Arbalist

What a fantastic picture Don, thanks for sharing. Vic.

VERY nice looking forge! It looks well designed and made.

Looking at the website they are Chrome Vanadium, but no idea of actual composition! :)

I went to visit some friends on Saturday and we stopped off at a shop that sells bankrupt stock. They had quite a bit of top branded stuff at good prices including "Eclipse" branded cold chisels and crowbars. I bought a couple of 1/2 x 10 and a 1/2 x 12 as I thought they might come in handy but was wondering what else I can make out of them? Is the steel likely to be good enough for punching or drifting in hot steel? I hate to pass up a bargain so if you guys can come up with a list of some stuff I can make then I'll buy some more next time I'm visiting! Also, are the crowbars likely to be the same steel as the chisels?

Hi Charlotte, I must admit I don't know the specs of the Flamefast but expect you can get them from their website? I did ask the guy who bought our one if you could adjust the gas/air pressure and he said no so I suppose it is set correctly at installation and is "non user adjustable"? I was hoping to "wang it up a bit" in the hope of getting a bit more heat out of it! Vic. Here's a pic of the complete forge in situ.

Interesting stuff Mike and some very good work there. :)

Very nice idea pascalou, I'll have to have a go at making something similar! Vic.

Not much to it by the look of it:

We cleaned out the forge at work last week and replaced the chips with a fresh batch:

I was shown how to hold round stock (where the table meets the face) for punching/marking etc. so have found the London pattern with table quite a useful shape. I'm sure you'll soon get used to whatever you get though and find your own way of doing things!

Hm, I paid

I have to agree with this comment: "The down side to these forges is that the large exposed glowing mass of ceramic is VERY hot to work near" I was sweating buckets when I used one! :D

I've tried one of these and don't like it much. It may be the way it is set up - in a School using natural gas - but I found I couldn't get up to welding temps with it. As a newbie I'm no real judge but the (well respected) Smith on my training course said they're c**p! :p

BP0022 Scroll Generator | Blueprints 000-100 :)

I would cut the legs a little over size, make sure the angle is the same on each piece and weld them to the plate. Then I'd flip it over and mark the bottom of the legs parallel to the floor ... A thin strip of lead between the anvil and stand helps with noise and beds the anvil down nicely.

I like the sound of that!

I wouldn't mind seeing some pictures of the hook tools when you finish them Declan. Vic.

Very nice!

The slabs are set on a 6 inch concrete base Bob so expect it should be ok Vic.

I finally managed to get what I always wanted as an anvil stand, and spent a couple of hours this weekend trimming it up with a router: Nice piece of English Oak. Feels very stable and the Anvil rings nicely!

Not for large items really but I use this stuff for measuring/small tools: Flexbar: LANO-LUBE 2OZ TUBE Vic.

Nice work, I'd be well pleased with that! Vic.

Coming from you Frosty thats a pretty good recommendation so I've just ordered a copy from Amazon! looks like it's going to be a good source of information judging by the index. Thanks for the tip. Vic.

Thats a lot of Hammers Frosty! Vic.

That looks nice, let us know how you get on with it.