Frosty

Too long ago to remember, I think dirt was still being perfected. Probably just steel mashed around with a hammer to no planned results when I was 8 or so. Frosty The Lucky.

You know guys, I'm thinking we need a term for posters who think their needs should to be met on their terms. Short of patience, instant gratification and lacking most any fundamental marketable skills but dead sure everyone ELSE is thin skinned, touchy, and owes them respect they're seemingly incapable of showing. Some of the verbage reminds me of a kid threatening Momma, "I'll show you, I'm going to run away then you'll be sorry!" Maybe do what my Mother did when I tried it? She packed a change of clothes and sandwich in a sack, put me out the front door and locked it loudly. Didn't say a word and didn't make me stay long but I've never forgotten. I don't have the patience to bother with the attitude, I stopped going to college coffee klatches because of it. A bunch of kids with little but school grades complaining because the real world isn't taking them seriously. Too boring for zip value, clever if you're a kid, maybe. I was just gifted with a pretty snide attempt at snappy conversation with the caveat it was a sorry thing if I misunderstood and thought it was sarcastic. Not even a mediocre verbal player, just a fool kid's flapping gums. I don't hold it against kids for not being adults nor wanting to be talked to like adults, I even give them a couple chances before I stop bothering with them. I'm just seeing too many of the gang with worthwhile things to do wasting their valuable time trying to explain why we aren't going to be sorry if the little ones refuse to eat at the grownup's table. Lots of you IFI gangstahs (sorry, couldn't resist) are a lot more familiar with social media. Is there a term for this kind of behavior? I think we have a good handle on Trolls but this is a little different. Said (insert sobriquet here) aren't trying to cause grief they're just selfish kids and too immature to know how to behave in grownup society. Frosty The Lucky.

That looks like a SWEET deal, I'd sure grab it if there wasn't something wrong with it, as in temper run out in a fire wrong. Ball bearing or hammer test before handing over the money. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard, glad to have you. I like it, very cool hawk.The eye may be a little narrow to make a good working hawk but it'd be a beautiful wall hanger if not. I think hanging it next to the shop rate sign sort of as a coat of arms over the motto, "Pay the BILL." or maybe "Bill Collector." Sorry, that's the way my mind works, low humor maybe but you can't possibly expect a boy to ignore a tome of straight lines can you?. <grin> Seriously, it's very nice work, well done. Frosty The Lucky.

Nice sign Froggy. One will look very nice in my shop and as part of my Avatar I won't have to talk about Soderfors obvious superiority will I? Frosty The Lucky.

Glad to be of some help. Just don't use the same kiln wash for a forge you're going to weld in as you would for a glory hole. Hot flux will eat the liner right out of a glory hole washed kiln, it's that high temperature caustic thing you know. Frosty The Lucky.

​Am I? do you remember "Primitive Pete?" I don't think a mere mortal would make it to their teens doing half what Primitive Pete did. Frosty The Lucky.

I used my cutting torch and a circle cutter back when I turned a lot of circles. I started used the center punch mark for the circle burner, drilled a 1/2" hole and inserted a bolt and nut so I could put it in my drill press and cleaned it up at slowest speed with a file. The finish pivot pin was as I recall 5/8. My circle dies fit on a pin in a steel plate on the bench. I was bending mostly light stock but it worked fine on some heavier the few times I needed to bend heavier. I'm thinking the heaviest was 3/8" x 1" for a gate. Frosty The Lucky.

Yes it does make sense to draw a deeper temper for tools used in extreme cold. I've snapped rebar at -25f and one of the new guys at the service station, back in the day, waaayy back, put his hand through a trunk lid pushing a car into the bay. We were both new to the jobs when we did it and violated a rule. I violated the "NEVER use rebar as a hand hold in winter!" and the other guy violated the "Push on a corner!" rule. So, yes steel does lose flexibility up to becoming brittle in extreme cold. I don't know if drawing a deeper temper would make a significant difference though but that would depend on the knife alloy too. I spent 20 years in the field as a field driller and never had a problem with a knife, even my old 1960's Buck sheath knife and those are brittle out of the box. I think how it's used is more significant, if a person is prone to use a knife like a pry bar like Primitive Pete (Old shop class safety movie character) they're going to break and ruin blades no matter what the maker does. Just do NOT put pressure sideways on the blade is your best defense against breaking them. On the other claw, drawing a little deeper temper won't hurt if you can accept the softer edge or can do so in a progressive temper. I suppose it's a "can't hurt much, might help situation." I'll be really interested in seeing what other folk say. It's a good question, good thinking. Frosty The Lucky.

No problem, folk will see your posts and talk to you or suggest good places to read up and get into the game. (so to speak) It takes a while to figure out how something new works, fora are no different. Think of them like a different culture or country, all friendly but different customs. Heck, some of us who have been here a while don't know how it all works. Myself I only know how a little bit works but my wants are simple. You'll get hooked up with the folk you want to soon enough just be patient. Frosty The Lucky.

Sure, just like THAT! All your posts will have your location now. I'd have to look to see how long I've been muddlin around here and I'm so far from 100% I brag about it. Heck the owner and Admin aren't 100%. Just take it easy, do some reading in the section that catches your fancy and keep in touch. It's all good. Frosty The Lucky.

You lucky DOG Stewart! Sweet score, the septic goop will wash off but the anvil should last a while. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard Deadeye, glad to have you. If you'll put your general location in the header you might be surprised how many of the IFI gang live within visiting distance. You're falling into a trap common to folk new to any craft, you're trying to design a perfect piece of equipment without knowing what you need, how they perform, etc. etc. Don't worry, most all of us have done it, sometimes still do. You're over thinking a simple gas forge. Forget perlite, it melts around 2,000f so won't last long in a properly tuned propane forge. Just wrap two layers of 1" 8lb. Kaowool or equivalent ceramic blanket inside. Leave a gap in the bottom the same size as a 3,000f split fire brick for a deck. To kiln wash the interior, first dampen the blanket and brick then paint on the Satanite, ITC-100, home brew, etc. and allow it to dry. By "cement", if you mean Portland Cement you might as well throw the forge away as to plaster the inside with portland cement. A camp fire is hot enough to spall concrete let alone cement. Keep it simple just copy a working forge someone else uses. There are a BUNCH of designs, pics, testimonials, trouble shooting, etc. etc. posts here under the Gas Forge category. Once you have some experience with the things is time to start tweaking and redesigning forges. Believe me if you do this for long you'll have a number of gas forges around the shop. Frosty The Lucky.

Ah, I already said hi. Just telling us where you are in one post isn't going to do a lot of good, we're not likely to remember half way through reading the next subject line. Having it as part of your forum ID on each post puts it where we can find it without having to hunt or <GASP!> remember. Frosty The Lucky.

Thanks, I guess size is pretty open isn't it. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard Chris, glad to have you. If you'll put your general location in the header you might be surprised how many of the IFI gang live within visiting distance. The Iforge front page, near the bottom are the regional organizations it'll help you connect with the clubs close to you. Frosty The Lucky.

You're right, the technique works for most anything should it be called the "Thomas Powers Applied Anything Acquisition Technique?" How's the new house, where are the pics? Frosty The Lucky.

Yeah, $30.00 is pretty cheap, I've already got more than 3 hrs into talking about this and we're not even up to coffee shop napkin sketches level yet. A lag bolt has an unthreaded section between the head and the threads, this is the lag. The lag is the bearing surface the ID of the bushing rides on. If the lag is a bit longer than the bushing the bolt can be tightened without inhibiting the bushing's movement. Slip the link journal over the lag bolt and screw the bolt into the next piece, say the crank plate and there it is. Crank and cross head on a bronze bearing. A pillow block won't have a suitable bearing, neither roller or ball bearings really like impacts. Forget trying to cheap some parts, bronze bushings will be available at any decent hardware store, even the Home Depot a few miles from here carries them. Remember, you are planning on building a power tool with significant capacity to injure and kill people if something fails. Spending $30 on proven plans is pretty cheap. Just because you have a wrecked car doesn't mean you have to build the whole hammer out of it, it'll only have a few pieces that will work. How serious do you want to get about salvaging materials and spending time? Instead of buying bearings or bushings you could tear the engine apart, strip the rod and main bearings, melt them and pour babbit bearings. Hmmm? I don't have a copy of Clay Spencer's plans, where is the motor? on the base or on top, above or below the tire? You ALREADY have the bed rails. So you're committed eh? You're painting yourself into corners you don't know exist. You keep referring to Clay's plans but say you don't have nor are willing to buy a set. Do you feel maybe designing your hammer with his plans is maybe worth giving the man his due? Frosty The Lucky.

I second Jeremy. Reinventing the wheel is only desirable as a pastime unless a person has no choice. Frosty The Lucky.

Use a food grade wax to finish. Carnuba is food grade, digestible and hypo allergenic. It's the shiny coat on pills to make them go down easily. It's a darned tough finish, stomach acid is what dissolves it off pills and M&Ms. Oh come on, you didn't REALLY think they invented a sugar shell that wouldn't melt in your hand did you? We've been eating carnuba for probably the last century as a matter of course. Frosty The Lucky.

As I recall cryogenic treatment of steel is done cold. The action of chilling to those temps (I can't recall the F temp so you guys can look it up if it matters) shrinks the crystaline structure to the point it's crushed to a nearly mono molecular structure, almost amorphous. We all know (or should know) what a cold shut is and how it works to cause a failure initiation point but I'll summarize just because. Force is conducted through matter in a generally uniform way until it encounters an interruption. When an interruption is encountered the force is stopped, then is conducted across the interruption to continue. Think of this action like pushing two rocks together. You can put a LOT of force on a rock and not mark it but push two together with the same force and both rocks will exhibit crushing at the contact points. A cold shut is simply a sharp little ding, be it a sharp 90* shoulder or a bit of grit inclusion in a weld, this is an interruption in the uniform conduction of force and ALL the energy is concentrated on each side of the interruption and if the material or structural strength is exceeded THIS is where it WILL start breaking after initiation the material will fail entirely. You can find the initiation point visually if you look at the break's surface. You will see what looks like a chevron pattern, they are arrowheads pointing directly at the initiation point. Okay, back to cryogenic heat treatment, super chilling the alloy crushes the crystal boundaries removing the initiation points of uniform force conductivity. Cryogenic treatment has no effect on normal heat treatment and tempering, it basically makes certain alloys much tougher and actually harder but not in the carbon/iron molecule sense. Anyway cryogenic quench isn't done from critical temperature for all the reasons Stefflus stated. Even liquid helium doesn't have the specific heat nor temperature conduction to do the job on anything thicker than maybe watch springs. Frosty The Lucky.

That sounds like a SWEET day at the swap meet. I REALLY S.Cal miss swap meets. I think we all wanted to collect all the tools when we first started, it's sort of a trap. A person can find they've held off learning the craft far too long looking for THAT tool. You have an anvil, now build a fire and beat some steel into submission, that's where the craft is. It's NOT in any tool, it's in YOUR mind and hands and you have to teach them. As your skills increase your need for tools decreases. Your desire will always remain high but you just won't need them all. Oh wait, where are the pics of the swap meet scores! Where are our pics! .Frosty The Lucky.

​You don't need to keep thanking me Stan, I get off on helping folk with this stuff. It makes me feel good. .Frosty The Lucky.

I had to look up DuPont linkage but have the picture now. Pretty much the same thing as my 50lb. LG. I'd go bushings, they take the impact shocks much better than roller let alone ball bearings. The increase in friction is negligible in this use. The pins can be 9/16+/- lag bolts, grade 8s are plenty and you can buy bronze bushings to match for a few bucks. You can drill and tap for zerks or just drill for weep oilers, no sweat both are good. This is a pretty straight forward fab job, nothing special needed. You'll want to keep your eyes open for pipe with the same ID as the bushing's OD so they'll slide together. The bushings come in common bold diameters so just pick the bolt size and the rest of the linkage joints derive from THAT dimension. I'd have to go measure but I THINK the crank arm is only a couple inches off center so there's no need to weld on the rims. You can simply make a crank plate drilled to match the lug pattern and bolt it on with the wheel. EASY PEASY. No need for a pillow block for the cross head bearing on the crank.(Am I mistaken about this pillow block?) A stout lag bolt, matching bushing and build the cross head to fit. Basic fab work. Moderately precise fab work but not complicated nor difficult. It just occurred to me, the pillow block you're referring to is maybe the one the tire is mounted on? If so, no pillow block. Use a trailer spindle and trailer wheel hub. Everything is there, all off the shelf and tough as nails. Just buy the trailer hub with the same bolt pattern as the drive wheel. Trailer WELD spindles are made to be welded to trailer axles, you can buy round or square receiver tube. EASY PEASY. Don't start gathering salvage yet, it's too easy to get yourself committed to something and painting yourself into a corner. There are a few things to keep your eyes open for as ideal finds. The anvil, if you can find a piece of steel shafting around 30" long in the 1,000lb+ range that's a grab it now. If you run across H or Wide flange structural shape . . . CRAP I can't remember the specifics of size but you want heavy and I can't remember the lb/ft. It's measured by flange width x web depth x lbs per foot. For example 10" x 12" x 18lb. I just grabbed those numbers out of the air as an example. That'd be wide flange. 12" x 12" would be H beam and I beam would be 8" x 12". All air numbers for examples. The heavier the better. I don't think 30" x 40" is enough base plate, you won't have any depth between the center of the dies and the pillar, maybe 8" if you push the pillar and anvil to the edges. It might be okay but I'd have to model it out to guesstimate. I think the plate in the shop is 36" x 48" but I'd have to go measure it. I've been waiting for weather to warm up to get back to work on a tire hammer for a friend so I just HAPPEN to have it's base. Where are you going to mount the motor? That will determine the drive and treadle/clutch mechanism. Yeah, the guides always seem to be tricky to me too but looking at the old hammers they're really simple and kind of sloppy so we just may be imagining tighter specs than necessary. We'll just have to keep our eyes open and see. I know some home builds have way hard to make or inefficient looking guides. I could be wrong of course, I'm not a power hammer officianado guy, I just like to build . . . stuff Do you have a copy of "The Little Giant Powerhammer," book by, Richard R. Kern? It won't tell you how to build a power hammer but it's all there so a guy can get a handle on the basic mechanical hammer's works. The only real difference is your clutch mechanism, all the rest is basically the same. .Frosty The Lucky.

The how to is in the gas forge section. The pictures show the way I used to mount the mig tip, I'll describe how I do it now. Maybe I can find a post where I've done so already and link you to it. Lord knows I've described the build enough times. If you can't find enough, let me know I'm around most of the time. .Frosty The Lucky.