ptree

I have worked in a number of large commercial forges, as well as forging at home. Graphite works, is filthy and gets everywhere. It is a combustible dust, a problem in big shops that use lots. it is also contaiminated with silca, in the respirable form, also bad news for lungs. That said all things dusty and smokey are bad news to the lungs. I have tried and compared salt, decomposes and gives off chlorine that will definetly make you squint and is bad news, moly, dusty but effective, graphite see above. Scale works a little. Coal dust works a little. I was the one who introduced the alkaline salt based commercial lube to blacksmiths. I am working on trying to convince a maker to retail to smiths, and if not I may spring for a drum, devide and sell. But make no bones, the commercial lubes, used as directed are like putting ball bearings on your tools.They go deeper per hit, last longer, give smoother results and do not smoke. The one I like best is water based and freezing does not hurt it. It is applied to a tool hot enough to evaporate the water and leave a tan dry solid film that sticks and does not flake off. I use it at 50:50 with water. It does not need stirring once mixed. Also remember that NO lubricant can overcome the simple physics, that is if you allow the tool to be in the hot metal long enough to reach too high a temp it will deform and mushroom into the hole. No stopping that. The solid film lube allows deeper per hit so in the hole less for same depth, but you still have to cool the tool. That is where the water in the mix comes in. Water asorbs a huge amount of heat in flashing to steam cooling the tool, and leaving that film behind.

I also was a Red Cross First aid instructor. working in big comercial forge shops I got some experience with burns and first aid. 1. Cool first. Cool running water is best. 2. "watergel" a burn trteatment is really good. Has a soft non sticking pad soaked in a jel that has a pain number and also evaporates to provide cooling. 3. Silvadiene is the bomb for later, promotes healing and is a strong infection fighter but is a prescription med

A properly adjusted valve linkage can give an experienced hammerman anything from a tiny tap to all she has. In our shop at the valve company the billets for the big hammers were "Round corner square" a rough ground semi finished bar. For the big hammer often 11" square. To save material and time the 1500 to 2500# billet was pulled from the forge and an edge was rested on the die. The hammer man would tap out a 4" tong hold drawing 11" square to 4" square with a 25,000# hammer. Couple of taps rotate couple more back to start and tap and then push onto the die and remove the big tongs. A locking 4" set of tongs was clamped on. The hammer man and crew who used pry bars moved the billet over the impression and greased the upper dies. Then all save the hammerman retreated around to the sides where the columns would protect them and the hammer man would hit the treadle for a HARD blow. Air blows from 2" pipe blew the smoke,fire and scale away from him and out the back of the hammer. He was about 3-4' from the ram when it hit. The crew would pry up the billet and blow scale from the bottom die, and then retreat. Again a hard blow often several. Then flip into the second impression grease and repeat. Where all this gets exciting is when the forging sticks in the upper die. The experienced hammer man holds the tongs with his hands and wrists UNDER the tngs, and no portion of his body over the tongs. On really hard to forge shapes often there were 3 impressions per set og dies and it took 2 or 3 stes to progress through and get a finished forging. So we had 2 forges, out of the first, forge, return to 2nd forge. when all are in second forge change dies and reverse and repeat till finished.From memory the 25,000HD hammer had a 6' by 8' die but I may be off a little. The die wedges were in the area of 6' long. The inlet for steam was a 8" pipe from a 82,500lb/hour boiler. That is 800 Hp for those who like those units. Took a 5 man crew.

I was seeing Awhat looked like some steam leakage at the rod on the bigger hammer. Newer style rod packings are far better at sealing then the old hemp rope with tallow once used. BUT, I noticed that the rams were NOT tupping. I have never seen a big drop hammer not tupping to maintain the steam flow from the steam generator and to keep the lines hot and dry. I deduce air operated and the "Steam" puff from the rod was condensate from the air. Steam is no more or less "Bouncy" then compressed air, since they are both a compressed gas. I suspect that the hammer does not notice the difference, The valves usually have to be reworked to seal better to avoid leakage but the hammer gets little to no changes otherwise. Many old steam hammers have been rebuilt to compressed air.

Here are a couple of links to you tube video's of steam hammers in operation:

There are many across the world. Those Eries and Chamberburgs and others forged the parts thatmade the US. Not as common as they once were, but there are many still in daily use. Many are now running on compressed air, instead of steam.

7014 and 7018 are the US call outs for 70,000 psi tensile plain rods. The 7014 has a coating that causes it to chill faster and it builds faster as the coating also has metal in it. The 7018 is a low hydrogen all position plain rod. The 7014 is maybe a little easier to run and leaves a pretty nice deposit. The 7018 with a good DC machine leaves a very sound solid deposit. Rod of choice in the Boiler shop I worked in before Mig with dual sheild took over. I think it will be quite hard to get that horn to temp and not get too much heat into the body of the anvil. I would weld. Good luck

Those are I believe Erie steam hammers. From eyeballing I would guess 10,000#. They are rated not by tonnage as a press or punch press is but rather by the dropping weight. That would be the ram, die,pistom rod and piston. Steam on the top of the piston will accelerate the ram faster than just gravity. These are probably Heavy duty drop hammers, a class of double column Erie hammers. At the valve shop I worked at we had many, the 5000# being our most common, some 7500# and a 10,000# a 15,000# and a 25,000# all running on 145# steam.

Instead of swaging down try 10mm tube and expand. try tallow as a lubericant.

The correct filter for welding fume is a N or P100 particulate filter. Not an organic vapor or any other vapor filter. I like https://www.thesafetyhouse.com/3m-p100-pancake-filters.html These are HEPA rated and are the right type as well as being very low profile and easy to draw air thru. The best mask? That depends. Best for how much money? Best for what shape of face? Best for a person with facial hair? For me since my face is fairly regular size/shape I use a standard half face mask, that was properly fit tested and I do a quick check every time I don the mask. Tips: Keep the mask in a Tupperware container snapped tight, keeps the critters and dust out. Disassemble and wash in warm soapy water regulary DO NOT use alcohol wipes to clean attacks the rubber parts in many masks. ptree the EHS guy

A truely excelent filter silencer can be made up with a standard pnuematic filter. Run the exhaust into the filter and in the outlet of the filter screw in an aluminum pnuematic muffler. NOT the sintered metal or porous type but the slotted aluminum type. To not have severe restriction, use a filter and muffler several sizes bigger than the exhaust port. This will make what is know in the pnuematic trade as a reclassifier. Works a treat.

Awesome video and craftsmanship!

I have a nice Clausing and they are indeed very nice tools. Parts are not expensive, they are beyond belief pricey from them. Many are special to them. A reeves belt drive belt for mine is 489 each. I had the 2 speed 3 ph 440V only motor and a single phase single speed motor from them was over a thousand.

Yep, I seem to remember you foundling them:) I bought them think ready made anvil and base for JYhammer. One guy contacted me later and stopped by for two. Tom clark got one.

I use several London pattern anvils, as well as several expedient anvils. The big post anvils work well for our sledging demo's as they allow lots of folks up close and personal. Nothing in the way, they are the right height and weight and material. I also use a hardened die insert from the Vogt Forge shop. 86# of nicely heat treated H-13 I got for $0.06/# many years ago. Used it to forge silver and gold on before I had any other anvil. Now set in the ground and a floor anvil. And no ThomasP, the post anvil is not a Louisville slugger, they are wood or maybe aluiminum. This is a Tube Turns stenciled, Sypris Technologies sledging anvil:) I watched that one get forged in a 10" upsetter, an impressive thing to see. Had a fail to fill on an edge of the flange and it was then scrapped. Bought a number and took them to Quad State. both the 454# and the 250 or so # versions and no one saw in them enough value to spend $50 0r $75 for that much well shaped 4140. That would have been 2005

I have known Thomas for many years both online and in person. I may not always fully agree with him, but I always respect his opinions. Further, I see many who don't bother to check to see if their question has been answered before, or even read the posts that followed their question and then repost the same question again in a few weeks. I too find that lazy.

Galvanized when heated in a forge causes the zinc to oxidize to the zinc oxide state and inhalation will give you the "Zinc Shakes", Zinc Flu etc. As far as I can find, unless you have a compromised health situation say CPD, then you feel like you have the flu, and then get better until you dose yourself again. Hexavalent chrome is another matter, as it is a skin and lung irratant and can cause cancer. Most Hex-chrome is found in plating solutions and anti-corrosion additives. In an arc weld, the 5000F or so arc will cause plain chrome to change valance states and become Hex-chrome. Chrome in solution IE alloy steels are not a threat until you first charnge the state to Hex-valent and then also to somehow inhale and cause skin contact. 316 stainless which contains about 18% chrome is used in replacement joints and implanted things like screws used to repair broken bones. I have not seen anything that says that forging temps release hex-chrome from stainless or from chrome plate. I believe you would have to melt, and then raise to very high temps to cause the valance change. That said, NOTHING that is not normal atmosphere is good for the body. Wear a respirator or use proper local exhaust when welding, grinding etc.Any that goes for welding ANYTHING. Ptree the industrial safety guy who has worked in automotive parts shops welding zinc coated steels for years and a shop that forged, welded and machined Hundreds of tons of stainless a year.

No a Louisville pattern post. Forged in 2004 at 28th and Broadway street in downtown Louisville KY by Sypris Technologies in a 10" upsetter.

This is the big one

Our team, the Brotherhood of Friendly Hammermen forge large billets on a non-traditional anvil for demos. The anvil is an Upset forged axle for a rough terrian loader, and the little one we travel with is a couple of hundred pounds of 4140.The last photo is the one I set into the earth outside my shop. 454# of axle. These are great for sledging.

The Vernon group is very close to you

KY is #8 in sinkholes in the nation. This whole area is Karst topography. Limestone and lots of rain= caverns, and caverns= sinkholes. As a youth flying over this region in small aircraft I was amazed at the cratered appearance of the land. The "craters" were old sinkholes.

To test actual burner eficiency is a tall order. As Frosty notes a simple run it a couple of tanks and see how long they last is usuall sufficient for most. That Said, having a long career in R & D and lots of flow testing experience I worked with several burner makers to do flow testing. What I did was to do simple air flow testing to see about improving the total flow thru existing designs. When looking at most of the homebuilt designs made from plumbing fitting, the propane side is often condusive to a good flow, but the many threads shoulders etc are restrictive to the flow of air into the burner, causing less total flow. That then means restricting the flow of propane to get the flame you want. With care to good flow path design, the total flow through the burners can be improved by 10 to 40% depending on design. This does NOT refer to the combustion effiecency but rather to the simple mass flow through the device. NOW there is a link to effiecency when you turn up the fuel flow to overcome the restrictive air flow path. Not a direct linear link but indeed a link. I currently use a Geshermier burner in a freon can forge. With ITC-100 I can easy weld high carbon steel. I run 3 RR spikes in the forge in production pulling one to forge and then rotating as each cools to keep the power hammer fed. I get about 9-10 hours from a grill bottle sized tank at full throttle. A very good flow path, give a much better turn down ratio, IE the ratio from full throttle to minimum that with burn without stuttering or flame out. The really well optomized Geshermier burner in a heated forge will run from 15psi to no indicated pressure on an Admittley cheap and inaccurate gage. I preheat at 10 psi and run production at 10. I use that burner for its high effieciency and the ITC-100 makes a huge difference in the heat. I typically have little to no visible dragons breath. But I heat and beat at a rate the does not seem to produce badle scaled items. In looking to have good fluid flow(air is a fluid) sudded changes in diameter cause turbulance. Turbulance causes flow restriction. Sudden increase in diameter is worse than sudden reduction in diameter. Sharp edges or shoulders also make for turbulance.A perfect flow path may not yeild enough turbulance for good mixing, but the turbulance that will always exist at the propane nozzle where the propane goes from high to low pressure seems to be enough. Most big gas burner forges in industry operate totally differently than any small blacksmith burner I have seen. The industrial forges that I have worked with all used injection of the fuel into the eye of the high pressure blower and from the blower direct to the nozzles, not after the blower. this gives very nearly perfect mixing of the fuel and lets the forge piping be less of an issue. Imaging a forge with an interanl volume of a small car. Typicall 6 or 8 burners on two opposing walls. hard to balance but if the fuel is already fully mixed just pipe to the nozzle and have trim valves to set the flow(flame) at each nozzle. Think say 6 each 3/4" diameter nozzles with 20 PSI natural gas injected into the eye of a blower with a 4 foot diameter wheel case. Now imagine a $20,000 a month gas bill in 2005. But at the end of the day, if the forge runs well, heats the items you need to heat, to the temp you need, then it comes down to Frosty's measure of fuel efficiency, how long does the fuel last.

Even 300 series Stainless gets magnetic when work hardened. Not extremely magnetic but will draw a magnet.

Zinc oxide, the metal fume from welding galvanized is NOT an organic vapor. it is weld fume, a solid particle. The red pancake filters shown in the second post are the idel filter for weld fume and grinding dust. They are a P-100. that means they are rated to TRUE HEPA efficiency and are permissable for use in oil mist. a somewhat cheaper N-100 will stop the weld fume but are not for oil mkist areas. I use a half face respirator with the P-100 pancake filters and they are rated for weld fume, radionuclides and asbestos. This means they are rated for the extremely tiny particles theat weld fume consists of. Weld fume is metal that is vaporized in the heat of the arc, and then freezes back to tiny solids that can stay airborn. Organic vapors are solvents that evaporate into vapor and stay that way. These would be for instance paint solvents and thing like acetone, toluene mineral spirits ETC. Choosing the right filter means the difference between stopping the threat or not. Please read and understand the specifications before use and advising others on safety items such as these. If you have questions all of the big makers have websites that can answer any question you may have. But they all pretty much also have filter selector charts as well. Ptree the industrial safety guy who has purchased the respirators and filters for a industrial shop with 650 fit-up welders as well as for paint shops and asbestos abatement.