Ted Ewert Posted December 27, 2018 Share Posted December 27, 2018 Do you guys use alloy or mild steel for your dies? Mine has mild steel and it seem to work OK, except for a lot of mushrooming on the top. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wicon Posted December 27, 2018 Share Posted December 27, 2018 My dies are made of 1045 hardened on the working side. They wer mushrooming too. Now I use a big Simplex soft face mallet with copper inserts: No more mushrooming. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted December 27, 2018 Share Posted December 27, 2018 My favorite swing arm fuller uses truck coil spring for the arm, normalized and it does "wear" along the hammer impact zone. I end up replacing it about every 5 years or so: straighten, flatten the section to be drilled, drill, normalized bolted. If I am slow it might take me an hour for "maintenance" of one of my favorite tools. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted December 27, 2018 Share Posted December 27, 2018 Armored car leaf spring, probably 5160. Normalized, struck with my WI soft hammer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Posted December 27, 2018 Share Posted December 27, 2018 My guillotine fuller was made from leaf spring (think flat bar) with the working dies made from leaf spring with no heat treatment as it hits hot metal. The top die has a piece of sacrificial piece of 1-1/4 round stock welded on which can be redressed or replaced if necessary. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted December 28, 2018 Share Posted December 28, 2018 Brought down some belts and fired up the bader and cleaned up my little stake anvil more---did more in 5 minutes with the bader than several hours with the file! I also dressed the spike to fit a 1" hardy hole without wedging. I still need to do the heat treating and will probably look up a friend with a barrel of oil---it won't fit in my "knives and other pointy things" vertical quench cylinder... Funny I plan to do an inverse eye quench as the eye can be hard and the ends need to be tough! Old sledge hammer head with elongated identical peens; forged the "left" one down to be a thin heel for certain tasks/methods I do a bunch of on a fairly regular basis. May not get to it for a while I just got a "The Dr reviewed the test results from last week and would like you to get a follow up test done before the end of the year" call. I hope it's just to get it on the year he knows I've met my medical deductible; but it does ruin my plans for tomorrow. In a few more years I will probably have to buy a cane and plant a lawn to chase all the young whippersnappers off... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daswulf Posted December 28, 2018 Share Posted December 28, 2018 Nice Thomas. Maybe one day I'll own a nice belt grinder. I get by with other options. Do you get a little bit of a ring where the post meets flush with the face (as in not really a solid weld or homoginous piece but still tight and very solid and level)? I've got them on mine but in use they don't affect anything and are pretty minute. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted December 28, 2018 Share Posted December 28, 2018 Currently it's heat shrunk on and riveted. If it has issues during use I'l hard face the eye area---monolithic biavicide! Note the larger one to the side was done the same way and hasn"t had any issues so far closing in on a decade. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daswulf Posted December 28, 2018 Share Posted December 28, 2018 Mine are also heat shrunk and riveted. Like I said, no functional problems and the light (line) isn't expanding in heavy use. Here is what I'm talking about. These haven't been used in a while now. The larger one got a little rusted sitting, so I gave it a quick rub with a scochbrite. The smaller one (first one) I attempted mig weld that seam (with pourous results) as I was worried about the minor gap but turns out it didn't really need it. Smaller (top one) works great and I've forged a bunch of stuff on it to test it. Got a barely feelable raise on the shafts tho. Vs. The face. Tonight I made some more random sized cut nail rings. Then I started forging out a hawk/ hatchet from some hatchet hamme head thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ADHD-forge Posted December 28, 2018 Share Posted December 28, 2018 started making a hammer eye drift, still need to draw out the handle a bit more and grind it on the belt grinder. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexandr Posted December 28, 2018 Share Posted December 28, 2018 Hello to all ! Restoring my first lantern, made 25 years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ausfire Posted December 28, 2018 Share Posted December 28, 2018 Something old - something new. Perhaps you will post a picture of the restored piece. BTW, hope you've got a good grip on that angle grinder! . Even with a side handle those things have a mind of their own at times. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted December 29, 2018 Share Posted December 29, 2018 Daswulf; the one with the larger/longer shaft to the left of the new one was made in 2004 according to the photo dates; it's working fine so far. the 2.5" square stock shaft is the largest item I've forged to date---used one of the pictures for my avatar shot. Using the 200# chambersburg of another NM smith. It was based on a war hammer I once made and heat shrunk the head on---leaving a bit of a top spike so I could rivet it on if it every loosened. Quite a lot of abuse; old refrigerators, house wall demolition (a friend was remodelling...), stump stabbing, etc for over 35 years now with no sign of loosening. I forged an offcut of the original shaft and ground it down to make a drift to shape/size the eye for an interference fit when the head was hot! Ahh the experiments of youth... Got a handful more of the "odd sledges" to shaft as one of my long term students wants to make one too. The new one's head and shaft was rough forged and the shaft twisted in the shop of the most excellent Pep Gomez! (Who fabbed a twister to deal with the 1.5" sq shaft on the fly.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daswulf Posted December 29, 2018 Share Posted December 29, 2018 Thanks for the insight Thomas. I have a few more (extra) sledge hammers for possibles but am on the lookout for more suitable odd shaped heads for future stake anvils. With it pretty much all done by hand and hammer I lament starting them but each time I can't help but see them through. Got a little further on the remade hawkish thing I'm working on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daswulf Posted December 29, 2018 Share Posted December 29, 2018 Was going to engrave this but couldn't come up with anything I liked so I just heat treated it. Edge quenched bravely in water and let residual heat temper slightly. The edges skate a file and it bites on the eye. Will have to attempt an actual hawk soon I think. Enough dancing around it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted December 29, 2018 Share Posted December 29, 2018 How about the traditional "Front Toward Enemy" You can transliterate it in Runes if you want an inside joke... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daswulf Posted December 29, 2018 Share Posted December 29, 2018 Lol, I like the idea. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MC Hammer Posted December 29, 2018 Share Posted December 29, 2018 I like the axe thing Das. I've been really wanting to make one lately but I still have my first knife to finish. Like you, I don't have a decent grinder so it's slow going. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted December 29, 2018 Share Posted December 29, 2018 Didn’t do anything in my own shop yesterday, but did make a short road trip to meet Kim Thomas, ornamental ironworker and raconteur extraordinaire, and to see his forge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted December 29, 2018 Share Posted December 29, 2018 On 12/19/2018 at 3:07 PM, Irondragon Forge & Clay said: stole a $ 640.00 U.S. Echo gas powered pole saw That really sucks. A pyr Komandor cross is a fine choice of family guardian. Either one WILL protect your stuff and most importantly your family from all comers. The Pyre is a better choice if you have a lot of visitors, they're gentle giants. Komandors aren't as friendly but tend to be aloof of strangers rather than aggressive. However, nobody's going to carry off anything if you're not there. If there are going to be people there all the time then small barky dogs are a good choice, can't beat a Chihuahua or toy poodle for an alarm. Doxies are in the same league but can be seriously aggressive if pushed across the line, they WILL go get bad guys if allowed. So, yeah get a dog or two! Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shabumi Posted December 29, 2018 Share Posted December 29, 2018 I agree with Frosty about the doxies, we have a pack of mini doxies and 2 Dobermans and I would rather try to get past the 2 Dobermans than the pack of dachshunds. They're little dogs with a big dogs teeth, we call them fluffy alligators Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ADHD-forge Posted December 29, 2018 Share Posted December 29, 2018 made myself a pair of pic-up tongs for the shop, i did cheat a bit by welding welding on the reigns witch are plain 10mm round stock. next up is trying to make a hammer from some steel i got from an old machine axle from work. i think it CRO-MO, i did test its capability for hardening and tempering and it get nice and hard so i hope it'll work fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VainEnd84 Posted December 30, 2018 Share Posted December 30, 2018 Made this little bell for my aunts birthday Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daswulf Posted December 30, 2018 Share Posted December 30, 2018 Love the bell Vain. ADHD, are those hammer eye tongs, rather than pickup tongs? You can't cheat if it works and is functional. Working on a spear head tonight. Wow is the socket a pain! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ADHD-forge Posted December 30, 2018 Share Posted December 30, 2018 On 12/29/2018 at 11:02 PM, Daswulf said: ADHD, are those hammer eye tongs, rather than pickup tongs? You can't cheat if it works and is functional. i made them to grab the hammer blank out of the fire and hold them when forging, my terminology might be a bit off Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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