Travis,

Something that you can do is to leave one (or more) of the middle layers of the stack 2-4' long rather than cutting it to 6" like the rest of the layers.

Gary

|quoted:

Travis,

Something that you can do is to leave one (or more) of the middle layers of the stack 2-4' long rather than cutting it to 6" like the rest of the layers.

Gary

Good idea Gary , thanks for sharing that , appreciate it !

Good idea. I will probably do that until I can get a welder.

Glad that will help. Just remember to leave them in the forge with the layers vertical so that the handle layers don't slump.

Gary

Tongs?

Don,

I have tongs but I don't think they will hold all that large of a stack of steel. I will probably just keep one section 6 inches long and then hold that end with the tongs. Eventually I will pick up a welder and be good to go. Thanks

I realise that I'm coming in late to this conversation, but here's an idea. Take a long piece of 1/2 inch square rod and forge the end out flat and as wide as the pieces in your stack. It should look something like a long skinny spatula. This will become the handle. Now when you stack you billet on top of the spatula, take a piece of stainless heat treat foil, oxidize it with a hand held propane torch, and put it on top of the spatula first. I have never found anything that will weld to a piece of oxidized heat treat foil and use it regularly to isolate stuff that I smelt down in steel crucibles. Wire your stack onto the top of the spatula and proceed. When you are ready to make your fold, take it off of the spatula, cut it in half, and restack it on top using another piece of foil. BTW, I've never tried this, but I think it's worth a shot.

Thanks for the reply's everyone. In the end I just decided to buy a welder lol. I have wanted one for quite a while for this and other projects so I figured now was as good a time as any.