petere76

Steve, Sorry to hear you lost a union Brother. Prayers for his family and those affected. May peace be with them. Peter

Sam....excellent use of scrap material. Peter

I use a vertical storage system in the corner of the shop by the OH door (11 foot overhead), so its easy in and easy out. The chop saw is close enough so its an easy reach with minimal dancing. We cut everything to 10 Ft. unless we specifically need something longer. Shorts get stored in uprgight 4 in PVC pipes, cut down to 36 in. Real shorts live under the chop saw. Scrap angle and scrap flat bar cut offs get stored in 5 gal pails and are used for making jigs and forms. We don't waste much. I have the ever popular outside scrap pile that I get from the transfer station and a few local metal shops. The pile is not my wife's favorite yard art feature so I try to keep it semi-organized. You know how that goes. Peter

Thanks, More scrounging at the dump is required. Peter

Egreen, I'll bite, whats a wheel spindle? Peter

Metal primer of all manufacture is a porous coating that likes to go on clean bare metal. its designed to encourage a surface coating to adhere, it is not a sealer. Primer failures occuring because of scale are due to the different expansion rates of two dis-similar materials. The seal fails around the scale, compromises the outter coating (seal) and lets in mositure, oxidation does the rest. We use the normal primer on items that are for outside use in the North East region. Cold and hot lots of expansion and contraction and UV exposure. We get the iron down to bare metal and wash it to remove any grease or oils. . Work in a reasonably clean and dust free environment. Don't be grinding on one side of the shop and painting on the other side, this is a formula for frustration. We tripple coat the primer, using different colors to assure full coverage, this way you can see the spots you missed. Multi coat the finish as well. Light coats adherer better and give a better visual appearance. Gloss spray coatings are thicker in ml dimension than flat varients. if you want a flat finish go with gloss for the first coats and final coat with flat, you will get a better mil thickness on your final product. My simple shop calculations show that we spend a lot of time on any given piece in, descaling.surface preparation and coating. It is a good percentage of the cost componet in your production of any piece. Have a good system for descaling (acid wash, wire wheel whatever works for you). Keep it clean . Use good coatings. It also helps if you do batches as opposed to single pieces. Singles have the same set up and take down times on both ends of the process, so you might as well do a batch. Economy of scale favors multiples over singles. Hope this helps. Peter

I produced a quick prototype in the shop this afternoon. The socket is 3.5 in x 1in with a taper of .25 in over the run. Forged the piece out of ,25 in spring steel, upset the transition area to @ .375 and fullered . I tried to keep the transion thick. I wanted 1.25 in for the large OD but I wasent getting it, had to settle for 1 in. Heat treated with an oil finish. The business end is a single bevel, curved to get the mechanical advantage. rounded the edges and polished the flats. Fitted a makeshift handle out of maple from the wood shed. I tried it out on some green wood wood in the yard and it worked slick. photos attached. Thanks for all the suggestions. Peter

Thank you Big foot. I'm researching the whole spear and socket thing to see what I can deduce from the earlier designs. Peter

GNJC, Thanks for the pic. the old gear that is still around surely testifies to a good design. I am thinking that I need to make a few spear sockets to get the hang of this thing. Peter

Thomas, I have a tire hammer that works gret and a pile of spring stock. Effort nor supplies are an issue althoug the temps of the last few days have been off the chart even in Maine. I reverse engineered an old shovel and noted a taper of roughly .125 per linear inch of socket. Shovel handles run about 1.5 in dia, that seems stout enough and they are readily availble. Its the socket transition and prodcution method that I'm looking at. Peter

I am going to make a bark spud for a friend. I'm not certain if the handle socket is best welded on or forged out of the parent stock. I was thinking of using a spear type scoket but I'm not sure if the socket configuration will take the bending stresses. I have never made this type socket before. Anyone out there made one of these and have any input on the design? The stock will be leaf spring. @ 5 in x 4 in x .25 in. Tapered to a single bevel and sligtly curved to get the mechanical advantage. Likely I will go with a 36 in handle. I planned to isolate the socket end by fullering the parent stock. Then spreading the ioslated section to an appropiate thickness. I dont make a lot spears or garden tooling so I'm not overly familiar with this handle design. Thanks for any thoughts or suggestions you can offer. Peter

If cost is a criteria, use scrap auto (coil) springs. Usually you can get them for free from repair shops. If they have been torched, remember that the burned end is no go so cut it off while processing. Aneal and forge as required and then heat treat the business end. I have made dozens of chisels, slitters and punches out of scrap springs as well as tong sets. When the tools get beat up, and they will, you can either reforge them or make new ones. Good luck scrounging. Peter

Larry, Good to hear from you again. Your tragic loss and your honesty in sharing your feelings profoundly touched many of us here. Come back on line any way you choose to, but come back, and recover in your own way and on your own terms. I look forward to hearing from you. If I can in any way be of assistance please advise, POC, Carrabassett Valley Forge 207.235.2762. All the best, Peter

Aye sir, gods speed and may peace be with them. Peter

Tim, Excellent job. They look great....I want one. Envy is the best compliment right, Thanks. Peter

Its linseed oil (boiled), turpentine and bees wax mixed (.33 + .33+ .33). Descale the iron, heat the iron (black hot, not too hot) rub on the mixture. Repeat and buff out till it looks good. It should not take you too long. Remember the customer sees your product first and the craftmanship second. Make it look right and do the QC check. Good luck Peter

Nice work Beth, in this case you had an eye for the delicate. The piece is fucntionl and balanced. I like the collars. thanks for showing us your work. Peter

Chris, Amazing workmanship and attention to detail. Masterpiece quality of the highest order. You must have the patience of a saint. Thanks for sharing your work and inspiring us. Great job. Peter

JW, Its been said that fortune favors the bold. Congratulations on your decison. Its also been said that one who loves what they do, never works a day in their life. Beans + rice are a perfect protein, add exercise, a lot of water and wieight loss will follow. All the best in your endevours. Peter

I posted this info on another thread. To make a Froe use a leaf spring, You can weld on an eye by heating the stock and using e-7018 rods. After your forge or grind the rdge, heat treat like any tooling. Use a wooden mallet as opposed to a hammer on the froe. I put the pics on the other thread with froe in the subject. Peter

Thoughts are with you my friend....we all cross these bridges. Peter

Made a froe not long ago to split cedar planks for "planking fresh salmon". material was a truck leaf spring at .625 in x 2.5 in. Annealed first , forged tapered blade to shape. welded on a socket for a hared wood handle, (E- 7018, with pre heat) , Heat treated as I would a knife. Works well for its intended purpose. Note that I use a hard wood mallet as opposed to a hammer when spliting. All the reading I did on old time Froes indicated they used hard wood mallets. Good luck, Peter

Display some high end work and that will get them into your area and looking. Have a good supply of low end items on hand and they will buy them. High end. Fireplace sets, Pokers, shovels, brooms. Door knockers. Small pot racks. Hooks for tha pot racks. Coat racks for the wall or back of a standard door. Ornate Plant hangers large, med, small. These sell well in the spring. Rail Spike knives (letter openers) desk art. Hinge sets are great for a display. Small hand garden tools, sets or individual pieces. Low end. Leaf hook sets. S hooks in various lengths. Steak Turners. Key rings. Crosses. Simple style stand off the wall plant hangers . Bottle openers (big sellers) . Drawer pulls (simple or ornate). Vertical displays are better than lying items out on a table. 4 x 4 panels covered with indoor outdoor in a neutral color. The panels can interlock for stability (hinges) and the break down and set up relatively quickly. If you want fancy, picture frame the panels with oak triim. Great for fireplace equipment display and door hardware. Make sure to clean up the ironwork for the show, clean sells. Have a supply of screws on hand to go with anything that is mounted. have your cards on hand for anyone interested in getting commision estimates, i.e. make contacts. Keep it simple clean and squared away. Unlike most of our shop, folks at summer fairs are attracted to a certain sense of order. Good luck. Peter

Hey Royce, Nice job getting your forge up and running. If you can control the fire and have enough depth in the pot it will work. Unless your are setting up to work on large (long) speciality pieces, deep is better than wide for most applications. For outside ops I have seen some set ups where they shroud the fire pot and funnel the smoke off, it helps at demos. It also offers a bit of shade so you can see the color changes better. Most of the shrouds are cut down 55 gal drums, open on one side so you can get in and out, with a short piece of stove pipe attached. Nothing fancy but they do work well. Easily portable as they just sit on top of the forge table. Peter

Sam, Question on the handle configuration. I'm doing a chopper varient out of leaf spring . 14 in modified bowie tip. 6 in handle full diminsion .25 x 1.25. I want to try the oriental style wrap nad not sure how to dress the tang. Do you notch the tang to retain the wrap? Not sure how it stays in place. Do you add scales (underlyament) of some sort to fatten the handle? I noticed that even with a heavy rap the 1/4 tang is not thick enough to be comfortable. I would like to get the width up around (.75-.80), seems the most comfortable. Lastly, the wraped line (paracord) tends to be soft and I would think it would loosen up over time. The old Japan swords had wraped handles but they (handle surface) were really hard to the touch and well sized to the hand. I'm searching for ideas before I commit to a handle design any input would be appreciated. Peter