petere76

Gents, A quick shot of the shop, lay out table, post vise, two anvil stations HB and a PW, forge, work table and assorted equipment. some made, some donated by friends and all well used. Does the collecting ever stop... not likely. Best regards, Peter

The stress is on the transition at the jaw offset and the hinged joint. Forging will make for a stronger joint than twisting, particularly when heat and force are involved. The jaw design is determined by your planned application. If you are doing a production run, take the time and make the tooling for the job. I use either 3/4 or 5/8 square stock and forge the jaws, the offset and a short stub taper to roughly 1/2 - 3/8 square. Dedicate the time to assure that the jaws and the hinge joint is right. The reigns can be produced seperatly from 3/8 or 1/2 stock and welded on. I keep a supply of ready made (jaw) pairs on hand in the shop so we can quickly produce a speciality set of tongs if needed. Peter

Hi, Sorry bad post. Building code for your town should be considerd. Be advised that function and government regs are frequently at odds. The concrete wall board is really an underlaymnet surface for masonary but it works great by itself if the board is spaced off the surface you are trying to protect. Mount the board by screwing through .75 in copper tubing. This will assure an air space between the combustible surface and the source of the heat. I have tested these type installs with thermal imagiing equipment and the results are very favorable. The hot exposure side can run to 500 Deg F and the shielded side will run below 125 Deg F. The mortorboard is relatively cheap, available and easy to work. I have also used scrap roofing metal as a standoff reflective shield. It is portable and quick to set up. Both options are workable and make for a safe hot work area. Peter

Mark, I make ours to accomodate the user. The 1/2 in square stock tapered to a 3/8 in working end offers good balance and proportion. The tall folks like longer tooling, 32-36 inch overall length. Wood stoves that are deep, 24-36 in, need longer tooling so the user does not get burned on the door frame. Again the 32-36 in variety seems to work well. In the case of the art deco gas fireplace where the tooling is more decorative than functional, think small as in 26-28 in. this size works better next to the smaller hearth openings. I was surprised to see the numbers of mini-sets sold to the condo crowd as an interior deco accessory. Make whatever the market demands and charge whatever that particular market will support . Peter

Frosty, Nice work on the hammer and hefting. I like the relieved wooden handle, great fit on the hand. Peter

Archie, formed socket for a wooden handle, heavy tines and hand forged. I would guess it is a piece of manual farming or garden equipment, think tiller. This would be back in the day of doing yard work without having a motor attached to whatever device you were using. Peter

Exceptional find... all the best to you. Peter

Derek C, In Long Beach and Pedro look in the book one of the marine repair outfits that do the work on the ships in port. There are still some steam ships out there and most of the motor vessels have some sort of aux boiler. The repair outfits will be able to hook you with the local suppliers. One other approach would be to go online and check out the Mariners Anual Catalog. They have everything you could possibly want, fire brick, insulating block, insulating brick, plastic refractory and cement. Be advised that they are not cheap and shippping these items is no bargain. Peter

aeneas, good weld and it looks good too. peter

regional chaos, any way you want to get the shape is acceptable although the spring fullers and the guilotine tools are handy and make for fast repeatable work. whatever method you choose to use, make certain to buther or set the original shoulder cut. This process elimates or minimizes the chance of failure at the 90 degree shoulder. With round tenons, chamfer the monkey tool so that the the shoulder has a small radius. This small attention to detail in the process will eliminate a lot of frustration. Good luck and have at it. Peter

Dan, Love is infinite, may peace be with you and yours. Peter

Regionalchaos, Making monkey tools or shouldering sets, is easier than finding them. the added benefit is you get the sizes you want. I have made sets out of (mild) round stock and square stock. The round stock was easy, I used the lathe 3 jaw to chuck the stock and drilled the appropiate size bore. I then chamfered the bore with a countersink and drilled the cleanout in the drill press. Note that the clean out is drilled at 90 deg to the bore axis at its bottom point and it is slightly larger in dia. make certain that the depth of the bore will accomodate whatever tennon you are forging. To do the same thing with square stock set up using a 4 jaw chuck and scribe the center point. Both sets work well. Have at it and good luck. Peter

James, Most scroll jigs are made to accomodate a specific dimension and support makiing repeat parts. Make the jig out heavier dimension stock that you plan to use for the scroll. Build up the welds at the first outside cure so the jig does not deform after repeated uses. After you make the scroll end of your choosing start the initial bend. Cool the end and use the end to lock the piece into the jig. Once locked into place you can easily bend the stock to your chosen set point. The vise style clamp clamp is for heavy stock and it allows you to clamp down with some authority and get some muscle into the bend without any slipage. I saw a picture of this design and made one for a job I was doing, it worked great. I attached a few photos. Have at it. Peter

Jay Cee has a good assortment of steel rivets in various head configurations. They also a full line of non-ferous speciality rivets. They do have a min spec order of 100 units for sizes under .5 in. Prices seem competitive, they have an 800 number , they take plastic and they ship via UPS ground. Peter