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I Forge Iron

Bryn Athyn class 2014


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Ok I've been a bit slack lately in getting these up, but I've finally found the time to do so. Two weeks a go I took Warrens 2nd blacksmithing class at Bryn Athyn College. I know I met one of the members here who took Warrens 1st class two weeks before this one when I stopped by to talk to Warren at lunch one day.

 

I decided to spend the time working on a joinery project and make up a nice set of forged legs for my big forge. I knew I was pushing myself to try and get everything done in a bit less than 4 days and it turned out I was right. I've still got some more work to do to complete things and didn't have time to take many process photos. I am hoping Warren can send me picts of me working that he took, and I'll post them when I can.

 

 

Class was full and I was the only one who had done this before. We had two kids in the class as well as a bunch of different guys with varying skill levels in fab work. I thought I had more generic picts resized, but I'll put up those I have for now and add the others later.

 

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1st day was mostly the basics for the new people. However I got a fair amount from the demo simply by watching all the nuances that I'd over looked before since I could concentrate more on exactly how and what he was doing vs just trying to absorb the basics.

 

2nd 1/2 of the day I concentrated on doing some of the tooling I'd need to do the slit and drifted  mortise and tennon joints I wanted to concentrate on.

 

A few of the tools I made.

 

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 Friday I concentrated on doing sample joints and working out how much material I was going to need to get the joints where I wanted them to be.  After lunch we went over and took a tour of all the metal work in the cathedral. I documented this a few years back in this thread. If you are in the area at some point, you ow it to yourself to go and look at the forged work there.

 

www.iforgeiron.com/topic/34334-bryn-athyn-cathedral-metal-work/

 

 

 

Saturday and Sunday I concentrated on trying to get all my joints done. In the rush I didn't get things quite as neat as I'd have liked, but wanted to maximize my time on the equipment there knowing I could always clean things up later at home. Warren was nice enough to shoot a few picts of me working on my joints. I'm hoping to get a few more from him later.

 

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Pretty much it for now. I'd like to thank Warren again for his time and help. I'm either taking Bryn Athyn's stone carving class next weekend, or if they don't have enough interest to run it, I plan to roll over into Mike Rossi's blacksmithing class and work on completing my project with him.

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I try most of the time to only use the off hand glove, reduces the hand strain on your hammer hand, and if you use a big wire brush block to scrape most of the scale off before you start whaling away on the steel you don't get that many scale burns on your hands;-) power hammer work you can use glove on both hands..

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Yeah usually I don't wear gloves working other than when actually welding. I'm a bit surprised to see I had both on in that picture. Chances are the bar was getting fairly hot and I needed both hands when pulling it from the fire, and simply didn't drop the hammer hand glove. Stock is 1" square and a bit over 36" long. It was getting late in the day and tossing those in and out of the fire as well as doing all the upsets was starting to wear on me a bit in the heat.

 

I ended up cranking out 4 legs, each with 2 upset and punched holes as well as an upset foot, one horizontal bar set up for healed tenons ( finished one side 80% and about 65% on the other) and did 2 bars with standard tenons. I eventually plan to have the whole unit break down with wedged joints on the healed tenons and riveted connections on the legs with the other tenons as well as an arched brace riveted or possibly collared. Each end will have a "pair of legs set up as a fixed unit that should store in the forge table if needed to save shop space when not in use.

 

I'm holding off working on finishing things up at home waiting to see if the stone carving class next week runs or not. If it doesn't, I'm trying to roll over into the forging class again and plan to make use of the power hammer to knock out the last of the tenons and reduce the size of the top of the legs just slightly so they slide into the 1 1/4" 11 ga tube I'm using as sockets under the forge table. I'll have to see if my working drawing shows up well if I photograph it or if I'll have to hit it 1st with a sharpie to make it stand out.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Started my 2nd class at Bryn Athyn college today. Sadly they didn't have enough people sign up for the stone carving class that was my 1st choice.

 

I'm working on completing my project from a few weeks back that I started with Warren. Mike has been real helpful so far. I'd post picts, but I forgot the camera today.

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Finished up my class with Mike Rossi yesterday. I had a great time and managed to crank out a bunch of stuff. I managed to get the base for my forge done, as well as turn out a hot cut hardie, a hardie blank ( not quite sure what I'm doing with it yet, a few spring swages I needed as well as my slot punch and monkey tools to name just a few.

 

I'd planned to do the arches hot, so I made up 2 bending forks, but Mike showed me how to do them cold and get a nicer more even bend. I was a bit surprised how easy th3 1/2" x 1" flat bent under the hammer. I actually spent more time "unbending" things when I went too far one way or the other before I got the hang of things.

 

A few picts of what I did 1st.

 

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The frame for my forge took me both classes to pretty much complete. The original plan was to just do one long rail, but I punched and drifted a set of holes for the 2nd one in the front of the frame to be safe. I managed to get a "spare" 2nd rail about 80% done in the last hour of class. I upset both ends and tenoned and slot punched one end. However it's a bit longer than the 1st one since I couldn't locate my notes for exactly how long that bar was when I started, so I sort of winged it and went a bit long to be safe. I'll probably arch the 2nd one to eat up some of that extra material before I tenon it and slot punch it.

 

 

I still need to forge up some nice wedges for it. I "cheated" and used the wedges that I have for alum concrete forms since they were the right size for temporary assembly.
 Overall I was very happy how it turned out. The forge isn't quite square since it was made up of scrap and one side is just slightly wider than the other by about 1/8". I accounted for that, but the one set of legs splays just slightly and the legs don't quite go into the sockets I made easily. A bar clamp across the ends of that end unit tweaks it just enough they slip right in. I knew that end panel was out of square slightly, but opted to leave it wide at the bottom as it is a lot easier for me to pull things in than pres them out.

 

The forge will get a new coat of high temp paint ( applied today after the picts) and the sockets will get drilled and bolted on with carriage bolts to look like rivets. They also will get trimmed a bit once I see how things look assembled , then painted with the bolts to match the forge. .Base itself will get some sort of natural finish. Wax is my 1st thought, but it will stay "outside" under cover. I don't really want to clear coat it with urethane if I don't have to,

 

 

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I have a few other things planned like a stock support to add to the forge bottom as well as a control lever for the air gate to do at some point, I'm also debating about adding tool holders to the unit on one end. Not quite sure how I want that to go right now or how it will look, so it's on the "later" list.  I'm not sure I'm going to go with the air gate control on the end farthest from the fire, which is the most logical place for the tool rack, or if I'll hang it in the center of the side. The end sort of interferes with my original thoughts on how to do the rack.

 

 

Not sure yet about adding wheels to one end and a handle or not. Wheels won't fit with the design well aesthetically. However since the frame alone probably tops at least 70 lb's by my calculations and the forge itself is almost too heavy to move without the stand by itself with on person, being able to wheel it in and out of the shop for easy use sort of makes some sort of wheeled unit mandatory. .

 

 

Oh I'd like to thank one member here who posted up this pict of their forge a while back as part of the idea that I used for mine.. I'd like to mention the actual member, but I can't seem to locate his original post to credit him, other than the picture I saved as reference.

 

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I'd like to also think someone who I think is a member here who posted up picts of his forge for me a while back on another site that I saved. Again I can't locate his original post, but I think he goes by another name here anyways.

 

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 A few picts of what some of the others in class did. Sadly I didn't get picts of what each person did each day as I was cranking out my parts, but only a few of what got made on Sunday.

 

 

 

 

Jessy Managed to make a really cool finger out of 1" stock.

 

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One of the guys who hadn't done any forging before the class managed to crank out some really nice spoons by the end of class, as well as this nice cross.

 

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Unfortunately I didn't get picts of the projects from the other 3 students before they left. Everyone though said they had a great time and learned quite a bit from Mike. I'd like to tank both him and Warren for all their help in both classes.

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Thanks Steve. I'm real happy with the way the base for the forge turned out and I learned a lot in both classes. I'm was just talking to some other guys about it on another site, and one member posted up some picts of some nice old steel wheels that got me thinking of the next round of improvements for the forge.

 

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I'm thinking something like this is totally doable, and would match the riveted connections quite nicely. Along with that a nice forged handle to make moving the unit easy. I like this idea a lot more than the cheap crappy looking mower wheels I was originally contemplating. I may still use the mower wheels as a temporary solution, maybe attached to some slip on "socks" made out of tubing to go over the legs until I finalize my ideas for what I want to do for wheels and how to best attach them and make them blend with the rest of the design. I may copy/paste the picts of the frame over to my thread on my forge here, as well as my new ideas, so they stay all in one place for easy reference to others later tonight or this weekend.

 

I'm also looking at whether there is enough material in the new cross bar to arch it up high enough so I can punch thru the bar for the lever on the air gate. That seems a more elegant solution to the handle on the end like the forges at the college have. If not, I may have to rivet on an upper bar that will catch the air gate lever.

 

I'll touch base with you maybe this weekend about where to meet you to go down to ABANA next Thursday. I'm working the next 3 days, then I may have something both Saturday and Sunday, so we'll have to see when I can find time to get in touch with you.

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