Anybody have experience with Blacksmithing/Metalwork?

[BluetoothBoy]

Hey Bluetooth, how the forget do you weld aluminum? The AlO₃ layer forms too fast to be able to get anything done other than holes. I ended up using ratchets to finish what I was doing.

Haven't done much welding, but I do know that you gotta have it turned down and move quickly for aluminum. I'm more of a nuts and bolts kinda guy. ;)

[Ad Bot]

[Juncoph]

If melting pennies to make a fugly "dagger" counts then yeah

wear a mask and goggles if you do that again

[Georges]

Does building this (frame is aluminum) count?

[TableSalt]

yeah if you take a bunch of iron ingots out of the furnace at once you get some experience its pretty nice

[Maxwell.]

a little, I done some aluminium melting with lots of cans in an old coke fire we used to have at our old house, and also I've beaten a handle made using a mild steel bar, heat it until it was red hot and beat it into shape on an anvil

next year I'm taking metalwork so I should be doing a LOT more

[Lord Furdle]

Seems like I could buy steel sheet metal online for around £15 for 500mm X 500mm.

[Lord Furdle]

Side note, looks like aluminium cans are a good source of aluminium (because we're students, the amount of beer cans we throw in the recycling will be sufficient)
If I melt some down it'd save me from buying aluminium. Although I'd prefer to work with steel since welding aluminium is dumb.
Idea came from this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6F0jZrFDhcY

[Tayasaurus]

I've built most of my smithing stuff out of things from the hardware store except for my anvil which was made of an old rail tie. I've made a few broadswords though a lot of them don't have the finish that a master craftsman would make. The most difficult piece i've made was a chest plate for an armor set which i had to harden using temperature techniques.

[Lord Furdle]

I've built most of my smithing stuff out of things from the hardware store except for my anvil which was made of an old rail tie. I've made a few broadswords though a lot of them don't have the finish that a master craftsman would make. The most difficult piece i've made was a chest plate for an armor set which i had to harden using temperature techniques.

Can we see some photos of all of these? Sounds pretty cool.

I know a lot of Americans use railroad spikes and plates, unfortunately for me, there's pretty much nowhere where I could go to find an open part of track to get onto. They're pretty much all fenced off. Looks like I'll have to buy an anvil.