knots

Perform a couple of tests. Does it go clunk when tapped ? Does it ring when tapped. Spark test to see if it is cast iron. If it goes clunk and spark tests as cast iron, you have an anchor or a door stop for windy days. If steel and has a nice ring, well then it is likely there are possibilaties.

The blower that I have is an old 1980"s Dayton that looks just like that blower. My experience is that I provides more than enough air. My blower does not have that short tube tack welded onto the intake port. Instead it has a piece of sheet metal screwed to the fan body the swivels and acts as an air gate/damper. Mine to runs a 3030RPM, the blower body is a bout 5" in diameter, however the CFM rating is not indicated.. I run mine with the air gate/damper cracked open about 3/8" on one side. If I run it full open the burner flames out. My forge is a single burner pipe forge. My forge does not reach forging heat but as with HW"s forge my insulation is much thinner than recommended for furnaces reaching forge welding heats, and has only a single burner. My guess is the the blower will be ok for two burners if the forge and burners is moderately sized and the forge is adequately insulated.

Truely astonishing realism and truth of form. The odd bits have come to life.

Seems to me that there is a misunderstanding here. You should be able to do basically what you want to do. Go back to the building department and ask if you can build your foundation in the following way: Dig a trench down to a depth that is below the frost line in your jurisdiction. The trench can probably be 20" wide for a one story shed type building. Into this trench place a reinforced concrete footer 1 foot deep the width of the trench. Place 1/2" round steel reinforcing dowels into the footing top at 24" on centers extending up to the to height that you want your finish floor. Lay up 8" concrete block to a level above the existing ground level to the level of you floor to form your foundation wall. The dowels that you placed into the top of the footing should be inside the open cells of the concrete block. Grout the concrete block cells solid with portland cement grout. While the grout is still wet place standard concrete anchor bolts into the top of the newly created foundation wall, extending up enough to bolt a treated wood plate down to the wall top. You will likely need to parge (plaster the concrete block face) and water proof it with a coat of bituminous waterproofing to protect the new foundation wall from freeze thaw damage. You may even be required to insulate it with foam. The building official should be able to fill you in on all of the detailed requirements including depth, width, required steel reinforcement, concrete strength requirements, & etc. So far as the floor finish is concerned I doubt that they care. I would urge you to set the floor level high enough to keep the water from building up outside and flowing into the building. Say a foot minimum above surrounding grade . Get it high enough so that the ground, flower beds etc will never build up high enough to touch the building siding. You should be able to have a crushed stone or brick floor as you choose. After building up the interior level of your floor to a level that will accommodate the thickness of your floor finish, place a polyethylene vapor barrier. This will keep the floor dry and avoid excessive rusting of stock and tools. Good Lock With Your Project.

"mostly rough cutting out of some various shapes" If this is the operative requirement, it sounds like you need a vertical band saw. Since the commercial model vertical band saws are pricey it seems an unlikely choice for a small home shop. There is another alternative. You could purchase a nice used wood cutting band saw from CL or another such source and substitute a three phase motor driven by a VFD. The saw drive sheave should be changed as well to 8 or 10 inch. The advantage of this conversion is that the VFD can be programed to allow the blade speed to vary from wood cutting speeds to metal cutting speeds so that you have a two in one saw. Very Handy Pattern makers metal cutting blades are available for these smaller band saws which is a big plus for cutting shaped work pieces. However you would be surprised what can be cut with a 1/2" blade using the blade for rough cuting the shape then as a file to refine the shape. I have made this conversion on one of my saws , an old 14" Rockwell, and have never regretted it.

Another reason is that power hammers with frames fabricated from steel plate can use cast steel or iron anvils on a common massive foundation. My KO isn't that big a hammer and has a cast anvil loosely affixed to the steel frame both mounted on a common foundation. The combined weight of hammer and anvil is probably around a thousand pounds. Not all that heavy until you add the weight of the common foundation required.

So far as I can determine either way is is OK. I have two machines with dovetailed ways. On my power hammer the machine ways are straight/ parallel with the dovetailed surfaces on the dies tapered from one end to the other . On my screw press the machines ways are tapered while the die tapers are parallel. In the case of my power hammer I have ignored the taper by using doubled wedges on both sides of the dies so that I can have exact alinement of the base dies for my quick change die system. I just use paired wedges on one or both sides so that the dies and wedges are fitted accurately to provide complete contact with with the machine ways. The power hammed dies have been wedged on the machine for years without loosening. From that I conclude that if the wedges are a good fit and make good contact between the dies and machine ways equally, either way is effective.

Also have a look at what you can find on Google Books. Use this Google search for Caneday - Otto M'FG' CO - " Caneday- Otto MFG CO :google books " . Follow the links. Actually Google Books have a huge selection of old manufacturer's catalogues literature for old line American manufacturers, and hardware companies. Google Books is also well worth searching for older technical books. Never know what you will find.

A beauty

That tank looks more suited for a nice quench tank than a forge. Click on "Gallery" and search "Quench Tank". That should take you to 3 images of a quench tank that I built out of a 40 LB propane tank. The tank top is fabricated from one of the domed ends hinged so that the dome flips into and seals the tank in case of a flash flame. I agree with Thomas as I always put a opening in the back of the forge so that longer work pieces con pass through . Normally I make the back so that an insulating brick or two will tightly close the opening left for poking stuff through. I have a larger propane forge that I built for making bulky items and hardly ever use because the forge is just to fuel hungry . Consequently most of the time it sits around unused occupying valuable space.

A shallow pan metal wheel barrow would provide a reasonable pan for a forge. Install an air tube/ash dump, clay the bottom and that should make a serviceable arrangement. EXCEPT it is goint to be real low and may/will likely prove to be an inconvenience if not a pain in the back dring longer forging sessions.

Look into trailer parts as a source for the springs. There is a large selection of spring length and capacity. If I were going to build a bow stringhammer mechanism the spring is the last part that I would consider building up from scratch. I suppose that you could anneal and reshape for the arch and then send them out for heat treating.

The pro's always run the line so that the chime bar is always suspended with a open V at the bottom of the chime suspension line. This gives the minimum contact between the line and the chime bar. My wife likes chmes. I became more observent of how they are strung as shipped when my first restringing of a favorite didn't sound good after restringing. Most suspension rings have two holes closely spaced so that the line can be run up and in one hole and out and down from the other. So you end up with a pair of closely spaced holes then a larger space to space the chime bars . :wacko: That way the line can be run as a single length in, out, down,through the chime, up, in, out etc, etc, etc. Turn out pretty neat and it allows the chime to sing.

RIP :)

OK, no welding. So you are limited to some sort of commercial hinge fastened with screws or possibly rivets. I would locate the hinges so that the door would swing up and rest on top of the forge or be configured to lean in an open condition against the forge . From the look of your forge that might be tricky. I would look at offset hinges for full size doors as a possible solution. To close the door pan ( that is make the end breaks) clamp short angles or wood blocks between the two breaks made with the finger break, and make the break. Most forge doors on small forges do not close the opening completely. I normally leave an opening at the bottom for sliding bars in and out while the forge door is in the closed position. It is handy to size the opening so that a fire brick placed at the bottom can act to further reduce/adjust or close the opening. A loose brick sort of acting as a sliding door.

Here are pictures of a finger break fabricated from a length of steel angle. It is as shown in a vice with an additional C clamp to hold the work piece secure while forming thre break. Please note that the work piece is 14 gage steel, which is much thicker than needed for a forge furnace door, but shows what this simple tool is capable of. This finger break will form two of the breaks needed to form a door pan. There is an additional proceedure needed to form the end breaks to close the pan.

Do you weld ? Mig is good for sheet metal work. The reason that I ask is that being able to weld will broaden the options available. Especially for fabrication of hinges. The sheet metal pan for the door can be fabricated accurately using a few homemade tools. One of which is a "finger break" which is a length of angle Iron with a section of one leg removed from the middle and then bent back on itself. I think there is a posting of one on this site so search. In the meantime I will help look aroung for some references.

I like the vac final solution. Last time I had one I used the weed burner set over the hole while at full blast. However that would do unkind things to your lawn.

First maybe the drill bit is not the problem. Are you using a drill press or hand held drill ? If drilling with a hand held drill overheating and breakage are an enduring problem because it is difficult to maintain a constant pressure and angle. When I must use a hand held drill for larger holes I always step drill, that is drill the hole with several passes using increasingly larger drill bits. If using a drill press almost any High Speed drill should drill 16 holes especially if you drill a small pilot hole. I keep my drill bits sharp with a Drill Doctor. It is cheaper and faster to sharpen than buy new, and drill past the point where excessive pressure is required for the bit to cut.

I have a couple, but don't use them. Been eyeing them for repurposing as small straight peen hammers but don't need any more hammers.

In the 16th century Italy there was an artist named Giuseppe Arcimboldo who was a painter employed by the royal court . His paintings used assemblages of vegetables to create images of members of the court. Your work reminds me of of his images . Both are fine art so far as I am concerned. You are in very good company.

I have a project for which I need a short piece of 2" double extra strong round steel tube. Can't find any locally. I have also tried internet suppliers with out luck. Does anyone have a piece lying around that would be willing to trim a bit off ? The thing is that I need a thick wall tube with a ID near to but no larger than no larger than 1.66". I need about 3/8 - 1/2" inch wall thickness after machining the ID to size.

I like your idea of welding the tool steel tooling to 1" diameter bolts for a consistent size holder. I however I wondered if you have tried/considered using 1" diameter structural shear studs in lieu of structural bolts. In my area there shear studs are available for $1.07 each at Fastenall, and you can get them in lengths down to 1 1/2 inch so that a length can be selected that does not need to be cut to length. I plan to make up a few tools this way and give them a try. What process and materials do you use for the welds with type S and H steels ?

At my age planning for the future does not mean building another shop. I have just consolidated two shops into one, consequently space is tight. I am disposing of duplicate equipment but even after that process is complete the shop will be tight. What I have found is that if I have a place for everything and keep keep everything in it's place the shop remains functional for my work. Since my move I have concentrated on providing storage shelves, hooks, and drawers so that everything really does have a place to live. That is a good plan for even those who have large sohps.

Getting shoulders on 1" S or H steels is a whole nother subject. However shoulders are the safe way to go for your tooling. Do have a look at the demo hammer tools as a convenient source for your smaller shouldered tools. Another holder will allow the use of these smaller tools with preformed shoulders and will probably be worth the effort.