solvarr

It's 100$ a month plus consumables.
So if you run the gas forge.
You write what the pressure gauge on the tank says at the start and the end and they charge you for the gas.

The 3d printer they charge you for the used plastic.

And you have to pay for a safety training class for many of the tools (30-40$)

Has anyone tried using a TechShop?
TechShop Open-Access Public Workshop

They are opening one near where I live and it looks intriguing and well a little too good to be true.

I checked and they have no power hammers (yet) and the forges run gas.

The things we found when we were playing with that design.

I say playing because we were using Innertube rubber instead of leather because it was free an let us mock up bellows easily without spending hundreds on leather.

The ribs really helped our performance since it made the bladder behave more like a piston and less like dizzy Gillespie's cheeks.


we setup a two valve system in the ones we made.

A standard intake valve under the handle which was a peice of rubber tacked in four places under the intake hole (leather worked better here than the rubber)

In the base we made what we called a tongue valve.
we made a rectangular piece of rubber and made it so it would naturally rest on the square output channel in the base of the bellows.
if you do it right it closes off most of the air from the forge on the filling stroke and gets out of the way when you are pumping the air out to the forge

I have evidence for the top valve.
The bottom valve was just us saying romans weren't dumb.

Have you seen the portable roman foundry on the viking bronze website?

Know anyone with an oxy acetylene rig?
While back an acquaintance needed to do something similar.
He rough cut the hole and then had enough heat because he cut in a spiral to build the heat he was able to finish the hole by drifting.

He needed to mount a 3 inch bar to a 1 inch plate so he worked up a tapered mortise on the end. Forced the sucker through the yellow hot glowing hole. Flipped it over and used a rosebud to finish doming the tennon.

Seems like you should be able to do something similar.

Be sure you get the right tips and gas mix for the thicker steel and do a few practice cuts if you have never done this before.

Mine (a 400) has the bolts through the gears the same way except mine has square headed bolts.

can you rotate the flywheel a full 360?

On mine there is a "screw drive" hooked to the back of the flywheel that the gears makes the flywheel/blower wheel turn.

If you have broken tooth or other scrap down there it can cause your problem.

Really odd thought.

Have you turned it upside down and fiddled with it?

I had a loose bolt fall out of one I turned upside down and fiddles with about 10 years ago and it worked great after that.

Did you use the rounded or the flatter profile?

He's about 4 miles from a 3 foundries and a drop forging plant.
If you are serious it would be worth it to ask where he got it from.

Not saying this is at all related , but some forums have reported that there have been some back of the foundry anvil thefts in the last year.

-Solvarr

Hey Richard, i sure could use a diagonal peen, if'n you have a spare;).

Primtechsmith
You asked for my wife's cookie recipie
She replaces one cup of sugar with splenda and does the flour with whole wheat.
Merry Christmas to you and yours
-Solvarr and Marion

This recipe is from the Cake Central cake decorating forum.
No Fail Sugar Cookies

Category: Cookies!
Difficulty: Easy

This recipe is GREAT when using complex cookie cutters. The dough holds its' shape and won't spread during baking. Make sure you let your oven preheat for at least 1/2 hour before baking these or any other cookies.
6 cups flour
3 tsp. baking powder
2 cups butter
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract or desired flavoring (I like almond myself)
1 tsp. salt

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla. Mix well. Mix dry ingredients and add a little at a time to butter mixture. Mix until flour is completely incorporated and the dough comes together.

Chill for 1 to 2 hours (or see Hint below)

Roll to desired thickness and cut into desired shapes. Bake on ungreased baking sheet at 350
degrees for 8 to 10 minutes or until just beginning to turn brown around the edges. This recipe
can make up to 5-dozen 3� cookies.
Nutrition Information
HINT: Rolling Out Dough Without the Mess -- Rather than wait for your cookie dough to
chill, take the freshly made dough and place a glob between two sheets of parchment paper.
Roll it out to the desired thickness then place the dough and paper on a cookie sheet and pop
it into the refrigerator. Continue rolling out your dough between sheets of paper until you have
used it all. By the time you are finished, the first batch will be completely chilled and ready to
cut. Reroll leftover dough and repeat the process! An added bonus is that you are not adding
any additional flour to your cookies.

Abana affiliates ideally meet semi regularly and have local or guest demonstrators and can be a nexus for sharing blacksmithing data. Besides the magazine I am unsure what they could really do for you in Alaska.

If you do decide to do a public demo being an Abana member can help smooth some feathers with the authorities when you decide to set up. (gives em something to google) But that's usually a minor issue. Frankly unless you were willing to travel I am unsure it really buys you much.

I kinda wish they had a discounted price and you could opt to receive the magazines digitally.
I'd pay 25-35 a year for that. 55$ is more than I pay for my SCA membership and at least there I am getting insurance to cover the local group, local calendar, and a society wide publication. Family membership rates also make sense. Father Mother 2 kids It's 220$ to buy membership for for a family of four to abana.

For your situation I'd pay 36$ a year and buy the publication as a bunch of back issues once a year from the store.

done.
Hope it helps

It was over a 3 hour drive to get to meet him

Joseph Art School, Box 106, Joseph, Oregon 97846, 800-459-3605
Oregon School of Arts and Crafts, 8245 SW Barnes Road, Portland, Oregon 97225, 503-297-5544
Blacksmith's Schools Page
Home Page

There is alot going on out west.
Granted you may have to go to the next state.
But washington and california are really busy areas blacksmithing wise.
-Solvarr

very cool, you are very fortunate to have someone that knowledgeable even near you, let alone instructing you.
looking forward to another update!

What a great guy.
We just talked for an hour about hammer design and politics.
This man is a wealth of insite and perspective.
-Solvarr

That forge is a few miles from me.

Are you going to the yesteryear demo?

If you can paypal the guy I could haul it up to va for you.
-Eric

I have a brake drum and a pipe for my hair dryer but i am missing the peice that connets the tube to the drum does anyone know where to find one. :mad:. Ha i also found this forge online for 50 bucks Coal Forge

it's a little further and pricier but my crew is staying at the Comfort inn in burkeville on saturday night.

There is a nice Italian restaurant in burkeville right as you pull off the highway.

We stayed there for the hamer in and it was a nice place.

-Solvarr

Just in case anyone was wondering there is a nice campground about 5 miles from Yesteryear Forge.
Here is a link to their website: Welcome to the Amelia Family Campground

Peyton

You can micro batch your own charcoal.
Get a 35-55 gallon drum or a non galvanized metal container.
Fill it vertically with a bunch of yard waste wood no thicker than 3 inches wide.
Have one piece stick out the top about 3 inches
Start a fire in the barrel and use a piece of metal as a lid so when the extra 3 inches burn down the fire goes out.
This will not give you an optimal yield but it is an easy technique.

There have been times when I have bypassed the charcoal and used a small but intense camp fire and setup a side blast using an inflatable bed blower and a length of pipe to blast air right into the coals.

I have read anecdotes of Appalachian blacksmiths using chunks of seasoned hardwood directly in their forge.

Since the jaw on the right doesn't rotate
I'd cut off the bottopm peice with the screw.
Then I'd forge a piece that would butt up to the bottom and wrap arround the backside and up and do 2 L shaped welds with as much penetration as I could manage.


But frankly as it is it can be a VERY handy tool .
I treasure my movable vices and tools.

mine
100_0608 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

not mine but I have some that are similar.
29 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

get it hot
hit it hard
repeat as necessary

another pebble for my pile of stones (reference to how smiths accumulate little bits of info)

I need a third arm (slang for I need a helper, there are some vulgar versions of this involving prehensile appendages I've heard)

And I thought my grandfather's quonset hut was HOT!!!

Very cool design Doc.

PS: been a fan of the Whiteboard for years. I have a printout of Doc chasing Rodger with the anvil hanging in my shop.

The gas jet, as I said, is a chink of 1/4" stainless instrument tubing, threaded to 10-32 machine screw size, and fitted with a stainless quarter-turn ball valve.
Photo 5


The orifice is the usual .024" MIG tip, but mounted this way makes for a very streamlined jet.
Photo 6


I'd made my own intake bell out of old exhaust tubing, as I thought the old "pipe reducer bell" was kind of hokey- and the local plumbing shops didn't have any, anyway.
Photo 7


The bell has a central collar that holds the gas jet, and through the miracle of a small hose clamp, is actually adjustable. The mount for the whole works is a little jury-rigged, but again, this unit was put together in a hurry, to use, not to look good.

But now that I know my burner design works- albeit I made the intake bell over twice as large as it probably should be- I'll eventually build a slightly larger and somewhat fancier two-burner unit that's a little more refined. Though for the moment, I'm just glad I have a workable forge now.

Doc.

No prob bud.
Good thing I grabbed the extra reducer bells for the forge burners.
I want us to make this together so you can reproduce and tweak it later.
We can start on the burner this Sunday if you like.

Ltr bud.
-Solvarr

I thank you solvarr for being lenient with my huge mistake. We were talking about fuel for the forge and I was leaning towards gas. I was thinking gas because I can make a simple solid fuel forge by myself with relative ease and with a low cost but I am not so confident about making my own gas forge. I would rather make a gas forge with someone that has experience with gas forges (ei yourself). This is impart due to the fact that my parents would worry if I made my own gas forge, they would worry about me making it wrong and blowing up the house or myself. to quelsh their fears I think it would be best that you and I make a gas forge. Thank you very very much agin for you leniency.

Do we have an Oregon Smith willing to take RainsFire's bet? ;>

After all this he calls me up to claim the bet.
The bet was over to be over Saturday morning as we had confirmed on Wednesday.
He called me to claim his prize tonight after watching a show.
I told him he just lost.
He started banging his head on the wall.......

That being said I am still giving him the setup because he is a good kid and really misremembered the time.

The lesson learned: Write down the terms of the bet when negotiated!

missed the topic heading--wish I could figure out how to make a dirt box gasser.

He was going to come to the hammer in but he had a martial arts tournament he had already signed up for. It was killing him.

We had a great time doing the demo. Marion and I and possibly Drogo and Oonagh are looking forward to seeing all of you again in November. We are trying to see if we can get a few more people from down here to make the trip.

-Eric