bars you need to mark it up 10-20% at least. You need to make a profit on all that inventory you are carrying.

It was delivered new to the Steel company of Canada in 1960 it's 53 years old So if I say antique some of the antiques on here here might have an issue with that :rolleyes:

I voted for mine as a Modern Self Contained.

The other nice thing about the hammer breathing inside the frame is that if it has to live outside for a little while it does not fill with water. If the tarping fails on a Nazel the muffler funnels the water into the hammer.

I just received this email from the ASM who produce the Heat treaters guide which is the bible of industrial heat treating and costs about $250. I don't have a smart phone so cannot currently download the app, but I definitely will be when I get a smart phone. Sounds like it is a free app and would be well worth downloading even if there was a nominal cost. Materials Park, Ohio - October 8, 2013. ASM International and the ASM Heat Treating Society are pleased to announce the recent release of the Heat Treater’s Guide Companion, now available in the Apple and Google App Stores. The free app provides ready reference data on nearly 170 carbon and alloy steels and includes information on chemical composition, similar steels, characteristics, forging instructions, and recommended heat treating practices and processing sequences. The app is geared towards engineers, metallurgists, technicians, sales engineers, and managers so they can quickly access the data conveniently at a client’s site, on the shop floor, in the lab, or at the office. The app was developed so it can be used by itself or as a companion to the popular and trusted ASM International Heat Treater’s Guide print and online database products, which provide additional heat treating information such as representative micrographs, isothermal transformation diagrams, cooling transformation diagrams, tempering curves and data on dimensional change. “More and more, ASM Heat Treating Society members and other industry professionals are requesting mobile access to data and information needed to accomplish work-related tasks. The Heat Treater’s Guide Companion is a first step in responding to that need, providing users with a fast, easy way to look up steel heat treating recipes,” stated Roger A. Jones, HTS President and Corporate President of Solar Atmospheres. “The app has generated a lot of interest and excitement within the heat treating community, and we’re excited to be a part of that.”

I never got around to taking a picture of the finished bolts but here is making them. Here is a view of the forming for the bolt holes. All the bolt hole forming and obviously the cavity below the plate forming is still in place. You will have to excuse the really ugly rebar job. This is before I formed the front of the hole. I wish I had mounted the hammer higher rather than setting the top of the hammer flush with the floor as the plans call for. I actually have a shallow trench in front of the hammer, I filled in around the hammer with limestone screenings rather than pouring concrete and have a lower section in front of the hammer.

It is the best system I have seen or heard of for anchor bolts and I would probably use it for any large machinery I were pouring a foundation for and installing. Here is a description of how it works. You make forms to create a bolt hole large enough that the T can fit down the hole. At the bottom of the hole is a steel plate with a rectangular hole in it large enough for the T to slip through it, The Massey drawings call for a casting but I just had some 3/4" plate flame cut. Below the plate is more forming to create a cavity under the plate. So after pouring the concrete you have a hole down to a steel plate then a chamber under the plate. The T bolts have a rectangular section forged on the end of the bolt with a section of the shank by the head square, like a carriage bolt. The threaded end of the bolt has a much smaller internal thread tapped into the end of the bolt. I made mine by upsetting the end of a 1.5" round bar then flattening it then further upsetting using 2 heavy bars welded to a piece of heavy plate creating a sort of bolster. Then I squared things up and finally swaged the round section just above the square section. When installing the hammer the bolts are dropped down the holes through the steel plate and they drop into the cavity under the plates. Now the threaded ends of your bolts are just below the top of the concrete, or what ever you are mounting hammer on ,so there is no danger of damaging the threads and you don't have to thread the needle dropping the hammer over the bolts. Now you take a piece of threaded rod with a handle welded on and thread it into the threaded hole you made in the t bolt. Turn the t bolt 90 degrees and lift then thread your nut on. The short square shank section ensures the t bolt won't turn as you tighten your nut. There is also some play in locating the hammer as the holes in the concrete are bigger than the bolt shank.

I said modern self contained as my Massey is from the 60s. I use it the most. I do use my shop built air hammer as well as I do have some specialized tooling that I have made. As well the shop built hammer hits faster lighter blows which is sometimes useful.

The cultivator? tines on the top of his gate look exactly like the ones they were making in the plant I was in earlier this week.

I thought I was going to make it this year. But as seems to happen most years this seems to be my busiest time of year again. All the people who didn't get around to ordering things they needed over the summer because they were either on holidays or thinking about holidays order them mid September and want them right away because they should have been ordered in the summer. I cannot afford to take off Friday and Saturday. In the past 2 weeks I got an order of 2 large patterns (about 150hrs), about 800lb of steel dropped off that has to be made into scrolls and rings (luckily someone else is doing all the fabricating) 8 pairs of tongs mostly 5' long 8 watermain valve keys and an old corebox will be dropped off tomorrow that needs to be replaced. As well I have 100 drifts to forge. It's a good problem to have but all this work needs to be done in the next 3-4 weeks. 2 weeks ago I was a little worried because I had almost no work.

Chances are until I either put an addition on my shop or buy my neighbours shop to move my pattern shop into I am going to delay setting up a salt pot. Partly due to the fact I want to leave lots of room around a large volume of molten salt. Even with subbing out the HT I make good money on the bars but it would be nice to keep it all in house.

Depends on the firebrick. The electric arc furnace in the steel foundry I used to work on was lined with firebrick. I know nothing about making wootz but typically steel that will be cast is melted in crucibles or lined furnace and then cast in sand moulds or investment moulds which are often backed up with sand. Letting the metal freeze in your (expensive) crucible is a sure way to destroy it.

Nice, I noticed that hammer on EBay but it would have cost me a fortune to ship had I wanted to bid.

Thanks Patrick. I am pretty sure the ones I did that way were around 3:1 on the ends. They were about a 6" id with about a 1/2" or 5/8" round section. I started with a piece of 2 or 3" round flattened it to about 3/4" flat. Then I drew out the shank and punched 2 holes one over 1" from the end and then slit between the holes. After opening it enough to grind all the sharp corners off and doing so I drew it out to the section I needed square then octagon till I had my ID. The drifting from punching then drawing down to my section and then flattening from 3/4" thick all together I am sure ended up with at least a 3:1 reduction. I did have some extra material that I had to grind off but I did make sure it was at 9 and 3 O clock.

An Ontario source for salts is Park Thermal in Georgetown. They sell the salt in minimum 50lb bags. I have actually been thinking of either buying or making a low temperature salt bath. I can harden out of the forge easily but tempering is harder especially the ends of longer bars. I have done some austempering with preheated oil. But the oil really smokes up the shop and using hot oil has some flammability issues. Right now I am subbing out the heat treating but my last bill was around $500.

I actually replaced my side draft with an overhead hood a couple of years ago so I could have access to all 4 sides. But when I used the side draft I didn't have problems with my side draft and heating plate, It was about 8-10" from the center of the firepot. I did have a hinged shelf of 1/4" plate that hung down from the front of the hood about 16" above the fire to help direct the smoke up the hood. It was also very nice to have as it helped protect me from the heat of the forge as well as a place to stick material ready to go in the fire. I think the shelf would have allowed me to move the hood a little further away if necessary. If I needed the height above the forge I could swing it up out of the way or even remove it as the hinges were gudgeons and pintles.

I am sorry to hear about that Neil. I suspect you are right about the scrappers but I will keep an eye out for it just in case.

How much reduction in section is needed to re orient grain direction? for example a seamless ring originally has the grain perpendicular to the direction it ends up. As an example In an eye bolt formed by flattening a bar slot punching and opening up the hole then drawing out the ring does reducing the material to half its section would that be enough to re orient the grain flow on the end of the hole?

Lots of good advise here. With any of them it is a good idea to either upset the area being slit before slitting so you have a little extra material or start with heavier stock and draw down either side of the slit. When doing a long slit I have found it easier to slit only from one side into a scrap piece of mild steel rather than trying to slit form both sides, you end up with the burr on the outside this way where it is easier to file and or grind than in the middle and it is a much cleaner burr. You can then offset the 2 sides to forge the sharp corner into the bar. of course this will draw the bar out somewhat but that is why you need to upset first. I have done eyebolts this way where it was critical there not be any cold shuts where the 2 slits meet as they would show up as cracks in NDT. testing. Another way probably easier way to go about this is to forgeweld 2 bars together on the ends then forgeweld your flatbars on the ends All the ends would need a little upsetting to compensate for the drawing out while welding.

Speaking of steam hammers I was in a shop the other day with about a dozen steam hammers. They were on a shutdowm so none were running but the "small hammer" in the shop was 3000lb. It was a closed die shop and they want me to make some tongs for them. Hopefully I get a chance to see things running when I deliver the tongs.

Try some long fancy fire pokers for campfires and backyard fire pits. I have sold custom ones for $150 -$200, When sitting around a fire people like to mess with the fire. You cannot buy long ones in the big box stores. A nice handmade fire poker is a good conversation piece and people will pay well for them either as a treat for themselves or as a gift. DON'T make the mistake of trying to compete with the big box stores on price because you will starve if you try. You are selling the sizzle not the steak and/or far better quality. In the $20-50 fire poker market you are selling the "I bought this from the blacksmith who made it". In the $150-$1000 fire poker you are selling both the "I bought this from the blacksmith who made it" and look at the quality/uniqueness of this fire poker.

My treadle guard is really handy for piling tools on while I am working (can't have enough horizontal surfaces in a shop) I do drop work sometimes and having heavy work on the treadle could get exiting. My guard looks like it was shop built and it is pretty beat up anyways. It drops over the anvil so the head either has to be fastened up or the hammer running to take it on or off which I don't like especially since it is pretty heavy/awkward to take on or off by myself. The new one will be open in the back with a piece that drops in. I will have to think about a retainer.