meteorman

Oh man, don't get me started ! I'm afraid it would be off topic for this forum. A recent build is at this link: http://contemporarymakers.blogspot.com/2012/10/appalachian-style-gun-by-mike-millard.html Others can be seen on my website: http://mikemeteor.wix.com/mikemillard. For all you folks who like to make period pieces with your hands, that Contemporary Makers site should be a frequent stop. Cruise the archives, there's some impressive forging work there: knives, hawks, etc. As for the longrifles, the hardware, particularly the triggerguard and buttplate, are the tricky parts. You can buy cast ones all day long, but I'd love to forge my own. Some folks do - I don't know how yet. Heck, a few folks even forge weld their own barrel around a mandrel, and hand-rifle it, but it's a labor of love. Not for many, and dangerous if you dont get it right. 99.8% of blackpowder barrels are drilled from solid stock and bought by makers like me. I may start a new thread over in the general blacksmithing forum for hints on forging triggerguards/buttplates. There's a market for that stuff if you have the passion. /m

rescued an anvil from certain death. pics in the anvil forum. /mike '?do=embed' frameborder='0' data-embedContent>>

thanks folks. yeah, must be 100 lb-er, I can pick it up with a fair amount of effort. I wouldnt be picking up a 180 lb-er. good idea on the beer bottle opener - Lord knows my buddy uses them frequently. if nothin else, the Hardy option will help me if I can find some Hardy-type swaging tools. I often need to impart smooth radius's (radii?) on farily thin sheet brass and steel - tryin to figure best way to do that. /m

My buddy owns a scrap yard and I told him to keep an eye out for an anvil for me. Well, last week he called me out to pick one up. I think its kinda' beat, but I just dink around beating on small stuff while making flintlock longrifles. and anyway... the price was right. Free. So i spent a few minutes with wire brush and sander. I can see it's a Vulcan, just barely. Not sure what it says on bottom of logo. The face is 13.5" x 4" and it stands about 11" high. It looks to have a hardened steel plate for the face ? There's a number on one end a 10 or an 18, can't tell (you can see it in 2nd and 4th pics). There's a mark on the other end that I can't make out (last pic). Has one bad break/gouge/rust-out on bottom right side base of beak. I know next to nothing about anvils - any thoughts on this thing, rescued from the firey XXXX of a re-melt in an iron furnace......... ? /mike right off the truck: after a few minutes of cleaning off rust:

Still working on my tiny little forge. wondering if its obvious I need to tune the 1/2" tee burner ? this is the flame with the temporary black iron flare: i then procured a 3" piece of stainless and flared it a bit and now the flame looks like this (at fairly high pressure - just under flame-out); this is with a .023 MIG jet, 4" black pipe, plus about another 1.5" of SS flare sticking past that. heat chamber will be formed by these two firebricks assembled together, which will be surrounded on all sides by more bricks in final design. Chamber will be about a 3"x5" oval, about 8" long and coated with Plistix. Am i in the ballpark ? thanks for any tips, MIke

first question from a complete noob building my first small firebrick forge, with a 1/2" black pipe tee burner. The forge will have a welded angle-iron external skeleton/ frame, tightened up with all thread. It likely won't be taken apart or reconfigured once assembled. It will see occasional uise for heat-treating and forging of small parts for custom muzzleloader guns. would there be any thermal efficiency or advantage to coating the inside surfaces of the soft firebrick with plisitix 900? thanks for any insight... great site ! /mike