Kenny Fields Posted October 8, 2011 Share Posted October 8, 2011 I have a lot of broken mechanics tools like sockets, ratchets, wrenches, and other tools would these metals be safe to forge? Sorry if this question has been posted before I just started reading the forms yesterday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Backwoods Blacksmith Posted October 8, 2011 Share Posted October 8, 2011 You may get some out gassing from any chrome or other finish burning off. But if you have good ventalation and don't stand over any fumes being produced you should be ok. Once the finish burns off, no out gassing. Any alloy will remain in the steel unless you melt it and allow the alloy to seperate or vaporize. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenny Fields Posted October 8, 2011 Author Share Posted October 8, 2011 What do i look for to tell if out gassing has stopped and if i do not separate the alloys will i have the out gassing problem every time i heat the metal? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timothy Miller Posted October 8, 2011 Share Posted October 8, 2011 Stay away from plated metals as a rule you do not have the knowledge or experience to deal with them safely. You are risking poising yourself over a $.50 piece of steel. Go visit your local metal shop and ask for some scraps, bring doughnuts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pkrankow Posted October 8, 2011 Share Posted October 8, 2011 If you have enough plated stuff to strip there are some platers who will unplate, and if you have enough pay you for the chrome. Phil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nathan Hall Posted October 8, 2011 Share Posted October 8, 2011 Of the old used tool bin, "Allan Wrenches" or " Hex Keys" what ever you want to call them are pretty much the most usefull in my humble opinion, they generally dont have any coating other than maybe a tool black, and they make great punches, chisels, scribes, etc.... So although I never do anything with broken sockets, open end wrenches and stuff of that nature, I do save every hex key that I come across. When I fisrt started out working in machine shops, I asked a guy that was teaching me to run a surface grinder if I needed to wear any type of breathing protection while grinding and he told me "If it dont rust, dont trust" .............. I am no doctor, and cant tell you all the different bad things that come from all the different alloys out there, but the "If it don't rust, don't trust" moto seems to be a vary good thing to go by in my book. The safety section on this forum has a lot of very great information in regard to these kind of things. I am betting that the reason you asked this was because of low cost readily available metal to get a start, and that seems to be a very common question and a good one I think. Your location has a lot to do with things, but these things worked well for me and may for you too if you are in right area. I live in farm country and it is not very difficult at all to stop in at any rural yard sale and buy all of the old hammers, axe heads, and various other hand tools for next to nothing, offer a decent price for all the metal they have and see what happens, that has worked great for me. Most times they will ask why, and when I tell them what I am doing a lot of times they will have something else I may be interested in as well. I have a very large selection of good old junk from doing just that. Tell everyone you know that you are looking for metal to practice on, rebar fence post for electric fences are very cheap, and very easy to get, I like a lot of guys use them for temporarily sectioning off pasture and often they will get bent or damaged and once bent trashed most of the time, rebar is not great, but a free piece of 5/16 inch three feet long is good practice material. Rail Road spikes are very easy to come by in some areas, and they are great too have for a lot of reasons. A junk yard trip is always good fun, and a great start. I know a few guys that regulary scrap cars for a bit of spending money, and I have traded quite a few spike knives for coil springs and leaf springs. I am still fairly new to smithing, and learn a lot every day, but their are a few items that are really easy to make and everyone seems to want, and when I first started out if someone asked me to make them something that I knew I could make, I would often tell them sure if they would bring enough material to me to make two......... I dont do this anymore, but it built me up a fairly decent stash of metal I could use pretty quick. Just a few ideas that may help you get started on the cheap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
herchammer Posted October 9, 2011 Share Posted October 9, 2011 Nathan, I like the "if it don't rust, don't trust" rule! Thanks for that addition, and great advice on the yard sales! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenny Fields Posted October 9, 2011 Author Share Posted October 9, 2011 Thanks for all the great advice everyone. I think my project for tomorrow is going to some abandoned tracks not far from me and looking for the spikes. Might even hit up the local flea market on the way. I'm hoping to make my first attempt at forging on Tuesday but i do not have anything other than a few hammers and a vice with a small flat section on the back to use as an anvil. My first project will most likely be some tongs since i will need them to make other things later on. Will the rebar work to make these? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattBower Posted October 9, 2011 Share Posted October 9, 2011 Maybe. Some folks have made decent looking tongs out of rebar. But it's unpredictable stuff. Sometimes it'll break with little or no warning, particularly if you've quenched it from above critical. (Yes, some rebar will harden.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woody Posted October 9, 2011 Share Posted October 9, 2011 Most of the plated tools are chrome and the hazards of that have been explained above but please read this http://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/8289-zinc-cadmium-hydrogen-fluoride-and-other-toxic-compounds/ which addresses the hazards of some of the other common materials found around the mechanical and blacksmith world. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich Hale Posted October 9, 2011 Share Posted October 9, 2011 Whether tracks are abandoned or not. The RR's take adim view of folks even being on wot may be their property.DO NOT take spikes along the tracks. In use tracks or not. They can and may procecute you for theft and or tresspassing. Until you get a feel for smithing with other materials as mentioned above, put spikes on the back burner. By then you may find several sources for buying them. And keep reading these forums and stickies. After a while yoiu may be able to search on here for specific questions you have and find volumes of infomation to help you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nathan Hall Posted October 9, 2011 Share Posted October 9, 2011 I have never made a tool other than some pokers out of rebar, I mainly just used it to practice on, when I first started I would square it, round it again, taper it out, practice small scroll work. Try to make it flat and strait, practice fullering, determined what a croos-pein was for, and how much difference it makes, etc. Just basically got used to hammering and controlling fire with it, if you can get different diameter pieces all the better, but you will notice that sometimes it will bend nice, or move nice, and sometimes not, its pretty random. Ecspecially the old fence post, they seem to be a lot more random in quality than other sources. Tongs are a great first project, may I recommecd the "Easy Tongs" for your first, I beleive their is a blue print on here for them, they are in my opinion a very great starting tool. ( I still make and use them quite often) Large hardware stores or farm supply places have small metal at not break the bank prices if you want to just get a few small bits to start on. I think that a trip to TSC and twenty bucks will get you two sets of "easy tongs" made from new material.......... I say think because I havent purchased steel from them in a few months and prices change. If the vice you are talking about is a good sized well made vice, the flat on the back will service, caution here though, I have heard of folks breaking their vices by doing this. I have an eight inch Wilton, that has had the crap beat out of it though and it has not failed yet. I personally started on same thing, then few days later a piece of rail road rail, then a few months later an actuall anvil............. its pretty neat the difference between those three. Incredible what mass will do for you You dont need much to get started man, just the want to. Welcome to the most addictive hobby ever LOL!!!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timothy Miller Posted October 9, 2011 Share Posted October 9, 2011 As a said before go to your local metal shop and ask them for some scraps bring doughnuts and or coffee. Also slipping the guy a 20 works too. I currently at my shop have a 55 gallon drum half full of cut offs most of this will go to the scrap yard. Most likely you will leave there quite a bit heaver. Shops that build rails are best. A 15" piece of 1/2" square is worth nothing to these guys. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted October 10, 2011 Share Posted October 10, 2011 Most vises are made from cast iron and the "anvils" are only good for tapping a bent nail straight. Find a good sized chunk of metal and use it---chunk of fork lift time, dozer part, chunk of 6" shaft; etc MUCH better than messing up a vise! I forge old unplated wrenches I find at the fleamarket and scrap yard My best local source for "new" metal is a local place that installs and repairs old windmills. They are happy to sell me metal on the side as they get a bigger discount the larger their bulk orders are. So they are about 1/3 cheaper than buying metal at the local lumberyard. Still not as cheap as buying new metal at a metal supply company but the nearest of those is over an hour away! In general I like to find discarded metal and have scrounging permission at the local trash transfer site and walk through permission at the small scrapyard next door. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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