Auto parts for blacksmithing (junk yard parts)

[Glenn]

If you gave a car to a blacksmith 200 years ago what do you think he could do with it. Ok, other than getting it running again. But what would he do with the metal ??

Lets start a discussion on what parts we want from a car before it is sent to a junk yard and why. If someone says leaf spring and you can make something different from the same leaf spring, please list it again. Extra points if you can provide a Blueprint number showing how it could be used. Double points if you create a new Blueprint showing us how to use the item to make tools, jigs, or a project, art item etc.

Leaf springs = flat bar, chair (BP0266 different style maybe), knife blades (BP0420), hot cut hardie,

Coil springs = round bar, punches (BP0263, BP0233, BP0163) , veining tool (BP0260), gouge (BP0252), draw knife (BP0054), knife blades (BP0420)

Sway bar, torsion bar = punches (BP0263, BP0233, BP0163), gouge (BP0252), hammer (BP0072), Viking adz (BP0415)

Carburetor fuel jets = orifice for the gasser (BP0191, BP0192)


You have seen it before:
Tools do not make the blacksmith, the blacksmith makes the tools.
You got a car to work with, so what parts do you want, and what do you want to make ?

[mtforge]

Not just 200 years ago. I had the opportunity to go to Africa last year (Congo) with a fellow blacksmith friend of mine. The local blacksmiths tend to use everything they can. We learned a lot and tried to help them learn a few other items to make also.
torsion bar - tongs, hammer, nail header, drifts for hammer head
leaf spring - handled hot cut, axe(African style), adze(also African style), machete
coil spring - brace and bits, nail stock (yes it's tough)
fenders and other sheet metal - cooking trivets, hinges, hasps, vanes and scroll housing for a blower
We studied the Basic Blacksmithing book by David Harries and Bernhard Heer from ITDG Publishing before we went.
I have a few pictures on my web page MT Forge and I've been told there is an article about it in the latest Anvil's Ring

Mark

[Ron Hicks]

Dics Brake Rotors- would make a good base for a stock stand
Brake Drum - Fire Pot
Axel Shafts- Punches,Chisles,Hardy Tools
Drive Shaft- tube for your brake drum fire pot, Muffel for HT

[habu68]

heater fans and a car battery for 12volt forge blowers. Good for those "primitive" hammer-ins

Engine blocks, spare tires and rear ends have been used for Power Hammer anvils and power trains.

Full engine to run a Jack shaft system.

Back in my day you could use an auto bumper for an armorers anvil, but those days are gone:(

And last but not least, propane storage

[Mark Parkinson]

body metal - rose blanks ,mail box

[johnny99]

HeHeHe.
Ok. First off I generaly don't think of auto salvage as stock. More like an easy source of precision engeneered machines that can be reconfigured.
So here is an abreviated list of some things that I have either built, or seen built out of car parts.

1. welder out of alternator. (both stick and tig)
2. compressor.
a. A.C. pump mounted under hood and run of car motor, usually run to storage tank.
b. compression tester w/gauge cut of coupled to air hose through a one way valve. unscrew one plug,screw in tester ,start engine and instant compressor. Although the air will have gas fumes, oil, and exhaust in it.
c. Small 4 cylinder engine modified as a comressor, run of a v-6 as a trailer mounted compressor.
3. engine and driveshaft used as old fashioned line shaft.
4. Power hammer ( tire hammer , etc..)
5. Twister from tranny.
6. twister from flywheel ( both manual, and using modified starter motor.)
7. Scroll bender from flywheel.
8. powered roller from old steering box, and rear axles from a front wheel drive car.
9. tumbler from old tires hung on line shaft.
10. weld positioner table from axle.
11. trailer from axle, and chassis, truck bed.
12. brake drum forge.
13. power hacksaw from rack&pinion steering unit and axle.
14. lumber mill from whole vehicle. ( driven by motor, tires as bandsaw wheels etc.)
15. portabenders from jacks.

I'm sure I could think of more but those are off the top of my head.

Hope this helps.
John

[Sabre]

well we have an old car in our yard that is a bit rare so when the transmision blew he just left it to rot....
but now i have decided to jack some parts from it...

does anyone know some good parts to take?

i sofar got the tension rods in the trunk and a 1 1/8 rod from the transmission but thats all
i do know that i can gat the sway bar and the coil spring but those 2 are really hard to get and with the coin spring under 1000 pounds of preassure it seems more like a death wish to try and get em:o

[Glenn]

auto parts used for blacksmithing

[woodtick]

All that comes up from your link Glen is a small jpeg. to small to see.

[Glenn]

Woodtick, thanks, I fixed the link

[Awalker]

I just read through the link and if you really gave a blacksmith a car 200 years ago he'd likley run from it thinking it was an alien ship!
I did run across an interesting artifact recently on a defunct ranch near here that was made out of a car. It was a windmill for pumping water. The hub of the mill was one of the rear hubs of the car, the sails were cut out of the body panel, the steeing gear was used to change direction at the top (certainly not a recirc ball system) the drive shaft went down to the ground level, parts of the frame were used as the uprights. It was an interesting structure to say the least.
The one question that hasn't been asked is what kind of car is it? It may have value beyond the price of its metal, so you may look into selling the car instead of trashing it.

[Sabre]

ok well glenn i read through ur link and thanks..

hey Awalker its a pontiac STE edition with a v-6 in it..
i think it still runs so i am not going to ravage the mototr unless someone has some good ideas

here are some pictures i took of it to give you an idea
yes the inside is smased up because i had to get out the blower

[Bryce Masuk]

If your close to me I have some Precut pieces of coil spring you can have

[Archie Zietman]

I'd make the axle into a small post anvil for doing 17th century flesh forks and small knives. coil springs would be punches and drifts and chisels. Sheet metal would be a forge hood, and bowls and leaves. I'd make a smithing magician hardy with the chunkiest parts of the leaf spring on its' side. Axes and other tools from the rest of the leaf spring,

oh, also a heatshield from the forge out of a window or the windshield, for really hot days.

[Sabre]

lol

hey bryce i live in mission so im about an hour away and i know that my dad wants to go out and get some patio furniture there and i need o go to surrey to get some coal so maby i can stop by

[Frosty]

habu:

You forgot to make a wind generator from the alternator and body panels to keep your batteries charged.

Of course once you got the windmill build using perhaps the rear end and tranny to generate the rpm and torque you need you have the makings of a full blown powered shop.

First you have electricity you can use to operate your shop lights, salvaged from the vehicle. Compress air by diverting the mechanical force to one of the air compressors found on modern cars and store it in the tires.

You can pump water in any of a number of ways from converting the engine into a piston pump (which can be made to compress air too) or a water wheel or a water screw, etc.

Then there are the electric motors to be found from the starter for high torque apps, window motors, wiper motors, elec fuel pumps, blower fans, etc. Can anyone here think of something useful to do with an elec fuel pump and heater blower? Hmmmm?

Oh yeah! Once you have your shop electrical system working there's the radio to hook up. Seriously, it's good to have a little music while you're napping on the car seat, warm and toasty from the furnace built from body panels, fuel pump and blower. Perhaps you'll read a bit or maybe write up your experiences improvising a full service shop from a 97 Tercel.

Once I was done salvaging the precision mechanical systems I'd start looking at the steel and other useful materials.

Oh yeah, if you have fuel for your furnace you can use the engine. Better mechanics than I have made engine/compressor/pump combos by isolating one or more cylinders for the pump, the others operate "normally" to provide the power.

Lots of useful materials in a vehicle.

Frosty

[Mike BR]

Seeing a supercharger in iron-in-the-hat once made me think of belting it to a washing machine motor, putting a carburetor on top, and ducting it into a forge. Or using the fuel system from an injected vehicle with a regular blower, if I could work out the controls. Of course, gas was under $1.50/gallon then. . .

[philip in china]

Thanks Frosty. A car alternator would be a wonderful source for a wind generator. The power could run a 12 volt pump (an old fuel pump) and keep my vines watered.

On blacksmithing from autoparts how about gears for anything where you need high grade stee? Also engine block and most of the gear box as swage blocks?

[Makoz]

I've used auto parts for wood and metal working tools, mostly leaf springs, but also steering column and sway bar. Also used push rods as the shank for a set of custom spade bits (welded on chainsaw bar for the blade).
So enthused over the possibities of recycling auto parts, a while back I organised an exhibition of 15 artist friends, all gathering their source materials from one old Renault which was donated. It was called the One Car Show, and was held in the Toowoomba Regional Gallery in 2005. It included workers from other fields besides metalwork: textiles artists used upholstery, wiring looms and various buckles & catches; a printmaker made relief prints from plaques and chrome details; a glass artist got the windscreen etc; a painter worked on the roof panel; kinetic artist used the windscreen wiper motor and the gearbox; etc. I utilized the leftovers: cobbled together a functioning chariot from the rear end, by cutting out one third of the width and welding the 2 sides back together, cut and shut, including axle.
Anyway, not really blacksmithing , but a similar idea could be used as the basis for an exhibition. A group of local blacksmiths/metalworkers use one car as the source, and show their output together. Galleries are a good way to raise your profile, and they love a good coherent theme as a proposal for a show. As pointed out here already, loads of creative potential, add the buzz of recycling, and it gets the public in. Don't dismiss tools as having limited impact in a gallery either... might be ho-hum to those of us that use them daily, but not to everyone.

Cheers,
Makoz

[brucegodlesky]

Anyone say wheels for stand bases, as in vise stand, grinder stand base, etc?
Truck beds make good containers for coal.
Axles with the studs still attached make good benders.
Sheet metal makes good targets when everything else turns to xxxx and ya need to relieve some frustration (BOG)

[ThomasPowers]

Are not gears often case hardened and so a fairly low carbon steel?

[hammerkid]

You can make flowers outta tire irons also.

[John B]

When we made gears they were usually flame hardened on the teeth, so the material would have been a carbon steel, relatively tough as well to accept the stresses involved with loadings, so they should be suitable for forming tools, hardies, or texturing tools

[Frosty]

This chart has been online for a while and isn't necessarily accurate for modern vehicles.

Junkyard Steel

Frosty

[Quenchcrack]

I am not sure a blacksmith from 200 years ago would recognize that the parts were not all made from the same stuff. The concept of alloying steel is a very modern development and 200 years ago, we had high carbon and low carbon, wrought and cast. The 50,000 varieties of metallic alloys we have today would probably blow his head pipe. It is said that metallurgy is the oldest of crafts and newest of sciences. Well, gotta run. Gonna disembowel a pig and review the entrails regarding a new blade I want to make.