[TheForge] half round staock

[Jerry Frost]

I've wondered how well air over hydraulic cylinders would work inn a forging
press. I know they're fast but how true is the 20tn. Rating? There's a
difference between lifting 20tns. and a solid 20tn. push. Air is
compressible while hydraulics are incompressible so a jack may lift 20 tons
but it's going to have some spring.

Don't sweat ugly welds with flux core welders, they're pretty famous for it
and I can't imagine what I'd use HF welding wire for, maybe reinforcing in a
cast refractory forge liner? Oh wait, if I can't get the needles I trim a
stainless steel brush. My wire welder is a Hobart 120 Handler and I use it
as GMAW with 75/25 gas and for light welding. For heavy work I have a
Lincoln Ranger 9 welder generator. I have a LN-25 fire feed for it with
Lincoln's 7018 equivalent flux core wire. I don't recall the actual wire
designation because I almost never run enough bead to need the wire, I
usually run stick.

My first wire feed was a little Italian import 120v welder designed to use
the 2lb. spools but it was an easy mod to mount a spool holder on it's back
and buy regular spools. I was really bummed when a cheap part failed and
none were available this side of the pond. (grrrrr)

Jer

-----Original Message-----
From: theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Bruce .
Sent: Friday, March 7, 2014 1:50 PM
To: Blacksmithing List Sponsored by ABANA
Subject: Re: [TheForge] half round staock

Little digging out needed in NJ recently.  It's been mid-30's, mostly.
I spent some time getting my forging press "on-line".  We made these in an
NJBA workshop about a year back, but I didn't have a table for it so never
got it up and running before.  It's a wicked thing -- powered by a HF 20-ton
air-over-hydraulic jack.  I tested it on some bent stock that was
inconvenient (because too long to handle) to straighten by hammer and anvil.
I've used one to forge a "Damascus" billet.

FWIW, the HF 90-A flux-wire welder (120 VAC -- works off a standard
circuit) is on sale this weekend only for $80.  Best price I've seen for it.
I paid about $10 more for mine. It won't replace a big blue, but it's
portable and WILL weld fairly heavy stock if you pre-heat the stock (with an
ordinary propane torch).  I've been welding 1/2" and 5/8" square stock to a
1/4" plate.  My welds are real sloppy, but that's probably more me than the
welder.

One tip -- throw away the crap HF flux-core wire and use a name brand.
Joseph Fazzio's in NJ advertizes name-brand 10-lb spool for less per lb than
HF sells their crap 2-lb spool .  (You'd have to rewind onto the smaller
spool or modify the HF welder to hold a 10-lb spool -- which reportedly has
been done.)

Bruce
NJ