Bryce Masuk

you probley wont need to worry too much about a slab with the size of hammer you are planning to get

it might be nice but if it were me I would probley just build a quality floor for the whole building and go with that.

people have ran much bigger hammers without a slab under the hammer obviously with larger hammers you can notice the increase in hitting power quite abit

but with a 60kg hammer or less you wont notice much if the foundation is good

it would still be nice to have but obviously if your building a shop you have bigger things to worry about

I guess making the drawing small saves alot of time
making drawings takes me alot of time I usually do a couple to think about everything


the fact you can just blow up your drawing it up 40 times bigger and work off that is impressive to say the least.

no wonder it is so clean

I have been working alot to get my drafting methods the best possible I have been trying to draw full scale as well as use autocad

for straight projects (straight bars) autocad is really quick but I havent figured out how to do too much with it yet.

looks like you nailed the drawing and the piece

your doing it all by eye on paper? I dont see a grid or anything

I have to draw a grid to make things even connect and they dont connect like that lol

looks practical

you definately need either sleeves or long sleeve shirt

its the arms that take the burn usually not your hands

I have gotten a couple wicked burns on the bicep and inbetween the bicep and forearm

even one high amp weld can do it

I made a truck rack out of aluminum and I had it out of position I had 2 welds one about 4 inch's and another 2 inch's

I was wearing shorts because I wasnt thinking I would have to add these extra brackets it sunburned both of my shins for nearly 2 weeks

usually the arm that gets burned is the not the one holding the torch its the other arm that might just be how I position myself though

looks picture perfect lol

I thought you were talking about the other type of crane at first

As far as I know historically master had more to do with being accepted as fully qualifyed to work on your own as well as teach and start your own apprentices.

so therefore if you do not teach you cannot become a master you could but you would never practice your mastery

in germany they still have this system in my metal design international 2008 it states that norbert finke had to get his master certification suddenly, as he father passed away

I dont know why the book does not explain that, but it may have to do with tradition or the ability to teach and train others

In England they have medal's of sorts does gold make you a master? or just of the highest reguard?
I know bronze is journeyman and silver is an esteemed journeyman of sorts.

but once you are a journeyman you can have an apprentice like how a days


I dont think any terms really matter technically everyone is a fabricator, because we use welding, if your taking parts and welding them together your fabricating it doesnt matter if you made them yourself or bought them its the same process.

all the terms and controversy over small things might make me give up and work on wood exclusively :P

I bet that hurts but life is like that sometimes,


I was going to comment that I am personally not a big fan of "artwork" cut on a cnc plasma table

but since you cut it by hand.... :D

I want to know too lol


I made a thread about dies on the powerhammer forum hopefully some of the knowledgeable people on here will give some ideas to experiment with

How would you do it in a hydraulic press?

Why would something be better not done in the big one?

Take a look at how David did it here: ---click---> Punching wit a hydraulic press

I guess you could setup 2 stations side by side but they wouldnt be able to run independantly both would always run unless you had some type of setup to engage and disengage.

if you had a slitter and then a drift it might be a bit weird because the drift needs to travel further than the slitter to do its job.

a tricky blacksmith could figure it out but you would need enough room in the frame to fit everything in there you need 2 spring loaded plates to support the bottom or different sizes holes in plates you swap out which would probley be best if the press isnt A BIG ONE

you could make it work do you use your friction press for drifting?

I see you can be pretty delicate with the beast, friction drive is pretty interesting setup lots of power for sure

Great tutorial by Mark Aspery

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFqBfLtrHz0

Well now that I am kinda sorta used to using my hammer I am trying to come up with ways to be more productive.

I attempted to make a leaf die to make a leaf blank but it wasnt well thought out
I am going to re try it I had attempted to do it without the spring on using some pieces of flat bar as a guide to keep one piece on top of another but it didnt quite work out.


I was thinking that I should make a couple leaf dies and ball dies and a few other things that might be interesting. I will be making them out of mild steel for now I know its not the best choice but its what I have for now, besides after yesterdays attempt lol
I need to make it happen and make it work before I worry about anything else.

I made a tennoning setup but I think I need more of a radius on the edges of the holes because it ate the steel and put some lines in the bar


does anyone have some examples of cool dies they have made? I know grant knows more about this than I ever will,
eventually I will need some other dies I like the bamboo dies and wood dies those I would buy over make but I should be able to make some more basic dies

Remember what ol' Satchel Paige said, "Don't look back; something may be gaining on you."

that video is awesome grant reminds me of a light saber when that thing picks up the heat

I really want a giant press and induction rig

I can find a use for it lol


the only disadvantage to the friction press unless you have a pair of them is that you cant set up it to do two operations like you can with a hydrulic setup

and it seems a little less easy to control once it goes your on your own

for drifting that might make it tricky to keep stuff centered or prevent it from breaking tools and whatnot.

Wow, I love the fern... time very well spent I would say!! It's the detail that turns things from ordinary to extraordinary!! Love it, keep up the good work!

Crank it out Bryce! Lookin good, The cross looks clean and the scrolls are well made. The lamp show a good sense of composition but the way its attach to the base didn't look thought out. You can tack stuff together to get a look at it but you may want to consider drilling and taping or through holes with plug welds.

Hi Bryce, Nice work,

In picture 5 of the lamp base where the wire enters the body, do you have any grommets or protection to prevent the wire/flex chafing through and shorting out the electric?

In the UK it is mandatory to have a cable securing method, and protection to stop chafing where wires enter or are attached to the workpiece,
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your right john the pipe it goes into is quite a bit larger but its not secured
i havent given it away yet so i can fix that up

Bryce, that's what make some projects fun and special. You don't know where you are really going with it until you just happen to get there. Looks like you're doing a good job on it. Don't forget to post the pix of the completed lamp. Thanks for sharing that.

Looks good

High quality thread

I will definately read over it a few times

I have downloaded both of the cosira books along time ago

the thing with them is that the amount of information is so much that you really have to be smart and pick one thing to do and plan it out well and work on it.


after I head into the states to do some journeying my plan is head to the UK and do the same maybe for a longer period of time if I can manage.

the value of info on this site is always huge

Maybe we should ask them about what it was like without a washing machine and microwave?

Life was different back then

sometimes I think that people that were blacksmiths and other professions had alot less distractions no internet television and so on


but then I rember that back then people worked all the time just to prepare meals and have cleanish clothes and they walked to work and to get anything unless you were rich.

just as much as life was worse in the old days it was also better in others,

people in 3rd world country's usually are very tight family's it takes everyone working together to make it, here people fight over not being able to watch what they want on television and children scream over not getting toys and things like that and none of us are above it in north america.

reality is we live with our own perspective and that is it if you have little you make due,
if you have too much your bound to waste it

how many people have too much junk piled up in the garage and need to take trips to the dump a couple times every year just to be rid of it?

it seems like Skill of the hand has been diluted if you look at old things you would think that they used machines to make many things but it was all done by hand to perfection.

I dont know how some people became so skilled but they did and I dont think that many alive today can compare to the masters of the past.

those are some nice jigs in your link,
why do they hinge? did anyone ask that previously

I have noticed I made few errors from johns post I uses the end as a starting point which caused distortion from stretching I imagine.

what I intended as a barrel was essentially tapering out a flatbar really thin and rolling it up into a circle like you would make a barrel on a hinge but not overlapping it for a weld just open on the inside

most of these problems are probley from lack of time invested I can do them just not like you guys can


I will have to invest more time and patience into this

often I find I think I have things right and then they arent so I re-do whatever it is,

thanks guys I will re read these posts and make use of them

I have a question I forgot to ask,


I have been playing with barrels and pennys on the ends of scrolls I have made a few nice jigs that are as good as I personally can get.

my problem has been making the scroll look right with the penny or barrel on the end of it
I have made a new jig to try that I attempted to design it with the purpose of having the space for the end of the scroll it seemed like it was going to work but when I put it into use it doesnt look right.

any tips?

Sorry BUTT it looks to much the same, not intentional! Some quick tooling made up to rough out the shape since I didn't have many to do. 1 1/2" ID with 3/8" wall pipe bent, cut in two with a piece of half round for the top. A large curving bick very useful for many shapes. A couple of 1/2" ball bearings for the butt end. Also a cap rail die and a ball swage for the same project, a reconstruction of some old stuff brought back from France.

I'd actually like to learn all of the older techniques, not just for the 'appreciation factor', but also I think you learn a lot in the process. There's also a lot of satisfaction in stepping back in time and doing it old-school.

I remember watching an episode of "Deadliest Catch" where one of the greenhorns complained about something being hard to do and the deck boss decided to teach him a lesson about how good they have it compared to the old days of crab fishing. They turned off the hydrolics, took away the moving tables, made him hand coil the rope as they pulled the crab pot, etc. Needless to say, he learned his lesson not just about complaining, but he also knows how fish when the new stuff breaks down.

Just remember that there are a lot of young whippersnappers out there, especially among the blacksmithing crowd, who love to learn the old-school ways (and have a lot of admiration for the guys who have that knowledge). I know a 15 year old kid who has a Harbor Freight ASO, a charcoal forge, a hand bellows (that he made) and a hammer and a few tongs - not much more than that - and he's learning how to make and cast bronze, make knives, etc. He won't use electricity to power any of his tools. If he needs metal removed, he files if off by hand or cuts it with a hardy. There's something special about stepping back in time and doing things the way they used to be done. He's just as happy - maybe even more so - doing what he's doing how he's doing it as someone who has all the latest and greatest. I think that's really cool.

I'd love to learn to live off the land like my great grandparents did; how to live without a fridge, how to build a root cellar and can / store your own food, how to find edible plants in the woods, how to hunt & trap your own food, raise livestock, hand-plow your garden, preserve your seedstock from this years harvest to the next, build a log cabin, and, of course, how to fire up the forge and make a new ladle for maw. I'm sure I wouldn't be able to give up the modern conveniences I've learned to depend on, but it would sure be nice to know how to live the way they used to if it ever came to that.

Joe

Danger, I wasn't really thinking of music, I was more playing around with the "frameless" thing I like to do but yeah I can see why you say music, might actually "think" music next chance I get and sea what happens.

Plate was textured using bolt on dies in my Kinyon. I have occassionally thought about milling some dovertails for it but it's kinda handy being able to quickly "throw together" dies, allows you to be quite experimental without to do much planning ahead. I'll try to dig out some photos of the dies, the photo shows various other Kinyon dies. The business end of texturing dies was some 4340 forged to 50mm square, about 100m long with "grooves" randomly cut in with and angle grinder. Gas forges sure are good when working plate. As anside it's one of those jobs where the Kinyon is better than the Anyang, both for making dies and cos the narrow throat of the Anyang means you can only work about 125mm wide strips

Bearing are a 25mm ...ish ball on the bottom that is part of the electrical opener, top is a collar around the 60mm upright. No bronze or other bearing material, well greased steel on steel. The whole thing turns freely; that nice feeling where you can feel the weight of the gate but move it with one finger.