Biggusdan

I have quite a few questions as to what the stakes are used for (newbie alert!) once I clean them up i'll post some pics for identification. Thanks Dan

Thanks gents, you have put my mind at rest somewhat. The welding table is actually a bonafide one it comes with the bricks for gas welding/brazing and there is a steel plate underneath for electric. It looks like an older model as flamefast doesn't list it on their site.

Hi all I decided to bite the bullet and buy some kit. I managed to find a very nice swage block with stand and a load of tools nearby on ebay, the seller also had a professional welding bench so I decided to get that too. These all came from a school and apart from some surface rust on the tools they are like new. All tolled I paid £400 is this good?

Thanks for the input. I have been given a t/d blower but I have not seen it yet so cant say if it will be suitable or not yet. I was just wondering if anyone had used one before. My hobby forge set up has 1 1/4" inlet pipes with 8 10mm holes as the blast. In the pic I am using charcoal and the air is coming from the bellows (easy to control the air flow) I have already made up a slide valve for the inlet ready for the electric blower, once I have that I will be burning coke.

Hi all I was just wondering if anyone has used a tumble dryer fan/blower on their forge. I was tempted to buy a bouncy castle blower for my hobby forge but if I can get away with using a free tumble dryer one I will. Any thoughts? Dan

Well I picked up the bellows on sunday evening, there is no makers name on them anywhere unfortunately. They shift a fair amount of air so the valves work.The leather seems to be ok but I will condition it to make it more supple. The plan is to have it driven by a vintage stationary engine via a reduction box, I think it should have enough 'puff' to run two small forges for demo purposes but time will tell im sure.

Hi all I came across this on ebay and it was close and a real bargain. I go and pick it up on sunday so I will be able to have a closer look. It looks like it might be an Allldays and Onions but i'm not sure, maybe someone will be able to confirm that?

I plan to have a go at making a split feather from an old butter knife as a gift for a friend.

Thanks for the comments guys. It would appear that I have inadvertently made an extremely rare backwards swimming bass ;). Next one will be more anatomically correct i'm sure. Cheers Dan

Hi all, I decided to have a crack at making a Bass fish from 1.5mm alu sheet. This was my first attempt at a fish of any kind, I may have a buyer for it already and they also want a full size salmon too. What do we think?

They are arc welded on and filed back to near flush.

Here's the toasting forks I've been working on this week. I also made some copper roses, you could wrap the stem round a glass to create a vase.

Hi all, I managed to find an anvil today. I was told about there was one sitting in someone's car port on the other side of the town (about a mile away). I did a reccy and there was a man in the garden so I asked him if it was for sale, he seemed a bit defensive at first but after I told him I was a trainee blacksmith his mood changed and he said yes he'd sell it. We agreed on a price and it was mine. I gave it a spell with the wire brush and gave it a lick of paint, it has part of one foot missing but that shouldn't matter, I think it's around 35kgs. What do we all think?

Thanks for the kind words gent's. I'm really enjoying the work so far.

Hi all, I had my third visit to my friends forge yesterday (also my third ever go at smithing). I spent the day making companion set handles and forging the business end of a couple of pokers into a diamond arrowhead design. I thought i'd share a pic to show you all my progress, what do you reckon? :D

Good idea, thanks for your input.

Hi all a few weeks ago I came across a stencil for a copper rose online and decided to have a go at making it with a scrap sheet of aluminium I had lying around. It took me around an hour to do the first one which included threading a piece of 4mm bar for the stem (and finding my tin snips). It came out quite rough as I used a pair of needle nosed pliers to shape the petals without grinding the grip part off, if I was to do more i'd use circlip pliers or shape the pliers I have. I posted the picture to my facebook and within an hour I had nearly 50 likes and around 12 of my friends asking if I was making more. With valentines day around 4 weeks away I was thinking of doing a large batch of them to sell locally. How much do you think I could charge? All the best Dan

I had thought about doing that, I will see how it goes first.

I cut the gas bottle up today, I had no problems and only used one cutting disk. I will use around 8" of the cut out piece and attach some hook and eye hinges to act as a windbreak, my forge will be outside when lit so it will be needed. I'm still a bit hazy on the height of the tue iron from the base of the forge (i'm thinking around 2.5-3" and have about the same in fuel on top) will that be enough? The dia of the bottle is a little over 12", also should I angle the tue down at all?

I managed to purchase an old gas bottle today on ebay for only 99p, I removed the valve earlier and turned it upside down for a couple of hours to get he gas out. I have filled it with water to purge the gas out and marked it up ready to be cut tomorrow. I think i'm going to go for a 3/4" black iron air pipe with a sacrificial 1"-3/4" reducing bush on the fire end. I will post some pics of my progress as I go.

I have run my forge idea past my blacksmith friend and he sees no reason why it won't work. If I cant find a heater fan from a car then I have a back up plan, I'm not sure if it will produce enough air but an 12v air bed inflator controlled with a model railway transformer/control could be used until I can find a proper blower.

Thankyou, that would've been great.

Hi, that's a great picture of a pair of fowler ploughing engines (not sure what model they are as the perch bracket extension is unusual). I was brought up around steam engines and my dad used to own a 1923 Aveling & Porter steam roller she was an 8 ton singl, i'm on the left steering and my dad is driving. The pic was taken back in 2002 on our way back from a local show, unfortunately he decided to sell it a few months later.

Thanks for the warm welcome guys. Yesterday was my second visit to the forge and boy was I put through my paces. To start I was drawing down some 12mm round bar 4 inches to a round taper I did 9 of these, then I had to upset the end of 3 12mm bars . These were for a run of companion sets he is making, Then came something unexpected, I was given the task of turning a 'rats tail' loop on the on the end of the freshly drawn down steel. I was shown how to do it once and then left to give it a go. My first one was fairly straight forward and had no problems as was the second, the third however had a few issues and I had to ask for advice. All in all I had a very productive day and learnt a lot. I ache all over today but that's all part of it isn't it :D

Thanks Dave, I'm in looe so not too far down, Is your lister air or water cooled? It sounds like you may have a glazed bore, if your engine is only on light duties that could be the problem.