Bryce Masuk

this is my little forge for general work

I am currently building a big one with a 25 inch long floor and and 13 1/2 wide and 5-7 inches tall

the doors make a huge difference

I used 1/2 inch angle iron and made two side to the frame and tacked them together

I didnt have the right channel for the door guide so i tacked together 1/2 inch and 3/4 inch channel

it was really simple to build and didnt cost much

Bryce: Love your shop,but,WHY IS THE FIRE EXTINGUISHER LYING ON THE GROUND LOOKING EMPTY!!!!!!Sorry-my shop is wood floor so I'm kinda fire extinguisher conscious...

its full I lost the mount for it though I have 3 in my shop which is like 18x19

everything is usually a mess I spend alot of time working in there on many projects so there is always a mess of some sort, I am improving it and cutting down on stuff I dont need and getting it more usable though

yesterday they bought me some steel and I nearly finished the new welding table which will be on wheels hoping to add to the organization and give me the option to move it when using the powerhammer or saw.

They give me a good deal on steel I go around and find everything they cut short or crop pieces or bent stuff and they we eye ball it and they bring it over

I got 30 feet of 5x2.125 tubing and more than 1000 lbs of steel for 110 delivered
we dont weight it we just look at it and make a deal, I worked there for 6-7 months moving steel this was the part that made that all worth while.


they think of it as me helping them they usually pay a worker to chop it all up small and dump it in the bin

works out great for me most of the stuff I use to forge for personal and small projects is all this bent stuff,
for someone making real money as a business it probley wouldnt be worth it but not having alot of money for me it makes a huge difference in what I have on hand.

usually I buy what I need for projects as they come I dont usually try to keep tubing because my metal is outside and it gets all rusty

also in the pics pieces for another stand for someone and my poorly fabricated firepot made from old 3/4 inch awning brackets

I dont have what larry does... but this is everything I have and I mean it I dont have a savings account this is it.


I know once I get it into use fully and dont have to work for others it will pay itself off.

not to mention being able to learn on your own

the picture of the wheel is the once shattered bandsaw lower wheel. the old man tig welded it back together over 20 years ago it still works fine today

my uncle gave me the old miller ac stick machine its circa the 50's and works fine it has no fan in it at all and never did.

you can usually use 7018 with anything typically guys get used to using certain rods and use what they like

the best rods for most general purposes are 6011 and 7018 and i would say 7018 is better of the two with ac or dc it doesnt matter

after using both enough i like 7018 but I dont use stick as much as i used to it doesnt pay if your using it in the shop.

at work we use stick for 1/4 inch and above stainless fillet welds and for hard facing thats it

it will take a while to weld all of that with a stick and one inch plate with corner welds use the the biggest rod your machine can run which is probley 1/8th

for 350 a foot it still looks really nice

if you enjoy it it makes it all the worth the loss of whatever

around here the average price is 100 dollars a foot for a straight picket railing

I know when I can connect with people I will be doing well this next little while I will be working on getting a good business plan and foundation, trying to connect with people.

the average home in the vancouver area is 500 000 dollars thats just for a regular home home built in the 70's-80's that isnt attached to anything

there is money around here people with money are moving here from china and india everyday people say the economy is in bad condition but you cant go 5 miles in any direction without seeing at least 2 new housing projects being built

I made this for a lady who makes and designs clothing the original stand was cheap plastic and paper thick tubing on top of it goes a adjustable manniquin for different fitting of clothing

I took the plastic part and cut it on the bandsaw to fit the pipe so it would have a snug fit.
I would have used bolts instead but this worked and the metal is so thin that any pressure points would ruin it so i would have had to weld a washer or plate on something the inside.

I forged them by hand since my hammer blows the breaker
I didnt use a jig and they arent perfectly symetrical it took longer than it should have but I feel I learned a little more than simply pulling them on a jig.

I also learned the simplest way to make something like this is to,

draw a cross on the table (two lines intersecting at 90 degrees
center a pipe or tube that fits inside of tube your using
make that tube level tacked to the table
then tack the pieces on and make sure they are all in the right place, straight, and in the center of the line on the table.

then adjust them until it all works

I attempted at first to simply space them up to the center of the tube and do each side separately and honestly it didnt work out to my satisfaction.

if the forgings were more accurate it would have been easier but in this case this turned out to be the best method.

its far from perfect but it stands level and it doesnt rock so at the least its functional

Wow the hardwork really paid off on this one, I think the wing is one of the nicer pieces I have seen from you.

Its tricky to translate a drawing or visualization into reality.

I find that I know what I want entirely and exactly but cant make it happen fully,
I imagine once I can do it the roles will likely reverse.

these days I constantly feel like I am stuck in the middle of where I want to be and where I dont want to be.

I have my power hammer going but it blows the breaker after about 10 mins of use

And my welding table seems to hate me one or more of the pieces of tubing for the frame must have been bent and it doesnt want to be flat.

I have a project that requires some mirror image pieces and I refuse to use a jig hoping to get it to all work and learn at the same time.

and tomorrow will be a hell of a day finishing a steel erection project we got most of the frame up on saturday and now we need to make a giant ring hover over a swimming pool with 4 turnbuckles holding it above the pool.

this is my second day doing this stuff I am out on loan from work its actually somewhat fun I dont know if i would want to do it everyday but so far it has been alright

Wow that looks unreal

That turned our to be a really nice sign

I wiil post a little video once I get the other anchors in and it dialed in somewhat


right now im going to sleep 10 hours of installing a railing and first hauling it up the side of a 4 story building with ropes is enough for me

looks really nice hopefully I will be able to get some jobs allowing me to make some nicer work like you have.

how much per foot would you charge for something like this in seattle? if you dont mind me asking

Glad your doing alright frosty

life is a mixed bag

hopefully luck with continue to be on your side

Finally she runs! I have had it sitting for 6 months and I had to wait 6 months to get it from anyang so its been a year in the making I guess

it seems all good but my anchors loosened up and i need to take the motor off again to get the last one in, it really makes the whole shop shudder when you let off the pedal and the ram fully returns to the top.

something is a little funky with the front oiler to the tup I am guessing it needs a check valve it gets big bubbles in there and stops flowing correctly

I need to resolve these little things and it will be all good

I managed to run a 1 1/4 inch piece of torsion bar though it and it worked great

at this rate one day larry will own 40% of the worlds power hammers

http://www.thermalartist.com/burners/jf

anyone used once of these?

i was thinking it might be a decent burner but i really dont know if i bought one then i could find out lol

well the forge works! managed to get 1 1/4 to a high orange heat with no doors hopefully once its tweaked with doors and a full tank it will get hotter

well in 2 years i think that i have managed to build 5 gas forges and had at least triple that in burner designs

so far not so good my last incarnation with 1 1/2 inch pipe and 2 inch reducers must have ran too lean and burned up the pipes in 8 months

before that i had a blown setup with 2 inch to 1 1/2 pipe it was great the fuel really really lasted along time and it ran great on a reg that only went up to 14 psi

I attempted to make a 2 burner blown setup with a welded manifold but the pressure was never equal and it had constant problems

I looked at jymm hoffmanns setup on here and it looked pretty good but most of my fittings are 2 inch to 1 1/2 not all 1 1/2 like his setup i am unsure whether this could pose problems.
I have a 66 cfm fan is one enough to run a 2 burner?
I have no clue about the required cfm for this type of setup

I have experimented with numerous setups and I am about ready to stop
I am thinking tomorrow i will go buy the parts for a single 3/4 burner either side or ez style my current setup is too rich with a .030 tip I am thinking of welding it up and drilling a hole with a 1/32 drill bit (.0313 or something)

just yesterday
I made a burner from a 1 inch pipe with a 2 inch reducer it runs too rich with a .030 tip
this is for my little economy forge made from a 20# propane tank for my smaller work
its lined with 1 inch ceramic wool it already coated it with kiln wash today.

I havent been putting flares on any of them either this is also likely to be part of the problem

I have these funny burner tubes with a machined brass venturi I will take a pic and post it tomorrow i would like to get it to work if possible it might be a really good setup

anyways its been one heck of alot of work but i almost have everything entirely organized the way i want it and my power hammer is in place waiting to be anchored into the ground

the foot treadle extension is all tacked up just waiting for me to test it out


I took all my random screws bolts and gas fittings random parts/pieces and sorted them all out as horrible as it was I guess thats why you dont put them all in a single box and pour it on the ground everytime you need a bolt but i was doing it!!!! if i rember right i dropped one box because it was too heavy and the other box broke because it was too heavy so i poured them together, talk about ingenious

I have a project due to be finished in 5 days i need to get the forge going so i can hammer it out

I have been working my butt off seemingly for nothing setting up everything is hard work
I came back last monday and I have been going non stop and everything is still a mess,

looks good sam is it for yourself?

are the legs all one piece?(im guessing so)

looks like your having fun creating

Well, my son dropped off another cracked fryer box tonight (the burger joint has several). I turned the heat down to 50a, used a smaller filler rod (1/16)and clamped a piece of 5/8 square hot rolled into the inside corner as a backup. This time, I had success and stitched up both cracks with no holes blown out or other mishaps. The weld appearance was also much improved so I'm seeing progress.

I checked around and there are no local welding classes being offered for the summer so I'll have to wait until fall. It also looks like there is very little offered in TIG - almost everything is stick or O/A. In the meantime, I think more practice is on the menu...thanks to everyone for the tips.

your real problem is grease its in there some how some way,

I used to work on food equipment doing tig welding and even if things were clean they would smell like we were cooking cabbage


you need to wipe the metal really clean if it looks clean its probley not clean enough its pretty much invisible on stainless.

once you get to used to stick or mig, tig welding seems to require much more attention plus the sound doesnt really give you any clue on the weld like mig or stick you can hear whether its welding properly

stainless is also probley the hardest to weld with tig you need a really tight arc distance and hot with quick travel aluminum is pretty easy it took me 2 hours of playing with it to get nice welds in my first day because I already knew how to do stainless to a good quality

looks good to me and pretty practical
seems like a fun project

I need a swage block myself they arent cheap like they used to be

hopefully you would be able to take it on a plane if needed

mechanical hammers are not the greatest you could probley get an anyang or saymak for a pretty similar price maybe a little more

a 50lb little giant has so little power i dont know how this machine stacks up

if you have a shop with several hammers its not really a big deal but having to adjust the hammer for tooling and different stock doesnt help you

plus the power of a air hammer is great I got to try john prosser's 3b he can forge a 1.5 square bar from 18 inches to 31 inches with 3/4 inch on the end of the taper in one heat
it definately has some punch the hammer shakes the whole building and moves around a little bit it doesnt have a full foundation under it either and i am sure it would be better with it fully stable

We will see how my funds are and what the boss says when I call him up

I am hoping to get out and do as much as I can

seems ike this meet would be totally worth it but i will have to figure out what to do with myself for those 2 extra weeks

When i was kid 13 I decided that I wanted to be a knifemaker I went around finding knifemakers in the local area

most of them turned me down, I knew I wanted to be a knifemaker but there was no one for me to learn with and I had no tools

I had a sink and a house fan and wood and heated metal as hot as i could get it and screwed around it never worked well but i had fun with a cement anvil and claw hammer


I always had trouble learning in a classroom or when many people are around I learn best either on my own entirely or with someone one on one like my dad used to teach me

I have worked always in some sort of trade
as a audio visual tech
machine shop kid
bricklayer for a week
heavy duty transport mechanic (I always thought being a mechanic would be the right thing for me, but it wasnt)
Sheetmetal worker
welder/fabricator

I always liked cars but the work as a mechanic really sucked working on your own stuff isnt as bad
honestly find something that makes you happy and pays you enough to live and the rest will come.

if there are 8 billion people on the planet I would be suprised if every single one of them doesnt have some kind of "TaLeNt" or skill

Its up to you to be intelligent and determined, you need many things to complete anything
I knew once I made the choice that eventually it would lead to personal satisfaction above all.
we can all be wealthy without money and hopefully we can allow ourselves to see clearly and know ourselves well enough to know what we truly need.

In other words just go do something if you dont like it or it doesnt work out maybe you should try again or find something that you like

at this point anything that you do, is better than sitting still

Thanks guys

Tom I would be leaving before that unfortunately

but I maybe able to come meet up with you I will write your number down

who knows maybe I will find myself unable to leave :P

Im off to new mexico

to intern under Helmut Hillenkamp

maybe I will get the chance to look up some other blacksmiths in new mexico (I have never been to new mexico)

work was pretty slow and the boss didnt mind giving me the time off

I figure after I come back and save up I should do something similar again, why not I figure eventually it will be harder and harder for me to get away.

I have enough room for 1500 pictures so hopefully I will remeber to document it well and share what I can

Its an adventure I dont know what to expect so I figure I shouldnt expect anything other than to swing a hammer

If I remeber right corten is usually mandatory for shipping containers in most cases

It also is used on ships in some cases im pretty sure you can find some scrap of it somewhere if needed
its pretty strong stuff as far as i know

david, your gates turned out great I pictured them looking different but my mind takes off on its own

now your off on the next project

maybe blacksmiths should advertise that they will throw in free electricity with the patina,

I have seen scientists in canada playing with metal and producing many colours from different metals pink i think from brass and a blue color from iron were the most interesting to me