Mylore

Eagles may soar, but gophers never get sucked into jet engines.

One who smiles in the face of adversity has yet to grasp the situation, or has a scapegoat.

Hey all, figured I would throw this out there and see what replies I get back.

My wife, mother-in-law, kids and I, are going to be in Germany between/around May 31 until June 13.

While we have no absolute plans as of yet, besides a wedding, most of our time will probably be around Bochum and Hamburg. I was wondering if anyone in the area might be willing to let me stop by and see your shop/watch you work or, if my wife would allow it and you would to, spend a day or two working with you how ever I might be able to help. We are renting a van so I will have some mobility.

Please post here or PM me if you think we might be able to work something out.

Thanks a lot.

I was really nice to have him there, he sat about 10 feet away on his swing most of the time and really only came up to get a good look at things when I quenched them at the end. Of course lots of "Daddy, what you doing?" thru it all.

Was sort of funny to because I had to remind my wife to stay back more often than him as I was working on the anvil. If she ever gets that close again when I am working she will find a hammer in her hand and me saying " Hit it there!" :D

Welcome, I am curious about what part of Manitoba too.

Thanks for the feed back and tips guys!

Just to answer some of the comments: the back of the can is still sealed and lined with the blanket. I know I have one of those Coleman adapter hoses around, I am going to try and find it so I can use my BBQ tank.

I purchased enough blanket to actually make 2 forges in case the fist one went horribly wrong ( you should see some of my home reno attempts), I am going to put the extra layer in with it. Once that is in I will nock/drill a hole thru the soft brick to give me a smaller opening and let me seal the can better. as for the ITC-100, that might have to wait still because of is price and the budget is limited for the next little while.

Hopefully I get the chance to use it again and let you all know how it goes before the weather turns to much here.

Finally got a working forge and got my first project done. Was hoping for more of an arrow head to make a necklace for a guy who scrounged some scrap and stuff for me as a thank you. Turned more into a arrow/spear tip but what ever, it was fun.



Also found a chisle like thing in a bunch or scrap from my won at an auction, and remembering an idea i saw here once tapered the handle end down a bit and it now sits nicely in the hardy whole and might turn into a nice hot cut hardy.



Then once I shut things down, my son wanted his turn to make something. So he got his "work helmet" and had as much fun a me, i think.

Finally got a small coffee can forge up and running, now my thing is i don't know if it is "running" right. Seemed only to heat the metal if i put it directly under the flame. Using a bernzomatic torch to run it. Could get the metal to the color in the pick, but took a while to do it. TIps/Advice (besides build a bigger one, now in the plans)?

One I learnt a while ago with my BBQ, always open the tank all the way. That way if you need to shut it off quick there is no guessing on the direction to close it off and maybe make things worse.

Of course I guess this would only work if you have a regulator on the line and your not using the valve on the tank as one. Something I do intend to have should I ever go to propane.

Ok back already....

Ian, did you copy the ctsMaker folder as well into the plugins folder? As soon as I did (didn't do it the first time only the three files in the .dmg file where what I moved) I go no errors when I opened Sketchup again. Now I just have to play with it a bit to see what new toys I have for this overly fun program.

I too am having trouble getting the plugins to work. I followed the instructions in the User's Guide, but I get an error message (says Error Loading File...) when I open Sketchup, and they do not show up in the Extensions or plugins sections. I am using Mac OSX version.

Ian

I also use Mac OSX. When I downloaded the plugins, Ruby Scripts, they all came down unziped for me (extension .rb). They all downloaded the my desktop, I then just moved them to:

Hard Drive/Library/Application Support/Google SketchUp 6/SketchUp/Plugins

and they worked for me, just have to look under the Draw pull down or the Tools pull down depending on the plugins you got. It tells you where the ruby script will be found in the text just above the download link.

Hope this helps a fellow MAC user.


*EDIT* Sorry guys, just realised the problem was with Terry's plugins, not the ones off Google, so I downloaded them and got errors as well, gonna try and figure it out unless someone beats me too it, or I will bounce it off a few freinds that work for IBM tech support and all bought Mac's so not to deal with the same problems they get asked about at work on their own computers (yes I am verry PRO MAC..sorry guys) :)

Great find, I was checking out the web site and a few of those books have things that interest me and my father in law. I am curious thought if the books have a lot of pictures? My father in law left school in grade nine to work on the family farm so reading is a bit of a problem for him at times, but show the guy a picture and he will build it faster and better than you after your done reading about it.

My paying job is in the distribution center for all the hard alcohol in Manitoba, driving fork lifts and working the shipping dock on the odd day. But when I go out to the in-laws farm I quickly become a jack-of-all trades apprentice doing what ever the father-in-law has lined up for the weekend,usually as a swamper in his saw mill, and typically for the fee of a tank of gas or farm fresh pork or beef in the freezer.

Seeing as we are starting to discuss the making of charcoal I have a question for those of you folks that do make your own.

I have been given 5 55 gallon drums and would like to make one into a charcoal retort of some sort. Useing this link as my idea.

http://64.176.180.203/charcoalretort.htm

My thing is I live in the city, in a residential area. How much smoke dose doing this really make? How about noise like he quotes on the page?

I have also looked at BP 0338 and 0443 and could go this way.

Any further tips for doing this in my back yard?

Thanks guys.

Why am I tempted to call my German relatives (it sure sounds like german) and ask them just what else they do for fun?!?!

Thanks for all the support guys! Everyone has been home for a week now and doing good. And surprisingly I am not lacking to much sleep, maybe it has something to do with only working 2 day work weeks until the second week of Oct. now! I love bank time!! :)

Well folks, at 8:20 tonight I became the father of a healthy baby boy, 7lbs 6oz and just shy of 21 inches!!! I finally got kicked out of the hospital (wouldn't let me stay the night because the rooms are semi-private) and a bit to excited to sleep, so I figured I would start spreading the news!!!

I guess this means that my forging time might be cut down a bit now, but I am certain the trade off will be worth it. Besides its almost winter, gonna have to turn my thought to the indoors soon anyways.

Be back once I get some free time again..mabey 20 years or so:D

My real name is Myles Mogk, and every job I have had has given me a new nick name, from Smiles, Mylarr (apparently my pirate name) , The Mogk Monster, Myles son of Mogk (darn Trekies) and Kilometers (I live in canada)for just a few. This is the latest one and it seems to be sticking the best at my current job and with other friends.

Welcome jkeller,
I am in Manitoba and just getting in to Blacksmithing too.

Like some of the folks have said already this is a great site for information and everybody is friendly and more than willing to help you out.

Enjoy your time here.

My wife wants me to clean up that junk Pile

hope everyones day was FINE

Well, first thing I did now was go out and look to see if it dose say "Clay befor useing", luckily no, so my wife had to stop laughing at me .

I am going to go the route of the flat "straps" as the crack closed up pretty good once it cooled down. And there is no need to "stop drill" as the crack runs all the way from the blower hole to the edge.

After that I will add the clay/mortar. Would any type of clay work? There is a fire place store close to my parents house that I will try for the mortar and bricks.

Fianaly I am going to my in-laws this week and they have a forge for me to use, will I have the same problem there? Or can I use this one with out clay?

Thanks for all the advice folks!

Well then, finally after much procrastinating I reassemble my rivet forge and have m first fire. After a few minutes of struggle getting the green coal to light and smoking out the mosquitos from my yard I get some flame!

I am now as happy as can be and once I get it built up a bit I stick a bent piece of rebar in and start thinking of the projects to come, plant hangers, coat hooks ect.

I pull the rebar from the fire and it is a nice cherry red in the open air, I put it back in and..... !!!BANG!!!

I now have a crack runing half the length of the fire pot.

So now I would like to know:
a) what would cause this? Did I do something wrong or was it just its time?
b)can I fix it? Weld the crack shut? or put a new layer of sheet metal down over the fire pot?

I am hope that this is fixable but if not I will just have to scrounge up parts for a break drum forge.

Just wondering if anybody has or dose use wood pellets as their fuel? I remember hearing that it could be done and recently passed a pellet company on the drive to the in-laws so it would be an easy stop and grab on my way to or from the farm.

Thanks for the feed back.

Well here are some of the photos: top, side and taken apart. As for what type of blower it is I don't know. Only markings I can find are 556 on one side and 557 on the other.
I am sure the wife will have something to say when she sees what I was doing on the patio table. :)

I finally got a good days weather after a week solid of rain and did some work on my forge to get it running. I took the blower apart to try and clean it a bit. (Took photos if anyone want's to see them.) What was there for a gasket was on its way out. What could I use to seal the blower again? Would a high temp automotive silicon work?

Any tips/hints are appreciated.