[TheForge] Re: 1018

[Andy Vida]

Mike wrote:

> So he faced both with (what looked like)
> ca. 1/4" of hard steel.  They were doing fine with no visible warping
> or cracking of the welds.  This hammer doesn't bash out heavy work all
> day long every day but I gather he uses it pretty hard when he uses
> it.

	How was the facing done?

	About 6 or 7 years ago when I was going through the design of
	an anvil, part of the research was to find a material and means
	of installing it suitable for a working face (I was trying to
	keep costs down by using an inexpensive steel for the body with
	a hard and tough face)

	Well, one iteration of this involved the plasma-arc coating of
	a soft bottom die for a 25# Murray hammer with an alloy called
	C-18.  C-18 is very tough stuff and gave about an RC55 face
	hardness.  The layer was 1/4" thick.

	We installed the die and un under 50 strokes we stopped because
	the face of the die was cracked all over, the way a clear glaze
	cracks all over a ceramic vessel.

	What I determined was that the die needed at least 1/2" of that
	material to withstand the stresses of that small hammer.

	I'm real wary about anything that can produce sharp, high velocity
	chips.