Orange Dog Forge
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Maybe I'm cheating, but I have modified the jaws of several sets of vise-grips to work as tongs by welding various diameters of cut pipe to the jaws to hold round stock. Also, by welding a short piece of pipe over one of the jaws, I can get uniform diameters on hooks. I have found these handy for production work. I went to a truck stop and sorted through a bunch of the $3.99/set (imports) and found some decent ones. Some of them did rquie a litle "tweaking" but it works for me on some jobs.
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I used to spray the clinkers with clear plastic, add a small fantasy figurine and get $20-30 each. Later on, I would put broken colored glass in the fire at the end of the workday and they looked pretty good. At the time I was using a very poor quality coal so the clinkers were rather large.
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Assumptions are the termites of relationships. "Henry Winkler"
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Just keep pounding away. I don't like much of anything I make, but others (non-smiths) do. as long as the ladies are happy with your work, they won't mind you buying more tools .
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I just found this site a couple of days ago. I started forging about 20 years ago and have had an on and off relationship with the craft. At one point, I actually made a living at it. After moving frquently and having a cold forge for almost ten years, I decided I had to get back into it. A large portion of my pay during my tour in Iraq went to purchase new tooling, books, and videos. I would like thank everyone in advance for the things I will learn from you. Jon
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dothacker, IMHO, not having a "proper" anvil will help you learn more in the long run. As for the noise, is there someway you can fasten/tie/strap down you anvil? I use a very thin sheet of rubber underneath my anvils and also under the holddowns. The stands I made are steel. For my light anvil, I have bolted a couple of lead plates to the leg braces to increase the " weight" of the anvil and it also helps deaden the sound. If you go with the egg crate idea, see if you can get the egg holders from a restaurant. They are bigger than the regular food store ones and you can get them for free.