BackyardBlacksmithin

Hey gene thanks, I just ordered a bunch of coal from that guy in beavercreek you told me about. going to pick it up on my way to portland next week for the demo Im doing. I was going to order some coke too but he does not have any down there, so figure I will get some whenever I order again. And thanks for the tip about the coke, I will have to try that. After I get through hunting season next month I wanna get down there again and see if we cant work on a few projects.

I fired it up earlier today for a few hours and it worked great, I made the cut out for longer pieces and there seems to be enough distance between the edge of the firepot and the edge of the table area where I didn't have any problem loosing coal off the sides. I have been using my propane forge I built a while back and haven't used coal much at all lately. But I went and took some lessons and the guy used a forge very similar to the one I ended up building. I really enjoyed using his forge so here we are...

I finally finished my new coal forge and it turned out awesome, just fired it up for the first time today. Champion Forge 400 blower and a centaur forge firepot. Holy cow I don't miss my old brake drum forge....

I'd like to get some 1/2 inch square or round or at least something in that ballpark

Alright so after a bit more research I think I'm going to try and source some copper to try, question is what alloy? looking at onlinemetals.com there are several different ones to choose from...

I will have to try annealing between working it. I tried working it cold already and that wont work. Is there anywhere I can get brass that I know is forgeable? I just want to make some decorative leaf hooks and a few other little decorative things. Or would copper be better?

So... I picked up some brass rod from the local scrap yard and tried my hand at forging brass today for the first time. after getting it up to temp and start working it, it very quickly started to crack and then fall apart.... tried working it hotter and colder and still no joy. Did I get something that is a different alloy than what I need?

Figured I would revive this thread, next week I'm going to be demonstrating for a big event up in Portland for 2 days and this will be my first time ever doing it. Looking forward to it and trying my best to prepare as much as I can ahead of time for what I can make and sell while I'm there. Planning on doing the usual S hooks, drive hooks and some split crosses. Horseshoe hearts and horsehead stuff. going to make several roses too.

Backyard Blacksmithin, pretty self explanatory, seeing as how I live smack in the middle of town. I considered naming it bad neighbor blacksmithing but decided to stick with the first one. ;)

That's awesome, the funny thing is I did the exact same thing with a few scrolls I had laying around and came up with this. But I love how those C scrolls look paired up with S scrolls, gonna have to start playing with that on my next project...

SReynolds: Ya id like to see the mounting bracket. Im building my new coal forge totally from scratch and I want the blower to be mounted to it so I can roll it around all as one unit.

I just got a champion 400 thats in great shape but have never owned a hand crank blower before. so the entire case needs to be full of oil? Or just oil it periodiclly while in use through the port at the top of it?

Sreynolds: How is the blower mounted on that small forge? Im wanting to do a similar style mount on mine and like how that one looks. Any chance we could get a few pictures of the mounting bracket itself?

by all means do! I "borrowed" it from another member here in this forum haha. And just a few days ago I made another hammer from a heavier hammer that I use for cold texturing flower pedals. Works great.

Here is my latest rose, I like how this one turned out a lot better than the other ones.

Awesome I love it. Especially the quote at the end

Ya thats what I thought too, Im half tempted to anneal down the flat head and use it as a handled hot punch...

Hello, so I got this hammer today at an antique store for $4. No clue what its originally for but I figured I could find a use for it and hey the price was right... Any ideas?

Is he selling them on Ebay? That looks like the exact hammer I was bidding on! lol Didnt get it though..... darn budgets....

awesome thanks for all the great replies, maybe I can use it next time I do the drum brakes on my pickup.

Just picked these up at the local scrap yard but I have no clue what there for..... Any ideas?

nice work, definatly better than my attempts. For whatever reason I'm having trouble getting the cheek area to look right. Those last few I tried using horseshoes, they seem to be about the right size.

Kevin: Thank you, I've been using it the last few days and gotta say it works exactly as planned, very happy with it. And Ive been looking for a large piece of 12" piece of pipe to put a leg vise or even a good bench vise on, I like that idea for a mount.

So here is my solution to moving it around and I gotta say Im happy with how it works. I measured the amout to lift the end of the bar at just under 50 lbs. lift it and it wheels around great. set it down and slide the bar out and good to go. Simple and works great. Still need to re-paint it all but I wanted to use it a bit before I did to make sure it works right.

So I think for now im just going to beef up my current stand as much as I can. And I think I can add to fixed position wheels on the base and a removable handle on the other to pick it up and move it like a wheel barrow.