Problem Solving

MY father in law got me this vise in an auction! Only problem is that it is missing the foot pedal to close the vise. Anyone have one like this and can give me an idea on what I need to do to get it working again?

I could use some suggestions for trying to weld with really poor coal. We got in a new batch at the Village, but it has rocks, hard coal, and is just really poor. I had no problem in the past with welding, I just did the usual clinker check and made sure I didn't have any green coal in the pot and all was fine. This coal is so bad that the clinkers don't settle into one chunk in the bottom, but seem to be all through out the fire. Also the coal doesn't seem to be coking right. Any suggestions? I really don't want to have to supply my own coal. Dave

lets get in the oil barons pockets a little like they are getting into ours, buy NO gas tuesday.

Hi everybody, I am having some trouble and hope maybe someone has seen one of these before. I found this blower at the junk yard, it has been sitting out side for a long time but it still turns, hard but it turns. It needs cleaned and gone over, the blades need some work, and it needs a new handle. I got it mostly a part but I can't get the case apart, I've tryed everything but it won't come apart and I am afraid of cracking the case. If anyone has any ideas or have been in this predicament before, I could really use some help. This is all the writing on it; Champion Blower & Forge Co. Lancaster Pa. Patented June 11 1901 400 Hopefully the pictures posted o…

I made this today, just to see if I had forgotten how, and to ask if this is the style Tio wants. I was a little rusty making the taper tho, it is 3/8 HR square. would like your comments please.

Ok for those who've helped me so far I want to thank you all and putting up with my endless questions and stuff, but I always found that asking these endless array of Q's would save me the chance of losing an eye prematurely or whatever else had I moved with plans. Ok here goes the next one, atleast I have created pictures to help explain a little better what I'm hoping to do and what I'm hoping to use, feel free to compliment or shoot it down, It won't bother me :-) Here's the pictures: As you can see by the first one I want to use Cement to seal the extra holes in the tire rim and support the long bolts or metal rods that would support the metal grate. Aside from i…

At The Blacksmith Guild of Virginia's April meeting we were in Lexington Virginia to see Jack Chaffee demo and get a tour of Brown's Forge and Living History Museum. This forge has been around since the 1850's and there was a lot of neat stuff in there. Jack works alone and had some neat ways of getting things done. He mounted this piece of I-beam in front of his anvil. There are small pieces of channel that he cut slots in to hold flat bar. He uses this set up to upset slots and holes he punches mostly. But also uses the set up to upset round and square stock. He found it a lot easier to upset material horizontally instead of setting it up on the anvil or on a block. …

Howdy folks, I picked up a piece of metal that I think is likely 4140. Is there a good way that I can tell? Are there spark test photos that show 4140 being ground? I don't have any known pieces, so I can't really compare it against anything I have..

Well, I'm sure everyone had this at one point, but mine is quite simple... maybe... anyways. I'm planning to build a forge, I need something for a fire pot. I've got two items at my disposal, 1 a hibachi type grill about 3inches deep and a wheel rim from a car. I would think the wheel rim from the car would be the most resonable item except for the holes in the rim. I've seen the post of Iron puppet title ready firing forge or something to that effect where he did use the rim, but materials needed to make it are kind of hard to come by just yet. With that said, my 2nd choice the habachi would make sense since it is a solid piece of metal and all that would be needed is a …

Anyone have any suggestions as to that oil is best for use in an piston type air compressor. Been a while since it was changed.

This is a computer problem so I'm asking any of our gurus for help. I have had a website for a couple of years and decided to put a short forging video on it for public view. Here is the link: Our Blacksmith Shop : comalforge.com (go to the bottom of the page) However, I could not view it after posting it to the Web from my home PC (even though it worked in the browser preview before I uploaded it). The video was filmed on my wife's Kodak, which is supposedly a QuickTime format and has a *.mov suffix. I asked Ed Thomas to review it and he had some trouble with access - although he did eventually get it to run. This also took about 2 hours to upload over a dialup…

What do I need to get to tell the temp in my forge? Need to be able to tell 1650 degrees. Thanx for your input. Cooter

I working on trying to put together a possible hammerin at Tio Picks place, near Mercedes,Tx, it would be a hands on bring your forge and anvil type of thing to help Tio make snub end scroll's for one of the railings in his house, kind of a helping type of thing, several forming the snub ends, a couple actually forming the scrolls around jigs and assembling panels to be welded into the railing frame. I am thinking about flying down to get the priliminary work and designs done and to work out the lengths and story boards for making the scrolls. He promises to feed you well and have liquid refreshment on hand. This is a near future project, so any one who would be i…

I haven't searched yet, but was wondering if there is a way to remove the zinc from small items by any other means than heat. Or is heating the easiest/fastest/"safest" way. I have some smallish tubing and things that I have only been able to find in galvanized condition and would like it clean. any help is appreciated

Has anyone tried to punch rings in metal bars? :confused: The rings I'm talking about would be appoximately 1/4" in diameter and would look like the rings left in wood when making plugs with a plug punch. I don't want to take the metal plug out of the hole, just want to make a 1/4" ring in the metal about 1/8" deep. I can't think of any ready made tool to use. Thanks. JAKA

Wondering if anyone familiar with the Southern Blacksmith Conference that is being held in Madison Ga. around the middle of May? I"m wondering if it is worth the drive for me, which I'm guessing will be about 15 hrs. I would hope to see some good Demos and maybe find a few items from the tailgaters. Joe

I picked up a Buffalo Forge Co. "Bufco" Hand Crank blower the other day. It is one of the small ones with about an 1 1/2 inch air outlet from the fan side. It has a problem that I need input on fixing. When I disassembled it, I found that the gear on the shaft that the hand crank attaches to is loose. Therefore, the gear just comes off the shaft when it is cranked. Otherwise, the blower seems to be in good shape. How can I fix this? I tried to set the shaft into the gear, but it just pops back off after a few turns of the crank handle. There is enough clearance between the gear and anything else that welding it to the shaft may be an option. It appears that originall…

Sometimes things happen where a blacksmith can no longer work as he once did. This is usually related to mobility or standing in one place for any length of time. There are others that have physical problems that would like to start blacksmithing, but the tools are too tall, too heavy, or whatever. Let's start a discussion on ways and ideas to address these problems. To start, how would a blacksmith that could not stand for a long period of time change things so he could still work in his shop? Would a bar stool to sit / lean against help? What about a wooden Block / box to place on foot on to rest the leg by changing position? Any suggestions?

I want to make the bottom & top tools for rounding rivet heads. Are they called "Rivet Snap" ? Is there like a standard rule of thumb for the dia. of the dome for the shank size? Say like for a rivet made from 3/8 rd. bar? Whats the proper way to use the tools ? Thanks Ron

I am working on a desing to build a chair that requires to bend some of the rod in a specific pattern. I see that i could build a fork to for my hardie hole but How precise can i get with this tool? if I need to make a few of the exact same shape i am affraid that it will be hard to duplicate. Any suggestion on how to systematically re create the same bend or shape? Dan

I want to make some sunflower. My center can be 4" 6" or 8" made our of 14 gage Mild steel circle. How do I go flat to my slight concve shape? Any ideas? Thanks in advance

This topic probably straddles the line between farming and blacksmithing, so I figured I'd run it by you all. I'm building fence. I own 10 acres of slate rock with a bit of grass here and there. We have a couple Scottish Highland cows, and I am expanding their boundaries. About anywhere I dig, I will hit brown slate. That's pretty much a given. I went to the forge and modified one of those wood-handled scraper/digging tool things to help with the post holes. This tool works great on the brown slate; cuts it clean with a little persuasion. I managed to impress myself with the heat-treat on the tool :cool: But then there's the blue slate.... this stuff will not give…

Hey guys, Since I signed up, I've built a nice forge, bought a couple of anvil's and several sets of tongs. I've done some work, but my blower rattles from time to time. I took it all appart except the gearbox, I removed the one screw I saw, but there seems to be a pin on the top of the gear box and I don't know how to remove it so I can get in, clean it up and re-grease it. Anyone know? FYI it's a buffalo. I'll put a pic up tonight if you think this would help. Weldon

Well, I *thought* I was ready to sit down and break a hammer. Everything was set up and seemed to be working great. However, I noticed that the hammer speed seemed to be running fairly slow. So I timed it. 150 hits a minute on the VFD was actually running about 120 hits. So, since the torque is less the slower you go with a VFD, I went ahead and upped the speed on it to 180. Timed it and it was actually running at just over 100 hits a minute. Crud :mad: Ok, time to face the fact that I've got an underpowered rig here. I can trade up on the VFD (getting a 3hp maximum rated), but not the motor. So I'm getting a 2 hp motor, and since they don't use the same f…

Sorry to keep asking about things When I first put together my forge I used Kitty Litter clay mixed with water to make a bed to sit the fire pot in and raise it to the level of the drop down on the forge body. Bad idea the cat litter when dry is crumbly and is impossible to keep from getting in the fire. Also I made my hood to sit in the forge on the edge of the fire pot. It worked like a Hoover Vac. I had fire in the hood all the time and seemed that side of the fire pot stayed hotter all the time + It took up to much room in this little forge. Heres a pic. of it before reworking it- I reworked the Coal Forge and moved my hood over 7 inches and raised it up .I ma…