george m.

Dear Cody, This appears to be the exact model forge that I have used since 1978. If the fan is hitting its casing there is probably a bent blade but that is not obviously visible in your photos. If it doesn't hit the inside of the case when you have it split open look for something misaligned in the outer half of the case. It's unlikely that the case would be bent because it is cast iron. Cast iron is brittle and breaks rather than bend. You don't need high temperature paint. That part doesn't get hot. The only part that gets particularly hot is the center of the forge. Even the rim is usually cool enough to touch. My main piece of advice is to keep the blower well lubricated. That is the only place where there is any friction and where parts may wear out. Good luck. This forge and blower may give you decades of service.

Dear Intrex, I suspected there was some tongue in your cheek but I decided to respond seriously just because I have seen too many people either burn out or come to the latter part of their lives and realize that they hadn't done many of the things that they wanted to do or haven't seen places that they wanted to. I hear you when you say it looks like you are indispensable to your business. It often seems like that but if you truly are that, IMO, is a liability not a positive thing. What would happen if you were truly incapacitated? A bad case of the flu or a drunken driver could put you out of action for weeks or months. I don't have many answers but some sort of redundancy is a worthy goal. Also, business interruption insurance/disability coverage may be a good idea for both you or your customers. Being with your family is no small thing. No one ever looks back and says that they wish that they had spent less time with their family. A safe and profitable 2015 to you.

I suggest that you consider a pivoted door rather than hinged or sliding doors. Put a pivot on the upper left of the end and rotate the door up and down. There is less fussiness than a sliding door and you can easily adjust the tension so that the door either moves easily or has enough resistance to stay exactly where you want it to stay. You can either have a permanent handle attached to the door or a detachable handle that fits into a receptacle on the door.

Very late addition: Up in the Pyrenees Mts. in Spain there is an old monastery which has a water powered trip hammer which dates back to about the 9th century (IIRC). Oliver is just a brand name for a type of trip hammer. As I recall the illustration the water wheel lifts the hammer with a cam and then releases it as the cam turns. Therefore, the hammer rises and falls once for each revolution of the water wheel. Only a WAG but I'd visualize that as 2-3 times per minute.

Dear Intrex, I am self employed too and am of the firm opinion that one of the primary duties of the business owner is to take care of him or herself mentally and physically. That means getting away from the business and doing something or being somewhere completely different for mental health reasons. It takes me 4 or 5 days to get my head out of the business and to start thinking about recreating. For me, I need to be away for 10 days to two weeks to get the maximum benefit of a vacation. You come back and are much more productive. It may take some serious advance planning but if you say now that for the first two weeks of September you are going to Yellowstone or London or Cancun and mean it and stick with it you can make it happen. Also, do not fall into the trap of believing that we/I will do this someday, maybe after retirement. My wife and I had done a lot of cool things together and looked forward to many more years until she was diagnosed with multiple myeloma cancer at the age of 54. The future is never secure. We are all one diagnosis away from something that will change everything. I suggest that you think long and hard about the benefits to you and your business that getting away on occasion would bring.

There are two things that happen to us as we get older. First, we start to lose our memory capability and I don't remember the second one.

Once I had a long piece precariously balanced on the end of the forge with one end heating in the fire. It was too precarious and the cold end dropped while the hot end came up out of the fire. I was turned away and was turning back. The hot end just touched the end of my nose for a split second and raised a nice blister. The bullet I dodged that time was close enough to hear the sonic snap as it went by.

This was posted to Youtube by someone named Sergi Ilysov. Therefore, I'm pretty sure that this is taking place in Russia or somewhere nearby. I knew it wasn't anywhere under OSHA's jurisdiction when I saw the guy with the tongs guiding the hot pieces through the rollers. If he missed one of thos and it kicked out towands him it would be a really bad day to be him. I need that hammer too but I wouldn't say no to the rolling mill. I wonder what is powering that shaft. Probably a huge steam engine. (and if it isn't it should be)

As long as you are bundled up and none of your extremities are in danger of freezing I don't see any dangers. Because your anvil is a great heat sink any hot metal held against it will cool faster. If you stand on an insulated surface such as a foam mat or something similar, even a piece of plywood, your feet will stay warmer. I've found that it is my feet which get cold first. I suppose the coldest weather in which I've ever forged was zero or a bit below in Laramie, WY. Not the most fun I've ever had. Endothermically, George M. PS Your slack tube tends to freeze over unless you are doing a lot of quenching.

My theory about everyone's ancestor being a blacksmith is that many farmers had a forge and would do small repairs rather than having to take a day and go to town to visit the blacksmith shop. They weren't professional smiths but they did get things hot and hit them with a hammer. It is similar to welding today. Many people own welders but few make their living doing it. However, I do like the idea that back in the day blacksmiths were as common as Amway reps and just sold back and forth to each other. Maybe Sam Yellin actually was a pyramid scheme promoter who got everyone blacksmithing with promises of easy wealth.

One thing that I'd like to add is to examine any contract with a gallery VERY carefully. I have reviewed some for artist friends and they were very favorable for the gallery and not very protective of the rights and interests of the artists. I have had some galleries accept my suggested changes and some that had a take it or leave it attitude. My advice to the artist was to leave it. If their work is good enough that one gallery will want it other galleries will want it too. In particular, make sure that if you are getting a percentage of the agreed upon selling price that the net amount remains the same no matter what sales or discounts the gallery puts on the piece. Also, make sure that you get a copy of the sales receipt or invoice. Don't be afraid to sit down with the gallery and discuss all aspects of the contract. In well run retail art sales there is enough money to be made by both the artist and the gallery without one having to screw the other.

Here are some orifice hooks that I have made. The design is from a Mr. Ralph who was a spinning wheel restorer in PA.

Dear Toothy, What your Mom wanted is probably an orifice hook which is used on a spinning wheel to pull the spun fiber through the orifice of the flyer to connect up with the unspun fiber. I know that doesn't make any sense unless you are a spinner or have been around one. I have made a number of them and sell the occasional one for about $10.

One last comment: It has become almost a necessity to be able to accept credit/debit cards. Get a Square or some other device to be able to these. Many people don't carry cash or checks any more. Until I got one I lost quite a number of sales because I couldn't accept that type of payment.

I'd try a BIG pot of boiling water. I do like the sodium chloride idea too.

On the subject of brass and copper, I think that any risk from using a copper or brass utensil like a spatula is pretty minimal. It is just not in contact with the food for long enough. Also, it is unlikely that you would be cooking anything very acidic in a frying pan, griddle, or grill where you would be using a spatula. If you were boiling something acidic in an unlined copper pot or frying in a copper frying pan, particularly if you were doing it repeatedly, there would be a risk. Just flipping an egg or burger with a copper bladed spatula would, at worst, give you a few atoms of a dietary necessity. It might look attractive to tin the top of the spatula an leave the bottom copper or brass colored. Cuprously, George M.

For a rivet base I started with a large bolt that I had picked up along the railroad which fits through my hardie hole. I then took a rivet and heated it and then quenched it in super quench to get it as hard as possible. I then heated the bolt head to yellow heat and pounded the head of the rivet into it while holding it with needle nosed vice grips. Works a treat.

Dear DSW, The Olympia wasn't part of the 1907-1909 Great White Fleet. It was composed of battleships, a squadron of destroyers, and support ships. Pickily, George M.

A minor change would be to bend the end of the latch out at 90* to give the user something to grab to lift the latch.

Dear Jim, Am I correct that you used a die for the holly leaves? GM

One possibility if the facility was opened in stages: Some of the work may be by inmates. There were certainly blacksmiths who had gotten themselves into trouble and may have been put to work making things for the unfinished parts of the prison. Also, this could have been seen as vocational training. I second the idea of looking at the local newspapers during the period of construction. It may be an empty rabbit hole but it is one which you will need to check out. Researchingly, George M.

My next tool build project will be a diagonal/ quarter pein hammer. The next purchase will probably be a guillotine tool. The next knowledge project will be the use of an oxy-acetalene torch.

Dear Ronin, Actually, I want to make shallow, flat bottomed holes to mount semi-precious jewel cabochons (domed, not faceted stones). For example, cab garnets in the terminals of a penannular brooch. Some of the materials may be rather thin and I don't want to punch through with the tip of a standard twist drill. Also, a flat bottom may be polished up a bit to reflect up through the stone better. Thanks to all the responses, I will chase them down.

Is there some sort of "pickle" or other treatment which will remove scale from steel and leave it a silver/grey color? Almost 50 years ago I worked in the Alloy Bar Mill of US Steel's South Works in Chicago and I recall lowering bundles of steel rods into an acid bath (HCl IIRC) to remove the scale after they came out of the rolling mill and cooled. I would like to make silvery iron roses but, of course, I can't remove all the scale with a wire wheel after the rose is completed.

What sort of drill bits, and where would I find them, to drill flat bottomed holes in steel? I suspect that there is some sort of machinist bit which will do this but I have never had any training in this skill and can recognize a lathe 4 out of 5 times and a milling machine 3 out of 5. Flatly, George M.