RGroshans

_{The Old Cowtown Museum in Wichita is supposed to have a working blacksmith at their shop.}

_{Yes, Old Cowtown does have a working smithy.  It could be a great place to ask questions.  The information on the Central States Metal Artisans infor listed above is another excellent source for information.  Like Ron/Son_of_Bluegrass, I too have let my membership lapse so I can't give much in the way of updated information.} 

_{Plus, by seeing the dates that everyone has posted I am also a bit behind on this thread.}

Woodsmith, I love the Ironman costume, great job.  Jacques, the helmut and ax are great.  The non-planished helm give it character and makes it look like it has seen battle.  And as far as the "blue horns" is that anything like a blue feather in the cavalier hat of a fencer?

Dogsoldat, that little pic let the light come on for me...Now I get it.  Thanks.

Lots of good infor on this thread.  Thanks.  I am getting ready to build up mu own little smithy.  I was given an old porch off of a mobile home, it was 8' x 16' x 8', covered.  I disassembled it to sticks and am completing three projects with it.  The floor became a deck extension, the OSB walls will completye out a small storage shed, and the uprights and roof will become my new smithy.  I am going to set it up like a stand alone pole barn.  It has a metal roof, and I plan on keeping a dirt floor.  For the time being it will be open sided until I can aquire some free/cheap planking for the walls.

So I was working on designing a side draft hood for my mobile forge and came up with this. I spend under $2 on the bucket and aluminum duct, cut a big hole in the bucket and cut out an opening in the side and here you go. It just sits on the table and you can fine tune its location to whatever you like. Even used the piece I cut out as a sort of adjustable overhang. And I gotta say it works really well. So all you out there that are in my position of limited time money and resources here is an idea for you.

That 5 gallon bucket side draft is perfect for my forge table.  Thanks for posting it on here.  I have been racking my brain trying to come up with a simple idea for when I get my smithy set up.

Hello, my name is Rodney Groshans, I live just outside of Wichita, KS.  I have dabble on and off with smithing, had even been a member of the local smithing association for a spell.  Unfortunately I hadn't been very active so I had ended membership (thinking of renewing that membership).

My present setup is not condusive for really doing much.  Everything is tucked into the garage.  If I want to do any forging I have to either drag all of my equipment out onto the drive or drag everything that isn't my equipment out onto the drive.

To eliviate all of that I am in the works to build a pole barn type free standing lean-to typ structure behind the garage...and eventually put at least three sides on it.

Equipment wise I have a 55# ASO from Harbor frieght, but I also have a short (approx 12") chunk of rail that I am mounting on end to use as an anvil as well.  For a forge I have a small single burner propane forge, a home built charcoal forge, and a build in progress coal forge table.

Once I get this lean-to up I am hoping to recoup any of the knowledge I previously possessed and hopefully learn to improve my meager skills.

Just looking through this forum I see a vast amount of experience that I hope I can learn form.

I use a hand truck for moving my post vise and anvil. Big pneumatic tires are nice. I work on a gravel driveway, have to move everything out every time. I used to have a shade tree, but it broke last week and I cut it the rest of the way down this week...

Here is my vise with the hand truck.

Phil

I really like that post vice stand you have.  I think I may try to put something like that together.