[TheForge] 2 Questions

[Ries Niemi]

On Jan 24, 2006, at 8:19 PM, Rick Korinek wrote:

> Hello all.  I have two questions that relate to jobs coming up.
>
> First, what kind of finish do you use for fireplace doors?  What do 
> you use
> vs. paint that will stand up to the high temps encountered--especially 
> when
> using mild steel?  In the case at hand, the client is interested in 
> screen
> doors out of bronze with bronze screen.  I would like to patina down 
> from
> shinny then protect/coat to fix or slow further darkening.
>
> The second question has to do with material handling.  There are 
> numerous
> situations where one needs 10 to 16 feet of stock textured and/or 
> worked--a
> handrail for straight stairs, for example.  I am at a loss for how to 
> heat,
> work in the power hammer and then straighten a long piece except to 
> work
> with smaller pieces and weld them together.  I have worked pieces up 
> to 7-8
> feet long.  This seems like the limit without a better system to 
> support
> work around the hammer and forge.
>

Rick- I forge texture long stuff all the time- and yes, we always try 
to work as close to net length as possible, but sometimes it still is 
pretty long.
We have a bunch of adjustable height stands in the shop- these are 
usually old car rims, with a piece of 1" or 1 1/2" pipe welded on 
them,about 3 feet long, straight up,  and a smaller piece that slip 
fits inside, drill a hole in the big one,  weld on a nut, make a t 
handled bolt, to tighten the inner piece at any given height. We have a 
few different tops, but the handiest is just a 2 foot piece of square 
tube welded on parallel to the ground. So they are sturdy, easy to move 
around, and easy to adjust to the right height. I use one behind me as 
I stand at the power hammer, and one on the other side, so I am not 
actually supporting the weight of the piece I am forging at all- just 
manipulating it, turning it.
It still gets curvy while being forged- so I straighten it every once 
in a while. With short pieces, up to 12 feet or so, I position an anvil 
a couple of feet away from the power hammer, and in line with my 
material, and just whack it a few times while its still hot. For bigger 
stuff, I take it over to the hossfeld and straighten it every once in a 
while.
I recently did a fence with 6 pieces of 1 1/2" schedule 40 stainless 
pipe, each about 15 feet long. We only had to straighten about twice 
per piece- the hossfeld makes it pretty easy to tweak the pipe back to 
rough straightness, and pipe is probably the toughest- round, square 
and flat bar can be straightened on the hossfeld very easily.  I hot 
bend with my hossfeld all the time, it is 3 steps from my forge and 
power hammer. While the metal is still a bit hot, you can even 
straighten flat bar the hard way on top of the hossfeld.

Ries Niemi
Industrial Artist

http://www.RiesNiemi.com