mike-hr

That's a great chunk! I would be tempted to have the waterjet guy blow a series of square holes on one side of the web, and round holes on the other side for a bolster-block-zilla.. a stump works fine for an anvil stand.

I got invited to do a 2 day gig at the local Civil War re-enactment in S. Oregon last summer. I told the co-ordinator that my demo set-up was geared to 1890-1920, blower forge, long horn Hay-Budden anvil, etc. They said it would most likely be okay, since I wasn't getting paid off the top, but got to keep all my sales, they were happy to have any carbon based life form burning coal. I wore black Levi jeans (tore the labels off and broke in for a couple weeks around the shop), an old dirty straw cowboy hat that had more than just a little personality, a button-up western shirt like I wear to weddings and funerals, and my old hay chaps cause I don't enjoy aprons. I had my 11 yr old boy set up with a 70# peter wright,sharing the common forge, making S- and drive in hooks out of 5/16 stock. I was fairly nervous the first day, as they have a very tight-knit club, and get verbally abusive if they see any plastics with in 200 yards of the battlefield. Jonny and I drank water out of an old four roses whiskey bottle I found in the desert a while back, and I kept the water cooler under a canvas tarp. An elderly lady in the club, the kind of matriarch that could cut glass with her stare, came up to me on the second day and told me she'd been to many, many re-inactments, including a pilgrimage back east, and I had done the best smithing job she'd seen so far. I think what impressed her was the fact that I kept on task the whole time, didn't talk much, and got to make some fairly nifty items that took time because young Jon was pumping out hooks every 10 minutes to keep the crowd appeased. Bottom line, if you're working hard and sweating, folks give you a break and appreciate your efforts.

Welcome Hillbilly, I'm glad you found us. As I get older, when I visit a new area or city, I'm more prone to stopping at art galleries for a time killer instead of pubs. (okay, I still visit pubs, but I can usually walk away these days). I get down hearted in a lot in art galleries, I see a wonderfully designed iron piece across the room, when I approach it, I see super ugly machine scroll work, or torch cut arcs migged together with inherant BB's splatted all over the piece. I wish I could just spend an afternoon with the artist and just work on a few basics.. I'll quit ranting now, please feel free to ask any and all questions you may have, you may get six answers to two questions, but there's a quality-oriented thought path to them all. Carry on, Govn'r, keep fighting the good fight.

Here's some pics of my double-bick Peddinhaus anvil. I've been questing for some time to come up with a good holddown. I made several hairpin-spring pritchel holddowns, but the pritchel hole is situated too far forward to have much room left to work once the hot piece is dogged down. I made this low profile tee-shape holddown from two pieces of 1 inch square and a chunk of leafspring from a '58 Chevy haytruck. The leafspring was 2-1/4 inch wide and 3/8 inch thick. It determined the dimensions of the slots for the hardy post. I milled slots on both axis, so the holddown will grab North-South, or East-West (Mcraigl thought up that idea). I forged a Vee in one side of the top piece to hold round stock. With a quick couple taps on the key, it holds work down super tight. The low profile is easy to work around, and the tool doubles as a faux-step when needed. The pressure releases instantly with a tap on the small end of the key.

Nice! I have one of those, it's probably the most used power tool in the shop. Consider buying some top quality Verzon-plus discs, they pay for themselves in longevity real fast. I use 40 grit discs on mine.

Creek, the angle iron is 2 x 3 x 3/16 US inches. It doesn't matter what it is if it holds up to your whacking schedule..

Mark A: Sure I'll bring it to Weaverville. I think we're advertised to make hinges at the hammer-in(still working on what, nothing like a public demo to bring out the knotty details), but I bet we can squeeze out a single-malt derived bear head on Saturday night. I'm sort of proud of the chisel set I made after the class w/ Darryl Nelson, Perhaps folks can have the set made by the time he demo's.... Mark B: You bet! there's plenty of room for things to do with that simple pinhole, I just ain't thought of them yet....More to come as this current bottle empties..

I thought I'd post some pictures of this, maybe someone can use the idea. Mark-B set me up with this monster old Chas. Parker vise. (Thanks again, Mark!) It has tall jaws with recesses built in for accepting vee-jaws for gripping round stock. I used this void to make a fixture for holding the carving block steady whilst making animal heads. It seems like I always waste the first few seconds of fresh heat fumbling to get the carving block in the right place to tighten the vise. I like using 2 x 3 inch angle iron to make the carving block, so I can get 2 different attack angles to the work. That's why the block has two different bushings, one for each side. Being pinned in, the block stays where it's supposed to,works great, and changes position in seconds. Another thing that came out real good is the base plate. (5/8 x 24 x 24 inch). I had the waterjet guy cut 8 inch radius' on the corners so I can roll the set up around the shop. I also had him cut a square hole so the 4 inch upright tubing fits inside. I shimmed it 1/4 inch above flush on the bottom and tack welded the corners on the top once it was fair and plumb. I did all the heavy stick welding from the underside, and the weld-warp made the plate cup slightly down, instead of cupping up if I had welded from the top.. The result is, the vise sits along the outer edge of the plate, and is less affected by scale and bits on the floor, minimizing the wobbling that can accompany a portable base. The other good thing about this vise is I can place it just off the forge, but where I can walk all the way around it unencumbered to do the same chiseling from each side. Questions, comments, etc mike

Way to go Mark! I need a shop to crash while my wife goes shopping for a half day over at the Rogue mall..Keep us posted

That's a wonderful story. What caught my attention the most, was, How did a blacksmith amass 3.5 million dollars? I've got some clients that ask me do do a project and send them a bill. I wonder if I should send out a few invoices for 2million, and see what happens... in all honesty, jokes aside, I'm humbled by his example.

I'm wary of getting a shop floor too smooth. A little surface texture makes for better traction. One of my friends power troweled his floor to a glassy finish, and if the floor gets wet I can skate across it in just a couple steps.

Fabricate a steel surround for the lower die out of stout stock, 1/2 x 1 or better, with 1/8 inch clearance on both axis. Tap a half inch hole on the left side to use as a clamping device, weld on a piece of square tubing that will be the hardy hole on the right.

Our local industrial supply sells the composite belting and does the lacing. Call them with the measurement and it's ready that day. I run my SB lathe and power hammer on it, over 5 years and still doing great. I give the belts a quick squirt of belt dressing every couple weeks or so if they appear to be slipping too much.

I've never heard anyone wish for a smaller hammer before.. I have an 80 pound mechanical hammer, It will work down to 3/8 stock real easy. What are you making? Have you watched the video series by Clifton Ralph? He does all kinds of stuff with little giant-type hammers. Perhaps you just need to fiddle with die height adjustments, etc to get a lighter kiss on small stock.

I wonder what those two pins are for in front of the leaf springs.. The look like they would knock your teeth out too easily.

You might check with your local waterjet company. I think there's software available for straight cut gear teeth, aluminum or brass might be a good choice.

Howdy Frank, Give me a call if you want, I'm an instructor with the California Blacksmith assoc. I'd be happy to have you come by sometime. Look in the phone book for 'Olene Machine', that's me. I live east of town in, you guessed it, Olene.

I would suggest drilling and tapping threads for joinery. That stuff is cheap pig iron cast. I don't know about MIG welding it, I've had some luck preheating to 400F with a torch and stick welding with nickle rod. Once you get a couple welds to stick, there's a good chance it will stretch and warp and break in two somewhere in the middle of the piece. I built a gate using those cast pieces once, I think it was what convinced me to learn blacksmithing, so I could make my own...

It's very nice. Is that a glass sphere in the center?

Look up Tom Dudkowski in Stayton. Ask him to invite you over for an afternoon. He's a solid smith, and will teach you more in an afternoon than you can remember. Tell him Mike from K Falls said howdy.

Ive made several crucibles using left over Kast-O-lite refractory cement. I used a 1 quart plastic mix cup bought from the paint store, filled 2/3 full with the cement, and shoved a beer can in the middle. Tap lightly around the edges to release bubbles, and set behind the woodstove for a week. Peel the can out, and the plastic off, and fire gently in the forge to make sure it's okay. I've melted bronze, copper, and aluminum in my gas forge, works good. An advantage to the beer-can crucible is you can leave a 2 inch solid mass at the bottom that makes the crucible more crush resistant and less stressful during pours.

Why recast? Just chuck up the 6x6 billet and turn a wheel out of the 2 inches on the end. Drill the hole and use a part-off tool to cut it off the billet. Remember to set the compound at one or two degrees from parallel and cut towards the center of the wheel from both edges to give it a slight crown, so your belts track good.

I've had occasional success annealing air hard steel without a computer controlled kiln. I heated two large steel blocks in the forge along with the tool steel. Get everything to temperature, remove from forge and quickly clamp the tool steel in between the two large hot blocks. Bury the whole mess in vermiculite, and leave alone for a couple days. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

If you know anyone that lives by a harbor, they sometimes pile up used fishnet that they pull out of the channel. I use some to secure loads to the dump. really tough stuff.

Welcome Pawnee, I think I met you 5-10 years ago at the Backcountry Packing clinic at the Yakima fairgrounds. I got a kick out of watching you make a folded axe out of a farrier rasp. I was slaving for a buddy across the aisle from you in the wooden blacksmith shop. You do great work, and I still remember that mysterious liquid you and your rondy friends shared from that crockery jug. mike