Dogsoldat

That turned out very nice ausfire  really feels like a grasshopper when I look at it.

Sorry to hear about your burn.  Rather curious to see how yours turns out.  What I did for the antennae was drill the smallest hole I could and peen in a little piece of fairly heavy copper wire.  

Well the neighbour boy and my daughter both did a double take when they walked in the yard after school so it passes that litmus test.  :) 

Well I tried one.  Don't know if I am entirely happy with it.  But it's pretty close.    Thinking the legs should be further forward and the wings just don't feel quite right. If it wasn't for the long rear legs I could have a nice flying carpenter ant  :)    Slightly flattened RR spike made for a pretty good body though.  So what does everyone think...

Thank you for those links DSW.  sure makes a difference when the right question is asked.

now those look really neat.  Thanks Jim.   Rebar does sound like the way to go for the legs

Slow day at the craft sale, only thing that moved was one small copper rose in trade for a visit to the hairstylist for the wife. But did have a request for a grasshopper for one ladies grandkid. Guess his nickname is grasshopper :) Anyways my google fu is coming up with absolutely everything but what I'm looking for. So who has a few pics of something they may have done to get my brain rolling in the right directions. Thinking maybe 3-5" in length. Can be real robust to something delicate, she's not picky. I'm thinking take a piece of 3/4sq and make a body up. forge the rear legs separate weld them on and split a small piece of strapping to make the front legs, texture up some wings and weld it all together with the wire feed. Anything I might be missing here? I know I have seen fabricated ones with nuts for feet and on the ends on the antenna but I no even finding that at the moment. ( having complained....)

Nothing much that I am aware of.  There are a couple of cool junk stores up in Clinton,  try to stop in there on the way to the Father-in-laws when going by.  The one had a badly damaged Vulcan or Arm and Hammer can't remember which,  but this is a few years back now.  The Hawk Shop in Grand Forks has a nice champion blower, turns really smooth.  but wants a small fortune for it.  that's about all that I know of at the moment

Hey,  we're not all that far apart,  BCROB  is just up in Joe Rich as well.  He makes darned nice knives

Hi, from the southern interior.  Where about in BC are you at?  Pretty good set of forums to be on. 

Yeah I know.  Shows how we all get caught up in the better than the Jones and more perfect tool.  When really at the end of the day it's all about getting the job done.  Though we all have to admit it sure is nice to work with good tools.  As for the right angle tongs maybe someone else has an answer.

I'm on break-up unless something changes,  Can't see any reason that I shouldn't be around most days

the last 3...

heres another set of pics one more after this  :)

All this chat about welded reigns got me curious about the ones that I had picked up last summer.  I believe that only one pair of pickup tongs out there didn't have welded on reigns.  And they were fairly crudely made from long piece of rod that had been threaded at one end during it's life.  What I found interesting is the welded  on reigns for the one farrier tool (pull off tongs maybe google fu is weak )   Anyways it's quite an assortment of welds and finished quality of the tongs.  One reign is broken but it is a little ways back from the weld.

As everyone else would say put your location up in your profile there may be someone right close by.  All the information you seek is somewhere on the forums, just start looking and see where you end up.  Be advised there is a lot of cool info laying around so pack a lunch. 

As for the best hammer, it's the one in hand doing the work.  :)  So many variables on what you may be thinking of making...  the possibilities are endless

Did you try drilling a pilot hole first and stepping up from there or just start with the 1/2" bit.  Can be rather hard to push the chisel point of the bit through some materials but starting small and drilling progressively larger hole til you are at the size you want may work.  That and a good cutting oil can make a world of difference.  But it all may come down to spot annealing

It's good practice to make a few sets of tongs.  I bet you'll find that 3-4 sets of tongs will do a good portion of your work holding.  I find I'm going for the same three tongs most of the time.   2 flat jaw tongs one set up for 1/8" give or take and another that's good for around 3/8  and a set of bolt tongs for 3/8"  that have been resized  a few times now when something a little bigger comes along.  I have seen pictures of adjustable tongs,  but can't for the life of me remember where.   And on top of that they are fairly intricate to get right.   A good basic set of tongs really doesn't take a great amount of time to make.  Another option for a multiple sized tong would be V bit tongs (  think that's the name)  both jaws are V shaped but one is male the other female.  It really only take a minute or two to adjust a set of tongs and nothing quite holds like a properly adjusted set.

How much of drawing out reigns is dependant on reign length?  For my propane  forge I find that 16" reigns keep me out of the dragons breath about right.  And though I have a door out the back it running longer stuff though makes for a fairly significant heat loss.  Therefore I personally find it more fuel efficient and easier with my setup up to arc weld the reigns onto the bits.  I'm sure if I had a coal source that was affordable things could be done a little different.  It's been an interesting thread so far.

Thanks for that tip for finding center Frosty.  I'll have to try and burn that into my brain and not forget something else.

Finished this one up today.  Had a top out of a 45 gal drum,  traced out the templates from Mark Aspery's  vol 2.  Fairly happy with how it turned out, but there are a few hours in it.  Worst was chiselling out the petals as it's a little tough to cut with the tin snips.  Coming up in April is a craft fair  hoping I can sell a few things there and buy my next batch of propane  :)

Seem to remember a bunch of mil surplus FMJ ammo was steel jacketed.  Was a little harder on the bore than most other stuff out there but worked just fine.  But then it still had a lead core so expansion into the rifling worked vs a solid steel bullet.

Wow, bet you have to lay a bead down awfully fast and cool before you give a good case of hot hoof.

That's a beautiful rose Gerald.  Nothing to much right close by.  When I can get out to Kelowna I can look around a little more.  Tried the local farm supply place that sell tin roofing.  Best they could come up with was copper coat  flashing.   Hoping I'll have a little more time soon if we have a breakup.

Have to spend a bit of time and figure out how much time went into them,  kept track as best I could.  But there is a jig I made to hold the stems while using the monkey tool and setting the rivet as well as a curved chisel to cut out the calyx.  Boy did that make things quicker and easier.  Talked to the lady today and she's interested in larger roses, and maybe something cheaper than copper, say aluminum.  gotta scavenge some more and run another experiment.  That and leaves are requested.  Anyways heres pics of the latest ones.  Thinking it would be really nice to work with new copper and not old tubing with scale and such on the inside.