Zsartell

Green Field Village does have a blacksmith shop, but unfortunately they don't have a working Blacksmith anymore and as far as they told me were not interested in getting one at the time. But, it is a great place to go and they do have a glass blowing shop that is always running not to mention all of the other cool stuff there. It should be just down the road from you.

You should definitely join MABA (MABA, Michigan Artist Blacksmith Association), it is a great organization with lots of helpful people. Are you moving to Detroit or one of the surrounding cities? I'm about 45 minutes north of Detroit myself and occasionally make it to the MABA meetings. Quad State in OH wont be far if you are looking for a great place to grab some tools and knowledge.

Thanks all for your kind words. The two key pieces were riveted on and then filed flush. The head was silver soldered on and shows no sign of ever coming loose. I have decided to do a little more detailed work the the head as I'm just not happy with it the way it is. I'll post the finished key here next week when I get some more time to work on it.

Hi all,

Here is a little project I am just finishing up. It's a key that a woman commissioned for me to make from a picture she had. It's not quite as decorative as the original, but her budget didn't allow for any more detail work and this is what I came up with.

I've had a few people ask me about the foot control I use with my mini press. Here is a couple pictures of it. It's made from a piece of channel the valve the press came with and some other scrap I had lying around.

"They are not very intuitive, and they do exactly what they are programmed to do. Which is a very big hassle in most cases."

Personally I prefer my robots to obey their programming. When they start thinking for themselves, it's not a good thing.

That is great Bully, you should be very proud! I'm getting married this fall and am hoping to have a son or daughter to help my in the shop soon. I can't wait to have a little helper.

Let's see some pictures of the little guy making his pa proud....

I'm always $8000 short and too far away.... ;-)

Hey guys,

I had a few minutes today to continue the fight, so here are a few pics of me drilling the mounting holes in the base plate and some of the holes in the roller wheel supports.

I love starting new projects that I actually intend on finishing ;-) I had so much fun on my mini press and I'm sure this is going to be a fun build. I have most of the main pieces and as I go I'll try to substitute what I don't have or head off to the steel yard to get what the instructions call for.

As with most anything I do, this will be a few minutes here and a few minutes there type of a project. I just can't seem to find a good amount of time to devote to anything anymore. I had originally planned on building this with a friend of mine (over a year ago), but he lives over an hour away and I just can't seem to find enough time to get over there so I bailed on him (sorry Will) and decided to start the build at my shop and work on it when I find some free minutes in the week.

Hello,

I have finally jumped the gun and gotten together some pieces to build a roller blade wheel style treadle hammer. I started this project about a year ago and never got anywhere with it. I picked up the base plate 3/8" and most of the tubing and angle iron today at the steel yard and am going to record the build here on the forum. I am going to stick mostly to the plans, but do have some things I plan on changing to better suit my needs. The original plans call for a rather short anvil height for myself, but I will be building it to the same height in the plans and will block it up higher if I need to. Here is a few pieces I have so far.

Most people I know have the best luck with a 4 to 1 solution of Ferric Chloride and water. As far as getting that black layer to stick around, perhaps someone else can help out with that. I'm currently experimenting with using baking lacquers and so far they are working fairly well.

I understand you wanting to know where to get high contrasting stainless steels for future projects. I usually start in over my head on most projects, but I usually like to punish myself as well. I'm sure you're going to start by welding up some scrap to begin with, but it sure doesn't hurt to keep your options open when you get a little practice in.

I've also been looking for that 420 stainless with the Molibdenum and Vanadium. I've used 304L and 316L, but it is just not quite what I want. I'm not much into making knives, but I love making damascus. I'm hoping my new mini press will help me out in that department (I'm sure it will).

Mike,

The inside guides have under a 1/16" in clearance and as you can see ca be bent out further on the top and the bottom to be adjusted. So far I have not bothered to adjust it as it seems to work just fine. I also have done some tests pressing out of center and the long guides seem to help really well although I have a feeling they may need a bit of reinforcing later on. One thing I had also considered was to weld a long 1/2" plate on the adjustable ram on the bottle jack to help distribute the load better instead of being only pushed in the center. This might work great and might also put a lot of lateral stress on the bottle jack and prematurely blow the seals. I think the key is to make sure everything is extremely parallel and perpendicular. The uprights are within thousandths, not measurable on a ruler. I had considered a solid header plate at the top or even a heave duty adjustable one with a turnbuckle for adjustments, but I really don't think it's needed. The upper die that bolts on seems to hold everything together perfectly and it still easily adjustable. The quick release dies are just mild steel and should be fine, but I think I might try to super quench them anyway. There are still a few things to do to this press, but I am really happy with it so far.

Zach

Hello everyone,

Here is a picture of my new Mini Press I built. I made a few mods to the other designs I have seen, but nothing major. I also have built a foot pedal for the bottle jack that is not seen here. So far it's cost me about $170, maybe less.... It works really well so far and hope to get some more pictures and probably a video as well.

Mini Press - Blacksmith Photo Gallery

Congrats on your first pair of tongs!

Lets see some pictures...

Mail it to me and I'll do some tests on it to see what the best way to do it is. Then when you get a new piece, I'll let you know what to do. ;-)

If I had to do this and was just going to forge knives out of it, I'd hot split it with a chisel. I'd cut away at it in small bits as needed.

I started a powdered motorcycle chain damascus knife for my father, but have only got the initial billet welded up so far. First I have to make a few bottle openers and key chains for paying customers and my fiance requested a black ring with a CZ set into it (that's been an interesting adventure). Oh, and I also started a cherry wood pipe for a good friend of mine that I really need to get working on too. I'm glad I stopped taking orders over a week ago otherwise I wouldn't get any of my personal gifts done!!!

Zach
Iron Oak Forge

Mine does the same thing. Actually after a while it stopped and hasn't gone any farther. I just ground the sharp burs off and it hasn't been a problem. If you want to reduce any further wear, just weld on a piece of flat bar like Flaming S Forge said.

Thanks Glenn. I enjoyed that.

I have one of Tom Clark's hammers and use it as my main forging hammer. It is a wonderfully made hammer and am very grateful for owning it. I never met or even had the chanc3e to speak to Tom, but have only heard great things about him.

I once used one to hold the rail track to the railroad tie...

Check this site out as well:

Barrel Forging

and this is a great one:

http://www.iowatelecom.net/~toadhall/index.htm

Mild steel should work fine for a monkey tool. I sometimes give the end of the tool a slight radius so the center sticks out a bit more. This way you are surely moving less material at one time as the center near the tenon is usually the only part sticking out. But more importantly to get a nice fit, the center near the tenon should actually go in a little further than the outer edge.

Ok guys, I was not able to make it to Quad State this year and I'm sure you guys took some pictures of all the wonderful events including the bloom making on Saturday.

Let's see those pics...