2Burner Atmospheric Forge

[Mitchell Cholewinski]

I just finished hardening then tempering these two bowl gouges in this 2 burner atmospheric forge. The gouges are hard to see cause they were just hardened and are black. The forge is 131/2" on the inside and the forge will quickly rise to 2300 degrees(welding heat), which you can do with this forge).The bowl gouges I milled from 5/8" M2 steel. The gouge is 12" long and I harden 3 gouges at a time when I mill that many.These gouges only needed to be resharpened lightly and a handle made and they were ready to turn out gowls. I am extremely pleased with the way these tools cut. They stay sharp longer than I thought they would and I found out this M2 steel is hard to beat if you want to make turning tools. Any comments or questions about this post would be welcomed. Thanks for looking. Mitch

 

[Steve Worcester]

One of the things I have found with hardening steel is the need for controlled heat and then usually putting them in a stainless envelope to minimize the spalling. I know a lot of the commercial heat treaters use a salt bath or some other environment to eliminate this.

After it is cooled (I used olive oil dunks) then choosing a temperature for the tempering to provide the hardness desired. It becomes a trade off between hardness and edge life.

When I bought my first glass kiln I had them upgrade it to do the higher temps of tool steels, but never really did much with making tools. Seems I found it quicker to buy the tools, but it is a fun process.

 

[Mitchell Cholewinski]

Steve Worcester
Thank you Steve for your informative reply. You mentioned a few things that I never heard before.My son in law is the head maintenance man in a mill where they harden, heat treat etc all large eqyipment etc. I asked him if he could harden a few turning tools I made and he said they do it all the time then proceeded to tell me the exact way they hardened tools . Turns out not too different than I do mine at home actually. I really don't notice anything different in the tools they harden and the ones I harden and temper. They perform the same as the tools they did professionally. You mentioned you had a glass kiln? What exactly is that and could I ask you to please post a picture of yours? I know what you mean when you say it is easier to just buy your tools instead of making them but you could say that instead of turning bowls it would be easier to buy the bowls.All depends on what you like to do and myself I love making my tools. Biggest problem I have now after buying the equipment to make these tools. is what do I do with all these gouges etc? I am not interested in selling them. Thanks Steve. Mitch

 

[Steve Worcester]

Turns out not too different than I do mine at home actually. I really don't notice anything different in the tools they harden and the ones I harden and temper. They perform the same as the tools they did professionally.

For what we do, close would count

You mentioned you had a glass kiln? What exactly is that and could I ask you to please post a picture of yours?Mitch

This one is real close to one of my small ones.