JNewman

You could try it. But the nice thing about a nut is that it is already done. If you are not using swages having a gap like you would get with wrapping a piece around works really well. The Cosira books show the process really well. They are available for download online and are well worth looking up for this sort of work.

A handy trick for forge welding on a ball is to forge weld on a nut. It welds on much easier using a ball swage but can be done in a v block or round swage. It is trickier to do but can be done on the anvil as well. A square nut gives you more mass than a hex nut. If you need more mass you will have to roll up stock that you plan on welding to the bar.

I started with something similar but probably about 50% the weight. Go ahead and start with it, it will get you started but look for a solid block, The overhanging sides of the beam will be springy and you will lose a lot of energy to them. For most of your forging you don't need that big a surface so even a smaller weight with all the weight under your hammer will give you better rebound. That being said hang onto your I beam. When I moved 20 years ago I scrapped my I beam because I was using a London Pattern anvil by then. I found I missed having the I beam because occasionally it was the perfect tool. The large flat face handy for flattening things like scrolls and the edge makes a great bridge tool.

That does make sense when you are working the stock down by hand after upsetting. It will take an extra heat or 2 for upsetting. Crazy was the time Bob Cook and I upset the middle of a 2 1/2" bar to 4" by hand. I had a power hammer to work the 2 1/2" but it would not have worked 4" down so we had to upset. It was pretty much a day of lifting and throwing down a 100lb block of steel.

Both my old Brown Boggs stake plate and my new ones have a few sizes What do you mean by a good stake taper? On the bars I do in one heat the end of the 1 1/8" bar is 1 3/8" -1 1/2" for about 3/4" and then tapers to the stock size over about 3". I can then flatten the bar to 1/2" by 1 3/4" 3" long for a 3/4" bolt to go through To help keep the bar straight while upsetting this way rotate the bar 1/4 turn every blow. Working the end back down to a taper will be way more work than the upset.

If you leave the bar long as Charles mentions uspsetting 1" by hand is actually quite easy. I regularly upset both ends of a 5' 1 1/8" round bar by hand. I do batches of 25 of them and then flatten the ends for a bolt hole. Heat them really hot and a nice short heat For your extension forge welding a socket on would be a tricky weld. I would either faggot weld or upset the end to get some mass then flatten it and punch and drift your hole. Assuming you won't be using tall stakes in the extensions you don't need the pocket to be as deep as the pexto one. I made a bunch for a silversmithing class for working inside vessels and I flattened them to 1/2"-3/4" thick and then punched the hole;

I would suggest 4140 or 4340. They are tough steels that are very common and reasonably priced. They can be hardened to the mid 50s RC or harder but I would harden stake tools less than that.

I don't understand the fear of keys lots of people seem to have. Bolt on dies are easier to make for custom dies but the bolts are just as likely to vibrate loose as the keys are to come loose. Well fitting keys that are greased before driving in are easy to change and hold securely. My home built hammer has bolt in dies and they vibrate loose as often or more than my hammer with keys. Using bolts and keys you will have both vibrating loose unless you don't oil or grease you keys and end up with them rusted in place. A key won't break off needing drilling and easy outs. Buy the Cliftom Ralph videos that he produced years ago. They are available from either artisan ideas or blue moon press on DVD. He has a lot of info on them about LG type hammers as well. They are 12hr long and could use some editing but there are tons of little information nuggets buried in them on power hammer usage.

I think it would be possible but I suspect you would be looking in the neighbourhood of $4-5000 for a link plus shipping. They are a high manganese alloy for wear resistance. If you are still interested PM me and I can talk to the customer and get an actual price.

I have a steel cutting circular saw that is similar to a wood saw, but the rpm is a little slower. That is much heavier than the saw is rated for but I bet it would do it if taken slowly. I agree you might have a problem with a regular speed circular saw. The saw I have is a Princess auto one (similar to Harbour Frieght) I question whether it would stand up to daily use but it works well for a couple hours use every few months.

That is why I don't use acetylene for my torch anymore. Oxy propane is way cheaper for heating and works just as well for cutting. I don't use the torches for welding and rarely for brazing. With the gas saver and a 250,000btu rosebud it heats the steel up quickly and only where I need the heat so it probably uses about the same amount or less propane than if I were using a gas forge the extra cost is in the oxygen use. If I were using acetylene with this size torch I would need at least 3 tanks manifolded together 1" or the 1.5" of the OP is not heavy enough that it holds the heat for a long time so using a torch allows the forging to be done while the steel is still at peak forging temperature. If it takes a minute or 2 to get the steel from the forge to the hammer it can be the difference between 1 heat or multiple heats. i use forges for most of my heating but a torch can be the best tool for certain jobs. it may not be the best solution for the OP but it might be depending on the circumstances. Sometimes thinking outside of the box is the answer rather than better ways to lift the bar maybe the answer is not to have to lift the bar. I would love to have tons of room to swing a 12' bar around the forge and when I get my bigger dies finished I can forge these off the end of the hammer dies I may switch to heating these in the coal forge but if I find it a hassle I will continue to use the torch.

I found the post with the tool Grant made and as a bonus it starts with a tool that is much easier to make using fabrication methods '?do=embed' frameborder='0' data-embedContent>>

I don't know about Jim's tool. But Grant Sarver made Timothy Miller a bottom die that was a variable taper tool. It was basically a half round sitting in a matching radius recess. The flat side of the half round sits up and is the face you forge on. The one Grant made had a retaining groove machined in it so was a little more complicated. You can also use a v block on the bottom. This tool is great if you are doing a LOT of varying tapers. If you are doing only a few tapers a power hammer flatter (or slapper, halfback, probably several other names) is the quickest and most versatile tool to use. A fixed taper tool is better for constant tapers. Bottom only is cheaper/less time consuming to make. Top and bottom taper tools either spring or dedicated dies are more expensive and can have top bottom registration issues with spring tools but allow you to hold your stock flat rather than having to hold it on an angle.

Lots of neat gear. Thanks for sharing pictures it would have been a neat auction to go to. But that's only medium sized chain :rolleyes: I just finished a pattern for some cast steel dragline chain, each link is 31" long and 517lb

if you are just forging the end of the bar another way to go is use a big rosebud torch to heat the steel. I have a repeat job where I have to forge the end of a 1" 12' bar rather than maneuvering the hot bar through the shop I just heat the end with a torch. I did the same on a 22' long job of 5/8" round. I support the end on a stationary stock stand or multiple stands on the 22' job. A gas saver on the torch really helps with this. The extra cost of heating with oxy propane is offset by the time savings.

Great work a clockworks is on my list of things I would love to make at some point in the future. I would love to see more. Nick mentions a blog, how about a link?

Try JD Smith insurance Brokers in TO . I had a hard time finding insurance when I started out. They were able to get me insurance. After I had been in business for 4-5 years the insurance brokers that could not help me when i started started calling with better deals.

Hard industrial coke is tough to light. I am very capable of lighting a fire without the torch but time is money and if I can be forging 10-15 minutes quicker using the torch I would rather have that 15 minutes of forging making money rather than messing about splitting wood and waiting for the wood fire to light the coke/.

The bars may have been magnetic when you started. I make a lot of prybars out of pre hardened stock for maximum strength, (the forged end gets hardened harder than the rest of the bar) More often than not these bars are magnetized when I sawcut them to length before forging. They are still magnetic after forging.

I have made chisels and carving tools from round W1 and A2. W1 is far better if you don't have a power hammer and experience . Round or square is much easier to forge bolsters from than flat stock. Flattening out the stock is easier than fighting the 1 in 3 rule to build up mass for the bolster. Look up spring fullers for isolating the stock. For smaller chisels and carving tools 2 spring fullers works well. One made from 5/8- 3/4 round and one made from 1/4 x 1" flat on edge. Take your stock and isolate a short piece at the end (length depends on diameter) draw the isolated end out to your tang. Don't fuller all the way to your finished size leave a little extra stock to be forged down to clean up your fullering. If it is too long cut it off. If you want to use a monkey tool now is the time to use it although grinding or filing the shoulder when you are all done your forging works well too. You now have a thin tang so you have to be be careful not to burn the end during the next step. Use the larger fuller to create the outside of the bolster. You can now flatten the round to flat while tapering the stock from the fuller into the width of the flat chisel. You can also fuller again using the larger fuller to give you a transition from the shank in front of the bolster to the chisel blade. Be very careful not to get any clod shuts in your forging as they seem to turn to cracks more quickly in high carbon steel. Try forging a couple of bolsters and the transition to the blade in mild steel before using your more expensive tool steel. If you make your first one out of tool steel you will likely decide to draw out the the blade even if the first bolster is not so great. If the bolster breaks off after all the work of drawing out the blade you will not be happy.

When I use my coal forge I mostly burn hard coke which is hard to light. About half the time I use wood scraps The rest of the time I use my oxy propane to start the forge. I turn off the propane almost immediately after applying the torch to the forge. As soon as any of the coke is lit just Oxygen gets the fire going to the point where the blower is enough.

For blacksmithing Power hammers and my hydraulic presses. The presses I primarily use to bend with and they allow me to bend things that would otherwise be a struggle and allow me to bend lots of things cold. I had a job bending 1000 1" round bars in a sharp 90. The first time I did it in about 2 weeks with a flypress and I think I may have done permanent damage to my shoulder. After I got a hydraulic press it took less than a week to do the other batches of 1000. It upped my hourly rate on that job to around $140/hr.

I keep reading this "fact" regurgitated on blacksmith forums, but I would disagree. Here is a link to a legal description of the A36 grade of steel. https://law.resource.org/pub/us/cfr/ibr/003/astm.a36.1997.pdf There is a chemistry listed. There is a range in the chemistry as there is in all steel grades. Can you back up your assertion that there is no chemistry spec? The OP is in the UK where it is unlikely that he has A36. With some smaller suppliers you could get all sorts of mystery metal when buying mild steel especially if you are not buying full lengths. I also agree that you may have ended up with a bad bar maybe a "free machining" alloy either leaded or sulfur added for machining. Was it hot rolled or cold rolled? If you really want to be sure what you are getting you could ask for mill test reports or "certs" I have never had problems forging steel A36 or 44w that I received test reports on. I wonder if many of the problems people have had is steel that does not meet the specs and is then sold without Certs to smaller suppliers. I have to supply certs for the steel I use for most of the things I forge.

I needed 1 1/2" t headed bolts when I installed my Massey. I "forged" them, I was going to take them to a machine shop to have them thread them but luckily for me there is a place at the end of my block that manufactures bolts and they threaded them for me. I cannot recommend the Massey set up enough, T bolts with a square shank just below the head. holes cast in your concrete down to steel plates with a cavity under them. The steel plates have a rectangular hole in them. You then drop your bolts into the holes. Put your hammer in place not having to worry about minor misalignment and damaging the threads. Then you pull the bolts up with a 1/4 turn put on your nuts and your done, If you ever break a mounting bolt they can easily be replaced.

My favorite anvil hold down is also one of the simplest. Set a stand up behind your anvil at the height of the top of your stock on top of your anvil. Set a heavier bar 3/4" square or what ever you have with one end on the anvil the other on the stand. Hang a heavy weight from the middle of the bar. When you take the stock out of the fire and place it on the anvil you set the anvil end of the bar on your work. The clamping is really fast, it can be done anywhere on the anvil, you don't need to make a special tool and the clamping pressure can be easily adjusted by using a heavier or lighter weight or by moving the weight closer or further from the anvil. Try this hold down it will only take a few minutes to set up.