David Gaddis

A balancing act...nooooo a falling act. I go into the shop to make sure the anvil still has a good coat of wax to remedy the rust. Even polished the hammer heads and waxed them. ALthough the hammer feels good I know better than do too much with it. I have a poweer hammer but really it requires some strange physical torquing that I fear today. I have a need to make some hardy tools that would be nice but my parent material is 1.3in dia 5160 rod about 5 feet long. So I gotta get some help reducing the length to a manageable dimension for the PH. My desires are greater than my current abilities. And that is quite a bit like that Budweiser ability with the champagne desire! So maybe I need to look into repousse stuff. Lucky for me there is Ernie Doyle here in Mississippi as a teacher. Maybe he has room for one more. Carry on

On many different machines I have worked and repaired on in my life any parts that put the machine into a movement were considered "propel shafts". That nomenclature seemed to change when the power entered a transmission or final drive assembly. That propel shaft name carries itself over to the little ATV's my many manufacturing companies, even the big one that is made in USA. Carry on

Are the flower part copper? I think I am seeing some flux from the joining. And your simitry is very nice, along with the joinery. Good job. Carry on

You are correct about drilling the hole and the drift thing. An important thing is overlooked here. When the piece is cold you mark the striking anvil with the square drift on both the front and the back, taking care to keep the squares aligned. When the striking anvil is glowing really hot the drift will align itself much better as all the infrared stuff is messing up the vision. It also means the reverse side is preset for the same treatment. Brian used a true size drift and when the new anvil was cool he had to re-drift the hole. Your drift need a small radius on the corners too. or at least small 45 degree angles, that keep the drift from cutting instead of pushing the metal. A bit about drilling a round hole the same dimension as the square hole. If you did drill the same size as the drift entered the hole the shoulders would be stretching first, then pushing the remainder of the metal away. By using a smaller dimension those square shoulders would still be stretching and pushing, but as the drift fully made contact the "flats" of the drift would be pushing and stretching also. There is one more point...and that is the drift should to some extent be polishing the drifted hole as it passes through. If it does not the anvil is still very hot, so the re-drifting may be n ecessary. You may see that as a scale form. WHen cold your new hardy hole should allow the new hardies to slide into and out with minimum amount of banging.

well it is not my ticker...but is connected to it. I need all sorts of ideas. Not any experience with repousse..yet. And not too much experience with copper...yet. I am considering all sorts of thing now but keep coming back with the denial because of the lifting twisting pulling or pushing that is required. But I am thinking pretty seriously about some copper leaves imprinted via rubber backplate as some people do. And then there is that thing that macbruce makes...the ZipMax. Does anyone have any idea how that may affect me? when someone was as active as I have been and now this aneurism thing....man I am searching. Its been two days now since the operation! Carry on

I am a blacksmithing enthusiast. I would love to be called a real blacksmith but fear those days will never arive. The doctors have given me a stent through an aneurism to continue life but a weight limit of 10 pounds, for 6 months. So I will continue to bang away at very crafty stuff instead of forging hammers and large items. Hopefully the learning process will continue throughout the ordeal. Carry on

Down here the people at the shop mount the weed eater motors in them to use as a test stand. But our life is more differnt than most anyone else's. Even our mosquitoes will sneak away with our cans of brew Carry on

So today I return from hepatic arterial stent insertion for 8.9 cm aneurism. I am allowed to lift about 10 pounds and am thinking on what part of smithing I will be challenging myself with. If anyone has ideas I am up to the new way of thinking. The next hammer build project would be very small compared to the ones I have helped strike on this year. So...please bring in some ideas. Carry on

Please MIster....Don't throw me into the briar patch

I think I see some grins too. Perhaps they are volunteering to be forging there. Carry on or carry me off to a warmer place....like M...ississippi

Amputation! Yes that wil solve the problem. And right before you keel over you place my name as beneficiary to all you blacksmithing tools. That will make it easier on the survivors as they would no longer have to look at that wasted equiptment. Carry on

A man should appreciate his dad...and mom every day. They will be gone before you know it. ANd yours is more special because he is helping you out on a new craft! Carry on

We did one 3 inches thick in two heats! It can be done and it really is easier than you may imagine. Dave ...your videos are just as good as your work. Enjoy having your friends and dad around, look around a few times and then they are gone.I know my dad would have liked seeing some of this stuff. Keep up the good work. Carry on

More iron than 3 350 Chevy motor blocks

Well go unbolt that thing and bore holes in the legs...near the tops of course. Fill near the top with oil...slowly as it takes a little while for it to saturate. It does not take a whole ship-load either. Any oil will do...used or brand new, any weight, household or rear end grease. The oil messes up the harmonics of the steel. Brian showed this to me and I did a bit of research, via University of Backyard, College of Engineering. When you do the same you too will be amazed. oil treatment is well worth the trouble. Carry on

Your shop is waaaaayyyy tooooo clean. Now get back to work! carry on

Not a complete answer to the problem but an alternative. Remember seeing one of thos gum ball machines...yeah tose round glass spheres were mounted onto them. Well the base is a bit heavy and about the right diameter to withstand the motion of the arm going around the blower. One of my friends uses a bottom of an industrial freestanding fan. The fan base is a bit wider but thinner to the ground.

Dave...this is David G...the guy that welded the anvil for Brian and helped drift the holes. Our piece of steel was 3 inches thick! From start to finish the preheating, drifting, cooling and grinding the transport bars off took only 2 hours. 2 inches thick should be considerably less. Don't forget to drill the legs and fill with sand and oil as the noise reduction is well warranted. Your striking anvil will be a good investment for you. Carry on

You are overlooking a great possibility at a very economical price.....turn that baby into a striking anvil. Make the finished height to be approx 28 in tall. For a striking anvil rebound is not necessary. But wait....you still have an active area that has not been welded upon to use as a regular anvil too! get ready to make you some neat bottom tools like mounted spring swages or any of a gozillion anvil tools. Lots of folk are envious about this situation for sure. Many people do not really do hard striking so they do not realize the potential of having a dedicated striking anvil, and your also will have good working surfaces to boot. Here is the plan...$50 on the purchase...about $50 in grinding and flap grinding tools...about $100 or so for a good base, maybe less. Heck yeah! You have a great situation going for you. Get active Carry on

This year it was in Aug. Stan had previously given me an invite, then several months transpired. As time for the meet grew closer he reminded me. I thought he was merely being nice to invite but it became clear that he was sincere...to the max! There was all sorts of projects going on, from persons from all over. Their hospitality was fantastic...along with the facility. I thought my drive to be there would certainly been the longest and again I was wrong. Hopefully I will attend again. It was great to put a "real time" face with a name...the same ones that make quite a bit of contributions to the IFI. Again Stan, thanks for having me up there.

I had a pretty darn good time up there a few months ago. Everyone there was top shelf material...'cept this one guy from waaay up North that wanted to paint everything purple. Now what kind of blacksmith would paint something purple? I think he was Artie...or no..RD....no it must have been RT The food was excellent as well as the fellowship. Thanks again Stan david G carry on

Those books may not have been expensive when Thomas acquired them...Just saying.... Carry on

Phil is right however that is over simplified. Think in steps. Get a program that will allow you to import pics and re-size them. Here it may seem very complicated..but ...when re-sizing a picture most programs are thinking in inches. Generally right there beside the options area you chose pixels instead of inches or dots per inch. Most here will choose 400 or 600 or 800 pixels in the horizontal choice. That makes a decent size picture that is easy to upload or download or look at. Good luck with your very nice anvil. Carry on

Your punch is a beautiful piece of work. How about consider some differing tactics here. Now I am telling this only because I have been in the presence of some of good strikers and hammers makers as you posted being with Alec Steele the othe day. The primary penetrating device into a blank for a hammer is short, stumpy, fat, strong, and it still has the shape on the end that you have provided. After a sizable amount of penetration...but still less than half way....remember you go in from both ends...you go to a slimmer, longer, penetrating device. Why? you ask....because as you penetrate deeper you are gathering up more heat and resistance. A simple change to the more streamline punch allows the process to proceed. Remember that you are not removing material but replacing it. You replace the existing material with the punch, and then the drift. Go back to your original pics and compare with some of those from Brian Brazeal and Lyle Wynn. I too have made the mistake of attempting to penetrate material way too thick with even a good shaped punch. When retreating to the streamlined penetrator the job was completed more easily. There was little side friction so the penetration went as if onto very thin material. I am not the best at some of these things but I have been in the presence of some very good persons teaching the same principals. You have brought forth a good learning process that should receive more comments. Perhaps Brian or Lyle will expand upon this to an exacting lesson. They are grealy qualified. Carry on

well here is the real situation...investigate those cold / hot bending machines like the Hossfield bender! Upon researching their setup proceedure the answer will emerge quickly, although not economically at todays prices. BUT...if you decided to make some minor changes...like having the back side of the legs (between two sets of legs(bents)) to be vertical, then making them yourself the advantages may really emerge. the example was as if the table was a walk-to on all sides. BUT if you uses a larger, wider table top then vertical legs is not a problem anywhere. Placement of the corresponding extra diagonals becomes paramount though. Go buy them or create angle iron verticals as most of us have in the past. Good luck carry on