Chalky

Mice - cute little things! The ones in my shop climb onto my bench and eat the fat I keep in a tub for lubricating pritchels. When the've had enough they will collect odds and ends and place them on top of the fat, bits of chalk, nails , anything small. I just trap them - my shop dog can't reach the bench! :rolleyes:

Hi Foaming, I've used a Hotbox for years, shoeing horses, worked my way through two of them! My single burner gets hot enough to make shoes and the double should be fine for welding though the depth is a little restricted. Fitting a door with an opening for stock might increase the heat.

Possumfat - not bad! Try keeping the base of the horns a little thicker and don't try to put too many twists in them. Use the round face of your hammer at an angle on the area between the nose and eye will go, it gives a bit of a 'cheek ' and a base to punch the eye socket so it looks forewards. I like to round the bar immediately behind the head, it makes the curve much easier

Yep, Dobbies is a Garden Centre chain. Lots of steel work, probably Far Eastern, painted to look antique. Mind you, I couldnt make it for the same price.

billp - if it's too hot to work in the middle of the day think yourself lucky . Just have a siesta!

Thingmaker3 - 6 hours - I will just leave it out in the sun!! I read your location statement, I thought it was only in the UK that Planning Departments were populated my total pratts!

Hi bigfootnampa - it was a piece of spare bar I had lying around. It comes from the suppliers with dimpled edges and a wavy line down the middle ( used by fabricators to make gates etc. look forged! ). I jumped up the end for tenoning and the hook was just forged out of the main bar.

Thanks Stewart, tested and what I think is the H13 showed medium length yellow streaks with a single spark at the end. The other sample showed shorter, redish streaks with a small spark at the end. I wonder if it might be S7. It also sounds distinctly harder on the grinder wheel ( how can it sound hard??? ).

Not meaning to be negative but Technicus Joe seemed to be making awful hard work of it. Given decent thickness stock and a good heat, with a hammer that size most guys could make the complete tong jaw in one heat - and fiddle about later!

Ratel10MM has it right. Started as a 4" wide strip, split, drawn and curved, brought round and arc welded at the back at the top. The texturing was done hot with a sharp straight pein hammer - bit tedious but works. To be honest it started out as a heart shape but evolved into an 'onion' - my designs are not fixed in stone, I go with the flow. bigfootnampa - there is no forge welding in it. Which element were you asking about?

Here's a pic of a more unusual hanging basket bracket I made. Bit different from the rubbish you see in Dobies etc!

The old fashioned way was to use Boric Acid powder from the chemists (it's an antiseptec), spread on a baking tray and bake in the oven until crisp. Crumble it up to use. Much better to go to www.gasforges.co.uk and buy some of Cecil Swans 'Magiweld'. They will post or your local farrier supply store will have it.

Appologies! I got the pics a bit big! :blink:

I am making some tooling for my flypress and have a stock of H13 round bar. Is it feasable to forge my tool tips from H13 and then weld them onto the mild steel shafts and shock collars I have already made? See the pics for the made up shafts.

Did you ever find some ball weights?