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I Forge Iron

"Forge Press" attachment


Vinito

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Just thought I'd show y'all a look at an attachment I made for my standard press so I could use it for some forging. It's a fairly small press and just a single-acting cylinder with spring return, so no punching holes, but after trying it out last night it seems to work pretty good for smooshing hot steel.

It uses 1/4" thick 4" x 4" die base plates so is fairly easy to make dies for it. There are a couple L-shaped fence stops (see the video) on the front to help guide positioning material on the dies, but they are easily removable too for yer regular by-eye smooshing.

It took a day to make the device and a couple hours the next day to make a couple die sets for it. I am a machinist for a living so it might take others a bit longer to build it.

It's a little bit "niche" since a real forge press with more power, faster motion and double acting cylinders is significantly better than this, but it was a relatively easy and inexpensive way to adapt what I had to accomplish pressing some steel out.

Anyway, maybe this will prompt ideas for others.

p.s. the video shows a buddy trying his hand at making a sword which started out as a worn tie rod end off his truck.

Press.jpg

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He is a rookie (like me) who has no idea what he's even doing (like me) and has no business trying to make a sword yet anyway. But seems to be having fun, for several hours by now, so I am not one to judge... for several reasons.

But wouldn't anything done on the power hammer be a bit harder to control anyway, being a repeated whacking mass and all? For whatever reason, he quite preferred using the press thing for doing... whatever he was doing there.

p.s. and b.t.w. - the material for the press jig was all picked from the scrap pile other than the springs, which were $1.75 each from Fastenal.

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I hear ya. There's another guy meets with us on Fridays and we've both suggested that a few times. Some folks just fear change? I can't explain it.

All I can say is him being new to this stuff, planning is an afterthought instead of the first step like it ought to be.

But the press attachment seems to work goodly.

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The dies can be rotated 90* for lengthening draws. Yes?

Hopefully your buddy won't give up the forge when he discovers how over his head he is taking on a sword without any experience. Reassure him he isn't the only one to try to  make a sword before learning the craft. 

Frosty The Lucky

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Yes indeed, the dies can be rotated 90° for any of four positions. Ya just have to make sure you center the dies like you want on the base plates when you're welding them together of course (pretty simple step). But once you do that, it's glitter & rainbows.

I'm surprised at his persistence. He drinks beer and the rest of us don't, so at first (several months ago) on the coal forge he would be working fairly clear-headed for quite a while and make decent progress (usually on some kind of knife). But once the double-vision kicked in, he'd get to telling some boring, long-winded story and eventually remember to check his steel just in time to pull it out the remaining half and watch it sparkle like the 4th of July! This happened week after week, but he's still showing up every week. Tenacious or just plain stubborn? Either way, he's a little better now than he use to was so that's a positive.

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You allow someone to DRINK in your shop?!:o 

Wake up Vinito, on top of no safety gear allowing drinking means that WHEN he injures himself or someone else your insurance will deny your claim and he'll own your house and possible future income!

If you're not sober you're not welcome in my shop. We can tip a brew afterwards but NEVER before or during. If I catch you sneaking one in on me, I'll 86 you for good.

I know you're young but you're playing with an inherently dangerous craft and not the way someone with experience "plays", you're treating it like it's a zero consequence game. Latticino mentions Dremeling a piece of scale out of an eye and that can happen behind GOOD safety glasses. It's YOUR shop, treat it that way TELL visitors the rules and see they're followed. Don't ask it he "thinks" he should cut a safe length of stock, TELL him to. 

If he huffs off in a snit he was too dangerous to allow in your shop anyway. Find someone else to do some forging with like maybe the local ABANA affiliate and get some mentoring from an experienced smith.

We aren't trying to discourage  you, we'd love to see you pick up the craft and show us pics of your work. What we do NOT want is to hear or read about injuries or worse in your shop.

Frosty The Lucky

 

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I won't go into the details of secondary liability where you may or may not be liable for the actions of someone drinking on your property.  It involves whether you were supplying the drink or if he brought his own and whether you had the ability to cut him off.  It is a LONG and complex legal subject and will vary somewhat from state to state.

BTW, if you haven't picked up on it I am an attorney and know the legal paths you do NOT want to go down.

But, I will second what Frosty said.  Your shop is your ship and you are the Captain whose rules apply to whoever you allow to work there.  If this guy is drunk enough to see double he is a serious danger to himself and others.  Even if you are not legally liable you are morally responsible.  You would not want to spend the money and time defending your liability.  People and insurance companies can throw a lot of money and resources at you if, in a worse case scenario, someone is killed or seriously injured.

I strongly suggest that you talk to him privately and say that you are concerned about his drinking in your shop and that you are instituting a rule of no drinking before or during forge work.  If he does not or cannot follow that rule you will have to disinvite him as softly as you can.  This is important.  It is hard to confront someone with a substance abuse problem but you have to do it.  He can destroy his liver and endanger himself and others on his own time and property but not on yours.  If after being told he shows up again and is intoxicted when he arrives or pulls out the first beer you will have to tell him to leave, no iffs, and, or buts.

Listen to all your uncles and mentors here.  We really know what we are talking about and we do not want you endangered physically, legally, or morally.  We have seen a lot and some of it has been unpleasant and we do not want to see those experiences repeated.

Yours,

George

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Holy cow, you spin a yarn with embellishment in an effort to try to make your words less boring and it all goes sideways. The guy drinks a few beers and he coincidentally tends to consistently burn his work off in the coal forge like the rookie he is. I tried to make that a little funny. I guess I'm old-school. Back in my day, talking like that was considered humorous- I'm very likely older than you guys and certainly older than you think.

Anyways, I'll go back to my corner and back to talking to people in person where subtlety and humor isn't lost to the ether.

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Vinito, That is one of the problems with the internet, words are tken at their face value.  There is no facial expression, tone of voice, intonation, etc. to supplement the written word.  So, a story which has been exagerrated for dramatic or humorous effect is taken as gospel truth and an accurate relation of an incident.  Emoticons can mitigate the message a bit but they are no substitute for the communication clues which have been evolved into us for many generations.

Also, fo me personally as an attorney, I am trained to look at the worst case scenario and respond accordingly.  If you are prepared for the worst you will get through everything.

So, if the situation with your guy was exaggerated a bit for story telling effect and our concern was a false alarm that is good.  Better to respond when there turns out not to be an actual cause for it than not to do so when there is an actual serious situation.

I don't know how old you are but a fair number of us here are in our 60s, 70s, and early 80s.  So, if that is you you are right in the middle of many of us.

So, I hope you haven't taken offense at our reaction to what we percieved as a serious situation and stick around.

Yours,

George

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What George said.

In my post as a retired police officer, 29 years on the job, I had personal experience with three cases where folks were sued civilly and had large judgements awarded to the victims after letting intoxicated person's drive away from their residence after parties. We always look at the possibilities and stress safety.  If your friend is good to go you should have no problems, however forewarned is forearmed and may help others reading this thread understand the dangers..

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I've said things I thought were funny or just put a little zing in a statement and shot myself in the foot. Too many times, welcome to the club.

Joking about grossly unsafe behavior is the kind of thing to get the reaction you did. We tend to take things like that pretty seriously.

So, what's happing in your shop today?

Frosty The Lucky.

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