stretch

I do quite a few joist hanger brakets. I make them out of one piece of 1/4 plate. A friend has a computerized plasma cutter so I just phone him up and he cuts out the size I need. He has quite a few patterns for me now. I do the initial bends on the 10 ton flypress I have and do the last bend on the friction screw press. It is a lot easier than when I started. It all has to be done hot to get the nice bends. I will send along a couple pictures. Some of them are on the timbers in my front yard.

Thats a blowhard, not a blower ?????

I have been hammering iron for about 35 yrs. Since I have been fulltime I have been call a blacksmith when I made everything without any electrical tool at all because we had no electricity to now I have a tig, 60 KG air hammer, flypress and a friction screw press to help me out and now people call me an artsmith, artist, blacksmith and have even been call a master. I just enjoy hammering iron and asking it to do what I think it should. If that makes me a blacksmith then I guess I are one. There are still a lot of things I would like to produce, just have to pay for the shop and a little wine, so have to do whatever people order, it is just done the way I like and don't comprimise the quality going out my door, even if it means a few more minutes or hours to get er done. Never actually considered the question, to busy having fun

Or not

Got my press running at 6 pm today so no time to try it so am excited for first thing tomorrow. It is a 75 ton friction press so should be fun. Had to rebuild the ram. Someone dropped a tool out of it and beat it pretty good. Got it refaced and machined the hole out to 1 5/8" clean so will be fun tomorrow. Also there is 4 MM of play between the screw and nut. Can it be adjusted or do I work it until it is wore out and get a new one? Gonna be fun.

I have always had 1 burner in my forges and the last one I built I put 2 burners in. The refractory didn't last at all. It got way hotter than normal and something I had never heard of "Thermal Shock" was killing the refractory. The forge or oven mentioned earlier lasted longer because it ran 24/7. No thermal shock because it never shut down. I talked to a friend that had worked at brick making when he was younger and he said they never shut them down and when they did they shut down over a week. Now I have learned about thermal shock I have turned my forge down and it is lasting a lot longer. If I do turn it up to heat something real fast I turn it down and run it cooler before I shut it down. Works so far. Experiment still in progress so will know more later. From what I have learned thermal shock is the killer of refractory, not the high heat, if you use 3000 degree refractory or close. I tried soft brick one time and went very quickly back to insulating castable which I still use. I hope this is clearer than mud.

Should look after it better next time????

Canadian Cash works

Cash

Its a 75 ton Gamai.

Look what I found trying to sneek into my shop. Caught it though and wouldn't let it get out.

I have tried a few times to be clean shaven and it just don't work. A huge waste of time. Have been clean shaven maybe 6 months or maybe a year in about 40 yrs(since I could grow one) and enjoy. My wife makes me trim it up now though. it has a bit of grey in it now.

I am looking for a good book or articles on making locks. I have some ideas, just wouldn't hurt to read something.

I did the curved pieces in the flypress. Took longer to get them so the doors worked right and the whole thing fit straight in the opening than it did to curve them.

This was interesting. I forged texture on 1/4" plate for these. Then used a instablak to colour them. Then they wanted them with no finish on them.