Michael

I forged the the first couple of years on a big 75 lb chunk of I-beam. Drilled a pritchel hole and ground a notch for bending. For a horn I c-clamped a big jackhammer bit to the center web of the I Beam. Worked OK, actually. Once I got real anvil though (104#PW)the difference in the rebound was amazing. Michael

Frightening the neighbors since the year Four

Now I've got the opposite problem, my firepot, brake drum forge really, isn't deep enough as I use charcoal rather than coal. From the grate to the top of the drum is just about 4 inches and with charcoal that's hardly deep enough to get out of the oxidizing zone and weld. I've come close a few times by putting a piece of quarter inch plate over the top of the brake drum but its very hit or miss for forge welding. Future plan is to fabricate some sort of angle iron and plate table with a hole I can drop the drum into, then stack fire brick around the drum to make a deeper firepot. That will also give me some table space around the fire, which would be nice as well.

60 lb no name leg vise, $40 at the Alameda Swap meet, needed help to carry it out. I consider that a downright steal in Northern California.

here's the sign outside my shop, little baby dragon in sheet copper

Hey I've got one of those, a corner of the covered patio, the leaky corner. The stuff keeps expanding outwards. Currently building a bellows so I can get away from the outlet and get to the dry side of the patio. Michael-San Francisco

A door????

60 lb vise, $40. I lagged a 2x4 to the shop wall, then lagged a 2x8 to that and mounted the vise on it. working on a portable stand.

6 inch pipe, 1 inch Kaewool, MAPP gas torch. it works, you can't weld but it works.

Here's mine, brake drum forge, I've since cut slots in the side for longer work. Legs from half inch square. I've got a bit cast iron sheave pulley on the lower rails now with lots of scrap piled on it. Currently looking to find or fabricate a squarish table out of bed angle iron and plate to give me a bit more room on top.

I picked up a harrow disk at the flea this sunday, $3 and the phrase "useful piece of steel" kept floating thru my head. Its a bit shallow for a forge pan, though it has those nice sloping sides, unlike the brake drum forge. I forge with charcoal (Cowboy Brand) so its not really deep enough for charcoal, I don't think. I can see it as the base for a stand of some sort. Also picked up some small pickup tongs and a flux spoon with real elegant hook on the handle end, gonna try and duplicate that. Michael-San Francisco

Was your vise attached to the forge table or a freestanding base?

I wear the kind that go in your ears, and are connected by a springy band that hangs below your chin when they are in your ears and keeps them around your neck when they are out of your ears. Got the idea from Lorelai Simms (sp?) in that you don't have to touch the plugs with dirty fingers to get them in and out. I wear them when I'm doing heavy drawing or fullering using the big 4 lb hammer, not so much doing lighter work. I find it helps to be able to hear the charcoal forge and the blast as I'm working. Michael

Darn, where's that LP???? Just kidding. Here's the blower I've been working with, a bit large but I will either lean a peice of sheet metal over the intake side to reduce the airflow or just crimp the metallic hose by hand to reduce the blast. Been working on the bellows for a little while now. Need to make a pattern for the Naugahyde I plan on using instead of leather. Even a small bellows gets kind of big once you put the upper and lower panels on and mount it in a frame. Michael

I also use automotive pre heater hose to move the air from the squirrel cage blower to the piping under the forge. I make the connection with duct tape, it holds up just fine in my experience.

I used to problems with "fleas" until I changed two things. One, I switched from Mesquite charcoal to a brand called "Cowboy Brand Charcoal" which appears to be combo of tree wood and woodworking scraps, far fewer fleas than the mesquite. Second, I drilled out the holes in my tuyere, they were 1/4 inch holes and drilling them all out to 3/8 has most of the little sparks and such falling down the ash trap.

For starting a charcoal fire, I use a BBQ Chimney, 8 inch sheet metal tube, cone shaped grate at one end, you stuff newspaper in the bottom, charcoal in the top and light the newspaper. Takes about 15 minutes to get a nice glowing stack of charcoal, then dump it into the forge. I usually light the chimney, then go about setting up the smithy, plug in the blower, top off the slack tub, get my tools and stock out and ready. The Chimneys are big sellers here in California, where most lighter fluid is frowned upon if not downright illegal (more in SoCal, than NorCal, where I am). Michael

Got a few hours of forging time as a late Father's day gift. My first dragon head from half inch square stock, took about an hour. How a more accomplished smith manages to chisel out long horns, of equal size and then draw them out and twist them escapes me. Right now I'm just happy they didn't burn off. the marshmellow fork is from a few weeks ago, from quarter inch square. It started out 18 inches long and ended up 24 inches long. Took some bending to work each end in the 14 inch brake drum, did a "final" straightening at least 3 times.

http://hometown.aol.com/nicknaylo/images/forge2.jpg Here's all I started with, 1 hammer, 75 # chunk of I beam for an anvil, brake drum forge, blower, water bucket, some coal.

I got my 104 lb PW from a 2 year long ebay search for Anvil within 50 miles of my zip code. Didn't get it for a $1 a lb though, more like $2.70 a lb. Reasonable for a west coast anvil I could drive to get at lunch.

Just wait till I get the 220 wired out on the patio and fire up the Miller Thunderbolt!!!

Hi, I'm Michael and I've been scaring my neighbors since late 2004. I came to smithing by way of collecting and rehabbing old tools. I was going over my posts to the Oldtools list and saw a fair amount of smithing info. So I thought I'd pull the smithing relevant posts put them up here as introduction/cautionary tale. This is my first post about smithing, there's more if there's any interest, ... Jan-06-2005 a little forge work....(long) hot on the tail of Doug's post about circular shave making.. Short Version: did a little blacksmithing Longer version: It

Great work, and good thinking making a forge with table space to put stuff down on. Cowboy Brand charcoal, in my experience, has a lot less forge fleas than mesquite, so get away from those briquets, even though my own first forge fire was Kingsford, the piece of steel hammered into a wedge shape eventually became the replacement wedge for my post vise.

I'm about halfway thru the process of building a bellows. Plywood boards, its about 4 feet long by a little over two feet wide, that was the ply that was on hand. Plan is to cover it with a big roll of naugahyde like vinyl impregnated canvas material. Got a big roll of it from the fabric/crafts store for less than $10, and used some of it as seals on the valves in the bellows. Miscalculated the size of the lag bolts that go into the center boards though. the 6 inch bolts aren't long enough to engage the frame AND support the bellows. Need 10 inchers I think, and that means beefing up the section of center board they are going into. Project stalled at the moment. Michael-San Francisco

thanks, I think I'll practice with some pipe first to get the skills down.