Glenn

Ralph is doing very well now. He was moved from Intensive Care to Progressive Care yesterday afternoon. The disappointing news is that the clot buster drug didn't get all of it, there is still significant clotting in the arteries that lead to the lungs. But it is not restricting breathing now, and the pulmonary specialist assured me this morning that it is unlikely clots will cause a problem later on, now that he is on blood thinners. They expect for them to dissolve slowly over time. For the most part he's feeling pretty good. In fact, he's starting to get BORED!, which is a great sign! He's in good spirits and was able to sit in a chair today and will slowly start walking around his room and such. The doctor said today that he will likely get to go home Monday or Tuesday!! He was already on medical leave when this attack happened and won't have to go back to work till January, which is a blessing.Thank you again for all your support!!! Many blessings and warm regards, Dawn

Rather than drill into the steel, see if you can get a piece of heavy wall sq tubing and have it welded to the side of the anvil block. You can make the anvil tools with the hardie post attached to the side and the tool can rest on the steel block. A sq hole that will keep things from turning.

Dief Let the handle acclimate to the dry air before you put it in the hammer. Rick Linseed oil and mineral spirits can be found in the paint section of Lowes, hardware stores, or Wal-Mart. Linseed oil comes in "raw" and "boiled". Raw will takes forever to dry, and remain sticky till it drys. Boiled usually dries (this location) in 3 days. If you need to use the handle before then just wipe it with a shop cloth and put it to use. Linseed oil is usually a little thick (for me) and is thinned to flow better into the small places. I was originally told 60/40 linseed oil/mineral spirits but found that the mix is not real critical and I can use 50/50 linseed oil/mineral spirits more easily, just fill the same measure with one unit of each and pour it into a container. If it is a new handle, use sandpaper to remove the factory glaze till you reach bare wood. Then smooth everything down removing any rough spots or places that hurt the hand. I usually use 100 grit sandpaper as a final pass. Put a little 50/50 linseed oil/mineral spirits mix on a piece of 3x3" terry cloth and wipe it onto the wood handles, then hang them in the hammer rack. Works well for shovel handles, rake handles, sledge hammer handles and axe handles etc. My suggestion is to only mix a small amount first to see if you like it, and try it on only ONE handle. Use that handle for a while and if it meets your approval, then put it on other handles. WARNING: DO NOT put the used clothes containing oil in a pile. It will generate heat as it dries and can produce enough heat to catch fire. Any cloth with oil on it should be put in a fireproof container, or hung to dry naturallly. I will not comment on how much mix has gone through this bottle or how long it has been in service. I will say that the white area on the bottom of the container indicated that it once contained (insert your favorite brand name here) motor oil and the funnel spout was salvaged from a quart container of (insert your favorite brand name here) 90 weight gear oil. :wink:

This would be a good time to set up blueprints on how to make tongs, so a beginner can follow the plan. I will try to get Whitesmith to make a set his way to get things started.

A photo would help on see the problem. Any chance of attaching a photo?

One thing that I have found that does not work is soaking the handle in any liquid. The wood fibers absorbe the water, swell and crush. This leaves things even looser than before. The best wood wedges I have found are made (cut) from broken wooden handles. The wood wedge compresses the handle against the hammer head, the metal wedge then splits the wooden wedge and further compresses things. They will work loose with use, but as Ed says that is normal hammer maintenance. I have used the 5 minute epoxy and it has held up well for me. Just get everything to fit real well before you apply the epoxy. Then coat everything real well and assemble, with wedges also coated with the epoxy. I do mix BOILED linseed oil 50/50 with mineral spirits and wipe the handle and hammer head on a regular basis. It tends to "paint" the metal surface and keep it from rusting, and soaks into the handle and makes it much easier on the hands, read no blisters. I just keep putting it on the handle till no more soaks in, and then try to add another wipe on a regular basis.

Just be sure to strengthen the roof enough to hold that mega-ton Air Conditioning unit that will keep the entire shop climate controlled. No more rusting tools and no more need for sweat bands, unless the wife sees the electric bill for the shop. Maybe a spare /office/bedroom off in one corner for when she does see that bill. :wink:

Why try to reinvent the wheel, just USE a watering can! We will not mention any names here, as the forum encourages free thinking and finding solutions to problems. Some of us just do that better than others, right Leah ?

Tooling up is very dependant on the project at hand. What do you want to do and what do you have available to work with now? Anvil = some metal object with 75-100 pounds of mass. Hammer = something with a weight that you can use for several hours without pain. Ball pein, cross or straight pein will both work. Tongs = pliers of some nature, vise grips, channel-locks, slip joint or use the method Whitesmith used for making tongs. I need to locate the link to that one. Steel stock = junk yard or alley steel. But when you want to get serious, buy new steel as it is uniform piece to piece. The change in the metal by hammer blows is then due to the hammer not the content of the steel. Fuel = what is available locally, or what you can obtain on a regular basis. A good hacksaw Make your first chisel and temper it to straw. It will serve you well. After that, you need additional tools for the specific project, but a pick-up truck and trailer is somewhere in your future. And a OX/AC welding set-up (to heat, cut, and weld) and shortly thereafter an arc welder (the glue gun for metal). Somewhere in the process your tools become toys and the list never ends. You just have to have at least one framinwhizzle cause they are cute and no blacksmith worth his clinker would be without one. No matter that they are usually used only one time and afterward used only as a "yea, I got one" conversation piece. As Ten Hammers says, tell us what you want to do in the craft and we can make suggestions.

Ralph has made it through the most dangerous hours. They'll probably do another Cat Scan on his chest later today. Thank you for your prayers. Dawn

Gypsy, glad to hear from you again. It has been a while, welcome to the forum. Gypsy being true to the name is, at last report, traveling from Calif to Ney York.

There is a fellow that makes belt grinders of high quality that is a blacksmith. You will have to give me a bit to come up with a name. Beshears maybe. I have seen his grinder and it is first class.

Take the 55 Forge and turn it into a side blast forge by pumping air through a 1" dia pipe. No welding. See oakwoodforge's suggestion for air. Bottom line is that it can be done. All these suggestions will get the iron hot. If you have the extra cash, get a store bought forge. You just have to figure out how our suggestions apply to your situation.

I hate to have to report this, but Ralph almost died this morning and he's not out of the woods yet. As you all know, he has been fighting cancer since Oct. Two weeks ago he had another major surgery. We thought he was doing pretty well, but this morning a LARGE bloodclot went to his lungs. The emergency room doctor told me that if I had gotten him there any later...just minutes...he would have been dead. By that time his blood pressure was 70 over something and his oxygen level was 64%. They swarmed on him. His right lung was completely blocked and part of his left They had to give a high risk medicine to dissolve the clot in order to try to save his life. It has caused some internal bleeding, but it's not nearly as bad as it could have been. His blood pressure and oxygen level are good right now. They may give him just one unit of blood. They told me that the first six hours were most critical, and he made it through that. It looks likes he's going to be okay, but the doctor said he can't make any promises. Ralph is going to be staying in ICU for two or three days. PLEASE pray for him and give his name to any prayer chains at churches, etc., if you can. he's at Tuality Hospital in Hillsboro Oregon. But "no news is good news," so if you don't hear from me again soon, he's okay. It sounds like a few more days and we'll know for sure.Thank you for your prayers! Dawn

Use the 6" piece as a cutting block when cutting things with the chisel.

Bruce, I like the idea. Who said the flue had to be round? Why not square or rectangular ?

Earlier I suggested to Bruce that he make 50 of any one item and use it as shelf stock. I may need to reconsider that approach. My dear sweet darling wife is in the planting mode. She made a deal with the local farmers market to take the seasons left overs of flowers and load them into her van rather than the trash dumpster. She them took the money saved on the plants and bought hanging baskets, dirt, peat moss, fertilizer, etc. etc. It seems that with all these new hanging baskets they need hung around the porch, the breezeway, and other areas of the house. She ask if I would make her some s-hooks. I said that I had some in the garage, no she had used them. I said that I had a few in the truck that I carry with me to have handy, no she used them. I said I have the shelf stock that I try to keep for demos, and there was a pause, then she said no she used them also, and unless I had some more somewhere, she still needed about 7 or 8 more s-hooks to hang the remaining baskets. She prefers the short ones as it "looks" better to have a daisy chain of 3 or 4 s-hooks holding each basket - so it will be pretty. Oh yes, she also got the 2 matching shepard crooks that I had powder coated for display. I ask why those two and she said cause they were the pretty ones. New advice: You may be better off renting a small building to store your 50 pieces and your shelf stock, in order to protect it till you can get it to the demo.

It depends on how your going to use the spring. I often see it as flatbar with a slight bend in the stock rather than a spring. Made a "V" brace to hold an axle under a small garden wagon from spring stock using it where you would normally use flatbar. It is used a lot here for hardie plates, the flat piece where the hardie post is attached to one side, and the anvil tool to the other side. Anneal any part where you want to drill a hole.

Jerry Carroll suggested that I use heavy steel corrigated pipe as a smoke stack. 12" ran about $100 for 20 feet at the time. Check the building codes in your area.

Before you go out and spend a lot of money, try to make some of the forges talked about here and pictured on IForgeIron and other sites. The 55 Forge can be made for little or no cost and works, as does the break drum forge and Archie's Little Red Wagon Forge. If you have trouble building a forge, then you will have more trouble when it comes to building a gate, or any large project. It takes the same mindset to make both work. If you build a forge with a small investment, you will still have the forge AND most of your money if you decide blacksmithing is not your cup of tea. Besides, you can use the money for steel, coal, tools, and a bunch of other things if you want to continue in the craft. Do what is right for you.

When your hair starts to hurt from study, take a break and let the mind absorb the knowledge. Move over the the forge and try it out to see if it works. Adjust the technique as needed to get it to work for you. When the arm gets tired from all the work, it is time to study again. :wink:

Set up a big fan to act as a wind shear. Aim it so it does not interfeer with the forge or chill the hot metal on the anvil. That why when you are at the forge, you can step back into the wind shear and get some relief. I have found that although it is sexy to take the shirt off and show the 6 pack abs, it is cooler to leave a cotton t-shirt on and let it soak up the sweat. As the sweat evaporates from the shirt it cools the body. Otherwise the sweat just runs down and into your belt loops and you loose any cooling effect.

First time that rusted metal goes into the fire, the rust pops off where it gets hot. Now if your going to use rusty metal for curves, bends, etc., clean it while it is straqight first, as it is a real pain to clean a curved surface later. You may want to consider a wire brush for cleaning rust as it is much more aggressive.

Galvanneal Steel is produced on a continuous hot-dipped galvanized steel line. As the steel emerges from the molten zinc bath all excess zinc is removed from the surface using heated air knives. From there the steel continues through an annealing furnace converting the zinc into a zinc-iron alloy coating (galvanneal). The coating is spangle free, dull grey in appearance and offers exceptional protection to corrosion as both the inside and the outside are properly protected. In addition Galvanneal Steel also provides an excellent surface for finish painting. Galvanneal Steel is similar to other hot-dipped galvanized products with trade names such as Redi-Kote, Jal-Zinc, Zincgrip-Paintgrip, Wipecoat and Satincoat, all of which conform to ASTM A-525, A526 specifications with A25 (.25 ounces both sides) coating classification. Source Baron Metal Industries You may want to do a search on galvanized, galvaneel and galvalume also.

Archie, metal can come from the strangest places. As Strine says, keep your eyes open. Make friends with the local mechanic. I just got two tie rods last time I stopped in 1/2 x 12" made from some good steel. But he has been a source for leaf spring, coil spring, sway bars, and many other things in the past. Alleys, junk yards, neighbors are good sources also. And don't forget the machines that are being thrown out on trash day. That washing machine may have developed a transmission or water problem and still have a good motor, the dryer may have burned out a heating element and have a good blower, or motor, or other parts. Keep looking as the stuff is out there. And most can be obtained just by asking