Glenn

IForgeIron Blueprints Copyright 2002 - 2011 IFORGEIRON, All rights reserved BP0370 Tool Holders by Glenn Conner Start with some scrap 1/2 inch pipe and cut it into 1 inch long sections The bar is bent down for 2 inch and then back for 1-1/2 inch not counting bend. Repeat for the other end. The end was rounded and then curved to give it some character other than a quick cut with a saw. It looks like a blacksmith did the work. It doesn't take but a few hammer blows and set your work apart from anything anyone else would make. A 1/4 inch diameter hole is either drilled or punched into the "foot" so a screw or nail can be used to attach this to a wall etc. Weld a piece of the pipe into the corner. Yes, that white stuff got my attention also. ZINC !! This pipe was old galvanized. The rest was scrapped and new sections were cut from another pipe that was not galvanized. The next piece of pipe is welded on to the holder at 2" on centers. You can now hand your screwdrivers up and instantly see not only the handle you want but also the end you want to use. It sure cleans up the tool drawer. You no longer have to worry about getting the right tool, you just reach for it. A second holder was made for a friend that is a mechanic. Two days later he called and ask if I could make him another holder but this time use 1/2 inch and 3/4 pipe. Sure, no problem, I can do that. After all I am a blacksmith. That mechanic is a smart fellow. He is using the 2nd holder to hang the long extensions from his socket sets, 3/8 drive extensions fit into the 1/2 inch pipe and 1/2 inch drive extensions fit into the 3/4 inch pipe. View full article

Conferences may have been a poor choice of words. Please expand the discussion to include local blacksmith organizations, hammer ins, and blacksmith gatherings of all sizes.

Is it just me or does this look like an inside radius that could be used for a swage ?

Varation on what yesteryearforge said. Why not open the door only 4 feet and use say a piece of plywood to close the gap. Cover the "roof" opening with a triangular piece of material with a hole in it for a chimney. Your enclosed, in the building, and the chimney is in place and on the outside.

How do we increase attendance to the blacksmithing conferences? Usually you can count on the same hard core blacksmiths at a conference, but with big names doing demos and the hard work of the organizers, how is the best way to increase attendance? Saturday all day: Get up 4 am, attend the conference, leave at say 5 pm and arrive home 9 pm. 8 hours drive time and 3 meals. Saturday all day, Sunday am to afternoon: Get up 4 am, attend the conference, overnight, leave at say 4 pm and arrive home 8-9 pm Sumday. 8 hours drive time and 6 meals and one motel bill. Friday Saturday Sunday: Get up 4 am, attend the conference, 2 overnights, leave at say 4 pm and arrive home 8-9 pm Sunday. 8 hours drive time, and 8 meals and 2 motel bills. FSS but beyond 4 hrs drive time requires two vacation days (Thursday and Monday) 10 meals and 4 motel bills. These are not hidden costs, but costs in addition to the cost of the conference. --------------------- What is the solution to increasing attendance? Maybe the demonstrater hold one day conferences in a series of localized and adjecent cities? Monday move 50-100 miles then set up for Tuesday, move 50-100 miles then set up for Wednesday etc etc. Please give us your input. What would it take to get you interested in attending a conference or meeting?

You may want to try BP0244 There are many things that "can" work, you just need to find what works for you. :)

We burn maybe 15 to 20 cords of wood a winter season. The stove is a free standing unit with a 2 foot vertical rise going into a 6 foot horizontal run then into the wall and a chimney. We monitor the exhaust temperature (with a thermometer) as the stove pipe enters the wall and into a masonary chimney. At or below 250*F exhaust temp we get lots of ash problems in the horz run and build up in the chimney. The sweet spot for maintaining low ash in the horz run and little build up in the chimney is 300*F to 400*F. This keeps the house warm. To gain house heat the exhaust temp is raised in incriments from 300*F up to 400*F. Anything above 400*F the additional exhaust temp is wasted heat and just goes up the chimney. These numbers are for this stove in this location only and your mileage may vary. We burn anything that we can get through the doors of the stove, but try to keep all the wood from the same tree together in the wood pile. Yes it does make a difference. The wet wood from the bottom of the pile is included when the current firewood is "running hot". Blending wood is almost an art form in that respect. If you monitor the veriables, the outside temperature, the heat output from the stove, the type of wood used, the moisture content of the wood, the exhaust temperature at the chimney, and the build up in the chimney, you can better control the process. There is lots of smoke when you start a fire, but at operating temperatures, you should see very little smoke from the chimney if you have good combustion. Watch the smoke leaving the chimney as an indicator as to how well the fire is burning in the stove. Others have answered you question on clean up.

IForgeIron Blueprints Copyright 2002 - 2011 IFORGEIRON, All rights reserved BP0362 Simple Tools by Glenn Conner There was a discussion on the IForgeIron forum about what would be good tools for material handling in a shop. This got me to thinking about the simple tools we use every day without giving a second thought to their function. The wheel comes to mind first. If it is on a car, truck or two wheel dolly, the rotational motion is the same, it makes moving heavy things easier by rolling. The same is true for putting pipe under an object to roll on. The incline plane, a board from one level to another to roll up or down. You can even "walk" a heavy object up from floor level to table level on a incline plane. The screw is an incline plane only in a spiral. And it does not have to be an outside incline plane, but it cound be inside in configuration. We use the screw in several different ways. To clamp. Ok to keep it blacksmithing related, to clamp. To lift. Ok to keep it blacksmithing related, to lift. This also uses the wedge to scrape and remove a small amount of surface. To adjust clamping size, then use wedges to grip and a lever to move along the incline plane, such as bolts or threads on a pipe. Everyone knows about the pinch bar, or lever. Add a fulcrum and you can move a lot of weight with little effort. But you can also use the lever to lift. If you combine the lever with a fulcrum you have the best of both. You have the fulcrum built right into the lever. This is no more than a specialty lever. Another specialty lever. This for a hex socket head bolt. This is just another lever but with an adjustment for size of the gripping end. Another simple lever, but with an adjustable gripping end. And we call it a binder, but it is just a lever in disquise. In the closed position. And there are those tools that incorporate a double lever for more power. This also uses a wedge to make the tool work. Back to the wheel, only now called a pulley. You can use these wheels to change the direction and change the speed of the pull. They come in several sizes to fit your needs. And when you combine two or more pulleys, you can multiply your power. But you have to figure out how to string the rope through them properly. Another specialty wheel is a gear, sort of like pulleys with teeth for chain here, or with matching teeth as in a manual transmission. But the wheel and teeth do not have to be complicated in order to multiple power. This is rated for 4000 pounds of pull. Again you have to know how to set it up to get the multiplication of power. We can combine levers and wedges to cut. We can combine screws and wedges to cut even heavier material. And we can combine crease and wedges to cut in special applications. Ok, that was a little unfair as some have not looked at these things that closely. You can combine screws and levers. You can combine levers and hydraulics. Levers and hydraulics again. And levers and wheels. We use simple machines, and combine simple machines, to make tools to get the job done. Each is a speciality item (or so the sales pitch tells us) but is just a varation on a theme. Stop looking for the answers and start seeing the possibilities. It is not rocket science and you don't have to reinvent the wheel. Or you may want to use the screw to measure with. <grin> View full article

IForgeIron Blueprints Copyright 2002 - 2011 IFORGEIRON, All rights reserved BP0365 Flux Applicator by Bill Epps, Irnsrgn This is a quick container to hold your flux and apply just what is needed to the metal being welded. Just drill 3 holes in the cap of a water bottle, fill the bottle with flux and squeeze or shake to apply. If you have different flavors of flux, you can color code them. View full article

IForgeIron Blueprints Copyright 2002 - 2011 IFORGEIRON, All rights reserved BP0364 Flower Hanger by Glenn Conner We all have those flowers with the plastic hook attached to the rim of the pot. To dress the flower pot up a bit, I made the following jig. Cut a short piece of pipe and weld it to a plate. Weld ends on the pipe, in this case for support and to keep the pipe from deforming in use. Weld a short piece of 1/2 inch round to the end of a piece of 3/8 x 1 inch flat bar. It should fit into the pipe with a little room on either side. Find the center of a piece of 1/4 inchround bar and place it across the jig. A couple of whacks of the hammer and you have a bump in the rod. Not a deep bump, but just enough to catch an S hook. The smaller circle was bent cold. It is the proper size to fit around the pot but under the lip of the pot giving it full support. The larger circle was bent cold and welded to the smaller circle. Just slip the pot into the holder and hand it with an S hook. Much more attractive than the cheap plastic hook. View full article

IForgeIron Blueprints Copyright 2002 - 2011 IFORGEIRON, All rights reserved BP0363 Cracking a Nut by Glenn Conner This piece of auto part was 3/4 inch in diameter, just what I thought I needed for a project. But there was a nut on the end that would not be removed. The threads were really messed up and I needed the whole length of the material for forging. So with a hacksaw, you just cut into one of the flats of the nut, being careful not to cut into the threads. Then cut the opposite flat being careful not to cut into the threads. The cut is almost to the threads. With a chisel, expand one cut and split the nut. The second cut will give the nut room to expand and come apart. And the nut will drop off the bolt with the threads still in good condition. View full article

Email me the video please so I can try from here.

Start with Blueprint BP0300 and then get a cup of coffee and a comfortable chair. After that, there is no right way to read the material on the site, just start anywhere. Ask questions any time. Welcome to the site.

Welcome to the site Mooch. Ask questions and someone will have an answer, get you an answer, or make references. It is always nice to hear folks are spreading the word about IForgeIron. Thank Sandpile for us.

Zinc thread on IForgeIron There is a discussion on this thread on zinc. You may wish to review it.

BP0361 Drill Press Table Tool by Glenn Conner We all have a wooden block that looks like this. If not get one. The wooden block supports the back side of the work while you drill and as the bit breaks through and beyond, keeps the drill from damaging the drill press plate. You can use a scrap piece of channel to do the same thing. It will support the work being drilled and When you break through and finish the hole, keep the drill from damaging the drill press work plate. View full article

From his web site From this, I did not imagine a roof location.

Welcome to the IFI site. Would you operate a coal forge with all the smoke it produces in your dungeon? Then may I caution you about using a gas forge in your dungeon. The dungeon interior may be large but you need large amounts of ventalation when you operate a gas forge. The 4 foot square opening concerns me in that reguard. Look at Blueprint BP0300 for gas forges.

Gulf Coast Blacksmith's Association www.gulfcoastblacksmith.org But at this time it opens a referal page, not the original blacksmithing web site.

Hofi, your son is on our list. Best wished to you both.

IForgeIron Blueprints Copyright 2002 - 2011 IFORGEIRON, All rights reserved BP0360 Multi-Position Bending Fork by Jim Carothers For quite some time I’ve been noticing that many farriers are also really good blacksmiths and that some of their tools are special or different for their work. In particular, some of the farriers’ anvils have two really handy bending pins (like a bending fork on its side) sticking out from a side of the anvil. At the 2005 Saltfork Craftsmen ABA Annual Conference, I also noticed that professional demonstrator Peter Happny repeatedly used a heavy bending fork mounted in the anvil hardie hole. However, Peter’s bending tool was not pinned solidly to the borrowed demo anvil; each time he hit or pulled on a piece of metal the bending fork would move. From these observations came the idea for the Multi-Fork you see presented here in these notes. This is simply a combination of the farriers’ horizontal bending pins and traditional anvil mounted vertical bending fork. I turned the legs of the vertical fork 45 degrees to the anvil center line; it seems to be handy for me in that orientation. My cut-off hardie is also rotated the same way as this bender. As old as the blacksmith’s craft is and as new as I am at this craft, I expect that I am not the first person to think of making a bending tool like this. The pins are spring steel; the inside spacing between the legs of both forks is 1 inch. The pins are not heat treated – only annealed after forging to shape. The parts were preheated before welding. Notice also in Photo 01 the tapered pin lying on the anvil. This was made from 1/2 of a horseshoe (my favorite piece of scrap steel). The Multi-Fork firmly pinned to the anvil. With only a light hammer tap on the tapered pin the tool is locked in the hardie hole. You can turn the anvil stand over before moving the tool. Shows how the pin is used with a hardie stem or peg made from U-bending basic flat bar stock. For my tools that I want firmly mounted to the anvil (anvil cone for example), I have been making the hardie stems in this manner. A second benefit is that the tools are lighter than if the hardie stem was solid bar. Shows the end of the U-shaped hardie stem and the tapered pin as seen from the underneath side of the anvil heel. I really like this old Trenton anvil, but the factory did not do any finishing work to the under sides of the heel or the horn. Jim Carothers President (2006) Saltfork Craftsmen ABA View full article

IForgeIron Blueprints Copyright 2002 - 2011 IFORGEIRON, All rights reserved BP0359 Anvil Bender by Glenn Conner This Blueprint is done HOT only to show those new to blacksmithing that you do not need all the fancy tools, the power saws, the metal workers, the plasma cutters to get the job done. Fact is, this Blueprint can be done without electric power. I do recommend a good pair of gloves, ear protection, safety glasses and an assistant only to hold things. Get someone that like blacksmithing as this can get scary to "normal people". Ok, gloves on, ear protection on (or in) safety glasses on, and you on the left - the sneekers need to be steel toed sneekers. Face shields in the DOWN position and let's get started. Find a piece of metal from your resources pile about the same size as the face of your anvil. The L section of this piece is about right. Put it in the fire and get it a high red in color. Take your chisel and cut the section you need from the parent stock. This may take a couple of heats but that is ok. Yes that is the Rail Road track being used as an anvil. You think I am going to do this on my Peter Wright ?? See it can be done. Drift a hole into the plate. This is 1/4 inch plate steel only because it was handy. Drift holes for both the hardie hole and prichel hole. The 3/4 inch round stock fits into the hardie hole, and 3/8 inch round fits the prichel hole but that is only because it is my anvil. It should just drop into place. Insert the cold round stock into the hot plate steel and you should get a good shrink fit. Tack weld this on the under side if you need to. Or use a center punch and punch near the edge of the hold making the metal tight against the round bar. To bend, brace against one pin and pull against the other. Remember that you have two different size pins to work with on the same tool. You can use a piece of pipe to expand the capabilities of the anvil bender. Or get fancy and make a whole set of attachments. Oh I hear the rush to the forge to build one on these. But hold on, we are not finished just yet. With a simple bending die (read that as a pulley) you can now use the anvil bender to bend pipe Just choose the die to fit the pipe you need to bend. And different size pulleys 'er dies will give you a different radius for the bends. View full article

IForgeIron Blueprints Copyright 2002 - 2011 IFORGEIRON, All rights reserved BP0357 Quick Fire Shovel by Glenn Conner This quick fire shovel is not a permanent item at the forge. Take the time to make a proper shovel and use it. The fire is in need of cleaning and you can not locate the shovel you SHOULD have at the forge. The tongs and a piece of thin tin will do in a pinch. Grasp the thin tin in the tongs ..... And scoop. View full article

IForgeIron Blueprints Copyright 2002 - 2011 IFORGEIRON, All rights reserved BP0356 Shop Magnets by Glenn Conner The project is finished and it is time to clean up a bit. Those drill shavings are razor sharp and are not something you want to pick up with your fingers for fear of being cut or embedding a sliver of metal into your flesh. This is where the magnet comes in handy. Only thing is that the slivers will now be attached to the magnet and even more difficult to remove. From an earlier Blueprint, take the storage container and place the magnet in that or any other plastic container. Once you pick up the metal shavings, just hold the container over the trash can and remove the magnet. This will drop the metal shavings into the trash can. Or, a fellow could get a plastic bag from the kitchen Put the magnet into the bag And collect the metal shavings. This was one pass with the magnet. More passes will collect even the small shavings. Now that you have them collected, what to do? Turn the bag inside out trapping the metal shavings inside the bag. Tie the top of the bag into a knot and throw the whole thing away. View full article

IForgeIron Blueprints Copyright 2002 - 2011 IFORGEIRON, All rights reserved BP0352 Chisels Reconditioned by Richsironworks, Glenn Conner Garages are often rough on tools. The mechanic often asks me to make tools for him because he knows they will work. He was going to throw these chisels away when I delivered the replacements as they were beyond hope and not able to be used any more. It is difficult to convince folks that tools need maintained. The end of a chisel is mushroomed and the metal is splitting. When this cracked section breaks off, it becomes shrapnel. Chisels sometimes get abused. The working end of chisels should be sharpened as needed. Yes, a blacksmith CAN take this tool that is no longer useful and make it work again. But how do you hold a 6" chisel once it gets hot? Thanks to Rick of Rick's Iron Works, and his suggestion for welding on handles instead of using tongs. We were able to safely hold the chisel while it was being reconditioned. Yes, just weld a handle onto the end of the chisel - perfect fit and no tongs needed. Usually flat bar is nice because of the rectangular shape, but this time it was 20 year old rusty rebar. Handle length was 16", 18" and 24" only because that was what was handy. A half a piece of 6011 rod was found under the work table and used. This is not a perfect weld that has to pass an x-ray, it just has to stick the handle to the stock. Heat and beat, and then temper the metal. You can see the temporal colors. Next, dress the ends on a grinder. The rebar provided a good handle, but the poor welds between greasy metal on one side and rusty rebar on the other just broke apart when stressed. The mushrooming and the welds are removed as the ends are dressed. The working ends are ground to the finished shape. Paint or coat with oil and you have reconditioned chisels that work as good or better than new ones. View full article