matto

Any time come on down.

kevin i was thinking the same thing would have to chamfer the edge to help from sticking. frosty i was also thinking of a brazeal style anvil or an oliver hammer anvil or a striking anvil. i'm going to see if the machine shop in town will put a hardy hole in it for me. after talking at a hammer inn last night i think pic 4 are drill shafts. there is some sucker rod around them also. the great thing about this is that all this was just within 60' basicaly one little corner of the yard. the yard takes up about a city block if not two. so much more to see. one bad part is it is always changing so who knows what i miss or what will come in. there are some 55 gal. drums full of solid barings from 3" up to 12" they are about 4 or 5 inches thick and flat top and bottom eith a 3/4 hole in center. i am thinking bending dyes. ( not to rub it in) matt o

use spar urithane or poly i am in nebraska and have had sculptures outside for 6 or 7 year with just a couple of coats of poly. just remember if it is usable it will not matter what finish you put on it it will wear depending on use. so after some heavy use it might need a quick coat.

here is the stamped shop floor pics and pic of the front approach. the floor still needs washed and the rest of the front brick is now down sanded and packed. (8 pallets of brick in front approach) the 30x50 shop floor there are frame outs for where the brick forge, power hammer, and post will be. when ready for them will dig out and pour concrete for footings and pad what a close up of the stamped floor looks like before washing. after it is washed and sealed i will post agian. front approach all old pavers form the old brick streets in town.

here are a couple of pictures from my morning dig 197.5 lb 10"x10", 16" wide x5 3/4" tall 118 lb ( these are now in the shop. bought at $0.20 per lb. 14"tall x 4" thick x 7'6 long there are 9 i can see 9'x6" about 8 i can see. now to get out what i want and get it cut.

Will have pictures tomorrow. Was laying the front aproch today it is all out of 120 to 150 year old pavers from down town.

It would all go great in my shop or the museum shop I am building. It is built out of an old barn so all the stuff should feel at home. I like the grinder and belt motor.

On little house he wasn't bad guy he just was mean for a while bEcause people picked on him because he was burned bad they thought he eas a monster. But he was really nice. Remember when Laura or her sister where blind and gigot lost the smith found her ant nursed her back to health.

Little house on the prairie had a great blacksmith. And my other favorite would be the smiths at the clear creek history center in golden Colorado. We where I a documentary on the finding of gold in colorado.

Got the floor poured and stamped on the new blacksmiths shop a trails and rails museum today. I will post pics after we wash it tomorrow. It is stained and stamped to look like old brick.

I really need to build some dishing blocks out of some logs. So I can get deeper dishes and stops to go against to start a crease. O finished another one today out of a quarter inch piece of plate. Went alittle wild on it. My mother in law thinks it is alittle to sci-fi. I will get a pic of it and post.

Remember not everything is perfect in nature either, I think it is great that you take something that did not work and make it work. Your wilted leave

Just wondering why we at not using this page

here are two pictures of the 3/8" cold formed plate sculpture so far here is what i have done with the 3/16" cold formed plate macbruce you would be shocked on the control you have with a skid steer. i can hit super light or super hard. plus you have the weight of the loader to help you float or sink your blows.

here are a couple of pictures. i just tried it this morning. it is alittle biger than a 90# air hammer. this is 3/8" plate 26"x18 1/2" here is the dish as macbruce stated it is alittle hard to control but i think with a rubber mat i won't drag the piece as much. this is 3/16" much easier to work would not go any smaller, here is the dishplate size is 22"x18" i will post pictures of the finished dishes when i get them done. there will be alittle hand work on them to get the finished dish.

here is my thought.... i have had this thought for a couple of years now. the part of my business that is paying the bills is concrete flat work. and as most concrete people we replace old drives side walks and ect.. well we have to remove the old concrete to put in the new concrete. so i'm sitting in the skid steer breaking out drive after drive thinking because breaking out concrete is kind of boring after awhile, so you think a lot. so my thoughts tend to drift to tools and blacksmithing sence that is what i am always thinking about. then a light bulb went on, i wonder if i can use my concrete breaker to cold form some big bowls or sculptures? i wonder how thick of metal i could form? flat out i wonder if it will do it? when the breaker hits on concrete there is so much force. my thought is will it work, to put a sheet on the ground (dirt) and see what happenes or put it on a rubber stall mat on the ground and go to town. will it hurt the breaker? so i have a call in to the company that makes the breaker to see what there engineers think, my thought is it will work, you would think there will be less force hotting steel on the ground than tring to get the first breaks in concrete. (depending on how thick steel is) so we will see, just a thought while bored. if i try it i will picture it all happening.

don't put it in diesel. just clean it up with a wire brush or wire wheel and paint and grease. or take it all apart clean it with a wire brush wire wheel or bead blaster, paint it put it back together grease it use it. when using anything but a wire brush becareful with any brass bushings.

it can be a canedy otto rail road forge and blower. as for the fire pot it is one of two things one, not the original to the forge or two had a layer of fire brick or refractory cement in the bottom to bring the forge floor up to the edges of the fire pot. i'm going with it had fire brick on the floor to raise the floor hight two the eddges of the pot. a brick should fit under that lip on the right and left side of the pot. good find all well worth the drive. you should beable to get $400 to $500 out of the forge alone and about $600 to $700 with the blower if everything is good. i have seen the blowers alone go for $200 to $300. just finding the right buyer. i would keep it and build a trailer for the forge and anvil then you have a nice demo set up.

you can use 7018 on ac or dc. it also gives you more structure. you do have prep alittle more but when welding when is there not a grinder or wire brush around. another great rod to have is 6022. it burns alittle hotter for a 60 series rod but runs more like 7018. is great for welding decking.

when you go to finish them you can reheat the twist and flatten them a litttle. will make nicer on the hand after long hours. or you can hit the twist with a flapper wheel to round them a little so you still have the twist just softer.

good to have another nebraska boy here. as RLD said join pba there are alot of good smiths between linclon and omaha. there is a pba meeting in filly this weekend. you can get info off of the pba website. i hear ya about all the metal in a house. i raised the bar on that all my door casing, base board (base metal), window casing and other trim work ar all out of metal. i have made all my tables and a lot of other furniture in the house out of metal.

sell one of the other vises and keep the post.

here is my shop after getting forge setup it is set up so two smiths can work at the forge at the same time. there is an air gate to an electric blower from the hand crank blower with a control switch on the wall behind the flue pipe. that way ether smith can control the fire. the other side of the shop has the gas forge you can use it there or roll it where ever. there is a small stock rack under it. the shop has alot more stuff in it now. i made a post a couple of months ago on the trails and rails museum blacksmith shop that i am building. i have the footings in and the floor formed up with areas for the brick forge and the power hammer formed out so we can pour footings for them later. the floor will be stained and stamped to look like brick. as soon as i get the pictures on the computer i will post. now i need to get the old barn down so i can build the shop.

the period correct safty glasses are if you wore glasses or not. as for safty glasses they can not be called safty glasses with out the z87 stamp on the frames and lenses. putting z87 lenses into non z87 frames will get you a nice little osha fine then they will hit you with a little fine per missing side shield. so as stated before safty trumps historically correct. if you ware them ware proper ones and no one will say a thing about it.

trip, i would say your coal is a bituminous coal. i found some very much like what you have in an old coal bin at a friends in colorado. i had it analyzed by a friend that started the wyoming analytical laboratories. they do all the testing for the coal comming out of wyoming, china, colorado, they have analyzed coal from all over the U.S. and the world. my coal has great btu and does coke up. the only problem i have with it is getting it broken up. when i find the lab work on the coal i found i will post it.