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?

Thanks for the info. I was hoping that they would not be some fancy alloy so I could forge them. I will give it a go.

Anyone know what material forklift truck tines are made from. Plenty of worn/broken ones available, thick enough to make tools.

Here are a few pics of my friends motor mounting - it works well but needs a guard!!!

I have some bars of tool steel, 1" round, that the labels have come off. Some are H13, the rest S1. Any method of telling the difference using only regular workshop equipment?

Can anyone help me with a rather basic question? What is the main function of the insulating lining of a gas forge? Now, before you laugh your socks off, I do know a bit about building propane powered forges and can get them to run reasonably well. The latest has a floor of hard firebrick (for the wear and tear) but does not seem to retain heat as well as soft firebrick. The roof lining is high quality board, seems fine. Is the idea function of the lining :- 1.to prevent the outer casing getting hot 2.to increase the efficiency of the forge Does this work by a/ absorbing the heat b/ reflecting the heat I know this sounds very basic but my supplier has a vast array of materials available and gives me more tech. info than I need, it's difficult to know what to choose – and expensive to experiment! Any recommendations? The forges are mostly used for making horse shoes and little jobs not worth lighting the coke forge for. I have a double burner at the moment but have the burners a little too far apart, there is a cool spot in the middle. I think a single burner would work for me if I made it a bit deeper and narrower. Thanks for any info.

The concrete in my shop floor is old and crumbly and I have my hammer (a Mitchell - similar to a Little Giant) sitting on two sheets of thick rubber (old horse stable mats, scrap quarry coveyor belts work as well) with threaded bar resined into the floor up through the mounting holes. Between the hammer base and the nuts are two inch springs, not quite tightened down to allow a little play. This takes all the shock out but does allow the hammer to sway a little - not much. Railway sleepers (Ties in the US!) make a good base sitting on dirt or sand. If you cut the concrete and set in wood it insulates vibration from the rest of the building.

Hi Wes, on a dirt floor wooden railway sleepers ( I think you call then 'ties' in the US ) work well. Make sure they extend out each side to stop any rocking and give a wide base. Make up some flat bar with lengths of threaded bar welded at right angles on each end, on the flat. Size these to corespond to the holes in the base of the hammer. Place the sleepers on top of the flat bar with the threaded bar sticking up through pre driled holes and bolt the machine down. It is best to sink the sleepers some way into the floor, two layers are better, placed across each other. It involves some digging but is probably better than walking round your shop following your hammer !! :D

Sorry, I have seemed to have messed up the size of the pics, hope you can reduce them.

Hi, I have been refurbishing a Mitchell hammer. Does anyone have any experience of the final setting up and adjustments? I have it running without the dies so far.