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armorer posted:A chimney like this will get a lot hotter than a brazier pan. I frequently use a "chimney starter" to get coals going for my bbq and the drat things are magical. Basically once it gets hot inside, it pulls a continuous stream of air in from the bottom and through the coals. Yeah, I own at least three of em  I have two charcoal smokers, one large charcoal bbq, and a little camping charcoal bbq. They're the best.Slung Blade posted:Well, don't write off those lumps just yet, there might be something forge-able in there somewhere. I just need to find it. I thought it was at least worth a *try* This is probably the best single chunk I got. Chipped as much slag off of it as I could.    So I worked at it for a couple hours, lightly tapping it down to size, breaking off chunks, welding it back together. It was weird to work, sometimes it would weld really well, and sometimes it would just kinda fall apart. Got tons of glassy slag out of it, made great welding flux. I had a single piece about twice the size of these two put together, but one mass just kept wanting to come apart from the rest as I was trying to make a little bar. I decided "gently caress it, you want to stay off, stay off, dick" so I got these two bits of semi-usable iron. I could weld these two back together, but that one is really cracked and dealing with that poo poo trying to weld small bits is a huge pain in the rear end.  Had to prove it was actually iron, and not just some poo poo that stuck together somehow, which is why I ground down that one edge.   All the images here are resized, if you want to see full sized, copy the url and cut the 'l' off the end of the file name. So! ~800 dollars for a tenth of a kilo! Totally economical! Granted, I only used about 1/10th of the ore I bought, and the fan can be used again. I just need to figure out what kind of clay or bricks I want to try this with next time, because I will definitely do this again. Too drat fun not to.
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Sep 29, 2013 02:50
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Sagebrush posted:Oh, no, I don't mean recycling like selling the metal for money -- I mean recycling it myself into a usable form. We have an entire sand-casting setup here that, again, hasn't seen use in many years, but somewhere down the line I'd like to start screwing around with it. Making a bunch of practice ingots seemed like a good way to start that also generates a supply of raw material for later. If you're using the aluminum for yourself, you may not want to mix all your alloys together. The cast aluminum will end up being the best for re-casting. The extruded will be next best, followed by the junk.
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Sep 29, 2013 21:34
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Slung Blade posted:Yeah, I own at least three of em This is all cool as poo poo to watch you doing, for the record. I'd really like to do a bloomery smelt myself, when i have a bunch of money to throw around, but I'm more interested in ransacking my parent's sphagnum bog-covered property for bog iron, really.
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Sep 29, 2013 23:56
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Came home from drinking last night and apparently made something? Apparently???
Ambrose Burnside fucked around with this message at 04:47 on Sep 30, 2013 |
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Sep 30, 2013 00:02
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I needed a table to toss my keys and mail and stuff to keep it all off my kitchen table. I felt like welding something up, so I bought some angle iron and drew up some ideas in Google Sketchup.  I used my little 80 amp Harbor Freight stick welder for it. I also have a TIG torch, which I haven't gotten much practice with. I did a few joints scratch start TIG, but I seemed to always run into trouble at the edges. I had these little blooms come up, and it seemed to be worse if I welded from the inside to the edge and would pop up after I'd jerk the arc out. It still happened if I started at the edge and traveled inward, but not as bad. What should I be doing to prevent these? Heat sink it at the end?  Had to do some MacGyver supports while I tacked it.  At this point it dawned on me that it was going to need some more framing or it was going to be like a spring. So I added another support piece, cut to fit in.   The last legs and some feet pads from some thick sheet metal I had laying around.  All together. Time to cut some boards for the surface. I used red oak 1x8's for it.  I considered painting the frame, but decided against it because I kind of like how it looks, even if the welds are pretty amateur and it looks pretty crude as a whole. I can always paint it later.
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Oct 5, 2013 19:53
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That is one awesome table. Really neat design! Thanks for sharing.
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Oct 7, 2013 19:55
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Here's a neat thing. My father's doing construction work in First Canadian Place, a biiig ol skyscraper in downtown Toronto. Part of it involves tearing everything out of several floors of metalwork-decorated bank property, and because of the stuff I do my father recognized that it's all... repousse. hundreds and hundreds of square feet of copper repoussed panelling. Before anybody realized it's all one-of-a-kind they were considering selling it for scrap copper value. My dad borrowed two- one initially, to verify with me that, yeah, these aren't machine-embossed or anything (theyve actually still got chaser's pitch stuck to the back  ), and the other, because he found it just lying out n exposed, fallen off the wall at some point and left behind a couch.  Artist's name is Laszlo Szilvassy, the First Canadian Place panels were probably done some time in the 80s and the artist himself passed away a couple years ago. They're a really good demonstration, for me, of how to achieve more with less in terms of marks made and speed of work- the relief is minimal and texturing real simple but it still manages to convey a lot, which is something I'm still bad at doing deliberately.
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Oct 8, 2013 15:45
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How big are those? Is the right one a novelty sized penny? My dad used to work in First Canadian Place.
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Oct 8, 2013 21:24
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Ambrose Burnside posted:they were considering selling it for scrap copper value.  Oh my loving god. Good thing you were able to save them.phospete: that is a bitchin table, I like it.
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Oct 9, 2013 03:03
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Ambrose Burnside posted:Before anybody realized it's all one-of-a-kind they were considering selling it for scrap copper value. Stuff like this always reminds me of how the Colosseum in Rome was torn apart over centuries because it was the cheapest, closest source of good stone. 
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Oct 9, 2013 03:59
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Brekelefuw posted:How big are those? Is the right one a novelty sized penny? I didn't think to actually measure them or include something for scale, but the one of the left is maybe a lil wider than a foot? they're small details from much bigger panels, a lot of of the smaller detail panels (executed separately from the main panels n epoxied on) are situated 15 feet up the wall. All kinds of cool imagery, not just plants n pennies. And yeah, the copper this is done on is thin, thinner than I've ever worked with, I'd guess 24 or 26 gauge. Wouldn't even get much for it at scrap value.
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Oct 9, 2013 06:18
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What happened to them? Did you end up with all of the or just 2?
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Oct 9, 2013 07:05
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fps_bill posted:What happened to them? Did you end up with all of the or just 2? Apparently the bank just wanted everything out and left it up to my dad's company, instead of tearing it all down rough-like for the metal right away they're leaving most of it up for the time being and putting feelers out for if any of it's Worth Something to private parties or art museums and the like. There's a fair bit missing besides the panels we have, whatever epoxy or glue they used for the individual detail panels didn't hold up to 30-40 years too well so there's a bunch missing. Idk what we're gonna do with the ones we have, play it by ear depending on what the company decides I suppose.
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Oct 9, 2013 15:34
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I have 1084 bar stock and I want to make some knife blanks with it. The problem is that using a hack saw, even with a blade advertised as usable with tool steel, is destroyed after cutting about an eight of an inch. I bought this diamond covered rope blade or whatever, I forget what it's called, but it's quite wide and makes very large, imprecise cuts, and is slow as balls. The shop I blacksmith at has a band saw that will cut about a centimeter per minute but I can't really do anything other than straight lines. Is there an easy way to cut a curvy piece of metal out of bar stock? There's a local place that will do water jet cutting but I doubt it's very affordable.
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Oct 10, 2013 06:47
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Depending on how thick the bar is, a plasma torch might be an option. A lot of the welding shops around work advertise they do plasma cutting, you might start there.
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Oct 10, 2013 06:54
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hayden. posted:I have 1084 bar stock and I want to make some knife blanks with it. The problem is that using a hack saw, even with a blade advertised as usable with tool steel, is destroyed after cutting about an eight of an inch. I bought this diamond covered rope blade or whatever, I forget what it's called, but it's quite wide and makes very large, imprecise cuts, and is slow as balls. The shop I blacksmith at has a band saw that will cut about a centimeter per minute but I can't really do anything other than straight lines. Does the shop you blacksmith at have a belt grinder? If they do I'd just go all stock removal mode and draw out what you want and grind it out. Unless we're talking about a 12" wide piece and you want a 2" wide blank. Another option would be to anneal it making it dead soft then harden and temper after you're done. I'm not familiar with different alloys so not sure if annealing and hardening is an option, was just a thought.
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Oct 10, 2013 06:59
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I have been using using an angle grinder and bench grinder to shape some 1084 with ease.
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Oct 10, 2013 10:14
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hayden. posted:I have 1084 bar stock and I want to make some knife blanks with it. The problem is that using a hack saw, even with a blade advertised as usable with tool steel, is destroyed after cutting about an eight of an inch. I bought this diamond covered rope blade or whatever, I forget what it's called, but it's quite wide and makes very large, imprecise cuts, and is slow as balls. The shop I blacksmith at has a band saw that will cut about a centimeter per minute but I can't really do anything other than straight lines. See if you have a waterjet cutter near by, super precise and will cut through tool steel like cheese. Won't warp or mess with the steel by fuckloads of heat like plasma either. I loving love my local waterjet guys.
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Oct 10, 2013 11:56
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hayden. posted:Is there an easy way to cut a curvy piece of metal out of bar stock? There's a local place that will do water jet cutting but I doubt it's very affordable. Call the waterjet guys and see how much they charge. Those machines can cut at different speeds depending on how precise you need the result to be. You might be able to make all the cuts in a pretty short amount of time and thus not have to pay too much. If the alternative is destroying fancy cutting blades and grinding wheels, those aren't such cheap options either.
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Oct 10, 2013 13:21
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hayden. posted:I have 1084 bar stock and I want to make some knife blanks with it. The problem is that using a hack saw, even with a blade advertised as usable with tool steel, is destroyed after cutting about an eight of an inch. I bought this diamond covered rope blade or whatever, I forget what it's called, but it's quite wide and makes very large, imprecise cuts, and is slow as balls. The shop I blacksmith at has a band saw that will cut about a centimeter per minute but I can't really do anything other than straight lines. I think the key question is whether you're doing stock-removal or hot smithing your blades. If it's the latter, you're going to be annealing the metal anyway; might as well just stick the end of your bar into the forge, get it to red hot, then stick that hot end into a pile of clay or other insulator and let it cool for an hour. Now it should be soft enough to cut off what you want in whatever shape you want, using a hacksaw or similar. (You could also try hot-cutting with a hot cut chisel! But that's going to take some finesse if you're trying to cut a complex curve, so practice on some scrap first.) If you're doing strictly cold stock-removal blademaking, and don't want to re-harden the metal after shaping, you're actually in a bad place anyway. The metal is going to get quite hot during grinding and stuff so you'll have to constantly be quenching it to keep it from reaching a tempering heat (~450 degrees or so is your top temp). You'll need something good for cutting through the hardened metal. Someone mentioned a plasma torch but the classic is an oxy/acetylene torch with a cutting tip! O/A setups are plentiful and it'll take a few seconds to cut along whatever line you scribe. You only need laser or waterjet cutting if you're trying to do a very precise shape and don't mind spending lots of money. I'll just also throw a bone to one of my favorite tools the portaband (portable bandsaw). Good for hacking off bits of metal, although nowhere near as precise at following a line as a hand hacksaw. And of course, for just chopping off a square piece of bar stock, nothing beats the chop-saw. It uses a big abrasive disk and will just chomp through anything (with a huge shower of sparks of course). Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 20:14 on Oct 10, 2013 |
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Oct 10, 2013 20:11
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Could you please post pictures of the back of these?
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Oct 11, 2013 01:31
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Leperflesh posted:I think the key question is whether you're doing stock-removal or hot smithing your blades. If it's the latter, you're going to be annealing the metal anyway; might as well just stick the end of your bar into the forge, get it to red hot, then stick that hot end into a pile of clay or other insulator and let it cool for an hour. Thanks for all your input. I didn't think the metal was in a state could be any softer. I'll give your method a try and hopefully the hand hacksaw will work better.
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Oct 11, 2013 01:56
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Leperflesh posted:You only need laser or waterjet cutting if you're trying to do a very precise shape and don't mind spending lots of money. I've actually found the waterjet stuff really reasonable price-wise, especially for cutting out a job lot of parts from large sheet.
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Oct 11, 2013 09:28
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ReelBigLizard posted:I've actually found the waterjet stuff really reasonable price-wise, especially for cutting out a job lot of parts from large sheet. It makes much more sense for doing a job lot, than doing a single one-off cut to get a single piece of metal off of a single piece of bar stock. I'd say anything over maybe $5 for having a single cut done is way too much to justify it, and I'd be really surprised if you can get someone with a waterjet to make a single cut on your bar stock for $5. Of course if hayden is actually taking several full lengths of stock and marking out thirty cuts on each, then spending a hundred bucks or more getting them cut could well be worth it.
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Oct 11, 2013 18:09
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The waterjet places I know of charge a flat fee for setup, plus a rate per minute for cutting because of the power it uses. So if you have one piece it's going to be dominated by the setup fee, but if you have fifty the average price goes down a lot because it's mostly just based on the time.
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Oct 11, 2013 19:07
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It also uses powdered garnet, I believe. And yes, that's basically what I was getting at; there's an up-front cost that makes it prohibitive for a single small job, but overall it can be reasonable or even cheap if you're doing a lot of cuts.
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Oct 12, 2013 18:04
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I finally got to see the charcoal thing in action. I gotta say its a pretty sweet set up. I built a new grate because the stainless mesh wouldn't let ash fall through.  
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Oct 12, 2013 18:22
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Having used both charcoal and propane I got to say I really prefer propane. Charcoal is too much messing with making sure your piece is in the right position, the charcoal in the right shape, and constantly sorting through charcoal and chopping it up to get the right sized pieces. Also your hands get dirty as poo poo and you get black dust and grime on everything.
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Oct 12, 2013 18:37
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Leperflesh posted:It also uses powdered garnet, I believe. And yes, that's basically what I was getting at; there's an up-front cost that makes it prohibitive for a single small job, but overall it can be reasonable or even cheap if you're doing a lot of cuts. It does, but the abrasive is generally recoverable. You'd have to replace it eventually but the system I'm familiar with has a filtration unit that can recycle both the water and the abrasive at least over some number of hours/days.
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Oct 13, 2013 01:15
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Sagebrush posted:It does, but the abrasive is generally recoverable. You'd have to replace it eventually but the system I'm familiar with has a filtration unit that can recycle both the water and the abrasive at least over some number of hours/days. Yes you can recover the abrasive. It only gets changed cause it gets tuns of hours on it and contaminated.
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Oct 13, 2013 21:31
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hayden. posted:I have 1084 bar stock and I want to make some knife blanks with it. The problem is that using a hack saw, even with a blade advertised as usable with tool steel, is destroyed after cutting about an eight of an inch. I bought this diamond covered rope blade or whatever, I forget what it's called, but it's quite wide and makes very large, imprecise cuts, and is slow as balls. The shop I blacksmith at has a band saw that will cut about a centimeter per minute but I can't really do anything other than straight lines. Are you forging the knives? If you are, mark where you need to cut it stick it in the forge and just use a hot cut.
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Oct 14, 2013 15:57
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Wow I have missed a ton of cool projects since I last posted in this thread. Anyway, let's talk generators! I want to make my setup more mobile. Like, throw it in the back of the truck and go mobile. I really don't want to go for something like a Miller big blue or bobcat or anything like it. It would be too big and costly. I have an inverter TIG/Stick machine and plasma that runs on 220v input. I'm looking for a generator that could run a few 110v tools like my grinders and have a 50A outlet for my inverter. Any advice on buying a 220/110v generator for welding/plasma/grinders? I need to run an outlet like this: Kew~~60_35.JPG?set_id=8800005007)
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Oct 22, 2013 06:01
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What is your current draw? Both startup and average. This will determine the minimum capacity of the generator you'll need, which is the starting point for comparing cost/benefits. It should be listed on your equipment.
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Oct 22, 2013 15:23
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Duck hunt, No matter what, a 50amp generator is going to run you quite a bit. What welder do you have? Without some idea of what you are planning to run off it (amp wise), it could cost $1.5k or it could cost $5k.
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Oct 23, 2013 01:36
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Guys! I want to bend 200+ pieces of 1/4" round steel into this shape. I have a butane torch, a hand bender, and a Harbor Freight benchtop bender. I've also made a jig out of 1/4" plate and 2" pipe and my lovely welder with the idea to heat the rod and "wrap" it around, but I've been getting bad springback. The HF bender is hard to get the 3 bends on the same plane, and the hand bender takes a while, but is easy enough to get the shape. Does anybody have any experience on this? So far I've sunk $100 on the project, would like to make the next $100 actually solve the problem. 
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Oct 24, 2013 02:33
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You have to bend 10-20% farther than your target bend to account for springback.
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Oct 24, 2013 03:20
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iwannabebobdylan posted:Guys! A combination of your bench top bender and the jig. Using the bench top bender, start with the top bend and get that exactly the angle/radius you want. Put it on the jig (the two legs should now be exactly tangent to the pipes) and clamp the wire where it touches all three pipes. Bend the legs cold; over bend to get the angle you want. Start with a piece of wire longer than you need and chop the legs off at the end.
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Oct 24, 2013 03:21
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ductonius posted:A combination of your bench top bender and the jig. Using the bench top bender, start with the top bend and get that exactly the angle/radius you want. Put it on the jig (the two legs should now be exactly tangent to the pipes) and clamp the wire where it touches all three pipes. Bend the legs cold; over bend to get the angle you want. Start with a piece of wire longer than you need and chop the legs off at the end. Goodness it sounds so easy when you say it. I'll make channels for it to fit perfectly in the jig and some hinged arms to bend them straight. Awesome, thanks for showing me what I somehow couldn't see!
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Oct 24, 2013 03:56
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Motronic posted:What is your current draw? Both startup and average. This will determine the minimum capacity of the generator you'll need, which is the starting point for comparing cost/benefits. According to my manual, the machine will draw 34A under load. I'm using a Thermal Arc 185 inverter. Here's a link to my inverter on Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/Thermal-Arc-ArcMaster-Inverter-Based-Welder/dp/B001EVY1ZY
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Oct 25, 2013 19:04
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duck hunt posted:According to my manual, the machine will draw 34A under load. I'm using a Thermal Arc 185 inverter. That's almost 10k watts, so you're looking at a $2000 generator on the cheap end (homeowner line Generac). The pro line stuff is going to be more like $3k which would be highly advisable for something that's going to be drawing nearly full capacity so frequently. And you're talking about a 300 lb genset. It also wouldn't be a bad idea to look into 15k models so you have some overhead. Doable, but that all really depends on your budget.
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Oct 25, 2013 20:26
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