clinton

I made a few more BBQ items, the horse head with the steak turner was the horse that I forged with Brian as my striker in Miss. I drew it out on my powerhammer and finish the meat hook by hand. The other horse head with fork I forged on Sunday and I think it may be the best looking horse head that I have forged it is done with 3/4 inch stock, after I forge the head I cut off the bar leaving about 6 inches from the neck down and draw the tapper then finish the fork by hand, my forks are improving, it take a lot of patients to forge the fork

Ok so you use stakes, how do you have them set up? can you show pictures of your tooling? I watched a guy that does a lot of copper raising and he used stakes that had a shank on them that he placed in a stump that he sits on to work

Good to see yo back on ifi, nice lookin scroll. You know what it takes to make those dies, mine are holding up nice I have been making bbq tools and forged some 1 1/2 inch stock and the hammer works good. Welcome back, I was fixin to send out a search party

that chunk of steel was just something I found at the scrap yard, I used a torch to cut the profile, it has the aggressive fuller as well as two other smother radius fullers and a butcher, this gives you common dies for forging, I learned this from Brian Brazeal, forging is just putting the material between the dies, your anvil is your bottom die and your hammer is the top die, also your anvil only needs to be as big as your hammer

Watch craigslist for anvils or build one all you need is a torch and a grinder and a big chunk of heavy plate. If you ever head up to salinas you are welcome to come by my shop. here is a nice anvil not sure where this place is but this is sweet http://macon.craigslist.org/tls/1814429717.html There are some pictures of the anvil that I built on this post http://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/17540-a-36-for-anvil/

You better hurry Larry is probably on his way over there right now

I have been a union carpenter for 15 years now and there is a definite benefit to being union in the building trades. The safety conditions that are followed help to get us home to our families, our contractors take safety very seriously. Being in the union provides us with a decent wage and benefits package with a retirement plan that would not be possible without the strength of collective bargaining. Our work force is very efficient and well trained through apprentice programs and journeyman upgrade classes. When a contractor needs to man a job they will be provided qualified individuals in a timely manner. Is it a perfect system? No but I can assure you it is a lot better to have the strength of numbers in the construction industry. Ever heard of prevailing wage? Or the eight hour work day? You can thank our forefathers for those

I would look at the size and also check how it sounds when it is turning and how much coast it has (it should keep turning for a few revolutions after you stop cranking). There are a couple of blowers for sale on craigslist here in CA and I do not think they will be selling at the prices they are asking one guy wants $375 and another for $400 both are champion model 400 and I have bought and sold blowers like this for $50. California dreamin if you think you can get 400 bucks for a blower

I made an anvil using mild steel that Is similar to the Brazeal style, they work great. I used a piece that is 2 1/2 inches thick here is what it looks like

I think you can get a discount from CMT as an iforgeiron member check this other thread http://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/16713-touch-mark/page__p__169740__fromsearch__1#entry169740

smithy1- What type of backing do you use?

The exterior angle is 72 deg, the interior angle is 108 deg, the tool needs to be 108 deg ( I think this is right ) here is the link to the info on angles http://www.mathopenref.com/pentagon.html Brian can you show more pictures of the bottom tool?

So the angle of this block is 108 deg? does the size of the block determine the size of stock that can be forged in it? It looks like you are forging 5/8 or 3/4 stock, so is the v block the same size? Can the same block forge more than one size stock?

Ya Brian that is a fork that you made, (nothing gets by you) and it is the model for the forks that I am making, I have a ways to go before I will get one that is as nice. here is the picture of Brian's fork, very nice, and also the guy that ordered the fork never forked over the money so now it is my fork And thank you for the help on the bottle opener that I made in miss. I never knew that drifting to 1 inch makes the perfect opener they work perfect every time now, I test each one myself

I made a few bbq tools this weekend, I used 3/8 x 1 flat bar 6 inches long. I draw a long taper, leaving enough material to make the fork, then slit and drift for the bottle opener and slit and draw out the fork. I still need to work on the fork, it is not easy to get a nice point without burning up or forging too cold and have it split on you. Also I need to rig up kiss blocks on my powerhammer to keep the thickness consistent

That looks real slick, can we see what happens when you forge something with it? I am curious as to how the linkage performs under a load, great looking build

I can use my swage block to do the heading, in two weeks we are having a family reunion and I plan to get my dad, my uncle and my brother over here to do the striking, then we each get a nail to take home, should be fun And yes it is fun to beat metal into submission, I will be doing that today in fact

Looking good Lyle, I hope Dora doesn't see this, or I will be making rings also

Nice looking cork screw, and that is my kinda day too, what more could a man ask for

7024 would not be the best choice as it will only weld in the flat position (the third number being a two indicates position 2= flat or horizontal only), but it will work if you can turn the pot flat and have access to the joint

I decided to see what my comonsense powerhammer would do with 1 1/2'' stock. This is a #2 Comonsense hammer (75 lb), it handled the material well in two heats I was able to get the nails drawn out to 18 - 20 inches, now I just need to round up a couple of strikers and finish heading them off. Here is a link to the video http://picasaweb.goo...197015738032834 This was alot of fun now I need to find some more material, here are a few pictures. I used 6 inches of material to make the nails, leaving about 1 3/4 inches for the head

Ok if you want to repair the anvil this will get you on the right track, although at $7.00/ lb for hardfacing rod I would think that it would be cost inhibiting ( I laid down almost 10 pounds on this anvil) http://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/16052-what-do-you-think-of-this-anvil-repair-approach/page__p__162456__fromsearch__1#entry162456 You may want to reconsider the first option that I gave you

Attach a chain and use it for a boat anchor

I finally sorted out my pictures (there were over 500) and here are some good ones, the first couple of shots were in Mississippi, the rest are from Memphis http://picasaweb.google.com/clintonmetalcraftsman/Abana2010#

Looks good Larry, those water jets are handy, I need to make some bbq tools for my water jet guy, I have a list of items and he seems to have stalled out on me.