woodsmith

Thank you for the many compliments, Schilpr, I find your Delage restore most interesting, we rebuilt an original 39 Delehaye chassis from a collection of pieces and many broken and missing parts in tin cans and a crate from the Phillipines (what we call a basket case). Do you have a website or photos up of your Delage Restoration?

http://www.coachsmithing.com/delahaye-165 photos of current progress are now up on our website

Thanks, I agree the alluminum has a genuine quality were nothing can be faked. more progress today.

almost done, windows went in today, interior installed tomorrow, headlights etc, more pictures when finished

My personal plan involves a light single axle trailer, in transport the forge and whole rig is laid down horizontal with the chimney pipe atached rigid to the tounge, roof folded down lower than the tailgate on the truck, should pull well enough. upon arrival you unhitch and stand it up on end and the roof folds out. The trailer "bed" decomes the back wall, with forge in the center, vise to the left and drill to right, pull outy your anvil stand and set it on the gorund and light the fire. Have many of the details figuered out. The main idea is- I dont want to build the thing to set up, no bolt and tools, no ropes and tent stakes, no heavy stuff on and off teh truck, just park and make like a transformer. Woodsmith

yup, tons of stuff to know that you will learn, one thing that comes to mind-because nobody told me and I learned the hard way, always draw out stock square even when working round stock, draw square, then finish octagon then round it out. Its fundamental and you may already know, but way fatser to be told than do it wrong till you get it right Woodsmith

Micheal, The lineshaft drives the belt grinder, the powerhacksaw, the LG, and can be opted to run the postdrill though it isn't belted in, in the video. A crossbelt allows it all to be run by the electric motor shown in the first part of the video, though it doesnt seem like a lot by modern standards, it takes alot of pulleys, belts, tensioners/clutching pulleys to accomplish this with a lineshaft. They left room to add more stuff in there. Frosty, The LG is slid front or back with an ordinary winch with cable coupled in a loop to a pulley on the edge of the tailgate. Vaughn, The entire gate lowers down and lifts up with an old hand pump hydralic pump, so the power hammer sitting on the steel gate is on the ground during operation, it does rock a bit in my observation, so not perfectly efficient, but works very well. Thanks everyone for your interest, the real credit goes to Jim and Lee who built the rig and have surprised thier fellow guild members several times now. Some guild members persuaded me to write up an article on the shop trailer for submission to the Abanna publication, this video was shot by Pete Stanitis and shared with me for the article. I have a few photos of the rig, but nothing better than the video presentation. Hope to see the story printed this spring so the guys get some recognition for thier creation. Thanks Woodsmith

My own portable forge rig is small and breaks down flat, but these members of my guild built a trailer that brings an entire shop to the site, little giant and all, some really great stuff here https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=Jqo2539Jvmk Thanks Woodsmith

I did some research when I built my 2x72, that really paid off, made the idlers from 2" and 4" alluminum in a similar way, getting the crown right on my drive wheel made the belt track straight right away, I read were some other builders used the more affordable contact wheels from sunhill or grizzly, they reccomended mounting the wheels in a lathe on thier true shaft center and grinding/sanding the rubbber a bit to eliminate the last bit of runnout on the face, could make the difference of having the finished sander peform like a really smooth topnotch machine, Nice looking build Woodsmith

This fuel filler door arm is the one hand forged part I did for our Ferrari build, by the time I had completed the hinge, spring, latch, arm and door, there is over a weeks worth of work in this one little part of the car. Not like you can go out and buy one though. Thanks Woodsmith

https://sites.google.com/site/coachsmithing/delahaye-165 Thanks. the website was updated agian so there is the new link. The body is all hand beaten gas welded alluminum (3003 series), engine is a Jag V12 with 4-2bbl Stromberg carbs and a turbo400 automatic behind it, suspension is late series Jaguar 4-wheel independent. If you look at our website you can get a look at the entire build and even an idea how we hammer formed the grille shell. If you look at the original car there was a ton of chrome trim the lights are added on top. That final completion is up to how much the customer wants to spend or how original he wants it to look. I did manage to make 4 hand forged parts on this car, just fender support rods, but still cool to get on the project. Thanks again

https://sites.google.com/site/coachsmithing/p-r-o-c-e-s-s the build process is shown here, and has been updated Thanks

The car build I have posted about over the last two years is nearing completion, it has been on a test drive, and has been sent out for paint and chrome, the car was built from scratch, the body being beaten by hand in our shop, including forming the grille shell, we also fabricated the doors, and hatches, windshield frame and mounted all latches and mechanisms. Thanks to all who have taken interest in this. delehay shop photo.rtf

Agree'd Ive seen some "abstract sculptures" and heard the "it represents mans struggle with... etc" and I think, sure it does represent one mans struggle..... with a mig welder. What you have created is not only impressive artwork, it is also inspiring me to give it a try myself. Looks great, thanks for sharing so many pictures of your work. Woodsmith

basic angle iron stand for a stack of bricks style forge, I made a set of casters with rollerblade wheels so it wheels around very easily, I really hate bad casters, I like to use implement enamel paint for durability on steel that dosent get hot and high temp black for steel that does. This was not designed to be be super portable but I have taken it to guild meetings you can shed the weight of the bricks and throw it on the truck. For a lighter kaowool forge I would probably just build a pedistal stand for better portability.

Ill try to get a picture this week, I wirebrushed some rust and paint from the side to reveal the eagle, and like I said I guess it to be 55ish pounds, and a standard pattern for a cast body anvil, with a small horn and small hardyhole. The farmer is very friendly and talkative, just not terribly interested in selling anything, I was trying not to be too excited, finding a serious heavy vise, 2 anvils, and tripping over a big old hot punch without even digging around. You start to get that feeling like ..Im going to stumble on a big swage block here any muinite..... I think the old stuff belongs to "the farm" so it used to be grandpa's and now it might belong to any of the brothers or all of them...none being interested in any of it, but not excited about parting with it. I can relate to this and wasnt going to push. But I can certainly stop back and get a picture, and test the waters again about buying something.

When doing a welding job at a local farm last week, I came across a beatup hay budden, a heavy legvise and several other unused forgotten blacksmith tools about the shop, havent quite worked out a purchase yet, but I also found a cast anvil with a top plate and what appeared to be the Fisher eagle on the side, what I found surprising as a pair of handles cast on to the anvil at the base, I would guess it to be 55-60 lbs, in fair condition, not really an anvil I would want to use just found the included handles to be very curious. Not sure if these are rare or if I just havent heard of them?

as far as I know, no manufcturer, and no wise man ever painted an anvil, that one is great, not only huge, but high quailty made, and still in good condition Woodsmith

I used 3 long thin bar magets, (like the ones in a tool holder for hanging tools on a wall behind the workbench) 3 magnets with a narrow spacer between hold up 2 rows of closed rings, and you can reach in with a pair of modified needle nose pliers and close new link through 4 links at a time, (for european 4 link maille), set a row, jump it back notch in the manets and add a new row of closed links and repeat, made it faster, still tedious all my links made from 14ga 3/8" diameter had pionted cut ends, like this >< even when closed tight and not stretching they eventually find an angle were they unhook from the others, you need to get the ends cut straight so you avoid the double triangle gap = II , or what I did, used 1/4'' lock washers for every other row and the wire rings between the added profile fills in the pattern pretty solid and they cant unhook just my experience on the subject Woodsmith

thanks for the advice, didnt realize they would load slowly for some users, have to fix that in the future https://sites.google.com/site/badgerblacksmiths/gallery hope this works for now, dead tree sculpture is in the middle of the page just wanted to throw out this construction technique for other creative minds Woodsmith

I made this sculpture as a touch lamp, the construction technique is bit different something I thought up almost by accident, its just lots of little scrap pieces of 20ga cut very jagged and tack welded togheter with an intentional gap beteen. Makes for an interesting effect, and its not actually very difficult to do, could make any shape any size without it getting any harder to do,

Yeah, no mad truck driver waving a hammer at me this time.......but.... after the last guild meeting I stopped at graduation party with several fellow blacksmiths, at one point somebody came up and asked "so are you two blacksmiths?", considering I still had sweat and coal smudge and how I was dressed, I just pointed at my shirt , like, no I just wear this cause I think Wylie Coyote needs better PR.....("here's your sign" moment) (grin) Woodsmith

inspired by the tri-horn, and tri- everythingelse used both Norse and christian, I came up with a tri-hammer, making a tribute to craftsmanship, seemed as fitting as anything, for this project, touchmark is sorta bottom left on the bit thanks for the input and suggestions Woodsmith

Local paper in Osseo, Wi git a shot of me doing demo, thought it was cool you can make out the Iforge shirt I wear for such occasions

Thank you, and Thanks for the input, all the originals Ive seen (4) have a flower patern there, I know this for sure, going for somethign more profound, dosent have to be authentic to period just not look out of place. I once made wooden shields for my kids, made up a crest of anvil with crossed hammers for them, might try that on a piece of scrap to see how it would look. Havent finished it yet but started on the handle, and documenting the whole build, and finaly made a touchmark, something Ive been meaning to do for years.. this will be the first forge peice Ive signed.