Mark Wargo New2bs

Wow, that is a nice looking anvil. In far better shape than my Fisher. I'll bet you get great rebound and it's nice to not have a deafening ring to the anvil. Mark

I started forging with a pit dug in the ground for the fire and a piece of rail road rail. My back hurt after forging. Once I moved the anvil and forge to a comfortable height, no more problems. As for an anvil stand, If you live anywhere that has gotten as much rain fall as we have in Arkansas, I'm sure there are lots of old oak trees on the ground and most folks would be happy to have you come haul off pieces. You mention that you are forging on your second story porch. I'm curious what precautions you take for fire hazards. Mark

Well, after eating with the wife's family I sneaked a bit of forging after dark. On the left is the first tool that I've made (Very rough, but it worked to make the leaves). It started life as a 3/4 inch round coil spring from the local auto salvage. The leaves are from 3/8 square mild steel with brass patina. Mark

Nice! Glad you guys are forging together. She did a great job! Mark

My biggest probelm with briquettes was the ash piled up so quickly it prevented good airflow. I use a brake drum forge, so a better forge design might not have as big a problem with them. Mark

Very nice. Thanks for sharing. I think I might have to give that a go as well. Mark

How about "The Workhorse" Looking good Grant. Mark

Welcome aboard. The site is filled with lots of useful information. Mark

Grant, is there a particular reason you wouldn't break it down for cleaning or just the general difficulty in realigning all the moving parts? Mark

Very nice. How do you get the eye hole smaller vertically?

Every pawn shop I see in a nearby town has a series of railroad rail posts sunk into the sidewalk or asphalt surounding the building. I suppose so noone rams a car into the place and makes off with the goods. Mark

Weldor, The oil is bad. That front gear with the circle and shield shaped holes is a shiny brass in it's natural habitat. That brownish gunk in the bottom is the oil solidified. It is also coating your gears. Inside each of those protruding cylinders on the side and front and back are ball bearings that will be covered in that old oil as well. Be careful when you take it apart, because the ball bearings are loose and held in place by a cone shaped nut. when you remove that, the ball bearings may come rolling out and find all sorts of places to hide. A wife with a bowl held under it is perfect to prevent that though. In mine, only the bearings on the fan shaft were free, the ones on the hand crank gear shaft were held in place by a retaining collar. There are 12 ball bearings on the front and back of the fan shaft and 9 each on the hand crank gear shaft. Good luck cleaning it up. Mark

thanks for the feedback. I'm having a blast restoring this blower. You mentioned 20w and atf. is that motor oil and automatic transmission fluid?

Fortune smiles! When I got home from work today, a co-worker had dropped off a Champion 400 hand crank forge blower and two sets of tongs. I've been applying The Thomas Powers Applied Anvil Acquisition Technique (TPAAAT) in a broader sense to any blacksmithing supplies. I asked him what he wanted for it and he said it was just rusting in his barn so it was mine if I'd take care of it. It had about 3 cubic yards of dirt dauber nest in the fan housing and judging by the pecan shells, a rodent had made it home at least once. After washing that out it turned freely. Over the course of five hours I was able to completely disassemble it. The gear oil had turned into a brick and the dirt daubers apparently discovered the secret to the cement used in the construction of the great pyramids. Wherever it was stored there was enough moisture that moss had grown on the exterior. It is now in it's component parts waiting for thorough cleaning. I intend to paint it. Does anyone know what the original paint scheme was? Also, would 90 weight gear oil be appropriate once I reassemble it? thanks, Mark

Very nice. clean layout. In the last picutre it looks like the garden gnome is propped up against it checking out the hardware heheh. Mark

Got around to the second part of my test today. I bought a bag of Cowboy brand lump hardwood charcoal for $7 at Home Depot. I forged for 4.5 hours and used the entire bag. That works out to about $1.50 per hour. The bagged corn at retail cost $6 and seemed on course to last 6 hours. So that works out to $1.00 per hour. Someone noted that a bit more moisture and the corn would have burned better and lasted longer. Also, you can buy corn cheaper in bulk, cutting the cost almost in half. Anyway, just a bit of data for anyone interested in the comparison. Mark

Very nice. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks Frosty. I'm attending a blacksmith class next weekend, so hopefully I will learn some fire management skills for coal. Yes, my first disaster was making a draw knife out of a file a few weeks back. It got so hot that it bent into a U. If the weather would cooperate, I'd get some more time wrecking metal so I can learn some hammer control heheh. Never the less, I'm having a blast. Mark

Welcome! Good luck building the forge!

Nice lump of steel. Glenn, nice haul from the garage. So the coil springs from a bed are good alloy steel? Mark

Very nice. Good use of the steel. Looks from the picture that he intends to form a horn as well.

In Jackson at the Mississippi Craft Center. It's called A Taste of Blacksmithing. I'll be following that up in January or February with a more involved class. I met several of the folks from the MS Forge Council last weekend at a craft fair. Super helpful guys and I look forward to talking with them more. Thanks for the hint on buying coal. One of the fellows did mention that they buy it 22 tons at a time. Mark

While the smell is less pleasant than wood smoke, I found it much easier to wash out of my hair. For some reason, when I burn hardwood my hair absorbs the smoke and it takes me three days of scrubbing to get the smoke smell out. Yes, buying unbagged corn would certainly be cheaper, but this is a bag I had laying around that hand't found its way into my deer feeder due to record rainfall. My farmer's coop is only 3 minutes from the house, so it's really convenient to buy bagged. Mark

Thank you for the comments. Indeed, I was using a brand new hammer, and it has sharp corners. I'm attending a short blacksmithing course over in Mississippi next weekend and was hoping the teacher could advise me on dressing the face. I don't want to wreck the hammer trying to dress it with no knowledge. Also, I'm sure I wasn't using the hammer well. It bounced unpredictably off the face of the anvil. I was not in my usual forging location, but had moved onto a concrete pad and my anvil was slightly (a milimeter or two)rocking on its base to make matters worse beyond my general lack of experience. Corn Forging: I started a small charcoal fire in the forge, then poured corn around it. You get a rush of smoke that fills the fire pot, but burns off before it goes very far. I posted a bit more about it here with a picture: http://www.iforgeiron.com/forum/f85/charcoal-vs-corn-13989/index2.html

Don, I only found those pictures and thought they'd be helpful for others. I'm currently looking for a hand crank blower, though I'm tempted to try and make one. Mark