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I agree with you. Yesterday I had a client come into my shop and wanted to know if I could straighten his pick axe. I said yes and I quoted him a price and he thought it was to high and started to leave. I said wait a minute I will fix this one for you and you can watch. So I straighten and retempered it. I did not charge him for it and told him to go home and try it. If it worked come back and pay me the price I quoted him. He came back with two more to fix and ask for buisness cards for his buddies. Don't be afraid to charge a fare price for your work.

Alec, Glad to see the side blast forge. You have a nice smithy started. Happy Hammering! HH

Nice work and design! I like your detail on how you cut the metal into the grout line. HH

If you get in a bind and need so ideas or help I can put you in touch with Ron Kinyon. He loves to help people with there air hammer projects. HH

I hope I am not to late to help you with your choice. I have both types and I prefere side draft over the bottom draft. I like the fact in a side draft you can shape your fire pot any way you like because of the dirt bottom. I built both of these for under $500.00 each. HH

Nice job on all! I like the rivet tool alot. What kind of steel did you make it out of? HH

Here are some pictures of a sculpture I did with some nails it. HH

Frosty, I would also like to chim in and say it is nice to see your posts again and that your starting to get back in the swing of things again. HH

Nice space you have there! I put my shop up in much the same way. Then my neighbor complained to the city and they made me tear it down because I put it up with out a permit. Hope you have nice neighbors. HH

Just remember that arguing with a inspector is like wrestling with a pig in the mud. Sooner or later you will figure out he likes it. HH

Last week I asked for help with a project on putting texture on pipe. I have some pictures. I would like to share. I am not real familier with this site yet. What is the best way to post photos

Chrispy, Thanks I Give it try. If it works for you down under. It should work for me up here.

Grant, your right It would be easier to use soild but it is not cost prohibitive for the amount of lineal feet that I have to do. Also use of a pipe notcher on my ironworker makes joining easier. The main reason though,is this is what the designer has spect. I have thought about using the power hammer but I like the idea of the control of the flypress. I am going to try a V block on the bottom and a curved top tool on the outside dia. of the pipe but only one third of the circumference with weld beads on it and I'll see how that works. If it flattens it or bends it it might give it a natural look. Thanks!

I am trying to texture the pipe. SCH 40 1 1/4 for a hand rail job. I am trying to save weight. I also have a couple of other ideas to try ands use this on once I figure it out. I did get the idea from Mark Aspery new book and did email him but he will be unable to answer till mid Aug. and I need to finish this job by then. Thanks to all that replied Harold.

Hello to all. I am looking for suggestions for fly prees tooling for pipe to look like tree branches. I have a idea but why reinvent the wheel if someone has a better one. Thank you for your imput! Harold

Thanks Frosty! I did get a hold of him. He and Ed are doing a demo and class for the AABA and some one missed placed the contact info so I could firm up the plans. Thanks again Harold.

Thank you Frosty! By the way it is Harold from Tucson

Hello to all! This is my first posting. I am trying to get in touch with Brian or ED Brazeal. Can anyone help me please. Thank you HH

IForgeIron Blueprints Copyright 2002 - 2007 IFORGEIRON, All rights reserved. BP0215 Belt Grinder A Useful Shop Tool by Hollis Wooldridge (excerpted from Texas Forge Review, March 2001, article by Hollis Wooldridge, used with permission) The reason I love seeing someone like George Dixon is that art and design have always been hard stretches for me and I am fascinated with what the human mind can conceive with regard to creativity. Fortunately, I’ve been blessed with a little better understanding of the tool making side of our craft and to that end, I decided to build a cheap but useful belt grinder. Around five years ago, one of our brethren who is adept at scrounging from junkyards scored two motors from some old mainframe hard drives and asked me to help with the construction. I am perfectly ashamed to say that it took several years to get the project finished but the actual design and build time was relatively minimal. I looked at grinders on the Internet and finally decided on a design that was a blend of several types. This was built to take 2x72 belts like the kind that knife makers prefer. My basic bill of materials is as follows: • 1-1/2 hp, 240v, 2850 rpm C-frame motor. A C-frame mounts on its face so an additional mounting method is not needed. • Sealed bearings from WW Grainger, #SU491, 5/8 bore and 1-3/8 OD. These are standard size bearings with metric nomenclature (go figure…) • Casters, at least 4” and up to 10” in diameter and 2” wide, with or without bearings (the existing ones will be discarded) • A piece of 12” to 15” wide channel iron about 18” to 24” long • 1” square tubing • 1” square solid • 5/8” cold rolled round shaft • 4” diameter aluminum shaft 4 -5” long • Short pieces of misc. angle iron 1”x1/8, 1-1/2x1/4, etc. and similar stock in flat iron (exact size is not important) • Compression spring 2-4” long In my research, I discovered that surface feet per minute (SFPM) is important not only to stock removal but also belt life since faster speeds seem to cut better. Posts by various sources indicated that belt speeds between 3000 and 6000 SFPM are the norm. Since I wanted some control and the motors were already available, I calculated that a 4” pulley running at 2850 rpm would yield as follows, pi times diameter times speed divided by 12” or 3.1416x4x2850/12 = 2985 SFPM. If you want more speed, a 3450 motor with 6” pulley will go 5419 SFPM. It also helps to have a lathe and/or mill to do some of this work. The first step was to flame cut a hole for the drive pulley to fit through and then drill four holes to mount the motor. These motors already had 2-1/2” diameter x 1” wide flat pulleys mounted, so I pressed them off the motor shaft and then bored the 4” aluminum shaft to fit. I then chucked the back of the small pulley in the lathe and took a light cut on the outside of the piece to true it to the bore. This was then remounted to motor. The next step was to bore the casters to receive the bearings (one set per side). I did this in the mill but it could just as easily be performed in the lathe. After boring, the bearings were pressed in flush. At least two casters with bearings are needed – one for the idler and one for the contact wheel. I used a 4” for the idler and a 10” for the contact wheel. The next part was to make the tracking mechanism. My version is very simple but effective. Two small pieces of angle iron were drilled and welded to the big channel iron to act as a pivot point for the swing arm. I cut a 16” piece of 1” square tubing and drilled a hole at one end so a 5/16” bolt could slip through it and the above mentioned angle iron ears. This is the pivot arm that the idler shaft is ultimately attached to. Two more small pieces of angle iron were drilled and welded to the outside of the square tubing. Between these ears a piece of 1x1/8 flat stock pivots from side to side. A 5/16 machine screw is trapped between the ears and allows the flat bar to traverse left to right on a short threaded section, also welded to the flat bar on the perpendicular. Another piece of angle is welded to the flat to allow the idler shaft to be mounted parallel to the motor. This paragraph is the proverbial 1000 words that the following picture is hopefully worth… After the bearings are pressed into place, a truing cut is needed on the lathe. At the same time, the idler has a slight crown cut in it to assist tracking. I put 5 degrees per side but this much has a tendency to cup the belt a little and 3 degrees is probably sufficient. The contact wheel should be trued across its face so no vibration is experienced when grinding. Both wheels spin on 5/8 shafts and a groove can be cut on either side of the wheel to hold a snap ring. I have not had a wheel shift in operation but it’s cheap insurance. At this point, we have the frame, a motor ready to mount with drive pulley, an idler, a contact wheel and a tracking mechanism. I used a 1 inch solid bar to support the contact wheel and a suitable means of holding it must be applied. Back to the small pieces of angle iron and a small box is fabricated and welded to the channel iron to encapsulate the arm with a lock bolt affixing it in position. The contact wheel slides back and forth on its arm to allow for the coarse setting and the compression spring can be placed somewhere under the pivot arm to apply tension to the belt. In my case, I installed a double pole, double throw switch to activate the motor since it was 240v. The first grinder took about 30 hours because I was designing as I went but the second was finished in less than 12 hours. The entire out of pocket cost using the scrap motors was around $100 for both grinders. The best thing I’ve found is how fast a knife or ax can be sharpened on the slack part of the belt. I’ve bought several belts and intend to build a good belt knife to use in the hunting camp. The other uses for a grinder like this are myriad and I think my next version will be capable of 6000 SFPM. To anyone that might want to build one, I'd like to add that almost four years after construction, the grinder has given me no trouble and is used almost daily. I usually run 36 grit belts for general grinding and deburring. They last a long time and are relatively cheap for the use. The bearings have held up fine and the only maintenance I've done is to remove the idler and recut the crown because the wheel eventually wore to a point where tracking was not possible. A belt grinder is one of the most useful tools in the shop and this is one way to build one on a limited budget. Hollis View full article