TomN

The steel fabricators are making me up an anvil stand at the moment, and will make me up a leg vice stand when that is done. Just got to take it into them and tell them what I want! Such a handy thing to have this steel place, no more than 3 minutes drive from my workshop. They have 2 lovely anvils in there and a load of great hammers as well.

Sorted all the tongs out! Got them loose and then tightened when needed. Sadly 2 sets of the tongs have cracked, at the ends and the working ends are now useless. I need to make myself a whole series of tongs soon. Flat head first! Just order 100, 6mm rivets with a length of 20mm. Should be fine for making a load of tongs and a load of other general riveting jobs.

Lovely work there Greenbeast. Really unique design! I like the nice, smooth flowing lines of the piece. The finish looks great as well. Did you just wire wheel it, then coat with beeswax? I may have to steal the finish for a poker I made recently. Input from the more experienced members is helping me as well as you too. Did you use a swage block to form the shovel, or free form it? I was wondering about this in work today!

Ok, thanks John. Maybe it would be simpler to just paint them all with hammerite. I want my first products to last and leave a good impression, not rust and damage it. For the poker, what would be the best course of treatment? Just heat in the flames and then rub with veg oil?

Thanks Beth. I actually burnt my hand! I made up a little tool to stick in the vice, by just squaring the bottom of a section of 16mm round. Its just to use to form the ring, of leaf key rings around. I put it in the vice to check it fit ok, then left it to clear the clinker out of my forge and fiddle with some bits. I went back and without thinking went to grab it and unwind the vice, and burnt my hand. Very silly of me! I made a 5th bbq butler for a wine glass this morning and then a poker. Came out quite nicely! Didn't have a lot of time, as I had to go to visit my brother in law for his birthday. Was thinking that i'm going to either paint my drink holders with my black hammerite paint, or put the flap wheel on the angle grinder and polish them up, then laquer them. Will that work to protect them? I'll try and get photo's up soon!

Thanks for explaining that Beth..............I did get a bit lost though. Probably because its a bit late! And the blumming clocks go forward now as well. Me hands not too bad. Got some leathery bits on a few fingers and on my palm. Will see how it stands up to hammer work tomorrow! Going to have to make something different tomorrow as I have used all my 8mm round. I will try and see if I can some more, but the steel works doesn't open on Sundays often.

I suppose that could work John. I will try and find some though instead of taking stuff from you! Thanks for the advice!

Made 4 bbq butlers for wine glasses today. Also made up a tool to bend the steel round to form the hole for keyrings. Unfortunately I burnt my hand quite badly on it near the end. I also ordered my anvil stand and the the guy is going to call me with a quote soon! Back to the forge tomorrow to do a bit more, hopefully my hand will be ok.

Thanks Maillemaker and Thomas. Just need to find a supplier for stainless wire round here, then make up a tool to form the coils. So 3/8'' comes out at 9.5mm. Is that circumference, or diameter of the rod? I have both at the moment!

Frosty - That sounds like the kind of thing! I was hoping to keep mine soild, but still moveable, so I could take it to shows in the future (got my first one in a few weekends time - only helping mind you). At the moment I need to store my kit in a locked container, as I don't live where my workshop is. Here is a picture of the vice: Needs a bit of a cleanup, but is sound and tight! Knock it up = make it, in British talk.

I recently aquired a big beast of a leg vice from ebay and I need to design a stand for it, so I can get a local company to knock it up for me. Does anyone have any experience, or advice for this? The stand itself weighs around 30-35kg (at a guess from carrying it).

Those are the ones John. Beth - how do you make the candle holders? I'd love to be able to make them, as i think they'd sell well. I quite like the thought of RedIronForge as well, as I could make letters out of iron, to spell forge and then put heat them up to a red - orange heat and have that as the header picture for my website when I get round to making it!

Things are moving along. Slowly, but still moving! Ordered some thinner round stock today. Mainly so I can knock out a load of bbq butler drink holders, as I think they will sell realtively well at the Thame fair and I can knock them out quite quickly. My wife has also got me another little show to do for her nursery. Will just be selling stuff, but I think they will sell well to the posh parents. Thats some time in August though, and I obviously can't do any demosntrations, so its just selling stuff! Going to order some rivets later. This weekend I will be seeing if I can commision my anvil stand and also seeing if they could knock up a stand for my new leg vice. Should get a good bit of work doen this weekend at the forge. Looking forward to it! Thought of a few names for the little business. Redironforge. And Nicholls Smithy. Both are free, but when I googled nicholls smithy I got a video on youtube of smithy vs Nicholls, eating a pube sandwich. Marvelous! I did think of calling it Hwicce forge as i'm originally from Bristol, but all the maps I could find of the ancient kingdom of Hwicce, didn't have Bristol on the map, just Bath. I could also have called it Mercia or Mercian forge, as I live in Oxford which was on the border of Mercia and Wessex. I just think MercianForge is too big of a name for a hobby smith.... Any thoughts people? Options are: RedIronForge NichollsSmithy HwicceForge MerciaForge MercianForge HELP!!!!

I've joined the ringlord forum and asked over there. A lot of people seem to be saying to use galvanised steel. One person has suggested that I use an acid to burn off the coating and then weld it. I'd rather do it with a more appropriate wire to start with, and cut out this extra step and not have to fiddle about with chemicals. Can you pinch weld stainless steel? (as in, can you get it hot enough and will the chromium in it produce dangerous fumes).

I'm going to have a go at making some mail, in the weekdays, when I can't get to the forge. If I was wanting to weld the rings shut, what sort of wire would be best to go for? I'm assuming galvanised will give off nasty fumes! Any tips on welding, or riveting the rings would be appreciated!

Nice forge. Looks like its got some good years left in it! I won't pretend to be an expert in blacksmithing, as i'm very new to it myself, but i'd agree with the others that a cheap hairdrier will service fine as a blower for now. I used one for a while and still use it now! If you can remove the heating element from it, then that will help, but a lot of hairdriers these days are held together with safety screws to stop you opening them up. If you can't get it out it may overheat every now and again and stop working. Just let it cool down, and whilst that happens you can clear the clinker from your fire. As for tongs, you could make some yourself (not sure of your experience level), or go to this local group and get them to show you how to make them. You never know, they may be generous enough to give you some. Good luck!

I straightened it up a little in the jaws of the engineers vice, but the heat was almost out of it by then. So I had to reheat the middle section and I straightened it further with a wodden mallet, on a block of wood as I didn't want to damage the twist. Worked ok, but wasn't exactly straight. Got to get a stand for the leg vice and the anvil made up now.

The new blower works well Beth, but its a noisy bugger. Thanks Colleen. Got the vice for a good price. Had to drive into the middle of nowhere to pick it up, early on a Saturday morning though. Solid bit of kit. Must weighat least 35kg. I wasn't entirely happy with the poker. The end piece I formed into the ring, I couldn't keep as clean as I wanted it. The transition into the ring wasn't smooth. When I put the twist in the bar, it deformed quite badly and I didn't get it back quite straight. I've given it to my neighbour now, as i'd promised him i'd make him one. He was very happy with it!

Here are a few pictures from today. Got a bit done, but then it started raining. Bit of a nightmare! Here is the leg vice I got from ebay. Just need to clean it up and make a stand for it! Here are 2 things I acquired from cleaning out my grandmothers garage. A mattock and a pickaxe. Got to work out what to do with them.....? I burnt the paint off of 3 cut sections of coil spring and straightened them out and normalised them. Then it started to get a bit rainy, so I made a poker quickly for a friend of mine. He wanted a ring on the end to hang it with and no roller. I put a twist in the middle as well, as I wanted to test out heating the centre of bars on the forge, with my new blower. Shame I didn't have more time, but thats the way it goes!

That is indeed the major concern! I was hoping that I could find somewhere which is more secluded. I may just have to find a place which is cheap to rent in the future. A gargae out of the way somewhere would be good, as I need somewhere to set up my home gym as well. All a pipe dream at the moment. Can't wait to get to the forge tomorrow and Sunday.

Middle of nowhere forge might be appropriate. We are currently looking to buy a house. I'm trying to find one with a large enough garden that I could build a shed in and set up my forge. Might have a better idea for a name then. AmateurForge.co.uk?

Ah I see. Yes that is certainly a possability.....hmmmmm.......not sure why I idn't think of that before.

Randy the 'N' bit is the problem! Can't think of anything good! Greenbeast - I am currently set up in a friends garden, as I live in rented accomodation, and he has a large garden, where i'm unlikely to bother any neighbours with the noise. In fact the old boy that lives next door had a lean over the fence and watched me for a while, the first time I was there.

Still can't think of a good name! Does anyone have any tips for useful off the shelf software, for building a website?

I did some work on Sunday. Tested out my new blower and it is a lot more powerful than my previous one. Found it difficult to light the fire with it as it was too powerful, but I got it worked out in the end. Had a go at making a leaf keyring. I made the leaf, but I made I didn't neck out enough material. Next time I will know better. I free'd up my tongs, by working them in the fire. Had to tighten up the rivets on a few of them. They are now usable and just need the heads modified to their own purpose now. I started on a poker, but ran out of time. On Saturday I am picking up a leg vice I got from ebay, thanks to a tip off from Colleen. On Sunday I hope to do some more stuff up the workshop. I will try and bring back some pictures!