jayco

She's in my thoughts and prayers, Jimmy.

If you don't have anything to use for tongs, here's a quickie idea I came up with. They don't hold as well as well made tongs but work in a pinch and will allow you to handle hot stuff safely.

Drako11, funny you should mentions loose handles........I had exactly the same problem about a year ago.
I asked almost the same question you asked, and got a lot of good answers and information.

Here's a link to our discussion:

http://www.iforgeiron.com/forum/f11/loose-handles-7549/

cablemonkey,welcome to Iforgiron!

Glad to hear that in spite of your accident you are still working with metal.

There are lots of friendly folks here to help if you have questions.
All you have to do is ask.

Incidentally, we started a thread a couple years ago to discuss ways of working if one were limited to a wheelchair.
Here's a link:

http://www.iforgeiron.com/forum/f11/blacksmith-limited-wheel-chair-2758/

Since you have practical experience with how 'working from a wheelchair' works.....your experience can be invaluable to others.

Welcome aboard.........and ...........ENJOY!

James Flannery

Both you and Clara will be in our thoughts and prayers.

James

Stroyeror, the 100% natural charcoal should work fine.

The reason for not using charcoal 'briquets' is because they are designed for slow cooking of food and won't release their energy quick enough for most forging purposes.

Good luck on your first fire!

Tom, I have 2 old hand crank blowers and 2 old blacksmith's electric blowers.
They are all made to use 3 in. piping more or less.
I think you are on the right track.

Nice work, Finnr! The weld pattern gives the piece a nice look.

Congratulations on your first forge weld!

James

Happy birthday, Jimmy! Have a GREAT day!

Here's something that 'followed me home' from the flea market. I gave the guy $2 for it. He didn't know what it was and neither do I.

I thought it might be handy to turn a blower, wire brush, or small grindstone.

Any one have any idea what this was used for?

Actually looks pretty cool!
I've played guitars of that design before. Kinda heavy.
I'll bet with the added iron work, it weighs a TON!

Chris, that's nice work!

Seldon,hope you get your medical stuff taken care of.

Good luck to you.

James

Well, it's been a while since I got the difibrillator, and since I began asking questions about it.

Thanks to all those that have added valuable information to this thread.

Since I last posted in this thread, I have had 3 occasions in which the unit had discharged, or "kicked".
(No, none of them was arc welding related)

The "kick" is not pleasant at all..........quite sickening, then quite painfull..............like a mini explosion in your chest.
Thankfully, it is over rather quickly.

What's really strange is that all the discharges I've had happened while over-exerting myself in the GARDEN!, and involved being bent over or lifting.

It is, after all, a strong electrical shock. To me, that's how it felt.
After each incident, I was left sore, weak, and a little disoriented for a few minutes.

In other words, I WILL NOT be trying to arc weld!..........at least not until, new devises or special shielding.....or something...........is developed to make arc welding safe and possible for folks who have these devises.

For the time being, I will be putting my attention toward learning to gas weld, improving my forge welding, etc.........and letting my son do the arc welding.

James Flannery

Fans

I've always been curious about fan pressure versus volume, too.

I did a little web surfing and came up with the above link.

What about wedging and gluing??

I don't think it would be a problem, as long as you don't squeeze all the glue out when you 'set' the handle.

Thomas, I'll be coming back to this thread to let everyone know how it goes.
Like you said.........Time is the test.

James

When I saw this post, I remembered that the subject had come up before. A start to the conversation:

http://www.iforgeiron.com/forum/f7/how-much-coal-6029/

Well, it has been a WHILE!, but I finally got around to glueing 6 of my hammer handles with Sikaflex adhesive.

I actually did them 2 days ago. (You're supposed to wait 48 hours for the glue to cure)

I put a thin coating on the inside of the hammer eyes and also the 'eye' sections of the wood handles. I used no wedges or anything else (except Sikaflex) to secure the handles. Just tapped the handles in the hammer eyes and wiped off the little bit of excess glue which oozed out .

I finally got to try the hammers today, and all are 'rock solid'. No give to the handles whatsoever.

Now for the 'shameless endorsement', part of this post...........

I got mine from the IFI store.........THANKS GLENN!

By the way, I did 6 handles and have enough left to do several more handles.........It comes in a large,caulking gun sized container.

You gotta try this stuff!

James Flannery

Nope, never tried forging welding copper. Does sound interesting , though.
IN fact, I already have a couple small copper projects in mind that would be interesting with forge welded elements.

I've used copper for forge brazing of iron, but I've never done any coppersmithing........until recently that is.
This could be interesting.....

Yeah Frosty, copper is fun.
After so many years forging iron, copper is sort of like.........butter!

That's good news! Glad to hear you're 'on the mend'.
James

Thanks, new guy.
I'm over the surgery. They installed a little unit to 'jump start' my heart back into rythym, if I need it.

Worst of all, I lost months of time and work while I healed up from the minor surgery.
But, I'm OK now!

While I was recuperating from my defibrillator surgery.....some months ago........some of the members sugested I try doing something with copper, since for a time I could not do any heavy lifting/hammering.

Here's a couple of pics of something I worked on. I couldn't resist making the pieces look 'rustic'.......after all.......IT's MY STYLE!

These were easy and fun to do.

Just some 1/2 in. copper tubing (split and flattened)
And some copper ground wire.

I'm with Frosty. I like my side draft.
Mine is a 10in. x 10in. x 30 in. pressure washer casing for the horizontal part
The vertical part is just some 10in. round stove pipe. Works great.


There are more pics in my gallery.
The only construction I had to do was to use some sheet metal screws to attach the horizontal section to the vertical section.