Jump to content
I Forge Iron

jawno

Members
  • Posts

    81
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by jawno

  1. My mail was made from 3/32" steel welding rod wrapped into 1/2" ID rings. I assembled a section and shot a broadhead arrow at it from a sixty pound draw bow.The arrow spread whichever ring it hit but was held from penetrating by the surrounding rings. So the arrow would have pierced the skin but not penetrated into vital organs. I called it good enough at that point. Total weight of my mail shirt is twenty pounds.
  2. Probably has something to do with covalent bonds or free electrons or something but I dunno.
  3. I've always been a metalworker. What fascinates me is when I see something made out of metal and have to ask myself "how the heck did they do that?" That's kind of what got me into it. I found that some items were just way easier to forge than try to machine them or weld them. Do you have any idea how much time it would take to machine something like a rams head door knocker? I sure don't but I do know I can forge them in a fraction of the time.
  4. Then I'd say go for it. Some interesting designs mentioned in this thread. You might check local building codes would be my only other caution. The code here requires that there be a permanent structure in addition to and prior to a container being placed on the property. May not be a problem anywhere else though.
  5. Thanks for the tip Dodge. I'll look at that product. Sealing the kaowool is my main goal rather than just heat reflection so a mortar may work better for me. I'll follow that link and see what it says about it.
  6. This is what I suspected but I wanted to check with those who have more experience than me before committing to another path. Thank you both for your input. I will use a more traditional material like htc-100.
  7. I was talking to a foundry owner about buying some kaowool from him the other day. I mentioned that I was going to coat the kaowool with some ITC-100 to seal it after laying it in place. He mentioned that I could use some ceramic shell that he has for the same thing. I'm wondering if anyone has tried this? If so, how did it work. It seems to me that it might be too brittle but I've never used a forge before either and don't know what the consistency of ITC-100 would be either. Personally I'm more inclined to use the traditional material but I can get the ceramic shell for free. For those unfamiliar with ceramic shell, it is a plastery glue type liquid that drys as hard as a ceramic material and is used in high end foundry casting. I would appreciate any advise you are able to give me. Thanks.
  8. Condensation would be my big concern as well. I researched building a shop this way a couple years ago. A fellow from the local community college told me that their auto shop program stored a dozen newly rebuilt V-8 engines in a cargo container for a Winter. When they opened it up the next Spring the engines were all rusted so badly that they all needed to be rebuilt again. I decided to go with more traditional construction techniques instead. Now maybe if your opening the doors every day then condensation wouldn't be as much of a problem but I decided that containers and metal don't mix real well. I live in the rainy NW US. YMMV Have a good one,
  9. jawno

    Bulldoze bender

    I would love to try making something like this but I fear my technical expertise might fall a bit short. I was wondering if you might be willing to provide us with a bill of materials of sorts. More what mechanical items you purchased rather than a metals list. If I'm stepping on your toes here then please ignore this post but I have to say that looks like a marvelous machine and would be very handy in my shop. But I would get totally lost trying to determine which switch to buy or solenoid valve to purchase. Hydraulic tank? Again I enjoyed this thread very much and admire your ability to assemble the mechanical components into a working machine.
  10. Thanks for the link. I enjoyed that page a lot and I agree with Beth, its much better posted here in its own thread.
  11. I like your kinetic art idea. You'd want to make sure no one could be messing with the puppet while someone else is operating the controls of course, but sounds very cool.
  12. jawno

    Vice screw problem

    I'm with Timothy Miller on this one. I had the same problem on a vise I had once. When I disassembled it I found I'd sheared off a pin that went through the threaded shaft. Replacing the pin fixed everything. Although eventually the pin sheared off again and I decided to get a new vise.
  13. I'm from walla Walla. I know there's a couple smiths here in town. One is an excellent bladesmith. His knives sell for thousands of dollars and he has a waiting list of clients. Unfortunately I can't remember his name. He was in a local newspaper article about six months ago. Another guy is an abana member who had a display at Government Camp last year during the conference. His name is Czyhold. He didn't seem real friendly to me but YMMV. Hope this helps.
  14. You're right, I don't have much of an arts education. I have some college but most of my time I was studying cutting or welding of metals and earning a living at it. I was always more the neanderthal than the beatnik so my appreciation for fine art has been lacking. It wasn't until later in life that my appreciation of art grew. And it was mostly by seeing something that I couldn't do. Something that set me to wondering how the heck did they do that? I suppose the reason I don't appreciate the "voice of fire" is precisely because I can't see all the thought that went into it. I can't see the work. The art that really lights my fire is the stuff I can't do. I've tried fusing glass to metal but haven't had much luck. Everyone says you need to do it in an oven but I've seen some work done that was too big to have been done in an oven. That's the kind of stuff I just have to sit back and go "That's really amazing". Or something that's assembled with no visible fasteners kind of like those gates that Rory May of the dragonsforge made. Of course some things are just stupendous due to their immense size like the "aileron" sculpture. But in all those I can see the work involved. In "voice of fire" I can't, so I don't have a proper appreciation of it. I think I could duplicate it but convincing someone to pay me for it? doubtful. I mean someone must have looked at the "voice of fire" and said "Yes, thats exactly what we were after". then again just because someone buys it doesn't make it art. I went through a gallery just last weekend with some astounding art. Way beyond anything I could produce. at least in a reasonable amount of time. perhaps thats what art is, something at the next level. Higher quality than the average craftsman can do. I like to think I'm an artist or at least an aspiring one but perhaps I'm just a craftsman. Perhaps art is something which is an example of the state of the craft. Something other artisans can only aspire to.
  15. I guess that's why myself and seemingly many others don't "get it". That voice of fire painting does absolutely nothing for me. I don't consider it art at all. I am befuddled by why anyone would dish out that much money for something like that. Where is the craft in it? Where is the skill?
  16. Just wanted to add that I think this is the perfect location for this thread,and this discussion, and I find it to be one of the most inspiring I've read on the site since the old ships and sealing wax thread of a while ago.
  17. I like the definition that art is something that inspires people. I know that is a goal of mine in everything I make. I know that what inspires me, I consider art, and it is often something as simple as a well made tool. Usually its more of a "how the heck did they do that" type of thing that really inspires me and makes me want to go out and try. That is partly what led me to blacksmithing. Realizing there was a better way to do some things. Yes, "On The Loose". One of my most favorite books. Another of my favorite quotes is "I would rather wake up in the middle of nowhere than in any city on Earth".
  18. Bozo's on bikes. I'd much rather see tools on the wall being preserved for posterity than crushed for the scrap value. i've seen way to many useful items destroyed for the money they could bring in. As far as art, I dunno. After the original artist (god) there is only the copyist.
  19. Oh no. My girlfriend doesn't seem crafty at all. Maybe I need to dump her in order to be an artist? Hope not because I kind of like her. I just planned to teach her to be crafty. she seems willing to learn. Creating things is the great escape for me. Just wish I could turn a better profit on it but that's neither here nor there.
  20. We have one here I like. Not sure where they got the idea but it stores a LOT of material and categorizes it well too. The whole thing is constructed out of half inch tubing (square). It is made up of what I would call bulkheads on two foot centers. Each bulkhead is a grid of tubing. Each grid or bulkhead is about ten squares wide by ten high..It looks almost like a jail cell except it has horizontal bars as well as verticle. Each of these bulkheads is separated bymore tubing to hold them two feet apart from the next one. It takes up a fair bit of space but it fully supports material every two foot of length so basically any length over about 28" will fit up to 20' which would slide through all eight bulkheads. A little hard to explain and I don't have a picture but it holds an enormous amount of material in one place, any length material will fit, and we categorize it easily. Brass in one column, aluminum in another. Steel in one, stainless in another and then you have ten choices for size in each column with small material at the top and heavy stuff down low. it'll hold up to about five inch square but 2 by 5 is the biggest we have. The big drawback is it takes a LOT of welding to fabricate the initial cage, but once its made it keeps the shop very tidy. You do need a fairly large shop though as the cage is about 5' X 5' by 16' long.. Anyway, something different.
  21. I'm pretty sure this has been done. I can't cite any references but I do remember reading about it a couple years ago. They were forming sheet metal though so maybe not as thick as you were thinking?
  22. Man I wish I could hammer that fast. You are a true artisan. :rolleyes:
  23. Thanks for the link. I'll give them a go. The bricks at Lowe's are only rated up to 2200 degrees. Being as steel melts at 2300 I would like something rated slightly higher. Sheffield has brick rated to 2800. That should do fine. Thanks again. I already have some soft firebrick but want some hard high temp for the floor of the forge.
  24. Could somebody give me a good source for firebrick? I want about a half dozen of the one inch thick by about nine inches long that are rated for 3200 degrees or so. My online searches so far have only given me major distributors or brick rated to only 2200 degrees. Nothing available locally either (small town, SE Washington).
×
×
  • Create New...