Small work

[ironrosefarms]

Ok, I decided to make a couple leaf key chains for a friend today. The technique is easy enough and such and in the past I've made several hundred of them... but now I keep loosing the darn things in the fire when I go to grab it with the tongs. Part of this is I still don't have full dexterity in my hands since my motorcycle wreck, the brain knows what it needs the hands to do but the hands just don't co-operate as well as they used to.

So when doing work on small pieces of metal such as a key ring leaf how do you keep the thing easy to grab, do you have a secret tong choice for your tiny work? Got a dumb apprentice willing to fish the piece out with his fingers? It has to be simple but my frustration level is blocking the obvious I think...

I did finally get two made however four others were sacrificed to the fire in the process...

James

[Zsartell]

I don't usually have this problem, but that may be because I use smaller and easier to maneuver tongs. If you are having trouble you may want to use a piece of pipe in the fire and put your small pieces in the piece of pipe.

[skunkriv]

Of course it is necessary to sacrifice a piece to the fire gods once in awhile but here is what I do with small pieces, rivets etc. I take my poker and really beat up the whole fire breaking it into small pieces. Then I take the back of my poker (1/2" rod) and use it to pack the fire tightly. This makes a bed of tightly packed coke that small pieces can't fall through. You can rake a few larger pieces of coke in next to and over your piece to get your heat. Turn off the blower a little early, your piece will still be getting a little hotter as you are getting the tongs on it. Push back the few bigger pieces of coke to expose your piece on the "bed" and it's an easy grab.

[Justin Caradoc]

you could atach a piece of wire to the peice so it is easer to find

[Don A]

Get a pair of those extra-long needle-nose pliers from HF or Northern.

They have enough reach to save the hair on your knuckles.

Harbor Freight 11" bent needle nose

[ThomasPowers]

I use a one firebrick forge made from a soft firebrick and a plumbers propane torch for that sort of thing; why fire up the big forge for a small project?

[LDW]

I make leaves like these as key chains and make them from 1/2" square stock. I do not use tongs, till drawing out the stem. If you clamp the end of the leaf in the tongs with a tong clip you never have to turn it loose. the stem portion that is left will heat up very quickly.

[Doug C]

LDW,
That is one nice looking leaf. How do you get the center split to look the way it does? Are you forming this over a ball shape? Do you have blueprint to share?

[LDW]

Thanks for the kind words. After putting in the lines and veins you can turn it upside down and place on a board while hot and hit the back with a ball pein hammer. I do this on the treadle hammer. I have now made a curved chisel to do the lines down the sides and it looks much better. In the Gallery under events or meetings I posted pictures of Ernie Dorrill doing the demo on these leaves (with Glenns help). They are in the July 08 MS Forge Council meeting.

[easilyconfused]

I do what LDW does and don't "usually" have issues. Of course there are the few pieces that slip out of the tongs because they didn't quite fit right.