MOblacksmith0530

Brian I was trying the slot punch being just a little shorter than the diagonal length of the square hole. I made the punch a little too long and ended up with a really ugly hole. The reason I was trying to punch it so close to the finished size was to prevent bar growth in the length. If I use an undersized diagonal drift then and on sized square then I will get some growth. Since I can find no other way to do it I will just have to determine the growth and compensate in the layout. it works so well on the square on the square and round holes I was hoping I could get better results on the diagonal. Oh well it is still a lot better than the drill and drift method that thins and stretches the bar that I had used for years.

If I remember correctly the standard shrinkage for steel is right around 6%. so for a 1 inch hole the drift would be around .060 over sized? I would make sure that the hole I drilled is at least the same undersized if not more, so .063 is the minimum undersized I would drill for a 1" hole so 15/16 I think 1/8 as said about would be better after some consideration. I have yet to make mine but may work on it around Christmas time if I can.

Sweet hammer!

Thanks for the post. I agree with you 100%. I have experimented with many slitters over the years and when I saw the technique you described it was a light bulb moment. I am actually having a hammer in today and we will be making slitters and drifts. I am planning on correcting my verbiage many times today to try and say slit punch as that is probably more correct. I have been using the Brian Brazeal type of hand punches and they work well. The only one I tend to have some trials with is the square drift on the diamond. I get more distortion than I like and am messing with the slot punch size to get a better fit.

Okay here is a pic of the three I use to roll nails for for nail puzzles the one on the left is the same size I use to make horse shoe nail rings but the shank for the horse shoe nail rings is longer. hook the head of the nail under the hook with the shank of the nail under the shank on the tool pointing to the right in this picture and hit the shank while rolling the tool towards the tip of the nail.

The way I go about it is to try and explain that you "swing" a hammer. And you "throw" the hammer at the the work. I try ot to get into some of the more advanced concepts until they get a little control and start to hit the metal watching to be sure they are not starting a bad habit in the process.

The gate is all steel and there is definitely flux residue it has not been sandblasted or washed yet.

I will be looking for it

There are some interesting short straight lines under the 3 in the middle of the woodpecker marks on the first picture

A while back Beth posted pics of a beautiful gate she had done and I was supposed to post some of mine. I still have to make the hinges and latch and forge the posts but here is the gate prior to sandblasting.

Elbow grease

Great looking mousehole. I have a 148lb that still needs some Face work. (there is a dead spot I will have to cut out and refill with Stoody rod one of these days)

84 lb English pattern anvil, I can't help you more than that without some other markings. Maybe some others can do better.

Both are better for what they do. O lack a hydraulic press in my shop right now. Helped a buddy build one and it was in my shop for about 8 months. Got to use it and was getting used to having it when he took it. I would like to have one again but lack the space and dollars right now.

Clodbuster you need to check out this thread.

I think you are making the right decision on the pass of the crack. I would too. As to teh other one it looks solid enough that I don't think it will be any issue. If it did become a problem you have room to add more bracing in between the other already there if you had to. I really like that it has a flat table that is wha tI have pu ton mine to accommodate tooling and such. If you go to our groups webpage bamsite.org, then go to newsletters, go to the november december 2012, then go to page 10 it shows a pic of our recent meeting demonstration being done on my buddy's flypress (same as mine) with my baseplate. Not the greatst pic but if you want more detail just PM me and i can take some better pics of mine and send them to you

Get a piece of 5/8 round. bend a piece of 5/16 round into a 90 degree bend with one leg about 3/4 and the other about 5/8. Place the 3/4 long bend across the top of the 5/8 round with the 5/8 portion hanging down along the length of the 5/8 round with a gap big enough for the shank of the nail just behind the head to fit under it. Weld the 5/16 round to the end of the 5/8 round. Hook your nail under it and using the face of the anvil or a swage, hammer the 5/8 round bar into the anvil forcing the nail to bend and roll the par until it is in a complete circle. I use a regular ring sizer to size it to the persons finger.

I make hundreds of fire steels out of hay rake teeth. I really appreciate your info george. And southwest colonial ironwork has been on my short list for some time. Need more money.

I have two blocks in the 125 range and they are about the limit I want to move around. Flipping them in the stands to get the right side up is a pain by yourself. I also have a smaller 85 lb block that is square and I use it for portable I think it was cast in Mississippi or someplace about 10 years ago. A couple years ago we did a buy (BAM did) from salt fork for the ones they did around 100 lbs and I think everyone was happy with the result. It seems like we are reinventing the wheel here or maybe I am not understanding what the desired size is.

Looks like a nice press. One thing to keep in mind is that on that style the handle position is more or less fixed. When you make your tooling try to get it so that the handle ends up in a good position when the tooling hits the work. Some of the newer ones use a flywheel instead of the arm and counterweight and they have an easily movable handle so the tooling height makes no difference withing reason. The nice thing about the flypresses is that they can do pretty much anything that a treadle hamer can do and with a little more control for most folks.

At our ren fair we have the reputation that we ahould I think. If you need it fixed bring it to the blacksmith shop. WE have repiaired everything from eye glasses ( made a tiny screwdriver) to belly dancer costumes (the coins were falling off the outfits)(took a really long time to make those repairs let me tell you). We even had another "forge" booth on the grounds we made parts for and repaired on occasion.

George, I have had issue with trying to forge with dark lenses. I use dididium (sp) glasses to forge weld. They are the ones the glass blowers use to look into the glory hole of a glass furnace. It has takem me some time to get used to them when welding but when welding you NEED to look into the fire. For regular forging I don't need to look into the fire I can pulll the piece out or just use the tried and true jusgments of practice.

Looks like an ASO anvil shaped object. It is probably cast iton and therefore useful only as a hole filler.

Looks good

I use the same mark I used as a teenager to mark my pencil sketches. it is the letters J and K with the verticals sharing the same line so the j is first then the K.