Ye Olde Forge

[Screwdriver]

Are you getting it hot enough?
I hate using gas forges as I never find they get enough heat into the workpiece or the heat is very localised.
Give me a coke forge any day.

And what size hammer are you forging with?

I think it's hot enough, I get it way over red hot into orange. This is something I need to establish somehow, my temperature probe claims to goto 1200C but wasnt happy with glowing iron so...

I can only gauge temps from watching YouTube vids and I realise the camera lies. I'll get some footage and try to compare video images. I do have some spare capacity in the forge so I can turn it up if required and I have a pressure gauge to check that too.

Hammer is too big for me really, probably 3 - 3.5 lbs. i went back down to my 2.5 lb hammer when my arm wore out.

The rust pattern on that steel is a bit odd too. Seems to have a lot of shiny bits in it where the rust hasnt got to all the surface.

 

[Gritineye]

One gentle hit with a big hammer is worth more than ten hard hits with a small one, likewise one hit holding the handle at the end is worth ten holding it by its neck.

You will find a big hammer much less tiresome but much more effective to use after your arm gets bigger!

I think you need to get some known mild steel and have a go with that, just so you have a starting point to judge other stuff by.

 

[Wendelspanswick]

One gentle hit with a big hammer is worth more than ten hard hits with a small one, likewise one hit holding the handle at the end is worth ten holding it by its neck.

You will find a big hammer much less tiresome but much more effective to use after your arm gets bigger!

I think you need to get some known mild steel and have a go with that, just so you have a starting point to judge other stuff by.

None of the blacksmiths who I trained and worked with used large hammers, they all tended to use something in the region of a 2lb to 2 1/2lb hammer. These are guys who are forging for 4-6 hrs a day, 5 days a week. A large hammer is just too tiring for repetitive use, a steady rhythm with a medium weight hammer, keeping the material hot works a lot better.

 

[Wendelspanswick]

I think it's hot enough, I get it way over red hot into orange. This is something I need to establish somehow, my temperature probe claims to goto 1200C but wasnt happy with glowing iron so...

I can only gauge temps from watching YouTube vids and I realise the camera lies. I'll get some footage and try to compare video images. I do have some spare capacity in the forge so I can turn it up if required and I have a pressure gauge to check that too.

Hammer is too big for me really, probably 3 - 3.5 lbs. i went back down to my 2.5 lb hammer when my arm wore out.

The rust pattern on that steel is a bit odd too. Seems to have a lot of shiny bits in it where the rust hasnt got to all the surface.

Some materials do need to be near white hot to become elastic, especially some of the unusual tool steels.
I'd get a piece near white hot, see if it becomes malleable, give it a hammer, allow to cool normally and give it a visual inspection for cracking, flaking, deteriation etc.

 

[Screwdriver]

Thanks chaps. I'll have a crack at it tomorrow and grab some video evidence.

I am leaning towards it being an issue with the mystery metal...

 

[Chillitt]

I tried beating an old spanner down into a poker and it behaved like that. It makes working mild seem easy after a couple of goes at it...

 

[Screwdriver]

STOP PRESS

I just went out for another look and to dunk the remaining bar into a citric acid bath. I reckon it must be a length of gauge plate. Probably O1 tool steel. Reason I say that is that it rings like a bell! I noticed an unusual amount of ringing when I was destroying it, err, I mean forging it. I put that down to the new to me anvil mounting but it was this material all along. Just so we are on the same page - mild steel doesn't ring does it?

So that's a two and a half foot length of inch by 3/4 tool steel, probably £75 worth of stock which I've just hammered into oblivion. Not to mention destroying my one remaining good arm though it looks like the hand blister has calmed down. If that's right, I may yet still be a player and all I need to do is avoid playing with tool steel!

 

[slim_boy_fat]

If that's right, I may yet still be a player and all I need to do is avoid playing with tool steel!

That's how Mike Oldfield started with Tubular Bells.....

 

[Screwdriver]

Speaking of which...

It's also very flat

 

[Screwdriver]

So putting the super tough, blister inducing tool steel to one side, I just took delivery of some Titanium offcuts...

I made my first bangle out of some scrap steel.

Just a test to get the fitting right, chop to length etc. and see how they work before I start destroying some Ti rods.

I'm quite happy with one end!

Plan is to see if I can come up with a simple decorative bracelet just to show off the amazing oxide colours you can get out of this stuff. Wonder if the oxide will be durable enough or if it will need a lacquer.

 

[Richard.]

Wonder if the oxide will be durable enough or if it will need a lacquer.

It will rub off over time with wear.
If you want to keep the heat tint I’d suggest you do clear coat it.

 

[Screwdriver]

So playing with some half inch spring steel and I am reminded I don't really need such a cavernous forge all the time so bought some new bricks to pad it out. I bought the wrong one's and ended up ordering hard brick instead of the lightweight insulating bricks. Never mind, I'll use them to line the floor and reuse the existing floor bricks.

Just cut a deep line all the way around, tap it with a brick bolster and it should pop in half.

Tada! Err, no wait, that's not exactly what I was after...

Designed the forge to be easily re-bricked but it has lasted a lot longer than I might have thought. Bricks came out ok though they also fell apart.

Two and a half (!) hard bricks form the floor, two along the side and one half slice on the top to make a much smaller chamber.

Still big enough to get a car spring in there I hope. Got quite a collection now waiting for me to uncoil them.

 

[Screwdriver]

Not sure if this is a step forwards or back but I needed the room to finish off those box section parts.

I am probably going to fix the massive vice to that huge great lump of cast iron (which weighs about half a ton). That will save a huge amount of space and give me a bit more room around the vice.

 

[God mode restorations]

Not sure if this is a step forwards or back but I needed the room to finish off those box section parts.

I am probably going to fix the massive vice to that huge great lump of cast iron (which weighs about half a ton). That will save a huge amount of space and give me a bit more room around the vice.

What massive vice and cast iron. Pictures my darling pictures.

 

[Screwdriver]

What massive vice and cast iron. Pictures my darling pictures.

Well it's this bad boy: https://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/threads/ye-olde-forge.77451/page-5#post-1170297

Plenty of pictures on here, in this very thread and in this one: https://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/threads/restoring-a-post-leg-vice.77113/

Can't believe you don't take the opportunity to re-read the entire thread(s) once in a while. I know I do.

 

[Screwdriver]

Well I need a decent steel worktop in here so I can weld up those 1600mm brackets. I dug this out:

And set to it with a wire wheel, mop disk etc.

Might as well clean off as much of the dusty rust as I can so out with the secret sauce. Citric acid in some thickening paste. Can't remember exactly which of the many agents I have tried this one is.

But it is goopy enough to stay in place.

And I left it to do it's thing while I pop in for a cuppa. Excited to see how it turns out. Reasonably clean is all I need really. Not looking forwards to picking it up but needs must...

 

[Screwdriver]

WOW. Ok well that worked!

Derusted and took off a fair bit of the scale too.

Just clamped to the flagstones for now. It's not perfectly flat but I'll be usings jigs and clamps anyway.

I'll be doing these first after I get my eye in with Mig again. Few practice runs before I start blowing holes in this lot.

Here's the plan:

Clamp it in the right angle jig and support the free ends with appropriately sized pipe

If that's not the way to do it, now's the time to let me know! I'll be taking this build to the appropriate thread since this is now less about the forge and more about the shelving.

 

[Windy Miller]

WOW. Ok well that worked!

Derusted and took off a fair bit of the scale too.

Just clamped to the flagstones for now. It's not perfectly flat but I'll be usings jigs and clamps anyway.

I'll be doing these first after I get my eye in with Mig again. Few practice runs before I start blowing holes in this lot.

Here's the plan:

Clamp it in the right angle jig and support the free ends with appropriately sized pipe

If that's not the way to do it, now's the time to let me know! I'll be taking this build to the appropriate thread since this is now less about the forge and more about the shelving.

To save faffing about with bits of pipe on the free end, just stick another right angle jig under it