Ian

I've come across a couple of motors that need a shove to run, something wasn't right with them imo, but as far as that restock fee goes i'm afraid i'd be arguing the toss with Sears. I say if you paid their asking price for a fully working product then if theres any additional costs it's down to them, otherwise they should be on the tag when you buy.

I think the deer and bear brands are very good, I could see several ways to really use them to dramatic effect. Imagine a really nice rich wooden table top with the bear tracks running over it for instance.

Archie, I was told that punches should have the edges of the face slightly radiused so as not to be square and sharp, because the metal actually flows around the head of the punch as you drive it in. A square edge on the face can leave a rough hole when you punch out the biscuit. Driving the punch too far through on one side can also cause problems, when you come to turn the bar over and punch the thinner side it can stretch more before it shears, you've got to get the first side about 2/3 of the way through, then flip the bar. If you choose the right heat for the final tap the biscuit shears off, not stretches and gives like warm toffee if that makes sense. Finally using a drift to size the hole will give you the clean smooth finish you want.

Arbalist, do you have any railway line, or can you blag some maybe? If you can find some cut off the thick part (top) of the rail with a 9'' grinder of a size so you can forge it into a decent billet. You might want to grind the web flush to make forging easier. Cut your prefered size from this billet and forge your hammer. Heat treat wise I'd try an oil quench first, if it doesn't harden try water. Not sure on the steel numbers otherwise you could get a specific heat treat for it, but I do know several blokes who've used rail for hammers, hardy tools, and such with no problems.

Just for the badness of it I'll chuck a pebble in the water....... I'm afraid your man was WRONG. There IS a way to make a pair of tongs without using any tongs, or tool that does the same job as tongs. I know more that one way in fact but for fun lets see how many ideas folks who haven't made many tongs come up with. Use some modeling clay to try out ideas.

Richard.........naw forget it. :D

Welcome aboard bloke, there's a lot more Brits around than you'd think, and I'm sure a few within striking distance of where you are. Have a good look through the Blue Prints section, lots of projects to try.

1) Entirely depends on what kind of tongs you want to make 2) Entirely depends on the kind of work your going to use them on 3) In my opinion No. Tubing would increase the rate at which heat from the bits travels down the length of the reign. Reigns made of tubing would get hotter faster, counterproductive. This is all moot if you quench the bits often enough to keep them cool. 4) Ones that work well for the job you made them for. Otherwise make a pair of wolf jaw tongs (Or universal tongs). They'll do the most for the work you put into them.

I've got three hammers (so far) of which two are handmade and one is a factory made. The factory made is a smallish straight pein and the two hand mades are a largish diagonal pein and one based on an old Smithing/Farrier hammer. It has round faces, one flat and one with a decent crown. I use the big diagonal pein for 90% of my work, the Small straight pein for about 5% and the Smithing hammer for the other 5%. I only use the hammer I think thats best suited to the job I'm doing, but that been said I can use the big hammer to do very delicate work if I want to. I saw a few Smiths that used one hammer for everything, but it's a personal preference. As long as the results are right it's not life or death

lovely looking piece

Extremely nice Adrian. Simple but extremely effective visually. It's quality work.

Stick my name down please John (with a reminder closer to the time), I might be able to rustle up a few folks as well, between 2 and 10 maybe.

When I first thought Smithing might be somthing I'd enjoy I didn't take any of this 'addiction' nonsense seriously at all, I mean I wasn't in any sort of position to really try it first hand initially, but then I got a little taster in Leeds at the Armouries. Nothing I didn't think I could walk away from. Lots of other things I was already 'into', could I really afford to take on another habit? I mean hobby? I'd heard and seen a few funny jokes about it, you know 'incurable' etc etc etc but apart from being black brite, stinking of fire, and slightly singed I was none the worse for my first time. It's cost me a LOT since, and more than just money too. But rather than end on a sombre note I shall relate a true story. A very good friend of mine is on brass tacks, her landlord sold her flat out from under her and she wasn't given any notice. She's on disability so has ended up at a hostel, they won't let her have her cats there. Guess who volunteered to house them (all 3 of the little .....)? Well, friends are friends. It meant she see's me everyday as they won't have a bar of me and she has to feed them and sort out their tray. We sit and talk and just generally pass the time while she enjoys her cats or does her laundry. I was out in the backyard of the house share forging somthing one day when she came over. We exchanged pleasentries and she went of to make us a drink of tea while I carried on working. After i'd finished I picked up my cup of tea and took a long thirsty and COLD drink. I was fully expecting a hot drink, I'd only been at it ten minutes. I looked over at my friend who was reading in a chair a few feet away with a pair of ear defenders on Apparently she'd been sat watching me for the first hour, then had grabbed a book and settled in for the long haul. I apologised for my rudeness and tried to explain but was cut short: "Don't be silly, thats the first time in over a month that you've looked REALLY happy" Guess that's when I knew it had got into my blood, it had been just over a month since I'd last lit the fire. The cheerful note? My friend has finally been told the Council have a legal responsibility to rehouse her, she'd bidding on places now :D

Glad to hear you survived bloke, Glenn's tried ringing me loads of times but the new shed is *****ul as far as interfering with the signal. Terrible line so I don't know much other than about 25 or 35 folks made it and it was a 'tearer'. Hope to catch you on chat mate, want to know all about it. I've had some more news too, but it can wait.

Had a look at the pictures and a few thoughts. Yes that bell housing has a LOT of ridges on the inside, and compared to a commercial venturi (look at a car for instance) is VERY rough. Air likes smooth surfaces to 'flow' over. Get some chemical metal and smooth out the ridges. After you've done that and before you junk it best to know if you have the jet aligned correctly into the centre of the pipe as well? If it's not blasting gas straight at the burner pipe it won't be helping ANY and you need to sort it. Best way to do this is with water, use a hose and hook it up, turn it on high so you have a dead straight jet of water, then align that up dead centre on the burner pipe and lock it down tight. You now know the jet of gas is dead centre, try your experiments again and see if there's any improvement. BTW, if it moves you have to do it all again so make sure it WON'T, an accidental knock might have caused your issue in more ways than one. Also for this type of burner you need a burner pipe that's in proportion to the Venturi bell. Most folks use 3/4'' pipe or above. 1'' is a good size. The LENGTH of the burner pipe is important too, too short in relation to the bell and pipe diameter and it wont have time to mix well before its out the end and into your forge. Long story short a LOT of time and money can be spent creating the ideal burner unless your names John N (sorry John, couldn't resist, thats a LOVELY burner) READ through Ron Reils site, I did and my burner works well enough. Nuff said?

No Adrian, (reread the dimensions I posted above mate), however you're entirely right in thinking doing one big enough to use as a bench seat is a good idea. The one I'm working on now will be big enough to hold a bottle and a pair of glasses (Party Jellyfish ) Doing a seat sized piece will have to wait until my Forge is up and running. I've got the greenlight for it on a City Farm and it's under construction as I type so hopefully it won't be months till I can make a big piece like that.

I have a blower from a Kodak photo processing machine. Squirrel Cage type, cap on blower is twin bore, looks like a shotgun. It fed two pipes so I'll use it to power the forge and create a forced air chimney.

redanvil, quote: (# of heats BS) To make MONEY at Blacksmithing for one, and to prevent excessive scaling marring work for another and in fact many other GOOD reasons (check out the effects of overheating and overworking on tool steels for instance) the number of heats needed to do the job should be kept to a minimum. It is FAR from BS. The less heats you take to do the job the better, so you should be aiming to improve on how much work you do per heat. I accept fully that it took me about four or five FULL heats to do a leaf say, when I first started, now I can do them comfortably in two. That means less fuel burned, more made per hour = higher returns. Please don't take this as a personal attack, is isn't, but rather putting a wrong idea right.

As one of the Three (or maybe it's four) folks who learned with Dale and stuck with it I have to say he's bang on. If this (Blacksmithing) is somthing you LOVE doing then I don't care what you have to use to do it. End of. I would say from personal experience that you get a lot further and faster by learning from the deck up, the bare bones onwards. It's the most natural way to learn in the world don't forget, once upon a time you didn't have the faintest idea of how to even walk let alone use complicated tools. Learning takes time. I have the most TREMENDOUS respect for what used to be called 'Time Served' Tradesmen. If you've been doing whatever it is you do for 10 years or more then it's a fair guess you're not a muppett. Nor should you be treated as such. I was SO lucky to meet and learn from many such men (and the occassional woman too) while I was travelling. Every single one of those folks represented a VAST repository of HARD won knowledge and experience (one that they happily shared) that I could use to further my own skills. It's both humbling and inspiring as a novice to see a Time Served man at work and that's WHY I have Tremendous respect for them. People like Rich, and Dale, and Moony, and a lot of others here are time served men to me, and every single one of started from the bottom and worked their way up.

I use a swage block (the Jellyfishes head was made on the swage block, [see Sculpture, Yard Art section]) and my anvil. Rings made from different sized round bar, with various diameters work quite well. I've used rings made from round bar with square shanks welded on. The most used had a ring made from 1" round bar turned so it had a 1 1/2" inside diameter. I've also used the end grain on wooden stakes and burnt them to keep warm afterwards :D

I have a length of small chain with a belt clip at one end and the keys I need to carry staggered down it. Two bunches really, home and work. On one bunch is a leaf keyfob and on the other is a mini horseshoe. Folks tend to notice them on the tube (if your sat down they appear at eye level) but mainly I use them as a "Yes REALLY, I'm a Blacksmith, here, LOOK..." When what I do comes up in conversation with people.

sorry doubled post

There's no reason a spring swage should break a lot or be hard to line up at all if it's made properly. Locating pins, or guides, sort the first problem. and making a properly shaped spring with proper temper (if using Spring Steel) sorts the other. I worked with Moony from Oz and he used (and made) more than a few spring swages, made right they're a joy to use.

Seems to be a lot of us thinking of the seaside lately. This piece is about 8' by 8' by 10''. Its about 90% done, still debating finishing touches. Already working on her 'Big Sister' As always comments are welcome.

Just as a 'think on'...... You need a cheap controlable source of air under enough pressure to run a forge yes? That means idealy something (fanwise) thats built to shift a lot of air through narrow ducting. If it has at least four speed settings all wired up even better yes? Chances are your about six feet away from one just like that everyday. Even better chance you can get hold of that one pretty cheap from an autowreckers. Running it from a 12V battery makes it portable and mains power independant and quite possibly capable of hours of service. (you can take two batteries if you can take one) For the workshop you could possibly run it from a cheap battery charger, cheap and cheerful. Make sense to anyone?