Glenn

Jim "Paw Paw" Wilson attaching a wire wheel on a motor. The motor was attached to a bracket and securely hung on the outside of his shop. All was fine till one day ..... The wire wheel caught the piece of 3/8" square "S" hook, grabbed it out of his hands, round the circle and launched it back at Jim. Jim took the 3/8" square in the fore head on as he ducked out of the way - it happened that fast. He then hit his head again on a 5 gallon bucket of concrete used to anchor the outside shop roof. Result = two concusions and several months of headaches that pills would not cure.

I use a broken bench grinding wheel to clean the scale from items being tempered. No idea how it got broken, but it serves as a reminder that they do break. And who has not picked the little wires from a wire wheel, that embed themselves point first in our clothes? Aprons sure do help, but who said those little wires only attack the belly region of the body? Eye protection is a must have item when using wire wheels. Welders help us out here, you know the hazards, give us your advice on safety in your craft. Machinest we need your imput also. I know NOT to wear gloves around anything that rotates, but what are the safety issues in your craft? The woodworkers are invited to jump into the discussion also. Your craft has rotation (lathe), sharp tools, and power machinery (saws, etc) to deal with. What are the safety issues in your craft? And any other craft is welcome to add to the discussion. Tell us about the safety issues in your craft.

As blacksmiths everything we handle is either hot, heavy, sharp, or dangerous. SAFETY is a personal responsibility. When grinding I wear glasses, and use ear plugs to both keep the dust and grit out of my ears, and to protect my hearing. But it turned out that the shield being in place on the angle grinder was the most important safety device. The grinder was brought up to speed and let run for a minute or so before starting. It had been in use for several minutes when the disc fractured. They do break and without warning. This part of the grinding disc remained on the machine, the rest was not found. Your safety is your personal responsibility. Please, play safely.

If your making a scroll that takes 6 feet of material that is a 6 foot RADIUS as one end is fixed solid and the other end swings. If your making a 24" diameter ring, that ring takes about 6 feet of material. Fix one end and then make the swing. That means your need 8 feet of clear (radius) space, 1 foot for the radius of the circle, plus 6 feet of stock at the point of the beginning. This is not exactly a true measure, as it leaves you with just a little bit of wiggle room. And it does not have to be clear space, just clear space at that elevation (using horozontal orientation). With small children, put the 220v electric box at 5 feet from the floor. A cheap pad lock, to lock the switch in the off position, offers a lot of piece of mind. Neighbor kids may not know the rules or a way to get past the lock.

Welcome to the site Ken. Don't be shy, just jump in, the water is fine. What type forging did you do for the RR ?

My welder calls for a 50 amp 220v circuit. Can you imagine what would happen if the welder was being used and the compressor kicked on? You think your going to unplug one to plug in the other? After the first week or so, you leave them both pluged in and tell yourself it will be ok. We have all been there. The difference between a 20 amp circuit and a 200 amp circuit is just bigger wire, a one time expense. Overkill, only till it is needed. Then you will swear you planned it that way. And put a 220v plug at both the point of use AND at the open door nearest the driveway. Those 20 foot leads are great inside the shop, but the first time you weld on something outside the shop the extra plug is paid for. Plan on swinging at least a 6 foot piece of stock around inside your shop. If you can do that without breaking out a window or the windshield of the wife's van, you have half a chance to have room to work. Calculate how much stock a scroll eats up sometime. You have to swing the stock before the scroll starts and only then does the stock start getting shorter. Let us know how things work out. We want to know what works.

And I thought it was safe cause nobody had a telephoto lens that could reach this far into the woods. You got me. What can I say? As to the hat, thanks Bill !! I appreciate your wearing it.

IForgeIron Blueprints Copyright 2002 - 2011 IFORGEIRON, All rights reserved BP0314 RR Spike Tongs by Bill Epps This is what I am starting with, two ordinary rail road spikes. I am marking the spikes using the hardy hole as a gage. From the end make marks at 1 inch, 2 inches, and 2-1/2 inches. I should have just cut the heads off to begin with. After I flatten the heads, I found it was unnecessary because the rains were to long. Lining up the mark with the edge of the anvil I set it down forming the first of the three divots. Setting down the second divot using the front of the anvil first divot on the back of the anvil face second on the front of the anvil face. What the divots look like ( do this on both prices). Doing the third divot, This is where the rains start. Lining the divots up with the front of the anvil face and the off side of the anvil set down (about 1/3 of the thickness) careful not to go too deep at this point Coming to the front corner to clean up and finish off the joint face Punch the hole in the center of the joint face. Hole punched and sized for the rivet used. I used a 5/16 X 1 in rivet on these tongs. Starting at the second divot, bend down at about a 45 % angle Coming back to the first divot bring back to parallel. These are going to be scroll tongs so I taper the jaws to round and to a fine point. So they look like this After drawing the reins out I clean up with the angle grinder. Install rivet and line up the jaws and they are ready to use. View full article

October 1st is well in advance of the Thanksgiving to Christmas rush, which is actually more of a sprint as the time between the two gets shorter as each year passes. So this month, start and complete at least one Christmas present, and one stand-by gift in case it is needed. That is a total of (2) two items. The deadline on this is Oct 31 because after Halloween, the days get shorter and shorter till December 22nd. For the folks in OZ (Austrailia) you may have a bit more time to play in the fire than the rest of us, but the winter soltice is coming just the same.

IForgeIron.net was originally where the blueprints were sent for review after presentation. Anyone that had contributed a blueprint could access the DOT-NET site and review the material, suggest changes, corrections, or additions as well as make the project and report their findings. Those changes were made, the Blueprint was then as correct as we could make then, and it was posted to the public dot.com site. At this time, DOT-NET is not being used. The Blueprints are being posted directly to dot.com. This was before the forum, the gallery, and many other features were added to the IForgeIron.com site. Another feature the "Old Dogs" will remember, is when IForgeIron manually posted photos in nearly "real time" on the internet, long before the present day photo storage sites even existed.

Jerry, please post your photos in the gallery. May want to use the Blacksmithing Events folder and the year of the Possum hammer in so they will all be together in one place.

BP0071 Poker 01 BP0085 Heart Bell BP0118 Horse Shoe Trivet BP0137 Fire Starter BP0136 Beam Hook BP0084 Poker 02 BP0153 Shepherds Hook BP0135 "S" Hook BP0155 Nut Cracker and Pick BP0196 Garden Tool Holder BP0280 Tripod BP0296 Pot Hook BP0295 Nail in Hook BP0299 Toaster I am sure there are more ideas on the site. BP0154 BBQ Fork

The I Forge Iron site gives you the option of showing your email address that is associated with this site. If you click yes, prople can send you an email (and there by gain your email address). If you click no, then only the administrators have access to the address. Just log in, click user CP (control panel) top left of the page, then click edit options to adjust the settings to what ever you wish them to be.

Ferrous, I am impressed with your generousity. Thank you for making the offer to JimiRain. Glenn

Welcome to the site. Thanks for the kind works, but remember that it is the contributors that have built the site to what you see today. Credit also goes to them. Start in the blueprints, many wonderful projects and tools there.

BP0123 4 Pin Bender - Jr. Strasil Not lost at all Look at the BP0300 Getting started in Blacksmithing, and BP0133 the now famous 55 Forge for ideas. The blueprints will show you how to make many of the tools you will need. Confidence comes when you make a tool and it works. After that first success, it is just practice.

I don't know if you saw this in the gallery or not, but this fellow has a way with metal. Way to go Valentin !!

Johnny, Thank the contributors as they are the ones that deserve the credit. Start with the BP's you think you can handle, then work your way into the rest. By the time you finish building the 300 plus Blueprints on tools and jigs, you should have a good start on a smithy. Keep us informed as to which BP's are most helpful.

Great idea, but only if they are single side discs. The double sided discs have the air holes between the discs. This may effect the fire, I am not sure as I have not tried the double disc rotors in that application. I have built 2 forges using the single sided discs and they both work well. Great suggestion.

Nomad, you are now working beside every smith that logs into the I Forge Iron site. And not from your state, but from all over the world. It is the contributors that have made the site what it is today. I have the privledge of operating the keyboard. I think you for the kind words. We are all here to help others and advance the craft. Ask questions and get answers. The archive is a wonderful place as the full discussion on any topic is grouped together in one place. The search engines are another source for where to look for information. Welcome to the site.

At the end of 30 minutes hammering hot metal on an anvil you will no longer remember the problems of the day. And it is much cheaper than a visit to the shrink After you play in fire for a while, you get the mindset that every problem can be fixed with a hammer. Most times your right. If you have questions, just ask.

There is a fellow from UK that went to work manufacturing wood working tools. They put the fellow doing the grinding in a chair with one foor (leg) on either side of a rather large grinding wheel. Scared him to near death till he moved up to that station. He then found that the chair provided better control for grinding and he could work much longer sitting down than standing. To get around the standing problem, set up a chair at a comfortable height that you can swivel from forge to anvil. Another idea is to set up a brace of sorts to lean back against. Or to semi-set semi-lean against. When at a bench, use a chair. There is a photo somewhere on the site showing this type system. (I remember the photo, but not the location)

John, you are encouraged to contribute to the site at any time. Blueprints (how-to tutorials), the forum, the gallery etc etc. Welcome to the site.

Johnny Welcome to the site, Check out the Blueprints section, the big yellow box on the opening page of I Forge Iron.com It may give you some additional ideas on things to make.

As this is a blacksmithing forum, not a political forum, I will take a lack of additional posts to lock down the thread. IForgeIron is visited by over 50 world wide countries each month. We need to stay on the topic of blacksmithing, even though these are sensative issues.