Chris Williams Posted December 15, 2015 Share Posted December 15, 2015 Hello from Orange Park, Florida. I am setting up a backyard shop, as I am fairly well addicted to forging after having an opportunity to play with a brake drum forge and an anvil made from an 80# clevis. I have been reading here, from several books, and the abana tutorials while scrounging equipment and stock, but know better than to think that I know what I am doing yet. As for my day job, I perform metallurgical failure analysis and production shop support for overhaul and repair of Navy aircraft. Most of my materials knowledge is in aerospace alloys, so I will have to learn more about ferrous metallurgy. I received my first commission this past weekend, when my wife requested wire frame animals with Christmas lights on them. I don't even really need heat for these, but that won't stop me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted December 15, 2015 Share Posted December 15, 2015 If you make them from 1" stock they will last longer even if they rust in the FL climate! ISTR that the MiG 25 foxbat had a steel skin...when a pilot in one defected (Japan) and someone tested the skin with a magnet... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teenylittlemetalguy Posted December 15, 2015 Share Posted December 15, 2015 6 hours ago, Blue Duck Forge said: I don't even really need heat for these, but that won't stop me. that made my day. I know the feeling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted December 16, 2015 Share Posted December 16, 2015 Welcome aboard, glad to have you. Heating things necessary or not is sort of of the heart of the craft. Failure analysis is how we learn you know. Well, I do anyway I have a LOT of practice. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GRiley904 Posted December 16, 2015 Share Posted December 16, 2015 Hi blue duck I also happen to be from op Florida hit me up in the private messages maybe we could hook up and learn a little from each other. I've been at it for a couple years now and have a fair understanding of the craft. If you message I'll give my contact info and we can shoot the bull. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Williams Posted December 17, 2015 Author Share Posted December 17, 2015 Thomas, I would have thought that the skin was titanium, but the Russians apparently weren't good at welding it back then. I wonder how fast the foxbat would have been had it been lighter? I didn't know about that. I will probably choose stock to minimize weight, but that 1" material would probably last at least a couple of months in this humidity. I specifically pursued metallurgical engineering due to a love of fire, but I was mostly exposed to casting in school. I didn't have interest in forging, as I thought smithing was completely obsolete due to my lack of exposure. I have since been disabused of my misperception, thankfully, and finally experienced one too many broken junk Chinese "forged" tools from the nearest chain home improvement store. I will happily spend more time, effort, and money to do something the way I want it myself rather than buy garbage. Playing with fire and hitting things is just gravy. I have certainly learned more about processing materials by analyzing problems and mistakes than by reading or watching how something should be done. What not to do is sometimes more important than what to do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted December 17, 2015 Share Posted December 17, 2015 Oh you are going to fit right in here. When asked why I like blacksmithing my usual answer is I like playing with fire and hitting things with hammers. doing something useful or pretty is the gravy on my spud. Shop classes in school fired up the forge so rarely it was questioned why the forge and anvil were there at all. It wasn't considered a "modern" industrial or commercial craft. We had machine shop equipment and sections, lots of hand work and quite a bit of casting, I'm thinking of the six years shop was available we beat hot steel maybe 2-3 times. Sad. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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