Hello every one

Hope you all made it through the storm . Im having a little problem with a current project .
I am forging a rail cap from silicon bronze . It is a classic rounded top cap rail ,
as I forge the rail it seems to push it out more on one side than the other ie making it slightly crooked looking .I have tried forging it slower with the hammer, and also checking the dies to see if they are flat .
Does any one have any experience with this sort of problem .Thanks

I also have several dies that are custom made profiles for use under my power hammers. Sometimes they will curve to one side. I have been able to "tune" some of the curve out by sanding and filing the side of the die that is making the INSIDE diameter of the curve. Even if you can't see it there is more than likely more material on one side of the die. With any open die forging operation you will need to straighten it by hand. For silicon bronze i would straighten on a wood stump with a large wooden mallet. Hope that helps

Very slight differences in the die is what comes to mind. With steel I would wonder about possible temperature differences too but with copper alloys that generally isn't an issue. (ie: one side of the forge is hotter than the other.)

Closed sides? If not it will probably always curl to one side or the other. I forged a pretty hefty section in bronze with closed sides, they didn't come out straight but neither was the job. I placed the bronze in a piece of pipe in the forge to even the heat.

Thanks for the feed back . I wanted to clarify a few things with my dilemma .
The cap is flat in cross section with a round top ,similar to some commercially available cap rail.
The bronze seems to squeeze out more on one side than the other ,thereby leaving the cap a little lopsided .I think it might be a matter of more on one side of the die as you suggested harrismith .
Danger ,do you have any photos of closed dies . Theres always more to learn .Thanks for all the help .

One thing to consider is.....If you're forging say 1 1/4'' round bz do your experimenting and dialing in with 1 1/4'' steel....way cheaper to mess that up..... ;)

forge a section to where it starts showing curve then swap ends & and reforge that section it should straighten out.

These are both open dies, bottom one has the closed sides. I forged 3/4" x 2" x 48" to make the cap, drawn out over 5' and the brackets. Sorry its hard to to see the top :( Its on my website.
The top one open sides to forge in 1" round, much smaller section.
I would agree to just send it through the opposite way, may even be able to do it cold.

I placed the bronze in a piece of pipe in the forge to even the heat.

Thats a good idea, Micheal.

forge a section to where it starts showing curve then swap ends & and reforge that section it should straighten out.

Also when I am forging cap under the 250 lg I do a couple of passes and work both directions (flip it over and go from the other direction like what Peacock said). Might be trying to do to much in to little of space

Hey Danger

That was the perfect photo .I think the problem was that my die was'nt deep enough ,
so there was nothing to guide the molding of the flatter part at the top of the die .
It would just pull out more on one side Time to retool . Rory ,say hi to your Dad ,I used to work with him back in 97.
Thanks for all the help

No problem, keep us updated I would be interested in pictures of the work at hand.

Rory ,say hi to your Dad ,I used to work with him back in 97.

Ah yes, I believe you enjoyed Boulder, CO...and I can see why
He says hello as well :)