rthibeau

Jr, I don't think there is any doubt but you have the most stuff packed into the smallest area. How do you manage??

Post vise behind the anvil is mounted on steel i-beam and steel plate, between 400 - 500 lbs total.

My anvil at Dancing Frog Forge, something around 300 lbs.

Sounds like the vise and anvil were way cheap, but that stump cost a lot :)

It doesn't sound like the file is getting hot enough at only a red heat, of course colors are subjective. Getting it to nonmagnetic should be a better standard to go by. I use a metal 15 gallon barrel full of wood ashes to anneal. Put the metal into the middle of it, shake to settle it down, cover and leave overnight or until I get back to it. I've forgotten about having something in there only a couple of times, but found it when I put another piece in to anneal. :)

The reason you don't have any bugs around is that the lizards - Geckos?? - eat them. They make nice pets, just leave them be. Maybe you can hire them out to sell insurance?? :)

You could shim the plate to level, then weld a 4" length of 1" square along the side of the plate at each corner to make the adjustment permanent.

Is the square plate with the clinker breaker on upside down? It looks like it from the photo. If so, it would fit nicely on a table with the appropriate size cutout. Other wise, set it in the cutout with large enough angle iron around the sides for the fire enclosure. Have a side draft chimney setup for best results. Here's one example:

Very good show, well done. By all means make it into a BP and get it posted.

You do know that you're having too much fun to call what you do work, don't you????

where is your church? I want to go....

I have some 10' x 1" bandsaw blades from a metal shop. The vendor describes them as "spring steel back with high speed steel ground teeth". Is this anything like L6 which I keep seeing referred to in saw mill bandsaw blades? Either way, does anyone have experience using metal cutting bandsaw blades in knives? I can get all I would ever need for free so I'm wondering the best use for them.

Jeff Mack - where are you? I've got 5/8" WI I'm willing to trade for leaf springs.

Is that Grizz with two Z's like were put on the fireplace tool set I bought at a Folly at the Forge auction??

I take back the easily part - all that block and especially the plate table are very heavy and moving it piece by piece is still a lot of work. But it is portable in the sense it can be dismantled and reassembled in short order.

Don H. - I did almost exactly what you're describing, I think. I also got a Centaur fireport and placed in a cut out in 1/4" plate. The flanges left and right are above the plane of the plate, but the front and rear are at the same level as the plate surface. There was a gap front and rear, but I placed angle iron in them and that worked. When working, coal is piled around the sides and rear, so the raised edges of the pot aren't apparent. The side draft chimney is metal 10" stovepipe sitting on the plate inside chimney block, bottom one and some cut out as is the pipe in an arc. The whole affair is sitting on top of four columns made of concrete block piled up - no mortar anywhere. The plate is 4' x 4' with 1" square tube welded all around the bottom as a frame, very heavy, very stable. The whole thing can be taken apart easily and reassembled. It works great, has a large work area, and I can forge weld with it.

All three photos are of the same item: handle, overall view, rake end. Three RR spikes were used, the middle one was forged straight to gain length for the whole piece. All three welded end to end.

thanks, scrapman for the info. I picked up a dozen 10' long round bars 1 1/8 or 1 1/4" dia of H13 at scrap prices. I also got a couple other grades, but haven't ID'd them yet.

I guess one at a time works

Well they all didn't show the first time http://webpages.charter.net/richardthibeau/RR%20Spike%20Fire%20Rake%203.JPG

This is the start - a fire rake tool. Three spikes welded together, twisted full length, one spike head intact, the second shaped for the rake, the third drawn and welded into the middle for the length. Of course painted appropriate to find on a pile of coal. http://webpages.charter.net/richardthibeau/RR%20Spike%20Fire%20Rake%203.JPG

Can you get a piece of steel plate to fit the top of the rail pieces and weld that on? You'll be using only a hand hammer on it and if the plate is thick enough, it will suffice. Thick wall pipe in a vise will replace an anvil horn for the time being. A piece of 1 1/2" round forged or machined or even ground done to a cone and in a vice will replace the tip of the horn for that function. "Doing it right" is a function of money, time, and your imagination. If it works for what you want to do with it, you did it right.

Then there's the question of why shoot anything out of it, much less a golf ball? If they want an uncommon noise maker, a cast or machined cannon can be had from several different materials. Only when you plug up the end of the barrel with an obstruction (cannonball, wadding, whatever) do you run the risk of excessive pressure building up that will overwhelm the strength of the cannon's metal. A golf ball sized projectile will require a good sized cannon for hand made. The smaller the projectile, the smaller the cannon can safely be. I've turned out small cannons on a lathe out of mild steel, drilling the fuse hole and bore on the lathe as well. Building the carriage and the rest from redwood. They work great, but were never intended nor have they actually launched a projectile. A half inch bore cannon, 50 grains of FFg black powder tamped in - no wadding - makes a pretty loud report. And no long down range worry about hurting someone. :D