chrisfrick Posted December 31, 2009 Share Posted December 31, 2009 Today I made my first forge weld!! It's nowhere near as hard as people make it out to be. I was making some scrolling tongs and needed to let them cool before I could forge the other end, so I decided to not waste fuel and try welding. Got the box of borax out, along with 2 12" sections of 1/4 and 5/16 1018,stuck them in the forge, waited a little bit to apply flux, let them heat until I saw a *small* amount of sparks, took it out and gently tapped them together. I figure it's about them same as soldering electronics-some preople get it, and some don't. -Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
781 Posted December 31, 2009 Share Posted December 31, 2009 Congradulations on the forge weld I once saw Ed Grove demonstrate. He must have been in his 70s and he made the comment forge welding used to be so easy before everyone started telling him how hard it was. Also Bob Patrick, forge welding guru, once said forge welding was like olimpic figure skating you cant do it once a month and expect to win. Keep welding the more you do it the more confidence it will give you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beatamax Posted December 31, 2009 Share Posted December 31, 2009 On Peat Oberons beginners course your forge welding on the first morning Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beth Posted December 31, 2009 Share Posted December 31, 2009 beatamax - that is true - i did a few forge welds on peats course but still cant get em consistent on my own.... like was said above the more people say something is really hard the harder it can become! i think it is totally counterproductive for people to spin myth and legend and difficultness round any of these processes, because it gets in the way of beginners feeling any confidence. pre concieved worries about something youre about to try is going to hinder you more than anything! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dablacksmith Posted December 31, 2009 Share Posted December 31, 2009 from my experience the type of fuel is a major factor in how hard a forge weld is to do... especially the first time. sounds like you have a good fuel for forgeing! forge weldeing isnt nessarily hard tho every once in a wile i find a piece that dosent want to weld .The hard part is figureing out why and fixing it . glad you had sucess in your first try ide keep that piece around to remember! have fun! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saintjohnbarleycorn Posted December 31, 2009 Share Posted December 31, 2009 I agree with one poster, some days it works better than others, and it depends on what you are trying to weld. You are off to a good start, good luck. kevin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisfrick Posted December 31, 2009 Author Share Posted December 31, 2009 I was using coal for this weld, and what I presume is either 1018 or A36 (that stuff from the home depot). I only had about an inch or two deep fire, at that. I suppose it was probably pretty easy due to the material and it's size (1/4 and 5/16" dia rounds). I'm not going to expect success every time, but it's very encouraging and I'm on a mission to learn how to do it without even thinking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Turley Posted January 1, 2010 Share Posted January 1, 2010 And it'll be non-cognative, too! Not to discourage you, but sometimes the first successful forge weld is luck. I've been starting my classes on the first day with fagot welds since 1970. Today, for lap welds, I sometimes put E-Z weld on top of the borax. By applying the borax first, it glazes and gets tacky, and the E-Z sticks to it. Another good flux is Black Magic available from Canal Forge in New York state. One of the problems with borax is that it sometimes exudes a whitish material from the weld area after the weld is completed and at room temperature. I think that starting the hammering with light to moderate blows is important. Of course, this is relative, as it depends on the stock thickness. Hitting too hard right out of the fire can cause "shear" on the interfaces, allowing the pieces to separate. Have you ever had one of the pieces go squirting across the room? You may have hit it too hard, or your fire is dirty and/or oxidizing. Good luck with it. http://www.turleyforge.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CurlyGeorge Posted January 1, 2010 Share Posted January 1, 2010 Keep practicing Chris. Don't expect every forgeweld to come out so good. But like they said above, The more you hear how hard it is, the harder it gets. LOL. Good luck. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted January 20, 2010 Share Posted January 20, 2010 beatamax - that is true - i did a few forge welds on peats course but still cant get em consistent on my own.... like was said above the more people say something is really hard the harder it can become! i think it is totally counterproductive for people to spin myth and legend and difficultness round any of these processes, because it gets in the way of beginners feeling any confidence. pre concieved worries about something youre about to try is going to hinder you more than anything! Congrats on your first forge weld Chris! I beat my first one to pieces but that's another story. <grin> You have a point Beth, I usually teach forge welding right off just to get it out of the way. Most folk just starting out think it's in some kind of mysterious secret insider knowledge catagory. I try to dispell myths myself, it's all knowledge and practice, no magic at all at all. Oh yeah, letting other less than even proficient folk spin scary stories about skills they probably only dream about developing. Do what I do and ignore them. OH OKAY, you probably know me well enough by now to know I can't actually ignore them if I can turn their fears and mythical thinking into a joke. Yeah, that's right it doesn't have to be a good joke I amuse easily. Forge welding is like most any other kind of welding. Rule #1 applies to all of them and that secret is CLEAN. A clean joint is a LOT more likely to weld for you whether it's in the forge, under a stick or a tig tip. Follow proceedure until you get good enough to try experimenting. you ARE right though, it isn't difficult once you know what to do, how hard to do it and when to do it. Frosty the Lucky Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Francis Trez Cole Posted January 20, 2010 Share Posted January 20, 2010 I find people try to hard to forge weld. First clean then flux the right temp and the right amount of force. and it all comes together. You can't force it it will almost happen on its own. B) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billp Posted January 20, 2010 Share Posted January 20, 2010 Will I know I'm going to need a lot more practice. I finished my last blacksmithing class where welding was one of the skills needed to make the project assigned. We had to fold a 3/8" square stock and then weld it together up to 3 inches long then spared the end to about an 1 inch round to attach with rivets to the rest of the project. Will the only part of my welds that seemed, and a big question on seemed, was the part I had to spread. The other 2 inches split apart while working on it and I had to make 2 of these. The instructor though maybe our fires were to dirty, maybe so but I think it was my technique. We were kind of pressed for time and being just a weekend class it was hard to cover all in any great detail. But to spite that I still learned alot and the instructor was very knowledgeable and experienced, time was just not there to do it all right. I'll just be glad when my smithy is finished and I can get back to working on skills and improve on my welding. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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