Heelerau

I have now added the front sheet as advised with about 16 inches of clearance, I will make any other mods if and when needed. Shop is now pretty much ready to go. Will do the stoop during my holidays in spring. I have placed everything where I want it, so will get to a light a fire in the next day or so. It is a ver rustic farm smithy, and only cost me a couple of cartons of beer and about $70 in bolts and hardware

Thomas, thanks for the interest, I had thought to add some sheet to the front, cut a hole in the back and remove some of the right hand side to allow larger work in. Guess a little experimentation to get the best result. I should have said this thing sat on the outside of a kitchen wall and contained a Metters No2 wood stove. I have this morning added the extra sheet down the front of the hood, 16 inches clearance. I won't worry about the other mods mentioned till I need to put a large piece in there.

I am actually thinking that eventually I will cut a hole in the back and cut back the right hand side for better access, and yes I intend to add some sheet to the front with a view of improving the chimney draw. Thanks for the interest.

Today we finished tinning the front wall, door stop in, and cracker dust watered and compact for the forge to sit on. The forge is sitting on 4 clay pavers so it hopefully won't settle to much. Hood on and through the roof, son in law is a roof leader so he has flashed the joint ing fine and mastered any holes in the roof as we used old corrugated iron. Will fire the forge up tomorrow and see it the hood needs any mods.

Gentlemen, I have used a Metters No 2 type sheetmetal installation as a hood for my buffalo forge. It is placed longitiudinally, I may have to cut out the end to the right hand side. Here it is.

Mate, long term projects, at 56 I am getting some of mine finished that I started as young as 14 ! That is a nice little shop, and I too will be doing a few basic projects such as hooks brackets, fire tools and the like when my shop is finished. Nice well made gas forge for heat treating !! ver clever use of an old gas bottle. I will have a similar floor section under my forge and anvil to yourself, so no fires. Will look forward also to seeing photos of your projects. Good luck !! Cheers Gordon

Part of the fun is thinking outside the box and using what you have access to to make up a smithy, good luck you will eventually find a nice forge or you will finish up making one !!

An old neighbor of ours back home on the station had pretty good workshop with over head gear like pictured above, drill, lathe, power saw, powdered by a one lung hit and miss.

Looks like a puller for treated pine posts.

Mate I will have the same issue as you, and will be putting a sheet metal flue through the corrugated iron roof. My daughters partner is a roof leader, and he will flash the flue off with sheet lead and mastic.

We team rope steers down under, I have in fact a nice team roping arena down on the bottom of our place. I got into rodeo pretty late in life, my late father who rode bulls for a buckjump show back in the 1920's would not let me ride rough stock as a kid, mind you I did near on twist a knee off in a roping accident 15 years ago and boy am I paying for it now !! We even have a Texican down under I have heeled for, in fact a number of expat American cowboys came down under in the late 50's and early 1960s and got our roping up to speed. Cheers Gordon

I was once a champeen cow disturber !

Gentlemen, it will be hot work in the smithy and plenty of mates will drop round for a wee drop or two o cider hence the size of the barrel. Heeler ay you, I was a team roper for years and heeled, although for a heeler when we had 3 loops at a rodeo I got pretty good at catching heads !! My lay out is ver similar to the smithy we had on the sheep and cattle station that I was born on, that my late father managed. We had a large barrel in that forge till the hoops rusted, these are in fact galvanised.

Here is a better shot from another camera !

Jack, will likely put a final level of crack dust down on the sand floor for that reason. My son in law and a mate and I just redid the roof, and put more fall on it as it leaked badly, also rolled the far edge down as flashing and closed the gap you can see in the back of the shed in the tractor photo. I will put a window where the post vice is and may even put in a skylight. Should get a fair bid done when I get back from work in a couple of weeks. Thanks for your interest.

Dave and I did some more work on the shop yesterday, got all the timber walling up to head hight and now sheeting with tin, also put the rest of the sleeper floor down, now just have to bring the work area floor up to level with sand. Post drill mounted, still have to sort the roof out, and build a front stoop which will have a concrete floor and install the hood over the main forge.

Thomas, thanks for the reply, I suspect you are quite right. I have been looking at pictures of similar Buffalo post drills and guess I should be able to make one with a bit of fiddling about. Cheers

Gentlemen, have just install the above into my new blacksmith shop. It is missing the powered arm and pawl, are these parts available or do I need to make one? Cheers Gordon

Just took a couple of photographs of the forges and anvil roughly in place, will still have to back fill the actual workspace with sand and dolomite then fit the hood to the big forge and etc. Enjoy

Gentlemen have started modifying the lean to off the main workshop. Bench has gone in, built against the end wall, posts set into the ground, bench top 4'' Jarrah, 10 inches wide, 4 inches thick and about 10' long. Vice has been set into the ground and bolted onto the bench. An extra pipe set to support the roof, door post set, I am using Jarrah bridge timbers I got for a carton of beer as a feature front wall, they are about 8 inches thick and about a 1.5 feet deep. I have been flooring one half of the shop with jarrah bridge decking, will leave the floor around the forge and anvil stand sand, for softer footing and less chance of fire starting on the floor from hot slag etc. Still quite away to go, will put a stoop out the front and concrete that area so horses have a good spot to stand when being shod. We moved the forges in and the anvil and stand, they will be moved about as I still have to level the floor out where they sit. Will put more pictures in over the next few months. Cheers Heelerau

Looks like the original fire pot to me. I have the same model forge, but there was only enough fire pot left too get the idea for the boiler makers at my place of work to fabricate a new one out of bissalloy. They did a great job, only cost me a carton of cider !! . Cast iron is a difficult prospect especially as it has been exposed to extreme heat over a long period, I remember a late mate saying that as with old car exhaust manifolds, sometimes the iron burns out of the cast making it impossible to weld. I am very happy with my forge.

I have a similar forge, which I clay lined years ago. I have been meaning to make a shield for it. Nice job. Cheers Heeler

Mate it is likely a light axel from a sulky, waggon axels are much heavier, no idea what the other thing is.

Gentlemen, fired up the Buffalo today, in its temporary setting, I am setting up a new smithy in a lean to off the shed these pictures are set. I am just making a few hoof picks as Christmas presents for some of my cowboy mates and their cards out of old horse shoes. About two hours, and it was a hot day, sure sweated the gravy out of me !! Cheers Heelerau

I clayed my riveting forge years ago with clay from a dam on my farm, nothing special. I did let it dry for a few days, then started a small fire and heated it initially pretty slowly, then filled any cracks with more clay. It has worked fine. In answer to your question, yes please clay it before it burns out the joints. Cheers Heelerau