[TheForge] 65 Ton Pickle ;-)

[WinnonaD]

Thanks for the neat story Chuck! A bomb sight, eh? Now
THAT'S creative. And I'll bet the poor machinist's
mate who missed the mating was on KP for the duration
of his career!

Spent the afternoon re-arranging the shop, moving the
arc and gas welding over near the exhaust fan where
the new/old forge and anvil will be. Of course that
meant running some new wiring for the arc welder. That
corner is kind of dark, so I put in a couple more
light fixtures on individual switches so I can have
subdued light for forge work or BRIGHT light for arc
welding. (Funny; when I was younger, I don't remember
having so much trouble seeing thru the dark lense
before striking an arc? Now I can't see squat until it
flashes.)

So, how long can it take to do a quick re-arrangement
of your shop? A couple of hours - no more than that,
right? HA!

Anyway, back to my pickle......

I went into the city today to run some errands and to
see if I had a cannon barrel or $400 worth of scrap.
There it was, sitting on the counter, all in one
piece. The steel sleeve was pushed into the bronze
barrel all the way, all 22" (plus 1/4") just like I
asked for. The foreman said it took 65 tons to push it
home - 15 tons more than my friend's press yesterday.
The shop charged $60; that's about $10 per inch.
(Com'on guys, I can hear you snickering!) So, for $60,
my project was salvaged.

Just BTW - in a "press fit" (sometimes called "an
interference fit") the ID of the outer piece is
SMALLER than the OD of the inner piece - some of you
fellers had yer numbers turned around yesterday. If
the ID of a bushng is 0.001"/1" LARGER than the shaft,
you have a nice "running fit". (In re-babbiting the
shafts on old steam engines, we smoke the shaft before
pouring the babbit for a "tight fit" on smaller shafts
- that gives about 0.001" diameter difference. On
larger shafts, where more clearence is required, we
use 1 turn of newspaper - that gives about 0.010"
clearence. If the shaft isn't perfectly straight or if
it is worn out of round, the whole thing gets nasty!)

I never did get a chance to get my fire clay while I
was in the city. Some folks have said I don't need to
line the pan on my rivet forge. I have good quality,
very hard coal (from my commercial blacksmith friend)
but not much in the way of fines.

QUESTION: Without lining the pan and having very few
fines, how should I go about laying the coal in the
pan? Should I break some up to make fines? Fines near
the tyere (sp?) and coarser coal around it?

I have been burning this coal in my 1/2 scale steamer
for years but I have never tried to build a
blacksmith's fire before. Everything I have read about
smithing talks about lighting the fire (something I am
very accomplished at) but nobody talks about laying it
out.

My first task is bending a bunch of small stock (3/4"
and under), making some fancy twists in square, and,
if I feel brave, I may try my hand at welding (if the
general store has Borax).

Thoughts and advice appreciated! ;-)

Calamity (with a half-re-arranged shop) Jane

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