Frosty Posted July 19, 2021 Share Posted July 19, 2021 You do have to the the emphasis in the right syLOLble. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted July 19, 2021 Share Posted July 19, 2021 Hmm CL albq has a LOT of "pumice aggregate" in the free section. Looks like a cement company is trying to get rid of it; tempting... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Shears Posted July 19, 2021 Share Posted July 19, 2021 On 7/13/2021 at 5:38 AM, Jobtiel1 said: I tried to make the fire deeper with firebricks, but way the forge is build, I've been unable to do this well enough to heat hammer stock. The forge has an cast iron piece that houses the clinker breaker, and that sits up about 2 cm from the bed of the forge. With the fire bricks to make it deeper there is still not enough depth to make a bigger fire. Jobtiel1 - I originally used brick to build a deeper fire, then I nearly set my car on fire. My rivet forge has a stamped pan which made it easier to install a sheet metal ring (see pictures). The ring is made from a scrapyard buy of some stainless steel sheet (about 28 AWG/0.7mm). I cut two pieces 6.5 inches/~160mm wide by 20 inches/~500mm long to make a ring about 12 inches/300mm in diameter. Note that I folded over about a 1/4 inch/~6.5mm of the top edge for safety reasons. The ring is held in place with some 'L' brackets made with smaller pieces of the sheet. I used a small hand punch to make all holes in the sheet and used existing holes in the pan for securing the ring in place. I've had continuous issues trying to insert/attach images to this post, hopefully the links to images in the Gallery work. https://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/image/40886-portable-forge-pan-1/ https://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/image/40887-portable-forge-pan-2/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frazer Posted July 21, 2021 Share Posted July 21, 2021 Picked up a spring pack off a 1 ton box truck. It came back and was being held in the warehouse at the dealership for 30 until the warranty went through. Since I tend to pop in from time to time to check their scrap bin they gave it to me free of charge. After about 10k miles the center bolt sheared off, so the springs themselves are almost new. The powder coating will need to be ground off, but I'll take that deal for ~100# of spring steel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SinDoc Posted July 21, 2021 Share Posted July 21, 2021 I have been frequenting the shop I take my vehicles to looking for leaf/coil springs but have had no luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted July 21, 2021 Share Posted July 21, 2021 Did they give you any suggestions of places to look? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SinDoc Posted July 21, 2021 Share Posted July 21, 2021 Sadly no. They said they will give me a call whenever they replace some as they are more than happy to give them to me. They just don't replace them very often I guess. I did see some break drums I almost grabbed to attempt a break drum forge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frazer Posted July 21, 2021 Share Posted July 21, 2021 This is the first pack of leaf springs I've come across at this place and I was just lucky it was low mileage/off one of their delivery trucks. I have had much better luck with coil springs. It really depends on the type of place and when you go. I've gone plenty of times when there were just a pile of rotors and not much else. Other times I walk out with a couple springs or something. My best advise is to be on friendly terms with one of the service guys and have them let you know when things come up. They probably can't hold them for you, but they might give you a heads up. I don't like that everything is powder coated now though. That stuff is a pain to get off and I really don't recommend burning it off. Been there, done that, the smoke is nasty. I tend to use rail clips rather than coil springs nowadays for round stock. I was given a whole bin of them and I prefer to straighten those & clips vs grind off powder coating. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted July 21, 2021 Share Posted July 21, 2021 Find a shop that does lifts and lowers; they are much more likely to be tossing leaf and coil springs with low miles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIGGUNDOCTOR Posted July 21, 2021 Share Posted July 21, 2021 Frazer, if it is powder coating it sets at 300F. Heat them up past that and scrape it off. I would think it is more of an epoxy paint as that would be faster than powder painting - dip or spray compared to spray and run through a 350F oven to set it. Manufacturing is all about getting it done fast and inexpensively. Powder paint is great for many applications, I'm just not sure that springs are one of them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Shears Posted July 22, 2021 Share Posted July 22, 2021 Two weeks ago I noticed what was called a 'Cobbler's Anvil' at a local Auction Hall's on-line event. The one picture for the listing had a neutral background and didn't have anything to indicate size. On a whim I put in a bid of $20 CDN. I was e-mailed last Tuesday that I'd won at $18 total cost. I haven't weighted it yet, so could still be running 4 to 5 dollars/lb. On pick-up, I found it to be a fabricated anvil, Top plate's an inch thick, 6" long by 3 " wide. Height of 6" from face to the base with a spike going into the wood stand. Face to bottom of stand 27". The stand even has brackets to secure it to a solid floor (wood or cement, no gravel). The welds are failing on the right side, Ill have to get my son to redo them. It's relatively small compared to my other anvils, but should be useful for small work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irondragon Forge ClayWorks Posted July 22, 2021 Share Posted July 22, 2021 8 hours ago, ThomasPowers said: Find a shop that does lifts and lowers; Also check out the local school district bus shop. I was talking to the mechanics at ours and got a call from them to come and get some bus leaf springs. All in all about 400 pounds of springs followed me home, still have a bunch left. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted July 22, 2021 Share Posted July 22, 2021 Were they brand new or used? Lift and Lower places often have minimally used springs. I've found that I only need to "stock" a couple of pieces as it is so easy to find. I do have a couple of "special" pieces---like ones with tapered ends, saves a whole lot of drawing out for some projects! Also extra heavy or extra light, again saving a lot of work rather than trying to produce extra thickness or thinness with the hand hammer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Purple Bullet Posted July 23, 2021 Share Posted July 23, 2021 I hear a lot about microfractures in old leaf springs. I've made a few (very few compared to most of you) blades from some that were old and even pitted (which I realize doesn't mean it had been subjected to repeated flexure.) I didn't have a problem with them. Once you get those stress fractures up to near welding heat and pound on it, it seems to me it would either propagate, and you could see it, or weld back together and reform the crystalline structure. Is that right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted July 23, 2021 Share Posted July 23, 2021 Or form cold shuts in the material, especially if corroded. Not so difficult to find good ones that running the possible risk of an "unknown" one makes a lot of sense. I do know that crack issues seem to have been more prevalent up north where they salted their roads. (But that is just my experience.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted July 23, 2021 Share Posted July 23, 2021 Often when a microfracture propagates in a finished piece, you can see from the surface of the break what part was the old fracture and what part the new. The former will typically have some degree of corrosion, while the latter will be fresh and unstained. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Purple Bullet Posted July 23, 2021 Share Posted July 23, 2021 TP -You are right, of course. I was just curious. There is such a thing as chloride stress cracking but I've only seen that in some stainless steels. Once the company I worked for (a corrosion company no less) had to put a sign up on an unmanned offshore platform. The sign fell off before the week was out because they didn't pay attention to what kind of stainless they used. JHCC - I've seen that in pipe failures as well. In some cases it was corrosion that started the crack and once it had a weak point mechanical failure from fatigue took over. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted July 23, 2021 Share Posted July 23, 2021 "Catastrophic propagation" is the term used in my MatSci classes. The thing about corrosion in a crack is that you can get inclusions if you forge weld it or it won't weld in the "dirty" section. One of the most "fun" examples in that class was where a crack had initiated from the engraving of the ID number for the fancy steel and heat treat, required by the purchaser! Unfun ones included a fractured propeller shaft at a long way to fall up in the sky (Stress corrosion cracking if I remember that one.) That class made me try to avoid a lot of "engineered" things for a long while as it was full of such failures that hadn't been taken into account when engineering... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TWISTEDWILLOW Posted July 24, 2021 Share Posted July 24, 2021 I found a 75# swage block and a mixture of fullers, flatters, swage tools, cutters and punches, $50 us for the block and $11 a piece for the tools. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted July 24, 2021 Share Posted July 24, 2021 That's a great collection of tools at a thoroughly decent price. Congratulations!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TWISTEDWILLOW Posted July 24, 2021 Share Posted July 24, 2021 Thank you JHCC, I was hoping to get the tools a little cheaper since I was buying so many but he wouldn’t budge, that being said I figured the cheaper price on the block made up for it. the guy is selling off his father’s blacksmith shop, and he had lots of other stuff but I was on a time crunch to get back to my repair shop this morning before customers start showing up, so I couldn’t stay, and it was an 45 minute drive back, But I talked to him and found out he actually lives in my county and it sounds like he may bring his next trailer load by my shop before taking it to over the flea market in the next county over, so I might get first shot at more tools later. so I’m crossing my fingers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted July 24, 2021 Share Posted July 24, 2021 Considering that a 3lb Harbor Freight cross-peen hammer is ten bucks, eleven bucks each for quality top tools is totally reasonable! Sounds like a great opportunity for getting some really good tooling. I must confess to feeling no small degree of envy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TWISTEDWILLOW Posted July 24, 2021 Share Posted July 24, 2021 I guess your right JHCC, I’m just being cheap lol, I am very happy to find this stuff this morning, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott NC Posted July 24, 2021 Share Posted July 24, 2021 3 hours ago, TWISTEDWILLOW said: But I talked to him and found out he actually lives in my county and it sounds like he may bring his next trailer load by my shop before taking it to over the flea market in the next county over I think you would be doing each other a favor snapping it all up. Nice find! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irondragon Forge ClayWorks Posted July 24, 2021 Share Posted July 24, 2021 If my count is right there are 19 top tools + the swage block brings the price to $284 US not a bad deal and all of the tools I see would be very handy to have. Unlike some batches I have seen where the majority would only be used once in a blue moon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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