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I Forge Iron

What did you do in the shop today?


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Be careful Smokey! I used to work that kind of schedule and it's hard on you. Thomas' advise is good. We did a lot of tenting and I had top end gear, a tent I could stand up in to get dressed, queen size air mattress and other various snivvle gear. Spending so many hours in the seat means you really need to take care of your back. Exercises can make a huge difference one that really helped me was to lay on my back knees up and push on my thighs at my hips. It really takes a lot of compression off your lower back.

Frosty The Lucky.

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That's a nice little anvil Zrognak. Would be great for peening straight razor pins.

 

I ripped apart my forge today. I've had the same refractory brick in it for 9 months now. A lot of cracks from thermo-cycling, but it was still together and working. I got my order of Plistix from Wayne the other day though, so I decided to just tear out the whole thing and put new refractory in and coat it. So now I'm in hurry up and wait mode....

 

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TP and Frosty,  tks for the tips , they are welcome.  did a lot of over the road driving back in the 70s, so am kinda used to being in the seat long hours. on these fires, sometimes you are at the stage sites for filling small rigs and can be there for hours.  BOREING...  so you can get out of the rig and walk around. again, much thanks..Smokey

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2nd day of doing demos at a local fair..  Yesterday started to make a hammer out of wrought iron which needed to be upset to square dimensions needed for the design starting with 1.125" sq   and brought it up to the 2" sq by 3" long.. 

Today I did a bunch of welding making a log choker chain..  Or should say finished it.. I added 7 new links the slip from 5/8" round and then a trace Hook..

I then welded up a bicycle chain into a knife blade but didn't get any pictures as I was ready to scoot.. 

It rained like the dickens today.. Nearly all day.. 

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Speaking of upsetting, the tinsnips snapped as I was knocking off the rivet in preparation for making them into scrolling tongs. Invective was deployed. 

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But I did finish another business card holder. 

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Also made some test pieces for a custom job that’s in the works. No photos, as it’s still under wraps.

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42 minutes ago, JHCC said:

Speaking of upsetting, the tinsnips snapped as I was knocking off the rivet in preparation for making them into scrolling tongs. Invective was deployed. 

My imagination is a whirl with what vulgarity you let fly. The card holder looks sweet. 

 

Jennifer, those hooks and chain look killer. I’d  have a hard time doing good work like that infront of onlookers, too many distractions. 

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Because of the 'noise question' and several meetings with government and police I didn’t forge much the last 14 (holly)days:(.

Finished the mobile furnaces (trolleys) and assemble and tack welded a new slightly bigger gas forge from a 30lbs propane cylinder. My little ‘Ms. Piggy’ 20lbs propane forge was only able to 'swallow' work pieces with a max. width of 4 ¼ in, and I figured out ‘this is not width enough in some cases’ (S-hooks, etc.).

After the good experience with the octagon shaped tile panels (hard fire tiles as a flame face) in the new 35lbs bronze furnace I made a hexagon tile panel for the forge too. Also this tiles are connected with Kanthal-wire (3 strings twisted together each connection). Back and front are made of 26# soft brick tiles. The insulation between tiles and body shall be a 1 in thick Superwool layer. Every part is also easy replaceable if worn out.

Also intended to add some improvements in the new forge like the hexagon shape of the forge chamber to allow the now +/- 45° positioned flame cone to ‘swirl’ (?) around the workpiece instead aim straight on the metal and produce lots of mill scale.

So far the theory<_<. As always thankful for feedback, now the setup is (still) only tack welded.

Cheers, Hans

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14 hours ago, ThomasPowers said:

rather than upsetting I'd probably try welding more on.

Agreed..  Problem is I wasn't going to make a new pair of tongs to hold the stock for welding.. Ideally it would have been 4 bars stacked..   2, 2X then added together and the last weld between then completed..   I only have tongs in the trailer for 1.5" sq so even with this size it was done using the pickup tongs.. 

It all worked out and the only area that opened was shown in the pic..  That was easy to fix with upsetting it larger to about 2.5" and then welding it back down to 2.25..   All gone.. 

Next will be to weld on the faces..  

 

12 hours ago, Ranchmanben said:

Jennifer, those hooks and chain look killer. I’d  have a hard time doing good work like that infront of onlookers, too many distractions. 

Ben, Thanks,

There comes a point where the skill set you have is greater than all that happens around you...  I would say it's when someone truly ascends to a Journeyman as then it doesn't matter where you are or who is looking..  You simply do what you know.. :) 

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Made a bunch of leaf blanks to demo at the "Nowthen" (I do not know how the town got that name) threshing show. There was 5 forges last time I was there but the a guy says theres 8 now. Beautiful place to demo. I'll post pics of the space when I get back

 

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Well got the hammer about 90% done.. Got both face and peen welded on/in. and then it happened.. The double pickup tongs were no longer up to the task as I needed a pair that would hold the hammer straight as the drift was just off skew a little and I had no way to hold the drift while at an angle.. 

Anyhow, it came out great and will finish it up sometime this week.. I still want to fuller it a little I I'd like the cheeks taller) maybe and make a few little adjustments.. Sadly there is only so much equipment one can keep in a portable shop.. 

I'd guess just shy of the 4lbs mark I was looking for.. 

 

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Not much in the shop today (mostly landscaping), but I did grind an old flea market find into an adjustable scrolling wrench. 

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And made my Frankenvise even franker, with the addition of a big ring between the screw and the outer jaw. This puts the nut on a less-worn part of the screw. 

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17 minutes ago, Ranchmanben said:

This is going to be awesome. I’ve been wanting to get some good sized wrought iron for this exact project. 

Thanks.. I"m pretty excited.. I love the old tymeiness of it...

Your pretty well setup.. It should be fun for you..  I love these kinds of projects but not having the right stuff , just rubs me the wrong way.. Or what I should say is having the stuff back at the storage area and not handy does..  I have hammer making tongs.. Where were they, in storage.. Eye punch.. Storage.. 

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Thomas.. That ;build up method is actually a great idea..   to keep if centered it's a lot like keeping billets centered by working both sides evenly.. 

The reason I chose the method is it would allow for the face and peen parts to be welded without effecting and existing eye..

Unless there is ample supporting material around the eye or if the eye is far enough from the face (little heat) then possibility of eye collapse increases..  As it was the length of the block decreased as the face was welded on by nearly 1/4" though the face material was 5/16" or I should say added 5/16" to the length.. 

As with all this stuff there really are so many ways to get the result.. 

I really wanted to just use round punches with no eye drifts or even an eye shaped punch..  The cheeks being forged out (lengthened) were all done using a round punch.. Again the problem was not having proper fitting tongs..  

The double pickup tongs were used from start to finish so only the very end of the first small loop could be used and with the intense heat of working the wrought the jaws would over heat and get soft.. 


One of the guys was giving me a hard time and making jokes as to when I punch it and see it all split in half as wrought iron not forged properly can do..   LOL.. :) 
 

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I actually own some original steel faced hammers and at least one adze.  I was thinking of bringing the adze to quad-state as a display piece to show a commercial smithed item with a steeled cutting edge. The steel is a very thin pad forge welded to the back of the adze so the very edge will be steel.  Showed up when I forgot it in a vinegar soak for a week.

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JHCC, I learned a little trick from a guy that makes one piece spurs that would be perfect for that vise. Ditch that massive washer and install a thrust bearing. With that bearing installed you can easily tighten the daylights out of it and very easily loosen it as well. No more having to kick it loose. I had forgotten about wanting to do that to my own vises until I saw that massive washer of yours. Also, they’re usually at least a half inch thick so it would take up a similar amount of space. 

 

Jennifer, I have the hardest time using hammer eye tongs. They’ve got their place and I still use them but they’ve taken a back seat to these. 

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