Vertical Forge & Billet Question

schwatk

New Member
I am just starting to try my hand at forge welding Damascus/Pattern Welded billets. I have one of Darren Ellis's 8" vertical forges on the way. One question I have from my reading of books and forums concerns the billet while it is in the forge. Many people apparently weld a rebar handle to it. And this suspends the billet in the vertical forge. While others like Dr. Jim Hrisoulas wire the billet together and just set it in their horizontal forge without a handle. If I wanted to wire my billet together instead of welding on a handle how could I suspend the billet in my vertical forge?

I'm sure this will be the first of many questions I will be posting in the future.

Thanks for any and all help!

Joe
 
You are talking about two different things here.
1. Welding a handle on is just to be able to handle the billet without using tongs. Most folks do this.
2. Wiring the billet together is just to hold it together. The other method is to run several small beads of weldment to hold the billet together. If you weld it and don't want any metal from the weld it will have to be ground off. If you wire it there is less foreign metal to have to grind away, or if you use stainless wire it won't weld into the carbon steel billet.
Using the vertical forge causes the problem of the handle getting hot and sagging under the weight of the billet where with a horizontal forge the billet rests on the floor of the forge.
 
If you had some stainless material you could make you a shelf across your openings to lay the billet on to let it heat. Will not weld to it so should be okay.
 
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