mcraigl

OK, my .02. A couple of things. First notice that both of the butchering tools that Mark shows in the picture have a radiused edge on them. Second, and I know it's there even though you can't tell from the picture. When you make your monkey tool, chamfer the mouth of the hole that tenon goes through. Just a bit. You can do it with a bob punch, or with a countersink in a drill. You don't want a sharp corner here either. A couple of other things to think about. Are you working the steel too cold? Are you getting the work done on the tenon with as few heats as possible? Overworking the steel and working it too cold are both sure ways to propogate cold shuts/cracks especially at a square corner (which is why you want a radius on your butcher and a chamfer/radius on your monkey tool).

T2G,
Just used a Brooks last weekend for a few minutes. John West, a Welsh blacksmith who now lives and works in San Jose, Ca. was a demonstrator at the hammer-in I went to, and that's what he uses. I've seen him demo a number of times and it was always on a Brooks. Maybe it's 'cause it's made in England and he's nostalgic? But I doubt it, he's a no-nonsense guy and wouldn't be using it if it wasn't an excellent tool. I didn't use it long enough to get a solid impression, I was actually trying out a Brent Bailey hammer on it, so there were two variables the hammer and the anvil. I was impressed with both. The Peddinghaus anvils now marketed by Ridgid that were mentioned above are excellent "new" anvils and I have a ton of time on one of them. That's what my mentor has and uses. In fact he won it in a raffle right here on Iforgeiron if I remember correctly. Though I haven't used one of Jymm's anvils I've heard good thing about them. I've also tried out a couple of Nimba anvils and they too are very nice. Good luck, I wish I had the money for a new shop anvil!

I bought a handful of drops of 1/2" round 4340 that vary from 4 to 6" long at a hammer in a couple of years ago. I've made a pile of small punches, chisels, fullers, etc. out of them that I use for animal heads. They're short, so I made a pair of tongs that holds them well and has a built in tong-ring. You'll have to experiment with the heat treat. I don't think they're hard enough for a knife even with "proper" heat treating. I couldn't get them very hard in the oil quench that I normally use for 4140 and ended up going with a water quench / triple temper sequency to get the ends hard enough to stand up to use. The nickel content may have something to do with that? They're the only punches/chisels I have that aren't at least a little bit rusty so there is an up-side.

"belt sander" is a rather broad term. What kind of machine do you want to build, and what equipment and expertise do you have available to you? If you have a waterjet shop nearby I have a cad file that they can cut parts from, but you'll need to weld a couple of parts, then countersink, ream, and tap a bunch of holes. My design is set up for a "C" face motor with a 7/8" shaft. It could be modified to fit any motor though. My file is NOT what I'd call a blue print though. It's not dimensioned, and has no instructions. It's just a cut file to be given to a machine shop.

You don't need a grill over the clinker breaker, that would sort of defeat it's purpose wouldn't it? I don't have one and have never seen one set up with a grill over the clinker breaker. I do agree that "coal" shouldn't be sitting against the clinker breaker though. My point is that it should be coke by the time it's made it to the center of the fire.

Paraphrased From a Welder User's Manual:

Considerations About Welding And The Effects Of Low Frequency Electric And Magnetic Fields Welding current, as it flows through welding cables, will cause electromagneticfields. There has been and still is some concern about such fields. However, after examining more than 500 studies spanning 17 years of research, a special blue ribbon committee of the National Research Council concluded that: “The body of evidence, in the committee’s judgment, has not demonstrated that exposure to powerfrequency electric and magnetic fields is a human-health hazard.” However, studies are still going forth and evidence continues to be examined. Until the final conclusions of the research are reached, you may wish to minimize your exposure to electromagnetic fields when welding or cutting.

To reduce magnetic fields in the workplace, use the following procedures:
1. Keep cables close together by twisting or taping them.
2. Arrange cables to one side and away from the operator.
3. Do not coil or drape cables around your body.
4. Keep welding power source and cables as far away from operator as practical.
5. Connect work clamp to workpiece as close to the weld as possible.

About Pacemakers: Pacemaker wearers consult your doctor first. If cleared by your doctor, then following the above procedures is recommended.

It's cheaper than the insowool or kaowool. Will make your forge hotter and save you on gas.

Bill,
Have you been to a demo or club meeting and watched someone knowledgeable manage a coal fire? If not, I highly recommend it. I would also highly recommend having a similar person come to your place and run your forge for a while. They might be able to pick up on some of the quirks of your particular forge and explain to you what it needs and/or what they're doing to make it work. Your grandfather invested a significant amount of time into building that forge. He "may" not have known what he was doing, or how to get his forge going, but somehow I doubt it. That's a beautiful looking forge in my opinion and I'd be inclined to do a fair amount of experimenting before I started taking it apart or making significant changes. It's a little hard to tell from the pictures, but without being there and trying it, I think I could get along fine with your forge. Several things have been suggested and all are probably valid suggestions. My first suggestion to you is to comletely clean the firepot out. Let us see what it looks like with nothing in it. Next suggestion would be to examine the tuyere carefully and make sure it's getting all the air (Ie. make sure there's no leaks in the airline). Looks to me like you got a triangular clinker breaker, that's the kind I like best. My firepot is not nearly as wide as yours, but actually deeper. The happy part of this is that it's easier to get a neutral flame than in a shallow fire. You can prevent the fire from getting too big with the judicious use of water and a sprinkler can. Another thing that can happen is that as the fire settles there's not much pore space for the blast air to rise up through. Take your poker, insert along the surface of the fire pot and give the fire a "lift" once in a while to help the air blast get through. Avoid breaking your coke into too small pieces. Rather than starting the fire with a big piece of coal directly over the tuyere, save a good sized chunk of coke from the previous forging session and use that. Build your fire with coke, push the green cole in from the side 'til it cokes up, then bring it into the active part of your fire. Let us know how it goes.

MMM..... Massage, beer, and Korean Ribs.... Frosty, you better come for a visit!

They're not safe. Much like any of the stuff we do, they are inherintly dangerous. No distractions, keeping the work hot, using stout/well fitting tongs, and being aware of the pinch points and using common sense will go a long ways towards keeping you out of harms way though.

Mark,
You up to showing me how to do that next week? I've been thinking on this too.
ML

Yes, I couldn't find a box I liked so I just fabbed one up out of 22ga. sheetmetal. You do see wire nuts in the picture, I took it before I buttoned everything up. I didn't want to close it all up until I had made sure the motor was going to spin the correct direction in case I had to switch some wires around. It's all buttoned up now though. You just may have me beat on the frankengrinder. If you look closely, you'll see that this one's name was etched into the tracking/tension arm by the waterjet shop. In my best german accent, Fukengrinden is it's name. I've run into numerous little "issues" along the path on this build and have been updating the cad drawing as I go, so when I go to build another one, it should be a piece of cake. I've got a feeling we'll be building one for Mike-hr before too long so I should get a chance to put that statement to the test. We'll see. Or maybe I'll build a few to sell? who knows. Anyway, just glad to have it operational. Hopefully tonight I'll get the workrest done, then tommorow night I'll be able to forge a blade or two and do some grinding on it. That'll be exciting!!!

Well,
My 2x72 belt grinder build is nearing completion. I still need to make a work rest, that will probably happen tommorow evening. I'm all booked up with a blue and gold banquet this evening, and maybe blueprints if I get home early enough (doubtful). Anyway, y'all can look at the pix and let me know what you think.

I had all the parts that were feasible cut out by the waterjet guys. Fab'd the rest. Mike-hr did the welding for me. I had them cut all the bolt holes a little undersized and then I just reamed them with the appropriate drill bit depending on whether they were a clearance hole, or getting tapped. I'm estimating the weight at around 200lbs, and she just sits there and purrs. The bearing on the small contact wheel gets warm after 15 minutes of grinding, not sure why other than it's really turning fast. This was not a cheap build. I was far too impatient to wait 'til I could scrounge stuff. I hunted for a cheaper motor for a while, but finally just ordered a brand new one. It's a 2hp, 3ph Baldor with a 7/8" shaft. I ordered the drive wheel from Joseph Bader since they use a direct drive system and bore their wheels 7/8". I talked to Rob at Beaumont, and it would've been cost prohibitive to have him rework his CNC program to build it. I did order the tracking and contact wheels from him. I websurfed 'til I was satisfied that I had found the most economical (cheapest) VFD and ordered it. All in all, I'm just about a grand into this grinder, but for the features and build quality I've got I think it's still way cheaper than buying a commercially built one. Plus, I get the satisfaction of having built it myself. I did all the design work in AutoCAD, and once I was satisfied with a part, I was able to email the DXF file to the waterjet shop and pick it up after work. A very fun build that has occupied me for about the last month.

Cheers,
ML

Strantor,
Some bladesmiths claim that the micro serrations created on the edge of the knife from the exact process you described actually make the blades cut BETTER, than a mono steel blade. They are generally such minor variations that you can't see them, the blade "looks" like mono-steel at the edge where it's sharpened.

Chad,
Wouldn't it be absolutely hilarious after all I said above and all the money I've invested if my grinder don't work? I HAVE a vertical mill, that will very precisely drill and tap the holes, but even at that, there's a bunch of 'em on the KMG style. My mill is a manual one, if it was a CNC setup, then getting everything right is a little bit easier. My hope is to eliminate 95% of the holes that have to be precise with my design. There will still be some that have to be right, just not as many. Too bad you spent soo much time on fabrication to not have it work out for you. I will post pics once I start actually fabricating parts.

I'm currently in the design/build process for my 2x72 belt grinder. I didn't care for the jackshaft/belt arrangement on the KMG, just seems like two extra bearings to wear out/ or vibrate. So... I bought my tracking wheel, and a 2" and a 4" inch contact wheels from Beaumont, and a 6" drive wheel with a 7/8" bore from Bader. My unit will be a hightly hybridized cross between the two. I like the quick change tooling arm of the kmg, but like the simpler/solid plate construction of the BIII. I've got the thing pretty much drawn up in CAD, and once I spend a little time and a few beers with Mike HR going over the design to make sure I didn't miss anything I'll be emailing the file to the waterjet guy to have him cut out parts for me. I'll post pix etc. once I get things rolling of my build. I can tell you, I'm not really saving a lot of money considering I'm just about a grand into this thing already and that's just buying wheels, a motor, and a vfd. Haven't cut out a single part or started fabbing a single thing yet. But I'll have the satisfaction of having a custom belt grinder with the features I wanted. I personally think that Chad is paying way too much for what he's getting. The KMG is in my opinion a somewhat dated design. No reason to spend that kind of labor on precision drilling and tapping of holes when a much simpler design that does all the same things can be done a LOT faster/cheaper/better with other techniques and a few minor design changes.

My .02 cents.

Sabre,
It's pretty easy to make a rivit making jig for the vise. Take two pieces of metal, clamp them together with a couple of thicknesses of card stock between them, then drilll a 1/4" hole down the center of the card stock/metal. Make some sort of arrangement to hold them in allignment and so they'll stay in the vise like a spring swage, and a couple of locating pins. Then it'll clamp your 1/4" rod real nice without deforming it, and you can make rivets quite easy.

Well, at least I got some work done at work.... And after talking to Mike-HR, I think Craigslist hits will go down significantly...

Mark, I just love how "we" get volunteered... Egads... I haven't even made my own set of chisels yet. Still haven't decided what to make them out of... S7, S2, H13... I have some H13 so maybe I should make them out of that, but seems like Darrel preffered S1 or S2. Anyway, it'll be good to see the gang in Weaverville. Mike-hr, we (read, you and me) better get crackin' on practicing some hinges! I do have that really nice bottle of Tequilla that you brought me from Mexico. Maybe that would stand in for a bottle of single malt?

Or just zip 'em off with a slitter wheel, and chamfer the cut edge on the belt grinder...

Not sure if it matters or not, but seems that on most of the rigs I've seen that were designed for use with a line shaft, if the idler pulley serves as the clutch, then it is part of the machine, and so a "constant" distance from the driven wheel, but the distance to the drive wheel could be anything, depending upon how high the lineshaft was mounted. It seems that those arrangements usually have the idler on the driven side of the driven wheel?? Seems that if the idler was "just" an idler it wouldn't matter too much. Take with a big grain of salt as I don't own anything driven from a lineshaft, and haven't seen as many such machines as others around here. I did help set up one old power hammer that used an idler as the "clutch" and we set it up as I described and it works like a champ for what it's worth.

Size the opening so that it will open a bottle of beer. Looks to me like the one on the left is almost there already!

540,000,000 acres of slurpy base. Surely you don't think 7-11 makes their own?

Got it all plowed in under 2 hrs. Wind's blowing to beat the devil today, sure glad I got it cleaned up!

Frosty

Frosty,
Would you please post pictures of your Plow? I've been dieing to see how you plow 540,000,000 acres in two hours. It must be one bad to the bone machine!!!

Oh, heck yes I'd call that art.

Nothing smith related, but I did get a new 52" flatscreen. Now I can actually read the text and see the football score and tell how much time is left, etc... Been watching a 19" for 17 years... Got to spend the day with the wife and three youngest kids watching it snow, and watching movies on the new TV. Was missing my oldest son who is currently deployed to the gulf (Bahrain). We got him for 10 days around thanksgiving, so that was good, but now we won't see him 'til late Jan. of 2010.