FireInTheForge02

Hi everyone, 

While since I've posted on here. Last night was the Hammer-In at Hanz Phell's (HJP on the forum) shop. There were about 6 of us there, working on a quadruple firepot forge setup running on a single blower. There were four anvils, 2 power hammers, 2 sledge hammers, and lots of good times!! Sorry about the quality of the pics, i took them on my phone. This time around we were focusing on making tongs. Everyone did awesome at making them! I however probably drank too much coffee and ginger beer, and was running around a Peter Wright all night that had a half pancaked cupping tool in the hardie swinging a 10# sledge hammer. Ha-ha but it was an awesome night!! Thanks to Hanz for hosting us and everybody who made it! I also met Damastang for the first time from the forum, it's always pretty cool meeting someone from the forum. I think we managed to snap some more pics sometime during the night, but don't know if those people are on IFI.

Cheers,

Owen.

Ordered some 3m 1/4" round copper, probably will arrive late, but it will be nice to work with. I plan on forging copper leaves and flowers to be hung on waxed cotton necklace string  ^_^

Made our first hot cut from the axle from the roller. Brian Brazeal style! Forged it with a friend, first time working with sledges together. Can i say that i am now addicted to swinging large sledge hammers?

Hi Darryl,

Sorry, i should've run it through with you before i made it into a stand! The top plate is 1/2" thick, the walls are 1/4". went through about 5 wheels on my 4 inch grinder.

Yes, you would need a deep frame TP! in fact we've got about 4-5 old bow saws in my workshop from when the place was a strawberry farm!! here are some pics of the progress so far: the axle is actually  1.25" thick, very happy with that, as i didn't have any of that size!! I also have the whole rod, most of it anyway, to make tools with a striker! I decided to cut a square hole around the top of the axle shaft that was protruding out of the roller and the plate, this allowed me to take out all the axle, and i didn't have to cut any holes in the side of the roller to let the grinder do the cut of the axle!! might not be able to get pics up right away, i'm having some problems with that...

Cheers!

Haha the roller is approx. 10 1/2" in diameter, too long to get in with a hacksaw. thank you everyone for the ideas, i think i may try what Knots is recommending, but i will need to cut a slot in for the grinder to have space to make the cut. I will post images of when i have finished and the stand is mounted!! By the way, does anyone know what alloy the axle would be? I'm thinking (hoping) that it's 4140, but could it be mild bar?

Hey everyone,

I've been eyeing this tractor roller for quite some time, thinking of using it as a stand for my little 44# Od'wyer. Our property was originally a strawberry farm, some twenty years, ago. Anyways, after cutting a chunk off (to suit my height), i found that there was a solid piece of 1" round bar going down the centre, length ways. Tried cutting it with a hacksaw, no luck as the blade and whole thing is too short. Haven't tried going in there with a grinder and cut off disc yet, as the cut going around the roller is too thin to get in. Maybe I'm not thinking right, but are there any other ways to cut the centre bar in half?

Anytime someone is hangin' around when I'm forging and they start to nod off or daydream, a little water sprinkle......They wake up, with a bang!!!

Nah, I didn't do that intentionaly, it was ...... a wake up call. :) :)

Haha i like that!! :D my friends better watch out!! Haha just kidding... maybe.

As i recall, there was water on the anvil from me trying to cool it down a little so i could keep readjusting its position on the stand. But i wonder if this works with different iron temperatures, not just at welding heat? I guess the only way to find out would be to test it out... 

That could possibly be it swedefiddle, my anvil was overheating a little...

Hi everyone!

I was forging this past weekend, and working on bottle openers from 1"x1/4" mild steel flat bar. I was burning coke, and got the iron too hot, at burning temperature. Frustrated i might lose the starting thickness of the steel, (trust me, i wasn't thinking then) i thwacked the piece against the face of the anvil, just over the hardie, to try and get some scale off. when i did this though, there was a loud crack that emanated from the heated section of iron. I did not put any flux or chemicals on the steel prior. it was sparking/burning. so this has lead me to be quite confused as to what might have caused the cracking noise. :blink:

Thanks,

Owen

hi,

Is that an Australian model? i am also looking for another blower for my coke forge.

Darryl,

Jane at the hammer in put tape around her fingers, and i thought that the tape would help against blisters. i was working all day on Sunday as well, so my fingers were quite sore.

Here's some that i do. coated in brass, with the mouths chiseled out with a chisel  ;)  hopefully i can get photos up.

Hey Darryl!

Thank you!!

And yes i do have another base for the next one, about the same thickness as this one. Thank you very much for that offer!! Maybe in the future when i do bigger stuff, i would love to look at them.

Hi,

I started out with fire pokers that were simple to make, and i still do them sometimes. I sold them at the local markets, $30 a pop. They are fun, and involve different forging steps. I was very surprised at the amount of money I received.

Thank you Grundsau!!

Darryl,

They are ALL simply awesome!! :D

Thank you very much Woody!!

Hey everyone!

Over the past weekend i have been working on this crane sculpture for a local art show and auction. Cranes were forged in coke fire from 1/4" by 1" stock. the base plate is what i had on hand, something like a 1/4" thick. This piece will hopefully be auctioned at the show, with 20% of the money going to a new shade sale for the local school playground. Sorry about the welds at the joint, but seeing as these were my first cranes, and the sculpture was going into somebody's house, i didn't want to try at mortise and tenon joinery yet. Comments/critique greatly appreciated!!

Height:~12"/300mm high.

Okay thanks for that Glenn :) venting off is a good idea.

Are you going to add in a clinker breaker? Btw awesome firepot!

Sorry about no pictures of the forge and setup, i am having difficulty uploading pics... i also forgot to mention that there is a hole in the side of the tub for the tuyere, and the fire pot is from clay and mud found beside our dam!

Thanks for the kind offer Darryl, but i heard somewhere on this excellent forum that coke fires are better used with an electric blower, because coke goes out quite fast.

Thomas, i will be forging hammers and top and bottom tooling, with stock up from an inch thick (i do not do much knife making, only the odd one, my interests lie in the decorative and tool making aspects of the smithing craft) . my setup is a side blast forge, with the hearth and fire pot sitting in a dirt filled 3x3 feet bathtub discovered on the property, which is then stacked up approx. 3 1/2 feet by Bessa Blocks. I am thinking (for a temporary measure perhaps) to use some square tubing the size of the flanges on the blower, and have that as the tuyere system. As you said, i don't do so much large work, so maybe the Fasco's too large in CFM. (or just everything maybe!) so maybe something within the 100-200 Cubic Feet per Minute range?

Thank you again everybody!

Thank you for listening to my confusing posts!

Cheers Woody, no i did not see the fan he was using. I'm assuming you mean at the hammer in?