Chris Pook

I wonder if that was the original 5th wheel? Looks like something they would've used when politicians were traveling on campaign.

lol... thats what i was thinking as i read and saw the pictures

Just cut off the amount of spring you need and hit quickly it with a sanding disk to clean off the bulk of it, won't take long, were a dusk mask and then burn the remainder off. My Dad's business has a powdercoating shop, they sand stuff off small areas all the time for repair welding all the time, big things we either sand blast or if heat/warpage, is not an issues we send it to a friends aluminum foundry and they hang it over the pit for us and burn it off. I'd agree though there are alot of noncoated springs out there, but most new cars these days come with painted springs and more and more of them are getting junked.

So your using the blower to pull the air? How'd it do for sparks get blown out?

Thanks for posting that link, I'm just in the planing stages for my forge in my new shop and it gave me a few ideas.

I was taught how to make a body for a bird from pipe, sorry not much help don't have any pics. it involves lightly tapping the ends closed on a piece of pipe that was cut on an angle at both ends. like this / / same angle both ends one end is tapped closed and flattened to form the tail and the other end is hammered close but kept rounded...the longer side of the angle is closed upward to form the breast of the bird. You end up with a round hole on the topside of the pipe (this is were the head gets attached too), close the tale end so the bottom shorter side folds into the top and is then flattened and fullered to form the tail feathers. You then forge the head from solid stock and the wings, legs seperate. Hope that makes sense.

I plan on using the more expensive porcelian sockets, and having them inspected. I found a few more places. This place seems to have alot of good stuff, including the high heat internal lamp wire for chandeliers. Lamp Parts, Lighting Parts, and Chandelier parts - Grand Brass Lamp parts the Lighting Parts Super Store Trying to find somewhere on the west coast or in Canada

American Science & Surplus: Incredible Stuff at Unbelievable Prices Found them while searching for lamp parts, some stuff seems real cheap. And if not were do you guys order you lamp sockets and stuff for custom lighting projects?

primtech... thats a good one. Thanks guys, gave me lots to think about.

The more I think about it, the more I feel its just to change things in my own head, a fresh start. Theres things about how my current business went from the beginning I didn't like, and things I would of done differently if given the chance. Sort of restarting out but with a full shop of tools, more experience and a small line of products I haven't had a chance to take to market yet...I could hit the ground running :)

Stationary is part of thinking about changing the name, I need all new business cards and stationary because of address changes and phone number changes due to moving the shop home, as far as fabworks goes the customers that keep me eating all know me and know what I am trying to do, so I'm not too worried about starting fresh with a new name/direction they now how to get a hold of me. And on the other side there some customers I wouldn't mind getting away from Valid points to think about though.

Kinda thinking outloud and looking for some input... I currently run my business under the name Nocturnal Designz Inc. Heres a link to my very old never updated website(sure wish I knew how to do it myself) with not to much in the way of forge workhttp://nocturnaldesignz.com/index.asp My business is doing mostly custom fabrication work whatever people want, but I have been trying to swing it to mostly forge work, and its been hard thing to do seeing how people already know me as a fabrication shop and I never seem to have time to work on forged product, after a day of fabrication its hard to ignore the family and head out for more metalwork. I know forging Iron is were i need to be I never intended to be a welder doing production type work and enjoy the time i get forging items for customers more than any other aspect of my business. I've been thinking I should keep the old name going for my fabrication business as kinda a backburner thing when i need cash just picking and choosing the work I do for current customers and "forging ahead" under a new name (as a subsiderary of Nocturnal Designz Inc for liabilty and tax issues etc) the current name came about from when I first started i worked out of my dad's shop at night after the workers left (which I had been doing for years working on friends and my own projects) I then got my own warehouse and still kinda worked at night as it was easier to do the running around during the day, dealing with customers etc... These days I do still work at night on ideas but with a family in the process of setting shop up at home to be a good neighbour I have to shift my work hours to the daytime. I was thinking of going just with my name "Chris Pook Blacksmith" such as my great great grandpa did heres a photo of his shop that was in Ontario Canada in the late 1800's Nocturnal Designz - Company Information or going the with "something forge route" or blacksmith shop I guess part of the wanting to change the name is just in my head...giving me a fresh start in a new shop, doing the work I want to do, with a name that describes what I do when people first read or hear it and hopefully keeping me away from the usual fab work expectations. Having the shop at home now is helping make this all possible, Its a good move i hope as blacksmithing is were my heart is. does any of this make any sense :)

worked for me.... I like it :)

for the junkyard scrounger, car springs, swaybars, axle shafts work good. You can also buy cheap decent material typical punches from places like harbourfrieght and rework them.

A person I know used them for his 3 forges (teached classes), found them on the scrap pile. worked great. At the new shop I'm using heavy walled corrugated piping from a dust collecter for the run inside the shop and switching to the walled stainless stuff for the roof penetration.

Thats a little guy The bigger converters can get a bit more complex with timing cct's and aot more capacitors but pretty much the same thing, I'll see if I can get a photo of the inards on my converter.

Thats what I figure too....but like I said above I'm not sure how it worked out.I'll keep an I out for more info.

Ok I changed it so it goes right to the pdf...let me know if it works. It works on mine but that might be because I am a member and the cookies must be saved

A couple links I found on the nwba website ...no idea how it worked out. EDIT: Ok try these and let me know if they work http://www.blacksmith.org/drupal/files/Bruce-s_Fly_Press_Article.pdf http://www.blacksmith.org/drupal/files/Fabricating_a_Flypress.pdf

here photo's of my base, the dirts left over from when it was buried at my old shop, not sure if I'm going to just build a moveable platform at the front of the hammer this time or put it back in a sandbox. There's a piece of 2" plate between the beams and the anvil block.

you should think about joing the NWBA (northwest blacksmith association) there website is at http://blacksmith.org/ They have conferences in Washington and Oregon, were there are always anvils for sale and they also have a nice quarterly magazine that has nice pictures,projects, class anouncements and a classified section.

my 3b nazel (in case you your not familar with them its a 300lb 2 piece hammer) sits on large timbers, with no special foundation underneath. It came out of the mine like that, they had it buried in the ground. It work for them so I never changed it,beams must be at least 30-40 years old, I had it in my old shop sitting on the concrete shop floor which was about 4-5" thick with no problems. It sits high off the ground around 1'. lower row of beams is ran lenghtwise and a second set on top is ran widthwise all held together with large bolts and steel strapping. since the floor is concrete I run 2x8's underneath the beams so the nuts and bolts that protrude don't dig into the floor. At the old shop I built a large sandbox for my forge area a foot deep so I was at the right level for the hammer and gave me a nice dirt floor to forge on. The wood beams seem to be a nice cushion for the hammer and the vibrations didn't carry into the ground, my wife in the office 10' away couldn't feel it running. one thing I do notice when compared to hammers I have run with proper concrete foundations is mine with older well used beams seems to have a more cushioned blow when working large heavy material near the hammers max capacitys. I'm just getting it setup at the new shop so I could get some pictures of the base if you'd like.

I know I have seen the starter cct and capacitors, for sale on ebay, then you just supply your own motor. Alos like mentioned above look around farm magazines etc, around here quite a few farms run them. I just picked up a used big one,good for up to 145 amps combined load or up to largest single load of 30hp motor, for $500 canadian, but I got the good guy deal from an electrical company I used to work for. I have seen a few for sale in washington state, one was $900us capable of running up to a single 15hp motor. just to give you a few ball park prices for used ones. You can run into problems trying to run larger 3 phase motors/converters if you have bad power coming in to your shop, such as large voltage drops, undersized wiring etc. If your cofortable in reading electrical diagrams and in your wiring skills its fairly simple to build your own, just watch out for the capacitors because they will hold a charge and zap you even with the power off.

heat it up to a dull red and mig weld the handle on while its still hot, should help keep the handle on there longer before it cracks off.

alot of places use rubber or a soft urethane with there dies for shaping stuff.