CheechWizard Posted July 16, 2020 Share Posted July 16, 2020 made a simple throwing hawk without a forge welded bit so its not a hardenable steel. just wanted something i could toss around that wouldnt take alot of time to make. i have a neighbor 2 houses down that has proven to be very generous and helpful in my endeavors have turned me a tracking wheel for my belt grinder not long ago and going on to consistantly give me assets to the shop as well as passing on wisdom as he made his living doing all the mechanical related stuff for our local power company. so we got to talking about how my little harbor freight fluxcore welder has failed on alot of the tooling ive tried to fab so he hooks me up with his old monkey ward buzz box. cant beat free and if that wasnt chill enough he threw in a auto darkening face shield and a bunch of different rods, even hand trucked it down the street for me. heck of a nice guy. how do you repay a guy who has everything? im working on it. so here's some stuff from the week, the chisel has been a work in progress that i do a bit on here and there inbetween projects, scored the motor from habitat, kinda over paid for it (single phase, 1 hp, 110v, AC for 45$) but i like the features and have some ideas for it (btw does anyone know if that switch set up is fine for a motor like this?) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dax Hewitt Posted July 16, 2020 Share Posted July 16, 2020 That's a nice looking hatchet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted July 16, 2020 Share Posted July 16, 2020 Boy, that's a HECK of a neighbor! Does he like to chew the fat with you? If so visiting and just helping when you can without making a pest of yourself. $45 for a 1 hp Rockwell motor isn't a bad deal at all, bet it'd make an excellent grinder or buffer. Nice hatchet, well done. Keep an eye out for crow bars and the like, they make good hatchets. They don't get hard like a knife but they're tough as nails and hard enough for camp work and sharpen with a file easy peasy. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted July 16, 2020 Share Posted July 16, 2020 Note: This is just a quibble on how you worded that; but welding a bit in has nothing to do with it being hardenable, I sometimes make kindling hawks by folding over and welding solid steel farrier's rasps and they harden even without adding an HC bit. Now welding in a HC bit is a traditional way to getting an axe that has a hardenable when using cheaper low C steel or Wrought Iron. If you really disliked someone you could weld in a low C bit in an high C axe body...that would be almost DADA like a fur lined coffee cup... What I did in the shop yesterday was to unload the 5.25" postvise I bought back from a friend who's having some money issues, (same price I sold it to them). Also bought 3 books: Blacksmithing Instructors' Guide: Sixteen Lesson Plans with Advice on Teaching Techniques by David Harries The Spruce Forge Manual of Locksmithing : A Blacksmith's Guide to Lock Mechanisms by Denis Frechette; Bill Morrison Damascus Steel by Eric Winkel and a top swage (atha, largish fuller) I may be in danger as my wife was starting to look over the Damascus Steel book at the breakfast table as I was leaving for work. I expect a request for a mosaic stainless damascus kitchen countertop when I get home tonight... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris C Posted July 16, 2020 Share Posted July 16, 2020 Thank goodness I've not done anything well enough at the anvil so far to have my little wife request anything. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted July 16, 2020 Share Posted July 16, 2020 Well there is always the request to stop throwing time and money at blacksmithing when you could be doing something useful like latch hooking a rug for her side of the bed... There are thin borderlines between being: Discourged; encouraged to do simple easy projects and asked for humongous extremely difficult projects! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted July 16, 2020 Share Posted July 16, 2020 Let me know how you like the instructors’ guide. If we are ever able to get the blacksmithing group started at the college where I work, that might be a very handy resource. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CheechWizard Posted July 17, 2020 Share Posted July 17, 2020 yeah thomas the wording doesnt make sense on alot of that post lol. the bit of an axe just refers to its cutting edge right? anyway thats the first one ive done out one piece of steel versus the last 2 i did with punched eyes and forge welded leaf spring bits, and the ones before that were wrapped eye. sorry for the confusion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frazer Posted July 17, 2020 Share Posted July 17, 2020 Cheech, that's a fine looking hatchet you have there! Also, it's good to see someone else has the same organizational system in their shop as I do. TP, that's like my dad (who started watching FIF when I started blacksmithing) asking me to make a sword all the time... I told him that's a pretty significant jump from where my skill level is/interests are. Even a small knifes take me weeks to do and just because I can make a knife doesn't mean I can make a sword. Totally different design considerations with balance, harmonics, etc. etc. You know, you worked under a swordsmith. Well, he said it's okay, it can be a small sword... . However, if you do end up making that mosaic counter-top, I'll take one too, but with gold and silver inlays and various gemstones set all the way around the perimeter for good measure.. What did I do in the shop (yesterday)? Finished up two cork springs and two bottle openers. The cork springs I made with a coil spring, and to further enforce that there are lots of different alloys used in springs, I found that this one in particular liked to air harden. I thought that was interesting. The last thing I did was heat up the the business end and let them cool slowly wrapped up in some ceramic insulation. I wouldn't want them to break from normal use because they had hardened without me knowing. They're plenty tough without any heat treatment. And straightened out the latest fire poker. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted July 17, 2020 Share Posted July 17, 2020 The Monsoon season has started here. We get most of the 9" of precipitation we average as random thunderstorms during the summer. (Funny to see weather forecasts giving rain in hundredths of an inch increments.) So it's been cloudy when I get off work lately---and I need to take some pictures to CL a couple of flat belt drive grinders from the hoard. Well we had a smattering of rain early yesterday afternoon and then the sun broke out. Got my pics and then celebrated by making and installing a handle for the Atha 1.75" top fuller I bought earlier in the week. Took a section of weathered sledge hammer handle away from where the end had broken due to abuse and used the drawknife and farrier's rasp to fit it to the eye. Installed it and started working on the part the hand will hold. Need to do a bit more clean up; but it's on the rack with my tool colour on it now! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted July 17, 2020 Share Posted July 17, 2020 5 hours ago, Frazer said: They're plenty tough without any heat treatment. Heating and slow cooling IS heat treatment. Heat treating is any process using heat or cold to alter a metal's properties. If Father's metal spinning shop a lot of parts were spun from alloys that developed severe stresses from being spun and they had to be stress relieved in a bath of alcohol and dry ice. The trick was slipping the parts in quickly while letting them fill with the liquid. They stayed in the chillant(?) untill the part stopped shrieking and had to be slipped out just as quickly to resume ambient temperature. We would've sent them to the heat treaters but as spun they developed cracks on the 5 minute drive so we had to do it in shop. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluerooster Posted July 18, 2020 Share Posted July 18, 2020 To Cheech; Just match the current draw of the motor to the current carrying capability of the switch, and you should be fine. Bear in mind that the start up draw is way higher than the run draw. So for a motor that draws 10 amps, I'd use a 15 amp or more switch. I've had good success using a regular house hold light switch for motors. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donal Harris Posted July 18, 2020 Share Posted July 18, 2020 When I was a young and not very bright tech, I used to play with the dry ice. Nothing was cooler (PI) than dry ice, alcohol, and a latex glove very early in the morning on night shift. Take a bit of alcohol and a couple of nuggets of dry ice. Put both inside a glove and tie a knot in the open end of the glove. Sneak the glove under your phlebotomist’s desk, then lean back in your chair and wait for the show. For some reason they never found it nearly as funny as I did. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CheechWizard Posted July 18, 2020 Share Posted July 18, 2020 on 110v its rated for 16 amps, rooster. which would seem to be slightly underrated however its been working fine. think im gonna use it to power a little wood lathe ive been wanting to build. i scored this mount that has a pulley going to a 3/4" shaft which would make a really good headstock if i can get a chuck mounted for a reasonable price then the rest shouldnt be to hard to buid. perhaps just a simple track with some pillow blocks mounted to a plate for the tailstock and tool rest i can re-position and lock with some ease. i could do something like a screw with a back plate type deal and a tail stock with a center but a chuck would just be so much better speaking of requests from loved ones my lady asked if i had anything i could give to her dad (my future pops inlaw) and remembering that he showed interest in previous hatchets so i decided to bestow upon him that latest one i did. i really really liked throwing that one and i was happy i finally had a decent one i could keep for my self but staying in good graces with my girls parents is of high priority and i was able to get that one done in a nights work, with a morning to do the handle and finishing it wasn't a very hard decision at all. (for me thats pretty fast but i know i can get better and start doing better) i made my first stake anvil last night and i may top of a large piece of rail road track with some plate and use it for a striking anvil tonight. ill post pics later Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted July 18, 2020 Share Posted July 18, 2020 2 hours ago, DHarris said: For some reason they never found it nearly as funny as I did. Well, that's a phlebotomist for you, I've never known one to crack a smile when they're sucking my blood. I think on graduation they slip a blade between their sense of humor and personality and sever the connection. You know, give them a phlebotomy. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted July 18, 2020 Share Posted July 18, 2020 You should meet my cousin Adam, the phlebotomist with the wicked sense of humor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Welshj Posted July 18, 2020 Share Posted July 18, 2020 Spent a little time in the shed tonight. Epoxied the handle on my buddy's army blade, played around with cleaning up a piece of steel cable to try and forge into a blade later on... And have been having some trouble getting a decent temperature out of my propane forge lately. Seems like it's just not getting hot enough to get a good forge weld. I'm just not getting barely hot enough... real close.... So, I tried something. Changed out my blower to one my younger brother gave me. It's an inflatable bouncy house blower that puts out about double the flow of my little squirrel cage blower. Was just an experiment to see. My forge came up to temp pretty quick. Where before- I got a decently noticable flame "roll" around inside... I generally had a hot spot at the burner. With this blower- it literally looked like a rolling flame entirely around the inner circumference of the forge. A little bumping here and there... and it leveled out nicely. Didn't try heating any steel, as it was almost midnight. But I think I may have it licked. Just need to get some plumbing to move it further from the forge body. It has a plastic housing that I'm not comfortable getting hot. and I have to come up with an airflow control for it too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CheechWizard Posted July 18, 2020 Share Posted July 18, 2020 i think we all know the actual truth about those professional blood siphoners frosty... lets just say if you were a vampire who was trying to assimilate within society wouldnt drawing blood for money make sense? you're able to afford your own place instead of crashing with all the other hobo vampires that still live in that bando crypt from the 1700's. While also having a selection of all types of uhmm lets call it koolaide. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Welshj Posted July 19, 2020 Share Posted July 19, 2020 First real forge weld complete!!! Nothing big, just some 1/2" cable. Got it welded together down the length, flattened it out, and doubled it over on itself, welded together again. Has a small crack about an inch in the handle, but the blade is solid and welded.! I have literally nothing to etch with! Not even coffee...Smh.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irondragon Forge ClayWorks Posted July 19, 2020 Share Posted July 19, 2020 Might try some vinegar for the etch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted July 19, 2020 Share Posted July 19, 2020 Finished the metalwork on converting a propane tank into a new hydraulic reservoir for The Pressciousss. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted July 19, 2020 Share Posted July 19, 2020 3 hours ago, Welshj said: I have literally nothing to etch with! Not even coffee Urine will work, though vinegar smells better after a couple days. Do you have any oak trees around? Etching isn't hard to do, controlling it more so. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyBones Posted July 19, 2020 Share Posted July 19, 2020 Alright, what do Oak tree have to do with etching? I am assuming it has something to do with the tannin and the reason we soak acorns in a running stream to make them edible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irondragon Forge ClayWorks Posted July 19, 2020 Share Posted July 19, 2020 Yep and black walnut husks work even better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted July 19, 2020 Share Posted July 19, 2020 Replaced the hydraulic pump in The Pressciousss. It did NOT fix the problem. Very unhappy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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