Jim Hart - Conal

Just found out I'm already double booked for that weekend..... Wife and daughter come first...

Have fun everyone.

Who said Ohio State Fairgrounds? They are at the Miami County Fairgrounds in Troy Ohio. Every county has a set in Ohio as far as I know. So they are at the only fairgrounds in Troy Ohio...

Jeff did.... I was just checking to make sure I was not wrong about the location.

I'm confused as I have never seen the word SOFA and ABANA used in the same sentence. Always aprt from one another. And there is a huge blacksmithing store near me and I would have no need to drive three plus hrs to Troy Ohio for a swap meet. The HUGE swap meet.

Really? I go through Mansfield every now and then..... Where?

The Ohio state fairgrounds are in Columbus.... I thought this event was in Troy Ohio... or am I just new and confused?

get a cloth wheel and use it to polish....?

Looking for advice on finding the right kind of scrapyard to go digging for materials in.

What kinds of businesses do I want to look for? I'm hoping to filter some of the wrong
kinds of places out before I get there and find out they are not the right kind of place.

Any advice on how to approach them the first time would be helpful also. I understand
the idea of showing up dressed correctly for digging ( jeans, boots, gloves, hardhat,
eye protection.... etc ) and being polite and articulate.


thanks in advance!

nevermind...


http://www.sofablack...2/2012index.htm




EDIT: is there any more info than this?

it is like when you do re enactment and people say, 'people were shorter back then'

and drunk ALL the time..... Remember EVERYONE drank beer.... they must have always been drunk.

oh and they ate spoiled food.

Thanks Frank, Keep it simple. I think people don't appreciate the technology in some of this old items. It seems a lot of people are tring to make a quick change die set up for power hammers also. You just can't do better than a good key/wedge.

OK.... you got me.... I was probably over thinking this. Making it a more complicated question that it needed to be by trying to do creative..... Its not like I do not have wooden furniture that uses pegs and wedges that I have made....

EDIT: ( I have already satisfied the "you learn something new everyday " thing )

I can at least use the excuse that I don't have the mounting plate and honestly didn't know I was missing it
until I started looking at a Google image search.... I can make one though.....

I have read and heard lots of comments about ASO's anvil shaped objects not being
something that you want to work with.

While I'm saving/looking for a real anvil I have one from harbor freight.


How bad are they really?

They are softer, they don't have the ring or rebound that you want.....

But it is what I have now.


I can't really imagine it's worse than not having an anvil at all....

I have a small piece of railroad track but it does not have the mass I need for an anvil
for much more than small work. Its maybe 8 inches long.... Or am I wrong?

I can't see a blower for the forge, what kind is it hand or electric?

It has an electric blower.... But I'm playing around with a hand crank self made contraption that I hope to
put into service soon. The speed control for the blower is really fiddly.... hard to get slow speeds adjusted
and I tend to leave it higher than I need and leave it on when it does not have to be because it is such a
pain in the XXXX to adjust. .... I want to be able to switch back and forth between the two. I just need to
figure out an easy way to do that.



Since this picture was taken I've replaced the pedals with handles but I
have not yet hooked it up to the forge

welcome where are you located?

I'm almost as far north as you can get and still be in Kentucky.... The northernmost tip of Boone county

https://maps.google.com/?ll=39.109284,-84.7439&spn=0.095904,0.10128&t=h&z=13

oops, I got the terms backwards.... I've tried to harden it a couple times.... Heated to cherry red and quenched.

If i make it to Quad State ( and can find it ) I'll bring it and see if I just didn't do it correctly.

I'm not going be able to leave everything permanently set up anywhere. I'm sure the
homeowners association does not allow a blacksmith's shop and I'd like to be able
to lock it up securely anyway.

I need ideas for a mounting system that would allow me to firmly mount a post vice
and to be able to easily remove it and store it locked up in the backyard shed.

A post set into the ground and.....?


I'm not really thinking portable so much as removable....

I've got a short piece of railroad track ( 7 inches or so... ) And I'm looking for something to replace the ASO

So far all the anvils I've found are outside my spending ability..... I need to get a couple good woodworking
commissions and put that profit towards a real anvil.

Hello!

This forum was suggested to me by a friend.

I'm hesitant to call my self anything other than a newbie, but I have made a couple
very simple things ( removable pins for a folding chair ) in my forge and burned a
LOT of scrap wood from my shop...




and this....



It looks great and fits inside the Altoids tin, but apparently it was the wrong kind
of steel. I guess the pretty sparks my grinder made was from the case hardened surface.
It was a cheap combo rasp. I managed to draw out the handle nicely, the offset was not too
hard to do, the little twist was fun... and it will not throw sparks at all. I've tried to temper
it a couple times.... no difference.


I've been working on a hand cranked blower to replace the electric one I have now...
Not so much replace as it is to give myself more choices. I had the blower fan and
the spirit of Rube Goldburg spoke to me and this was the result. I still have to hook
it up and try it out but it looks like it might work.... Since the picture was taken I've
removed the pedals and replaced them with handles.




I'm thinking seriously about going to Quad State this fall...

http://www.iforgeiro...for-a-beginner/


I just wanted to say " Hi! "

I'm trying to pull off a visit to Quad State this year. It would be my first visit.

I am so new at smithing I'm not even sure I can call myself a beginner.

I did a little horse trading and I got myself a forge and some tools. I have a harbor
frieght anvil shaped object....



...some hammers and a post vice that needs a new spring.

I goal is to be able to make hardware for my woodworking and to have some fun making other
cool things. Adapting hardware never works like I want it to.

http://s147.photobuc...king/?start=all


I want to get the most out of the trip and I'm not sure what to expect and what to prepare for.

Advice? Suggestions?


( Oh yeah..... Hi, I'm Jim... ( also known as Conal ) I'm the new guy. )