dief

Just installed these doors pulls. The square ones are 16in tall and the vine is about 10in. Customer was very happy.

I like to design by muddle - as in muddle through it. I'll get an idea and start forging. Then I keep messing with it or make another version until I get something I like. My drawing skills are exceptionly bad so I only do crude stratching to help me remember ideas. When I meet with customers I tell them I'm paper and pencil challenged. I will make them a sample (or show them something I already have) so they can see and feel the texture I want to use on their item. This works out great and I'm building a nice sample "library".

My favorite hold is made from the vicegrips that you see on a drill press. I cut off the mounting bolt and welded on a piece of angle that slides easily down the hardy hole. I drilled a 1/4 hole thru the angle just below where it exits the bottom of the hardy hole. I slide a pin thru this hole to keep the visegrip from rising up the hardy hole. The vicegrip is quick to adjust to get just the right pressure you need for the job.

Mount your hinge to a plate that would be bolted to the wall with 2 bolts using epoxied threaded rod couplers for anchors. You could adjust the hinges by using different sized spacers behind the plates. I'ved used this system and it works great.

I have flat, combo and crown dies for my BigBlu 110. I use the flat dies with bolt on texture dies made from 2x1.2 flat stock. I do alot of texturing on cold stock. If you get the stock (especially long sections) out of allignment with the dies it will beat the poop out of you. I've got myself trained now to use on open hand grip and always be ready to quickly lift my foot of the treadle. The first time this happend I tried to to grip harder on the flopping bar. It didn't tkae me long to figure that was a bad idea. I also wear some thick padded work gloves when I use the hammer on cold stock.

A nifty add-on - I have a 1/2in bolt expoxied in the floor just inside the treadle. This bolt has a big threaded washer on it. I can spin this washer up or down to set the speed of the hammer. This is great for texturing lots of stock and you want constistant hammer hits - just stomp and go.

At the end of each day ask yourself 'What did I learn?"

If you think a project is too difficult for you it is a project well worth doing.

The final 5% of a project is the most important. This is the point where a lot of folks drop the ball.

Much of my creativity comes from a concept I call "muddling". I just start with a simple idea and jump right in and work on it. I don't like to plan too much as it seems to box me in and stiffle my creativity. After making an item ideas usually start to pour out of my brain. I'll implement these ideas and the process repeats itself. Sometimes the design I end up with is nothing like what I first thought of. Some of the ideas work out great and sometimes they reaaly suck. They main point is to just get to work and try stuff - to "muddle" thru the project. There is something about "doing" that generates more ideas than just thinking - at least for me.

I recently used this approach when friend wanted me to make some candle sticks that would be inserted into empty wine bottles. She showed me a simple fabricated one that she bought somewhere that held two candles. I told her I would make 4 of them and they would all be different. I had no idea at the time what they would look like. I gathered up a bunch of scrap pieces and started to play with different methods to hold a candle above a drip pan. It was was a fun evening project. She used them at a party and I got orders for eight more from a few of her guests.

I use this same approach when writing computer softare and building indoor rock climbing walls. I built 15,000 sq ft of 30ft high climbing walls and my plans consisted of really bad sketchs on napkins from the pizza place next door drawn while eating lunch.

BigBlu 110. I love this baby!

In the climbing world when we have a bad day it is called a "high gravity" day. When my hammer refuses to behave I call it a good "scrap making" day. As long as I learn something even the scrap days are good days.

Here in the desert we have a lot of days with single digit humidity so wood drys out very fast which will cause the head to loosen. Soaking the hammer (head down) in anti-freeze or linseed oil with tighten them right up. If you use anit-freeze make sure the critters can't get into it.

Desert Rat Forge cause I is a desert rat. I also thought about Rusty Coyote Ironworks.