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I Forge Iron

tips on forge welding


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This will depend entirely on your ability to hear. Drop of sweat from you nose on the anvil. Put a piece of 1/4 x 1 flat on it and strike it. May or may not sound like a rifle. Sometimes welds have sound and sometimes you can feel them too ( ok call me touched).

Holstrum said in his book that " good iron crumbles under the hammer ". Some of these things have to be experienced.

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Check and make sure you that none of your fingers are broken! :unsure:

Just kidding!

I have no Idea what it would be, I am functionally deaf :)
But not kidding about that! I have not experenced anything like that even when I could hear.

Sorry not to be of better assistance!
Ted Throckmorton

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So trying to make meaning from all this...

Sounds like there must have been a pocket of something that was released quickly...
Air
Flux.
Water
Old elbow joints

I don't think that any of these are necessarily good for a forge weld... Though... I dunno
Don't worry, be happy.
:D

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We always called that the japanese water hammer technique: keep your anvil face brush in a can of water and use it to clean the face after every heat. Then hold the workpiece slightly above the face until the hammer blow forces it into contact. Some people will also keep the hammer wet; but I dislike the effect on the handle doing it that way.

It's supposed to help "blow away the scale" making a cleaner piece to work on. I think it's greatest utility is in impressing the Yokels!

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I forged a few ton of 6061 bars when I worked in Florida.
We would heat with a torch till a paint stick (pine stick) would leave a mark....about 600-700F and then forge.
After a while..in the same dim shop light..there was a shimmer when you got close and then you would test with the stick. As I was making the same part from the same stock I got into a count timed event with the torch and could get it close more often than not by counting the time the flame was on the part. I did many leaves from 5/8 round bar.

For large simple bends we sent a bound pile of the bars to a commercial heat treater for annealing, textured it cold and cold bent the parts.

A black magic marker will work as well as a paint stick..or you could use those tempil sticks and get a range of temps 25F apart.

As with everything else...if you do a few it gets easier. Once in a while a bar would crumble from getting it to hot or split when forging because it was pushed too far.

For sheet we used 3003 alloy.

Ric

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Once in a while a bar would crumble from getting it to hot or split when forging because it was pushed too far. Ric


I found that to be true. I got my hands on a 4'' cube once and was going to drive a ball into it with a 250 PH to make a bowl....Ready , set, took it out of the forge and smack! It went everywhere in maybe a 10' radius! I was putting out fires here and there for a minute or so....Glad I was wearing a leather apron....;-)
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  • 2 weeks later...

i am a complete novice when it comes to fire welding, but after seeing jeremy k's little stalk with leaves, so finely done, as his avatar, i would like to see some of the best welds you mob have done!
i seem to never get the edges to weld, and would love to see the work of professionals!!!!

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