[TheForge] Welding preheat

[Paul N]

That's fine once I get that hole punched, but it will be probably 4 or 
more heats squaring it up, etc before I even begin punching the hole. 
Then I have to hold it for those heats until the punching is complete.

I already gave it a shot at holding in in my largest tongs, and it's too 
unwieldy (I can't get a good enough grip on it). I figured a 10 minute 
weld job is probably the quickest way to get me where I want to be. I 
really don't want to make a pair of big tongs because they'll be, well, 
big; I don't expect to re-use them anytime soon. Plus the tong exercise 
will be more time consuming than welding on a temporary piece for my 
initial forging.

thanks,
**paul

On 9/17/2010 11:30 AM, Bruce Freeman wrote:
> Paul,
>
> I'm no expert on hammer making, but in my limited experience, the
> first step was to punch the hole for the wooden handle.  Once the hole
> is there you have a couple options how to hold the piece for further
> forging.
>
> One option is to use a hammer-handle-hole drift AS the handle.
> Another is to modify a set of tongs so one jaw goes through the hole
> and the other grasps the side.  If these tongs are a modified box-jaw
> type, you can get a very firm grip while working parallel to the long
> axis of the hammer head.
>
> In short, I see no need to weld at all.
>
> Bruce
>
> On Fri, Sep 17, 2010 at 11:44 AM, Paul N<crosspein at sbcglobal.net>  wrote:
>> I'm about to make my first largish hammer, and I intend to arc-weld a
>> "handle" stub onto it. Since I only have hobby-duty welding equipment,
>> I thought I'd get another opinion or two before I proceed.
>>
>> The hammer head will be forged in a coal forge.
>>
>> Here's what I've got:
>> Material:
>>   2.5" dia piece of railroad locomotive spring, about 5" long (around 7#)
>>   1" dia A-36 for my "handle" (about 6" long so I can grab it with
>> reasonably sized pair of tongs)
>>
>> Choice of welders:
>>   Lincoln 225 AC/DC ("tombstone")
>>   Lincoln SP-170T wirefeed (.035 FCAW)
>>
>>
>> Here's the procedure I'm considering:
>> I've beveled the end of the 1" piece leaving about 1/4" flat at the bottom.
>>
>> I was going to use the 225 AC/DC and 6011 rod DCEP to get the best
>> penetration
>>
>> I'm going to preheat both pieces. From what I've read, I should preheat
>> the spring to about 300 degrees.
>>
>> Questions:
>> Is this likely to produce a weld that's adequate to hold up to the
>> hammering? (Manual, striker with a sledge)
>>
>> Is the preheat temp critical? More specifically, is hotter better?
>>
>> thanks,
>> **Paul
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