Oak Hill Forge

The Syncrowave 200 is a great machine. I have a Syncrowave 300 with water cooler. Just sold my Econotig for within $36 of what I paid for it new, after 13 years of welding. Bought a Cutmaster 52 with the proceeds !

Looks like one of those "hoax" pictures people photoshop for blogs !!!! hehehe wow they even photoshoped in huge hammers ! I'm impressed ..... that's a LOT of metal to move. What was your heat source ?

The Duke traps are made in Korea and are not particulary collectable. they are a couple of hundred new.

Nice hobby welder ! What model Miller is the big one ? You should fire up that big welder and make a nice coal forge ! I'm just about finished fabing one up here. I'll post pictures when it's complete.

I bought my rounding hammer at a local flea market for $2. The guy had no clue what it was, and still doesn't..... I'm hoping he'll bring some more soon for $2 !!!!

I was attending an auction in rural western Virginia a month ago and a large 1911 dated Newhouse trap brought $1980 !

I'm the most guilty of saving pictures of someone elses great ideas ! I think this one came of this site and once again (NOT MY IDEA / DESIGN) and if it was yours please claim it, but it cracked me up and I enjoyed it at any rate !

I have bought more than one tool with the hopes that "someday it will pay for itself, or "you never know when you might 'need' one of those" . I have a 375 amp TIG machine and a 300 amp portable engine driven welder for my use around the house ! They both are usefully in making nice blacksmithing tools however !

I recently went to an estate auction of a gentleman who was a blacksmith, roofing tinner, made wooden tool handles to sell, horse drawn logger, and farmed 600 acres. There were many sets of tongs sold (most sold between $50 and $170 each by the way) and lots of cant hooks. His blacksmith shop was mostly still in tact, although they did sell his anvil (not great, and about 125#, sold for like $400 and a large cone anvil (sold for $430, of course after my last bid of $420 !!). I bought a set of tongs that he started but didn't finish that appear to be made from a large truck tie rod. I also obtained a sheet metal pattern he made for making tongs. It was quite an auction and history lesson. I'll try to get some pictur3es up.

oppps I see the die now. sorry !

Do you have a picture of the quill die ?

I have seen rigs to blast paint off using baking soda, it's inexpensive and mildly abrasive.

Here's the portable forge. I have the ash dump and blower inlet pipe finished now, but don't have updated pictures yet.

Great job on your forge ! It's amazing what you can make a fire pot from. I have one build from a roof drain casting, looks similar to the one you found, except it had 4 large lugs on the inside of the "bowl" that had to be ground out. I'm finishing up a similar table type forge right now but it's not going to be portable. I have a portable type forge made from a farm disc, about 24" in diameter, with a 6" to 3" pipe reducer as a fire pot. I hope to fisnish up the table forge soon and get my smithy set up.

Hey ! you are an insiration.. I'm a beginning blacksmith here too, and I have enough trouble blacksmithing with everything functioning ... well except my eyes are what the used to be.... I'm a welder / fabricator as well ( not profesionally though) and I have several forge projects in the works. tell us more about your projects. Welcome aboard ! sam at Oak Hill Forge

Hmmm lets see ....... how was it putting it on the truck ? That's a good indicator if it's 300+ pounds !

I made a hot cutter from an old wood spliting wedge, with a mild steel post, works well. I also made a forming tool from a trailer hitch ball.

Hey Trying it - What size bandsaw do you have ? Is it the HF type we are talking about here ? Any tips on adjusting it ?

I have a similar band saw and as others have said it's hard to keep it adjusted where it cuts straight. I find even the wear of the blade whacks out the adjustment. We have a large industrial Delta horizonal saw at work that's great. I have cut train track rail with no problem. I wish I had something half way in between. I chop saw works well for some cuts ( like precision repeatable angles ) but they are loud, stinking, and make a hugh mess. If I had only one it would be a band saw, but a size larger thatn the one you listed.

A good quality squirel cage blower works well if you don't need the portibility of a hand cranked unit. Look at E-bay item 150354149503 to get an idea. That particular one is pretty inexpensive.

I bet he has people that bring him stuff for a finders fee or something. I do a ton on estate auctions and rarely find the quality stuff he always has, but like others have said "It ain't cheap" I bought a Colonial pattern anvil at a sale Saturday, but it's rough. I bid on a nice 4 foot cone anvil a few weeks ago, but it sold for over $430. Seems like to me the stuff is going up in price recently.

so typical ! Ask 6 Blacksmiths a question and you will get 8 right answers ! :D

I have had good results with both PB Blaster and Kroil oil. We use Kroil exclusively here at work, and our facility was built in 1939, so we have plenty of opportunity !

I'm not sure what exactly they are made of, but I tried to cut off a chunk of one and distroyed a portaband blade. That stuff is beyond hard. I finally had to resort to using the abrasive cut off saw. I was using a piece for a counter weight for my ash dump.

I have a bib type as well...... got mine on E-bay though.... I was fresh out of kudu hides at the time :)