J.A

I was tossing round the idea of taking July off workand coming over to the states for the ABANA 2012 conference in Rapid city. There is a sale on flights to San Francisco which is too good to pass up, so i was thinking of hiring a car and driving there and back over several weeks. I also wanted to attend a few smithing classes along the way. So what i want to know is of any good classes in intermediate techneques between San Francisco and Rapid city. Also any must see tourist spots along the way anyone could recomend would be aprreciated. Thanks in advance.

Thanks for the replies, was just curious really. Dale not really new to the site, been lurking for years absorbing information and learning. Reckon at the very least I might have to jump the ditch to get hammered at Moody's. Whats the nearest international airport out of curiosity? might price up some flights.

Check with the local council about the by-laws of the area. Ric and forgemaster summed it up pretty well, if you are living in the suburbs it depends on your neighbors and if you are living rural I wouldn't even worry about it. Living in Christchurch I found it cheaper by about $250 to get a professional gas forged shipped from pieh tools than to apply for resource consent (which isn't guaranteed to be approved) to run a coal forge which is classed as an open fire. There is however an exemption for a fire used for the heating of metal in industrial zoned areas. This is just Christchurch though we are a little funny about laws regarding open fires because of our smog problems due to our geography. Most other places are much more accommodating about coal forges.

Hi my name is James Abbott, from Christchurch NZ, and i have been blacksmithing for the past 6 years (I'm 22 now). I was considering moving to Melbourne as many of my friends now live there after the quakes here in chch. I just want to know are there any opportunities for an apprenticeship in making wrought iron or at least if it is a common thing. I currently work fabricating wrought iron from pre-forged components from china as well as the occasional hand forged job. Also I have my own workshop in my parents garage where i spend my spare time making knives and smaller things like wine racks and the such. So are there many artist blacksmiths in Melbourne? Are they large businesses or small one smith operations? Thanks in advance for your time.

Thanks every one. Its terrible for this to be happening again to Christchurch and sad we didn't get off so lucky this time. I consider my self very lucky i decide to have lunch when i did otherwise i would have had a shelf full of scrap steel fall on me. my shop looks like a bomb hit it the only things that didn't fall where things bolted to the ground like my anvil, flypress, power hammer and vice. Unfortunately this new earthquake means the business i had just started in Ferrymead Heritage park is bound to fail. The smithy its self is still standing undamaged but the large brick horse stable next door has partially collapsed meaning i can't use my smithy until it is demolished or repaired which could take months. Also my main customers were tourists and seeming as over 50% of the historical buildings have been leveled i don't think Christchurch is going to have many tourists visiting in the next years.

Whoops forgot the drawing. If you make your hammer like this you have to weld something top and bottom that you can drill and tap into (i used 25mm plate) and remember to v your weld preparations.

Thanks for the comments. A video you say? How about its first time being run? This was on the compressor at my work at low psi with no top die in it. I'll try get a video of it doing its thing with some hot steel. A.J yeah the hammer is tube filled with 12mm round bar that we had left over. I did have a photo of how the inside of the hammer looked prior to welding but i can't find it right now. I'll whip a drawing up in paint so you can see what i mean. As far as finding the pneumatics go Where do you live? I could tell who i got mine off but i doubt you would want to come to New Zealand to pick them up. I'd suggest doing what i did though look up pneumatic part retailers and take in the plans. Show them the circuit drawing in the back and they will probably be able to figure it out for you.

Thought you all might like to see my power hammer. It was made from plans from www.artistblacksmith.com that my dad got me for my birthday. Didn't have any work on at my fabricating job, so i asked my boss if i could use some of the scrap steel we have at the workshop. He was very keen for the steel to do something other than sit in the corner of his shop. The only parts i needed to buy were the pneumatics, steel for the dies (h13) and anvil and the nylon for the guide box. The hammer is actually SHS with 12mm round left over from a balustrade packed in capped with some 25mm plate. Let me know what you think.

Yeah power hammer was bolted down, Hadn't had a chance to bolt down the Flypress yet. Very lucky The quake Happened when it did other wise things would be looking a lot more grim over here.

As some of you may or may not have heard, Christchurch New Zealand just had a pretty strong earth quake. Just got to have a look at my workshop this morning man what a mess. Shelves had tipped most of their contents onto the floor, My flypress which i had just managed to get up onto its stand days before toppled into my mig welder, forge fell off its stand and my belt grinder is a complete write off. Han't had a chance to assess damage yet as our flat is probably condemned and were busy moving our belongings out. Very lucky the death toll is near non-existent. Long clean up ahead though.