| Author | Message | ||
     Bob uk Unregistered guest Posted From: 94.197.122.73 |
Forgery is illegal. Forging steel is a very old process. Simply heat steel to bright red about to go orange sparks mean to hot. Lay the metal on a anvil and thump it. with an 'ammer. The steel can be heated by propane and compressed air gun. If using this method a fire brick open top and front box is used. The bricks are just stacked with no mortar so they can be easily rearranged for different jobs. This will save an enormous about heat. Maybe 5 fold or more. Or build a forge with fire bricks. A coal.coke.wood.charcoal fire would take to long so add air. If blow pipe is just steel then the steel will burn back quite fast. So at the back of the FIRE brick tray cement in with FIRE cement a terracotta flower pot with a single hole in the bottom. Using FIRE cement glue the pipe in which then eventually burns away leave a blow hole. Volume not pressure, a vacuum cleaner will easily supply enough. Why forge. All metals have grain. If a lump of steel is cut to shape then the grain will be cut. So by heating and smacking the steel into shape the grain will follow the shape and be much stronger. On all RR cars including BMW there are many forged parts that if were cut from solid would break in service. When some talk about made from billet, it means that the part has grain that has been cut. And therefore inferior. Could a forged wish bone be made in a fit forge, absolutely yes. But not with out experience. Like a lot of skills once the pictures are looked at understood. Then the rest is easy. Anvils are expensive and a cast iron engine block will do. Anvils are made from 0.5 carbon steel which makes them expensive. 250kg is the bees knees. Websites have all the info. Forging is good fun because it turns odd shaped junk into a useable shape fast. Plus get good and people pays loads for easy scroll work. I learnt this skill in 6 weeks and developed the skill over years. Fire heat big hammers lovely stuff so primeval. FIRE bricks and fire cement only because normal will shatter. (Message approved by david_gore) | ||
| David Gore Moderator Username: david_gore Post Number: 1436 Registered: 4-2003 |
The black art of forging - the motor vehicle would never have been as successful as it has been thanks to the suitability and low cost of forged items for critical components ranging from crankshafts to steering arms, axles and other critical transmission and suspension components. As Bob says, directed grain flow is the secret of forging's success as it gives the greatest strength and resistance to cracking under load. Single, double and triple upset forging is used to break up the grain flow in rolled/forged ingots/continuous cast feed blooms/billets for forging before final forging to the desired shape. Open and closed die forging practice applies depending on the final shape and sections of the forged item. If the wrong dies are used, internal cracks can open up as the metals flows from the pressure applied by the dies. For example, forging a round section is never done by flat dies, only in "V" shaped dies as the flat dies create a void in the center of the section. I saw some very large [and expensive] forgings made on the big Schloemann press [rated at 5100 long tons] at Comsteel Warath. The largest ingots cast were close to 100 tons and took around 2 weeks of furnace heating to bring the ingot up to temperature for forging. The radiant heat from the ingot was immense and anyone who needed to work close to the ingot had to wear reflective protective clothing to withstand the heat - you could only come close to the forging for a very short period of time and then have to withdraw before the heat penetrated through the protective clothing. The press operator and the forge supervisor had the most responsibility as one mistake on their part could ruin a very expensive piece of metal. Australian Companies such as ANI Forge, Repco Forge, TRW Duly and Hansford and others were the backbone of the Australian car manufacturing industry for many years. | ||
| Bob uk Unregistered guest Posted From: 94.197.122.84 |
Sheffield Forge Masters Ltd. They do serious steel thumping. Generator shafts. 50 ton anchors for oil rigs. Forging can be quite accurate. Some parts cannot be made any other way. This is most definitely a forgotten trade with diyers. And not hard and not expensive to set up. My dad use to build a small fire and heat bit of steel in the garden. He used ground up cow bones as case hardening. It worked ok. (Message approved by david_gore) |
