chyancarrek

Hey Frosty, Yeah, there's no shortage of em' out there . . . The one I use most when someone tells me they can get what I sell at Home Depot or Lowe's for a quarter of my price is; " Super! - sounds like you found what you were looking for . . ." I'm a true believer in honest competition as it makes me a better craftsman but I do have a thing about folks who show up at a show - cruise through other's booths then significantly undercut other vendors selling similar items.

You got it Chris! My casting machines are the jeweler's type and do give great results. Yeah, they are real spendy given what a simple machine they are! Luckily I got mine for free from a sculptor who didn't use them anymore. Your intended method should work fine for you - let me know how it goes!

Same for me dablacksmith, RJ's prices are comparable to my own. I had a person in my booth last week who told me all of my work was over priced - when I pressed him for why he thought so, he said he had a set of 5 BBQ tools similar to what I sell and he only paid $30.00 for them. He bought them from a friend who did smithing as a hobby . . . I told him I don't match prices with retired guys who give their work away to their buddies any more than I try to meet Wal-Mart prices. If you go to demos or markets and sell by purposely undercutting everyone else because it doesn't matter if you make a profit - take a walk down the booths and chat with some folks who are trying to make a living at it . . .

I've got . . . Key ring w/pocket knife attached Bic lighter Hammered iron worry-stone

Hey IP Great info - I'd never heard of a Pole Railroad before! Heating your molds for small scale stuff like that will really help as aluminum can misbehave when you're gravity casting instead of doing it centrifugally. Look forward to seeing the results!

Hey Ironpuppet, You can use plain borax (20 Mule team works fine) as a flux but honestly you don't need to do anything other than skim the cruce as you're already planning on doing. What are you casting? Pre-heating the molds will help particularly if you have some narrow areas in the mold and/or finer detail - if the piece is larger and solid it's not as important. A steel tube with a welded bottom is fine - don't overheat the aluminum - it doesn't take long to get to temp. Glenn's right - if you haven't done it in a while, go overboard on the safety prep. Let us know who it goes!

Hey Dodge, check out Elizabeth Brim's work, using her techniques you could come up with a great looking forged cover! Make sure to post a pic of the emblem after you mount it.

Hey Dodge, Given that it's going to be subjected to the stresses of the road (vibration as well as weather) the guys above may be right in leaning towards a more mechanical means to fasten it down. The sculptor I work with always uses SS to provide mounting hardware for his bronze pieces. He welds them in place and to date (over 50 years), galvanic reaction hasn't been a problem . . . not sure about brass tho. Let us know what you find out!

I use an ipod with an FM Transmitter and one of those hearing protector fm radios so I keep the eardrums happy but still have my music going. My selection is really eclectic - everything from Beethoven to The Clash - Glen Miller to Eminem - Ella Fitzgerald to Pink then throw in a dash of Led Zep and Moby Grape . . . oh yeah, The Moody Blues is a good way to wind down the day. Whatever gets the ol' body moving . . .

Hey Dave, All of the fellas above are spot on. Daryl hit it on the head when he said shows, markets and demos are about future sales. I sell at Farmer's markets and demos and I consider them exposure venues - a place for me and my work to get noticed. There's absolutely no predicting what the crowd is gonna do for you sales wise. Put your best stuff out there and see what gets the attention. We're not selling anything anyone needs so it has to appeal to them for reasons of their own - somedays your stuff will fly outta the booth - others, not so much. Demos are a bit tougher because the people are faced with buy it now or it goes away - While that lends itself to impulse buying, sometimes they like to give it some thought then come back for it. No matter which way it goes, it'll be worth doing. Have fun and let us know how you do!

Excellent work Adrian - Really superior execution of the designs. Thanks for sharing!

Bentiron, Here's the address for a friend of mine who makes a nice hammer. Metal Art - Tools I've got one in my shop and it's been a great little workhorse. It's really well behaved and if I remember correctly, it's coming in around 180 bpm. It want's 18cfm @ 90lbs - I'm running an IR 7hp with 24cfm @ 90lbs and it does a great job of staying ahead of the hammer. He'll sell you a completed hammer or break it down into kits where you can buy just the components and build your own. One of the features I like best is the foot pedal on a hose. You can move it around anywhere you want depending on the stock you're hammering so you're not slaved to the foot ring at the base of the anvil - it makes for a MUCH more comfortable way to work!

That's great to hear Glenn! Did he fare through OK or is he having to dig out along with everyone else?

Congratulations on a successful demo!! Glad to hear it went well. So, have you been bitten by the " I wanna do more" bug now? It can be kind of addicting as you get comfortable with it.

I've been fortunate that my whole living/business model has always been based on making efficient use of consumables and time. I use only reclaimed stock (wood and metal) so my materials overhead has always been next to nothing. My shop consumables are always bought in amounts large enough to qualify for discounts. I used to be a production supervisor in a large furniture factory so the process of efficiently consolidating operations in the shop was hammered into me years ago. Living up in the hills I never leave the property unless I can accomplish 3 or more errands in one trip. I don't have an electric range in the house - just a wood burning cookstove that is fueled from scraps out of the wood shop and scrounged branch wood. I heat my house , cook my food and heat most of my water using just the stove. During the warmer months I use my own charcoal to fire up a Summer kitchen. The sun becomes my clothes dryer and my brother is a market farmer so I get all of my produce from him via bartering metal work for food. It really is amazing how much you can do if you are willing to put in the time and effort. I've had people describe my lifestyle as "voluntary simplicity". I always tell them - "There's nothing simple about it - think of it as participatory" living" This Summer I'm starting work on a passive solar system so I can cook, bake, heat water etc. with no energy expenditure.

Hey Frosty, Nice job on the drawing! Looks like someone mastered Sketchup in very little time! The variable volume idea is a great way to go - I do mostly hammered vessel work and they vary so much in size throughout the process that I needed a forge that could change with them. The pics are of the forge I built a couple years ago. I took the idea from a large commercial set up I saw at an NWBA conference at Ponderosa Forge in Sisters Ore. They had two set end to end to do really long work (they were about 6 ft long combined). Their design was cantilevered and counter weighted so you could raise them easily while hot and reconfigure the brick. They could put an entire garden gate or railing section in it to heat it up and true it. It was something to see. I haven't got around to putting the counterweight system on mine but it's working fine by just lifting the top and resetting the brick. Mine is about 14" wide and 28" long. this gives me the room to get good full even heats over the large blanks but cool ends to localize the heat if I need to. The curved top is lined with 2" Kao wool coated with ITC-100 and the bottom is full hard brick ( I believe 3,000 degree). It takes a bit longer getting to full heat but she's a cookin' devil when she gets up to stride!

Nicely Done Mark!

Hey Bentiron, Jim's been an outstanding friend and mentor - very down to earth. Working with him has given me a sense of legacy - an opportunity to contribute to something enduring.

KeyKeeper, My experience with the Bud horses was similar - we were showing horses at the state fair and the hitch was there - I remember in the bright & early their handlers would bring them out one at a time - throw on a bridle and walk them around riding bareback - it must have been like sitting a fuel tanker. The handlers were about my size (6' +) and they looked like little kids up on that huge ol' back! Pretty darn impressive!

evans . . .

Hey Tetnum, Keep at it, Jim and I have been pouring metal together for ten years and there's always something to go wrong - you just need to work past it. Thats a big part o' the fun. The day they taped the video nothing went right - we lost a motor on one furnace and had to switch over to another mid-melt - the bubbling of the metal you see in the vid is due to wax left in the mold from an incomplete burn-out then we had a break out (cracked mold allowed molten bronze to escape) run all over the floor. You just can't know what effect it has on the piece until you break the molds apart. The fella taping the pour loved it because it all looked so dramatic on camera - we were thinking: "great - we look like a bunch o' dorks with all these glitches happening"

Hey Larry, Yeah, my friend really had to weigh the costs of going to get his anvil as well. He finally decided it would also just make a nice day trip and chocked it up to relaxation as well as getting the anvil. Oh man, the Rush lyrics are one of my favorites - I invite folks when they visit my shop to write their favorite quote or song lyric on the wall as I have them scrawled all over - those particular lyrics are in a prominent place. They resonate so well with me because of the bronze sculptor I work with. I just posted a link to a youtube video of his work and a casting session in the sculpture forum - give it a look if you get the chance!

Hey all, Here's a youtube vid put up by one of the gallery owners who represents my friend James Lee Hansen's work. Jim is 82 now and has been doing sculpture since 1948 after he got out of the Navy - He's so spry and passionate about what he does - I can only hope to be as full of life at that age. The poems Jim's reading on the vid are his own and the opening are bits and pieces from one of our casting sessions. It's a tad long at 7 minutes but I hope you enjoy it! youtube

Congratulations Larry, A buddy of mine just bought one (he drove up to PT to get it) and he's just thrilled with how it performs! Take some pictures of the new "love" in your life. Make sure to include some pics of how you move it into your shop!

Ditto to most of the above posts. Make em' when I can - buy em' when I find em - get em' new only if I can't avoid it!