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?

Hi Biggusdan, How are the tines attached on your forks?

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

I think the little cuts made by the pliers look a little like real petals!  I don't know what they'd sell for but you might consider adding a leaf on the stem you could stamp initials on to customize them.

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

Looks nice.

You may want to cut a mousehole in the rear of the forge to allow long stock to pass through. (If you cut it right, you can attache the cut off piece with a rivet so it would swing away when needed)

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.

Oh, Ok.
I was going to say I had a bounce house blower, but that's a bit far for shipping! :)

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.