DanBrassaw

Thanks! I was hoping there was some easy trick, but is there ever? I'll just have to practice more.

Beautiful work! In the third picture, there is a piece with a hole in the diagonal that is just too perfectly done. How did you get that to come out so nicely on the end of the bar like that? I tried playing around with it tonight in some 5/8 square, and failed miserably. I love the way it looks.

Grisly. I looked away, clicked the link, then slowly looked back until I could barely see it. That was enough for me. This kind of thing is exactly why I don't mess about with crafting my own hydraulic systems, since I don't know enough to be safe about it.

Cheers to that, Thomas. I've been wanting a guillotine tool for quite some time, but am waiting to find a good price on a quantity of a reasonably sized die material first. (Free would be even better!)

This thread is a riot! I don't have a juicy tale of my own, unfortunately, but I do have to say that some of the adults should be excused of their ignorance as well. At least they're asking questions! Worse is indifference. Reminds me of the old joke, "What's the difference between ignorance and apathy? I don't know, and I don't care."

I have a concrete floor in my shop, and chained the anvil down to eyes set in the floor. Three chains, tensioned with turnbuckles, go down right next to the stump. Not as simple or cheap as spikes, but my anvil doesn't move a millimeter!

How high is the outlet of your pipe in relation to your roof/surrounding obstructions? You can increase draft by making it taller.

I've made this stock stand, it works great! I used 1/8th inch plate for the base, it works, but the 1/4 the author suggests would be better. Also, I would suggest a square hole in the "standoff", the round hole allows the piece to rotate if you bump into it, making things get whacky.

Mine is a metal tube frame with an integrated seat, and two pedals. I haven't tried one standing and only using one foot, but the seat thing might be worth thinking about.

I know you didn't ask about this, but it looks like your stone isnt true. I had good luck getting mine to runs smooth by making a little flat tool rest and using an old carbide circular saw blade on its side, running it side to side as I pedaled. I just kept using different teeth as they got worn down. It took about an hour since I had to remove a quarter inch of stone to make it concentric. There may be better ways, but it worked!

If you've got a welder, you can easily make your own hand tamp with a thick piece of plate. It will take a while to get results, but for a smaller shop or if you can just pick away it at the end of each day, it would be better than nothing. Better yet, convince some neighborhood kids how much fun it is and charge them for the good time!

I'm collecting all these pennies, BTW. This post alone has just about made my retirement account double.

Hard to tell the scale, perhaps the notches lined up with a pritchel hole on a particular anvil? That would seem a little close, but its a possibility.

He means drive a non-tapered triangle that you've forged into a heated swage blank, holding the triangle at an angle. Giving you a tapered v swage.

I discovered the UV problem with my bags full of clinker that sat outside my shop door for a year, went to move them and, "whoops!"

In response to rlbaker, I'll vouch 100% in favor of heated slabs. We have in one the basement of our two story woodshop/commercial space type structure, heated with an outdoor wood gasification furnace. It's GREAT. You can open the garage doors to pull vehicles in, or just leave a window open if you're doing something noxious. Once you close things back up, the heat in that slab will push the temperature right back up. We've found it to be significantly more efficient then the electric baseboards which we used to use, and a real boon when bringing cold vehicles dripping with snow in. Things dry out much more quickly.

Heating the claw with no other treatment would most likely make them softer. I'm a carpenter by trade, and have used and abused my estwing hammers to no end for the past 8 or so years. They've never deformed in any way. I disagree with bigfoot, I buy estwing hammers SPECIFICALLY so I can abuse them in such a way. No wood handled hammer would hold up to what I've done, particularly in certain demolition situations. I'd recommend contacting the company.

You can dish into the top of a stump, it works well. For the portion that holds the candle, making them out of pipe is pretty easy, you'll just have to make a spring fuller to neck it down, then flare the rim of the cup on the horn. The Backyard Blacksmith book has a great how-to on that method.

As most of us beginners have learned, the first anvil can take a long time. I (and I'm sure many others) made do with a piece of RR track to begin with, as well as other work-arounds. Both of my anvils came from being in the right place at the right time. From what I hear though, the northeast is a much friendlier place anvil-wise. I wish you luck!

I love the spike welded in! Very fitting.

There's an antique dealer around here that does the same thing. I've asked him in the past if I can just look at his unhandled heads, but he refuses, since a shoddy handle job can triple the price he gets.

Issues twisting it were what I hoped to discover with a test piece. I can be pretty poor at writing out my thoughts, so I don't blame you for misunderstanding the other issues. I was going to weld in a portion of 1 inch solid (which looking back at my post, I didn't specify, whoops!) with the hole punched in. Same MO on the top of the "staff", a piece of 1 inch solid square with a decoration at the top, welded to the tube. I'll look into it some more.

This is a timely thread. I'm planning on making a rather massive bird feeder hanger, approximately 7' tall, with a 16" arm for the feeder to hang from. My plan was to use 1" x 1/8" square tubing for the majority of the vertical piece, welding in a portion at the 6' height for a punched hole for the 1/2" square solid hanger bar, as well as a finial welded on the top. Scrolls will connect the top of the horizontal piece to top portion of the upright. I imagine it will look more like a sign hanger than a feeder hanger. I was thinking about incorporating some twists in the tubing lower down just to add interest. Having never done this before, I'll just take a scrap and try it to see how much the sides sink in during the twist. If I remember, I'll try to take some pictures so the OP can see what the outcome might be.

I laid my Trenton down in caulk the first time I mounted it, and it came off with almost no effort. The secret was not cleaning, dusting, wire brushing, degreasing, or in any way presenting a clean metal surface for the silicone to bond to!

And don't be afraid to modify those tongs to better suit the stock you're working. A good grip can make a big difference.