HWooldridge

No, Ed, I didn't think to call the manufacturer - DOH!!!

Think I'll do that today... :oops:

That's interesting because I thought a fellow named George Ferris designed/invented one for the Chicago World's Fair (the big one - with seats - so people could ride it)...

However, I like "ferrous wheel" better.

Well, I went out to the shop today and assembled the doors so here's what I did on the screen:

The frames are from 1-1/4x3/16 flat stock and I made "pinch plates" to lock the screen from 1/2x3/16 flat. I laid out the holes on 5" centers up the sides and 6" across top and bottom. After drilling one set of holes, I clamped the pinch plates to the frame and drilled thru them also so all the holes would match.

I had a spare set of vise grips laying around and welded a loop on the adjustment bolt so I could pull it, then welded two pieces of 1x1/4x4 flat iron in the usual jaws so I had a set of long flat jaws. I could therefore clamp the screen with the modified vise grips and pull 4 inches at a time with a come-along fastened to a heavy table. The door frame was clamped into a vise, the pinch plate aligned then clamped with a normal vise grip and the screen pulled. When I had a section taut, I would clamp the pinch plate in several places around the hole, drill thru the screen and both pieces of stock then finally slip in a 10-32 machine screw. After installing a nut and socking it down, I removed all the clamps and took another bite. By working my way around the frame, I was able to pull out most of the waviness in the screen and left it quite taut. In fact, the first frame was so tight it bowed a little so I had to tweak a bit to straighten it.

After the whole thing was assembled this way, I started replacing the screws with rivets. I used a vise grip to clamp near a hole, then removed the screw and replaced it with a rivet. The rivet was set cold and the clamp removed then the process repeated until all the screws were replaced.

This made a clean job and nice taut screen. Did not remove every bit of waviness but also not very apparent - it's just that I know it was there so I see it. I believe using this technique and starting with very flat panels would make a screen tight enough to play tennis with...

I'll post some pics when I get the whole thing finished. Thanks again for the suggestions...H

I got an order for a custom fire screen but am having trouble getting the wire cloth flat. I bought a #8 mesh, which has about a .105 opening and uses 27 ga wire. It's a real pretty weave and should make a nice job but it came rolled pretty tightly and had a set when I cut the roll. I tried to bend it backwards with my hands and got it fairly flat but it has a lot of little waves. Now, I can't seem to pull it enough to get it taut and flat. Anyone have the trick to doing this?

BTW, the screens I've built in the past were made with precut flat sections so they were pretty flat to start with but I can't get those pieces anymore. Maybe I got spoiled because I can't remember it being this difficult.

Make sure it is secure - don't want it mashing any cute little toes... and maybe set it on cinder blocks, big wooden posts or something similar.

There may be a premade peat pot (say that 3 times in succession) size that will fit the holes real well. Just be aware there's little doubt in my mind that the combination of moisture and fertilizer WILL make it rust.

Welding or flame cutting will very likely spot harden the blocks where they cannot be drilled but it won't be a proper heat treat so the hardening will be isolated. You can do a couple of things - either do all the machining ahead of time or weld everything together and anneal the entire mass. From the block sizes, I think the first option is easier.

Ed,

I might add that I also built a lower die with less height so I could use tall tools without messing around with the ram setting. I simply took a piece of 1/2" plate, cut it to the same LxW as my normal die and welded a dovetail to the underside (one I forged to fit from a piece of mild steel). I also welded a strap to the end that allows normal saddle tools to be fastened to the side of the die. Normal lower die is 2" tall so I can gain 1-1/2" just by knocking out the wedge and replacing with this one.

I suggest removing all the pipe from the nipple up. In other words, the top most piece should be the reducer that holds the gas fitting. That is easy to try and should make some difference. You also need a hole to let it exhaust - like a car, plugging the tail pipe will make it quit running - but you already have that back hole, which should be enough.

That is a good flame but the color looks rich - maybe too much gas, so I would also reduce the orifice.

Ed,

That's very interesting about the hammer/anvil setup. Almost sounds like someone cobbled it together from parts but if you have a set of plans, I suppose it was a factory job. Every Beaudry I've seen working (only 4 so far) had the typical short anvil that allows an even setting across the frame.

Brake pads: Mine had some sort of hard, cork-type stuff on it when I got the hammer but it was frangible and went all to pieces pretty quickly. No telling what it was originally. I have heard of using leather but never tried it. I did use old cloth belting strips and those worked fine until they got oil soaked and started slipping. However, now I see the thing was always out of adjustment so brake material may or may not be a big deal. Currently, I am using a piece of commercial brake lining that I had laying around and it works just fine. Play with the adjustment screw on the bottom of the brake and make the brake grab just enough to stop the wheel. Any more than that is too much - you'll see what I mean if you over tighten it - won't run worth a tinker's dam.

Ed,

I just figured everyone had a good laugh at my expense on that one - and I'm glad you got your hammer tuned properly. They are smacking son-of-a-guns when they run right. What made me so @#$%^& mad is that I have worked on a LOT of mechanical power hammers in other people's shops but I didn't have the smarts to see the problem on mine. :oops:

As a sidenote, we are 500 miles from New Orleans and people are starting to arrive here. San Antonio has agreed to take 25,000 people.

My wife teaches middle school locally and said two kids showed up today to enroll - without their parents. Makes my heart hurt...

Slack tub used to be "slake" so that is where you could 'slake your thirst'. I'd also heard somewhere that "face down" came from the smithy - probably when the smith drank some of that good old honey mead.

First off - I am not knocking anybody's design and I don't know if any of you fellers ever built one of the old Sandia forges designed by Robb Gunter but the burners were pretty simple after a few bugs were worked out. I eventually made a little single burner that was no more than a short piece of 2" pipe necked to 3/4" pipe size. A factory 2" to 3/4" reducer weld fitting will work just as well. I drilled a cross hole in the two inch just back of the neck to hold 1/4" pipe for the feed tube. The jet was drilled directly in the small pipe - #68 drill. A file mark on the cap end shows approximate orientation so it could be both rotated and drifted right or left to get the flame right.

The 2" pipe was only about 3" long including the necked area and was welded to a 3/4 pipe nipple, which was screwed into a 90 el, then another 6" nipple went down into the forge. The whole burn tube length was therefore about 14 inches from jet to forge. No special flaring or other tip treatment was required on the pipe. If all the stock was in the shop, you could make one of these in an hour or two. Everything can be black iron EXCEPT the small cross pipe for feeding the gas should be stainless because the thermal cycles make black or galvanized pipe drop scale and the debris will clog the small jet.

This burner will make a blue flame about 3-4 inches long at 12-15 lbs of propane in the shell of your choice.

With all this said, I eventually changed to a 60 cfm squirrel cage blower and no jet. I just dump gas thru a needle valve into the air stream at 4 lbs of pressure and get welding heat in about 20-30 minutes. The combination of needle valve and blower cover to choke the air flow gives me infinite adjustment for the flame.

Strine,

I'll bet you were not uppity to your elders...that seems to be a personality trait that varies from each individual. I have had younger respectful apprentices who did what they were shown and old blow-hards that didn't know their bellows hole from one in the ground.

The worst one I can recall was an old guy in our forge club who would run his yap about any subject. We were doing a group project and each smith had a task. The two of us were supposed to make some long colonial gate hinges but all he wanted to do was stand by and coach. Finally, I handed him my hammer and said "Go to it because you can obviously finish faster than I can - my time is better spent elsewhere." I went to another part of the shop and watched from the corner of my eye. He beat around on a piece of steel for half an hour but finally put it all down and walked away. One of the other guys asked what was wrong and he launched into a spiel about his heart medication, the heat, the phase of the moon, the anvil's poor shape, etc. A few minutes later, he slipped out to his truck and departed. He came to subsequent meetings and still talked a little too much but never again volunteered to work. I espect my elders and never rubbed his nose in it but I really can't stand "experts" - at any age. The guys who know what they are doing talk with their hands and it becomes apparent pretty quickly.

I have two ABC types that will probably expire this year but the gauges show they are still good. I really don't have much that can catch fire beyond the coal box and my propane tanks because I have a steel building but it is good to have an extinguisher around. About ten years ago in the middle of summer, I was working in the shop and smelled smoke from outside. I ran out the door and saw part of the field was on fire. It was already too big for an extinguisher but I jumped on the tractor, which fortunately had the shredder mounted and cut a break around the blaze. It burned itself out and no one was the worse for wear. Near as I could tell, it started from a piece of glass lying in the field that got some dry grass going. Any out of control fire can move very rapidly so it pays to have some insurance (both physical and monetary protection).

I think "billowy" is what you wanted but bellowy is a nice double entendre for a blacksmithing board... 8)

Questions: Is it unstable when the forge is cold or hot or both? Can you post a pic of it burning?

I think what is happening is the burner is running rich and starving for air so it starts to lose stability, but the fuel pressure stays the same and overwhelms it - that's when it "huffs". The explosion pulls in air and starts it burning blue again. They usually work fine but the problem with naturally aspirated burners is that they do take some fiddling to burn right - a blower helps even out the hiccups. However, I would try a smaller orifice first and see if that helps with the mix. I ran a #68 on my home made single burner and it burned well except on hot dry days when it could have been a bit leaner. In general, it's better to start very lean and open the orifice as needed. Try something in the range of a #63 and see how that works but keep the pressure around 15 lbs. Please note that a properly adjusted burner will often sputter and huff when you first start a cold forge but will even out and burn correctly when it gets warm.

...or perhaps some sort of riveting tool.

Try the "Goode" restaurant chain if you get a chance. They have Goode Seafood, Goode BBQ, etc. Also any of the Pappas eateries - Pappasito's, Pappadeaux and so on. Both are locally owned chains and serve good food.

Good luck on the hospital visit.

And if it gets hot enough, just use it as flux... :lol:

I used to subscribe to the "make a tool a week" theory but I now only make what I think I'll need in general use or for a particular job. I often rework old tongs to get a different jaw profile and may have made the original pair 10 years ago for something but if they are sitting and gathering dust, then they usually get remodeled. Same thing with chisels or other set tools that aren't getting regular use. I once had a very long hand punch that only tapered 2 inches for the working end so I cut the body in half, redressed the cut end and used the leftover for a rivet set. Both are still in use.

Nobody in my family is/was famous but we did find out thru genealogical research that my Wooldridge ancestor who immigrated in 1697 was apparently a trained blacksmith. The family trade was blacksmithing in England when the family moved to Scotland for a while, then he left for America in his late teens. He listed that as his trade and indentured himself into servitude for two years to pay for the boat passage, then went into business for himself. Apparently, he did quite well because the smithing made enough that he was able to buy several thousand acres and become wealthy in tobacco farming later in life. His children found coal on the property and eventually built up a very profitable coal business - sadly, none of that profit (or coal) ever made its way down to me... :cry:

After July's debacle, I went to another craft show this past weekend after spending some time building a display. I'd already made a couple of light-weight custom tables so I built a frame from 2x2's about 3 foot tall and overlaid that with a piece of 1/4 plywood, designed to attach to the table in an upright position. Stained and finished the wood with semi-gloss urethane, then mounted a variety of products - both custom examples and from my standard line. My wife also found some nice fabric to make table covers that accented the iron. The tables were then covered in product.

The difference in traffic from last month was like night and day. Although sales were not mind-boggling, we probably stopped at least 300 people and gave away about 100 cards.

I don't have the film developed yet and will eventually post a pic but I can tell you that the trick is to catch the public's eye and stop them in mid-stride. Thanks to all for the earlier tips...H

The first "craft" I tried as a youngster was jewelry making. My dad and a cousin were rockhounds so when I was 9 or 10, one of them bought me a tumbler, followed by a wet grinder and small diamond saw. Soon, I was buying silver and making cabochon mountings. However, before too much more time went by, I was trying to make knives from files on the wet grinder. Never mind that I already had 3 or 4 good pocket knives - I just had to make one. I still remember the first one was from a 6 inch file and took several days to grind on that slow stone. I also ruined the wheel for rock work and had to buy another.

My point is that almost all young men in their early to late teens want to either make or play with weapons. I think it must be natural human behaviour to burn off all that testosterone. However, as said earlier, very few kids who start one ever finish it. I have a nice shop with all the bells and whistles and none of my sons ever finished a knife - they all started one but it either took me to finish or just wound up in the scrap pile. They find out pretty fast that it's harder than it looks.

BTW, many people do collect knives by the score. I had a professional knifemaker tell me that he considers it jewelry for men. He builds knives in the $1500 to $2000 range and has a 6 month backlog - many of the buyers are repeat customers. Guns are sometimes considered controversial or too hard to exchange with all the rules and regulations but anyone can buy and sell high-end knives.

I have one pocket knife and one hunting knife - both are very sharp and cost less than $100. I suppose I am no knife collector... sigh... :(

Thanks, Jr., I'll change it today...Hollis

My permanent coal forge with hood:



This is a material hopper, turned upside down, with a lid welded on the former opening, then the feed end was cut to accept a 12" round pipe. The cutout has a short (3") lip above it that helps when the fire is just starting but is short enough to not be in the way. The light colored items are firebricks that I put in just before the picture was taken as an experiment to see if they would hold heat and let the forge stay warm longer, thereby pulling smoke better while the forge was idle. They do seem to work on long runs once the bricks heat up.

This hood pulls well. I have a window off to the right that sometimes makes for little wind eddies but that is the only thing that disrupts the chimney. Sometimes with a big fire, I can hear a roar from the air cyclone moving in the round duct and every couple of months, I sweep an inch or so of very fine coal dust out of the back of the box, where a lot of it seems to cool and fall out of the air column.