July 29, 20232 yr Check with a bowling alley the house balls wear out and go cheap or into a dumpster. A number of my baseball bats come from the local high school trash can during baseball season. They get scared up and out they go but they still make excellent whockers for straightening bar without damaging textures or wooden mallets. It's where I get hockey sticks too, they make excellent light handles for top tools. Nice fist John, copper tears so easily even if you anneal silly often. Altoid cans are excellent repousse and chasing stock. Frosty The Lucky.
July 29, 20232 yr I do have about a dozen Altoid cans that were a present from one of the regulars at the yarn shop. Still, I think it’s going to take me a looooooooong time to work my way through the 140 pounds of copper flashing my friend George gave me.
July 30, 20232 yr Whoa! That's a lot of copper flashing! Tonight I finished the orifice hooks requested by my wife for her spinning group friends. Two in standard style. Two in "loop" style. Hole drilled into end of handle and hook inserted. Held in place with JB Weld because I didn't have a tap & die small enough to thread the two pieces. Considered a few other options but ultimately, the deadline and the heat made the decision for me, lol I've got one more to make for a friend in the local blacksmithing group who also spins. I played around with various twists and I think the third from left is my new favorite.
July 30, 20232 yr More shop cleanup. Much more still to do, but got everything packed away into my side of the garage for the first time in several months. (Just in time for Lisa to get back from her road trip and pull right in the garage!)
July 30, 20232 yr I like that twist too Shaina. ow do they work, Ashley HAS tested them hasn't she? Or does she have a spinning wheel? Frosty The Lucky.
July 30, 20232 yr I saw your post on the other thread which answered my questions. Though this is a better size picture, they really show well. Keep experimenting with twists types and designs. All Deb's orifice hooks are straight so don't exclude those from your line. Spinners by their very nature are into hand made so your hooks have a market waiting for them to appear. Frosty The Lucky.
August 2, 20232 yr I did my first real forging in my new shop. Not set up yet but I was able to forge and weld in swamp cooler comfort. Made a pair of campfire tongs fir a buddy as trade for a tool box. Lots of fun and turned out well 20x30 quonset hut garage with the 220 The dogs love the new neighbors… Thanks for looking These were the first 2 photos in the post above that i somehow deleted. Sorry I also tried a little repousse myself after seeing Johns super cool set up. Was going well until i split the nose. I knew I was pushing it and should have annealed
August 2, 20232 yr 5 hours ago, Rojo Pedro said: I did my first real forging in my new shop. Cool workshop and cool neighbors.
August 2, 20232 yr Great shop and great shop dog and watch deer Oh, and great iron and copperwork too!!
August 2, 20232 yr On 7/28/2023 at 9:51 PM, Purple Bullet said: It took two sessions to make the weld-2 to 3 inches at a time. Are you forge welding using induction? This is something that interests me a lot if it's possible.
August 2, 20232 yr Yes indeed. EJ of the Anvil has examples of induction forge welding on YouTube. Like I said, I can't forge weld cable together because the individual strands are too small relative to the coil (I think) but once I use the gas or coal forge to weld the cable into a billet I then use the induction forge to weld the two billets together with a strip of high nickel alloy (that makes the center line of the "feather"). I go up and down the billet at least twice every two to three inches, trying to stagger the centers of those individual heats. I think I've mentioned it before, but induction (at least the 15kw China versions that are available so cheep) is not the answer to everything, but in terms of speed, convenience, cleanliness, visibility and comfort (not adding as much heat to an already sweltering shop) it is hard to beat. I'm just a hobby blacksmith, but I wouldn't want to have to do without it.
August 2, 20232 yr Try moving the cable farther from the induction loop or make the loop larger to slow the heating time. Frosty The Lucky.
August 2, 20232 yr Thanks PB. I checked out a couple of those vids. Good stuff, and the induction machines are getting down into affordable territory now. I may have to rob my firearm fund and get me one.
August 2, 20232 yr Buzzkill - Make sure you budget a TIG cooler to go with it. My first forge I built a cooler and it worked (until I outsmarted myself and added copper sulfate to eliminate algae - I didn't realized there were aluminum components inside the case - copper sulfate protects copper, but eats right through aluminum) but prices have dropped to where I bought a forge AND cooler for what I originally paid for just the forge. If you do FB check out https://www.facebook.com/groups/758762180850373 Frosty - I probably wasn't clear on the problem with consolidating cable. It isn't that the threads overheat. The cable just refuses to come up to anywhere close to welding temperature. My understanding of eddy currents and how they work is limited, but a few possibilities: a. the geometry of the individual strands spreads the energy too far for the size machine I have. b. The response of each fiber causes interference in the neighboring fibers. I suppose I could test this by trying a really small cable, but my gas forge does fine to consolidate the fibers. Then I shut it down and switch on the induction.
August 3, 20232 yr My guess is that there just isn't much magnetic gradient across an individual fiber, which means there isn't much eddy current generated. Of course, if the forge will heat up a single fiber by itself, I'm wrong.
August 3, 20232 yr Made my first micarta on the weekend and got a chance to sand it today and check out the layering/patterns. The piece on the right is straight hessian and epoxy which I pressed in a wooden mould wrapped in cling wrap, the other is a strip of hessian and a strip of nylon webbing wrapped into a loop, epoxied, and then pressed flat inside a zip lock bag between two pieces of plywood. I sanded a little bit of the edge of each to get past the squeeze-out and see the texture of it, without ruining the whole piece for future use as handle scale material. From some of the videos I've watched, I was expecting it to be a lot more tedious and messier, but it was a fairly pain-free process for me Thanks for looking! Jono.
August 3, 20232 yr Jono, it certainly can get messy. You must have planned properly before starting. That makes a huge difference. It's easy to go into panic mode once you've mixed the fiberglass resin if you don't have everything set up to quickly add all the layers. To me it looks like you nailed it. What I like most about micarta is the fact that it is so durable. It doesn't care about water. It can withstand heat higher than you can hold in your hand. Yet, it's relatively easy to shape and sand.
August 3, 20232 yr Hefty - Very nice. I’ve done a little with different color construction paper that turned out rather well. I’ve collected some natural fibers from palms that I think would work well but I’m waiting for the right blade to try it on as I’m considering molding it right on the handle. The way you folded that material reminded me of how I hope the butt would look. I’m not worried about staying on the knife but think I would need compression (or at least containment) on the end and sides. Right you are, BK. Especially in this heat. I do have some slow cure epoxy that is UV resistant that I tend to use for this.
August 3, 20232 yr Looks like West System has a slow hardener (206) to go with their resin (105). They also have an extra slow hardener (209).
August 3, 20232 yr Having never used an induction forge and mis-reading your post a little I missed what's going on. Cable is making it's own Faraday cage so the EM can't penetrate beyond the surface, the heat has to soak through conduction through lots and LOTS of individual strands. Cable has a long soak time until it's consolidated anyway. Of course that's speculation but . . . Frosty The Lucky.
August 3, 20232 yr Frosty, the Fararday cage issue was the same thing that came to my mind… Im very curious about induction forges, but can’t justify the investment now. Maybe after I can’t get good smithing coal any longer. Keep it fun, David
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