Michael

Here's a scan of the sketch I did. Hope it makes sense, I think what's happening is the two legs on the "front" are bent from one piece, and the third leg is riveted thru the post and center of the two front legs (front in my sketch anyway). the lower legs attach the same way. Open ended collars are rivetted to the stationary post for the adjustable post.

I suppose you could use just about any sized stock on hand to make it. Really elegent little design he came up with.

I always learning something when Peter Ross is on the Woodwright's shop and he and Roy seem to be old friends. He's in some of the earliest WWS shows.

That helper was a great project, it took 5 or 6 viewings with the pause button at hand to get a decent sketch of it done. On the project list.

Several nice features, that swivel chief among them. Well done! might have to steal a bit of it for a candle holder.

I like it, been looking at bike parts out in the yard for years thinking there's got to be a way to use this to power a blower, A real blower (2 now) came along before I got to thepoint when I bashed together bike parts and a similar to yours fan housing.

Well done! nice first forge, since nobody stops at building one.

Mostly I think of the completely wrong sword forging in the first Conan. Casting the blade, then hammering and a snow quench.

This is my favorite though,

You'll also burn thru a LOT more charcoal than coal, about 5 times as much in my experience. and you'll use a lot more water to control the fire. I recently made the switch to coal (found a really nice forge and firepot on Craigslist) after 5+ years forging with Cowboy Brand charcoal from the local Ace. Large tuyere holes in whatever forge you build, so the little bits of charcoal "fleas" can fall through, rather than get blown out, will help. If you catch the smithing bug, you'll likely build several forges as you work your way up the learning curve.

Are the legs half round or full pipe? hard to tell in the photos. If pipe, they have the same curve/stance as a Tiger model blower and stand I have, and that was Cannady Otto if I recal. Nice, nice forge table, love the watertrough on the end.

Thank you, it was fun to make. I think I got the idea from here

http://www.blacksmithing.org/Articles/Find.aspx

Florida Artists Blacksmith Assoc magazine archive. Great resource, if any FABA members are here. Must be hot in front of a forge in the Sunshine State.

I started out on a 75 lb chunk of I beam. Over a year hammering on the center of the top plate, to keep as much mass under the hammer as possible. Later on, C-clamped a jack hammer bit to the center web to make a "horn". Kept me hitting metal though. Night and day difference when I found a 100#PW. My slack tub now sits on top of that I beam. Get it, how often does a smith get RID of a big chunk of metal?

The multiple horns on the first dragon are great!

My favorite kind of holiday from work, not observed by the wife or the kid.

Got a few hours of forging time in, and was able to try out a scroll on a batch of scrolling jigs I got from another smith moving her shop. Never done much scroll work, this was fun, but surprising in how much stock even a small scroll takes.

Also tried out making a sash light style candle holder. Think I'll use thinner stock for the candle cup next time, maybe slightly narrower stock for the base, but it was at was at hand.

That was GREAT! I love the high speed vid, and don't think I'm loosing much by watching it go so fast, the technique still shines through.

I found one of these last fall and its a great blower. Mine does not leak (full of ATF) at all, which is a nice change from the Buffalo 300 I was using. Flow thru oil system on the Buffalo.

I live right near that shop, It never seems to be open on the weekends when I try to check it out. Odd shifts indeed. I feel for the man's family.

off cuts from the ends of bars, burnt up steel bits and the occasional bottle cap. I try to fish the metal out so it doesn't rust a hole in the bottom of my quench bucket, a nice 6 gallon oval mop bucket

split your handle stock, nice straight grained stock is going to be the strongest anyway. Carve a groove, glue the handle back together. I'm always struck by how the labor was the cheapest element of jobs in past. Hours and hours of time in the pre industrial society where materials were the largest cost item.

good point, didn't notice that when it was covered with baked on grease inside and out. Maybe I should have left it that way.
Oh well, 4 bucks and some good scrubbing exercise down the tubes.

Next project.

Finally hit the scrap yard at the right time to get some square ducting. Grabbed a 5 foot section, rectangular rather than the 13 inch square in Hofi's example. The plan is to use this duct to make my own Hofi style forge chimney, and eliminate the right-over-the-firepot version I'm running now, which would eliminate the rain drips and get me started and plugging all the holes in the leaky patio roof.

I'm thinking the orientation of the duct should be with the long side vertical, so the opening for the smoke is taller than it is wide. This is roughly the same height above the forge table as the current hood and chimney.

Any input would be appreciated. I want to cut the hole in the patio wall (and get a good section to fill in the overhead chimney hole) just once and get it right.

thanks.

I've gotten in the habit of starting each forging session by making 3 nails, trying for consistant length and round (not L shaped) heads. Gets me warmed up, lets the charcoal that I start my coal fire with burn hollow so I can poke the coke/coal into the middle of the firepot and lets me find out if I've left any tripping hazards in pulling all the forging equipment out of the corner of the patio.

I've gotten more good deals off of cruddy pictures and lousy descriptions on CL than almost any other method. Sideways pics, upside down pics, "blacksmiht", "fourge" etc. A tool collecting buddy of mine always says 'its all about pattern recognition'

Found the plan/article here....
http://www.iforgeiro...horn-issue-132/

and have had the printout in the project folder for a while now. Finally got around to making one, then another.

Used an old worn socket chisel for the blade, with the added advantage that now I've got a couple of ready made candle sockets for a future project, one is even stamped Made in USA.

First knife, on the left, was a bit rough, didn't quite understand how far it was supposed to open (about 90 degrees, it seems. Second one came out a bit tight in the joint.

Both quenched and tempered in ATF.

I've started picking up cape chisels whenever I see them at flea markets and garage sales. Useful tools. In my experience, they are Very useful for concentrating a LOT of cutting force in a very small area, usually inaccessible with any other tool. Much more precise than a cold chisel.

I've heard about using the door from a dryer or washing machine (junked of course) as a forge table. Decent metal thickness, raised lip etc.

I'll use the BBQ chimney to light the charcoal. Dump it on the firepot and go. Same with coal, about a half a chimney full of charcoal, light it, get set up and pile coal on top of the burning charcoal. It burns hollow pretty fast, but after that its all coal and coke.

I'd often finish off a forging session as the charcoal fire burned down to almost nothing, trying to get a final small bend or something with a little fire a couple inches deep. Using CowboyBrand charcoal, the fleas would get worse and worse as the fire burned down.