Michael

Thanks guys, I'll try the chalk/baking soda trick first and then give the regrind a try.

Fresh on the heels of dbrandow's query,

I'm having trouble drilling a small hole in some 7/32 music wire, which I think is SAE 1095. Trying to put a 3/32 hole thru the diameter at two places.

First I tried in the drill press with the old bit in the index. It cut about 3/16 down and stopped cutting. Figuring I had a dull bit I replaced it with an Irwin Cobalt bit. Same problem, the bit cuts just a little and stops.

The slowest speed on my drill press is about 620rpm, a bit fast for metal I know. 3in1 oil is being used in copious amounts. I tried the same hole in the post drill, and the bit just bends.

I'm about to try resharpening the Cobalt bit, but haven't had much luck sharpening such a small bit.

Did I dull the new bit that fast? Does 1095 workharden that fast? I'm ready to try hot punching the hole, if I can make a punch that small, and if I can keep the music wire straight, or annealing the hole locations and trying again with another new bit.

Any help would be appreciated.

thanks,

Michael

What Francis said, if there's nothing blocking the bottom end of the pipe below the firepot, most of your air is going out the bottom of the forge and not to the fuel.

a bucket of water under the pipe, filled to cover the bottom of it will work in a pinch, catching the hot ash and blocking the airflow out the bottom, at least until you can cobble together an ash dump.

I've got a bucket of water under my ash dump, keeps all the charcoal sparks out of my shoes!

I've also been known to be cranking the blower for a good 10 minutes, before noticing the dryer hose from the blower to the forge wasn't connected.

I'm not in Sacto, but the East Bay of the San Francisco Area. When I checked with the AQMD (Air Quality Management District) a few years ago, I was told less than a half TON of coal on the premises is too small for regulatory control.

I work with firefighters a lot in my day job, and (at least around here) it comes down to the neighbors. If there are complaints, you have a problem, no complaints, no problem.

Good cause to make nice with the neighbors, let them know who you are, what you do. Perhaps a plant hook or steak turner type peace offering.

I work mostly with charcoal, but when I do use coal (Lazzari in Burlingame, 50 lb bags), that initial yellow green plume of smoke has gotten a few neighbors running over the check for a tire fire in the back yard. Mid day on a weekend I'll look over the fence and give a heads up to any neighbors out there.

Nice little forge there. I did the same one a couple years ago, but it doesn't have the cool handles, feet and paint job of yours!
Great for demos, last fall I brought this forge, a nail header, some 1/4 inch rod and an "anvil", a 30 lb block of steel (3"x3" by 12") set on end in a little wooden box and taught a bunch of kids, and their parents, to make nails.

Nice work.

Old sharpening steels are really nice for hot punch material. Usually by just cutting off the handle and grinding a nice chamfer on the hammered end. They are usually a buck or two at the flea market and while not a handled punch, usually a foot long or so.

I use spray shellac as a finish on most of my stuff. Finished finished as someone said, usually wire brushed and then as the piece drops down below black heat, I spray on a coat so that is cooks on with a very slight bubbling effect. Not sure I'd trust it as a finish for outdoor stuff (that gets boiled linseed oil at black heat) but for keychains, bottle openers and plant hooks it seems to work like a charm.

I built this about a a year ago, based on ammo boxes I'd seen. Holds my hammers, punches, gloves, hearing protection, twisting wrench and my hardy tools, I could fit my most used tongs in it as well if I had to, but they are set up around the anvil.

About 75 lbs when its full, real simple construction but I got a chance to build it with clenched nails. the bottom and top are reinforced with oak strips and the handles are screwed in from both sides.

I LIKE that pipe section with the cutout to create a deeper welding fire! (that's what its for, right?).

Have to try that one out. May even have a section of pipe to use, if not, its off to the scrap yard for some more rusty junk!

Got a good 5 hours of forging yesterday, the results shown. Still can't make a forgeweld work for the life of me. Brake drum is too shallow, that's my story. Corkscrew came out better than I expected, probably a little thick in the spiral. The rose from a template was a nice break from drawing and squaring, the restful hour spent bending rose petals allowed a nice arm recovery for punching and stretching the bottle opener.

I use the gel like plugs that are on a springy U shaped band that goes under your chin. I like that I don't touch the ear canal part and when taking them off they are right there around my neck, so I don't put them down somewhere out of reach when I start making noise again.

A bunch of little spark burns on my forearms, usually ignored and noticed by the 10 year old.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I pulled the anvil and bagged the stump out on the patio. A couple good sunny day's (no guarantee of that here in Northern Cal) and we'll see what happens. I'll move onto the borax, then clorox and the stronger nasty chemicals after that.

I found it very hard to find logs of any appreciable size in the suburbs and I've got some time invested in this one.

I would love to find one of those old 30 gallon oil cans and mostly fill it with sand as an anvil stand too.

Borax I've got!! I'll just mix up with a little slack tub water and swab my anvil stand down. Thanks guys! Easier than bagging it, though that will be plan B I think.

Arrrgghhh.....I was sorting out the piles in the smithy, preping for some limited forging time this weekend, when I noticed a stream of sawdust running down the side of my anvil stump, and a pile of sawdust on the ground. This is a California Black Oak stump under my PW. I've got many hours of time invested in flattening and prepping this stump and I'm NOT gonna let the bugs (bug) get it.

In the immediate moment, I splashed some lacquer thinner on the hole and then tipped the oil can into the hole till the oil ran down the side.

what's my next step? Polyurythane the whole thing? boric Acid wash?

Way too much work just in getting a decent sized log section to let it go.

Appreciate any suggestions.

Blacksmithing: Hot Techniques & Striking Projects
By: Jose Antonio Ares

Paperback: 144 pages
Publisher: Lark Books (November 4, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1600593844
ISBN-13: 978-1600593840

I picked this book up at a B&N a couple weeks ago, amazed that ANY new smithing book was in the crafts section of a big box book store.

Its not like any other blacksmithing books I've read before. It's beautifully photographed, on a level with Lorelei Simms book. Originally published in Spain, the translation is, at times, a bit odd.

But I saw techniques and working methods I'd not seen described elsewhere in my smithing library. Such as punching a hole in the end of a bar, then upsetting the metal back to thicken out the ring being formed at the end of the bar. And rolling a rod around to make a spiral that is then stretched out to form a corkscrew shape.

Surprisingly, there is no mention of forge or fire welding at all. All the welding technique is modern. There's also a section on plasma cutting.

There are several projects in the book, from cold twisted and screwed together trivets to a very nice waving pennant style of weather vane. The books ends with examples of artistic metalwork, including some very large sculptural installations formed with giant presses in an industrial setting.

I just miss them! There was a lot of great inspirational stuff there in the blueprints. Piles of ideas and techniques and such. I've got a few of them saved and printed in my "smithing" binder, my little gas forge was directly inspired by the blueprint I copied it from.

I know the admins are working their posteriors off to get the blueprints back on line, and the efforts are appreciated.

Couple weeks ago I showed up at a Craigslist sale for an old toolbox full of saws. I passed on the saws (modern and trashed) but did buy off the workbench a pile of rose petal blanks (9 complete, couple more partials) for $20. The seller was the widow of a blacksmith, said his name was Rob (or Rod) Waller and he was active in California Blacksmith Association and the Crucible in Oakland.

I did a little Googling and couldn't find anything on him, I was wondering if anyone knows about him?

Now I just need to find some forge time to get working on some Roses!

Charcoal will work just fine, it was the fuel of choice for thousands of years. It wasn't until the British Isles were denuded of trees that mineral coal came into the picture as a smithing fuel. Don't use the briquets a la Kingsford, but find lump charcoal at the market or the hardware store. The mesquite stuff works but its rather sparky, I like to use Cowboy Brand cause its easy to find.

As for starting, I use a chimney style starter. Its a metal tube with a grate in the bottom, a couple inches up from end. Newspaper under the grate, charcoal above, light the paper and red hot coals in 15 minutes or less. I use that time to fill the slack bucket, lay out my tools etc while getting ready.

Happy forging.

Michael

That cart looks a whole lot sturdier than the bolt together Chinese HF cart to me.

That's what I did, bolted the brake drum forge under a sheet metal cart. The cart was easy to cut with a metal cutting jig saw blade and stiffer than I expected once the drum was attached. Don't cut thru the metal walls of the top shelf though. I forge with charcoal and needed the extra inch and a half for depth, brake drum's only about 5 inches deep.

If I've got a decent amount burning when I'm done forging, I'll shovel it into a bucket of water to put it out, then drain the water onto the grass, using the shovel blade to keep the now extinguished charcoal from floating out with the water. then I spread the charcoal out on the forge table to dry. Its usually dry by the time I get out to forge again.

I just did this same project a couple weeks ago. I screwed a couple boards into each side of the stump, making sure they were level to the ground and then to each other, they don't have to be parallel to each other, then a cheap router mounted to a long board and I was able to route the top flat in less than an hour.

Wasn't hard to do, far easier than I expected actually.

My anvil's 4 inches wide, its a 104 lb Peter Wright.

I've been looking for the right sized piece of C channel for at least 2, maybe 3 years. Now that I've bent my own, I'm sure I'll trip over the right sized piece on the way home from work today. Isn't that the way it always works?