Blacksmith Jim

125# Peter Wright in decent shape. I purchased it for 350$ (or there abouts) about 2 years ago. Although I think I would have to include the fact that I had to drive 3.5 hours one way to pick it up. So it also cost me a day of time and gas for 7 hours of driving :)

I think I paid 100$ for a 4 1/2 or 5 inch vise. I bought it from a local smith who really needed the cash for lame legal reasons. He helped me fabricate a new spring and mounting brackets as well.

Thanks for the feedback guys, it helps.

Don't sell to those people. A lot of talk goes into this, and a fair assessment (I think) is that professional blacksmiths (or at least people trying) are more successful when they focus on the high end market. Sell iron work to the people building the million dollar home up on the hill. Sell to the owners of the upscale shops and restaurants. Sell to the rich snobs you wouldn't normally associate with. :)

Rich, I'm not opposed to using an arc weldor to tack the ends. (arc is whats easily available to me), but I think I'm going to try it a few times this week with out the welds. I like the hose clamp idea, I usually just twist wire.

I have a project to do that has some basket twists on it. I only have experience making basket twists with square rod. On those, I forge welded two square rods together, then forge welded two sets of those together to get the four pieces all attached at the ends. This project calls for round rod to start with. Can I get away with forge welding all four pieces together at the same time, or should I build it up again like I did with the square rods? How do you do your basket twists? Thanks!

Looks great! I saw these when you posted them on SFT. I wanted to ask about the leaves. I really want to make leaves like that, but haven't been able to see the steps in my head yet. (well, maybe I have seen the steps in my head, it just isn't 100% there yet, I should spend more time practicing..) Anyone know any good resource that outlines the process?

Thanks for the link for the kit, and all the general feedback. I had not thought about going under at all. I really like this idea and will definitely explore it as an option with the SUV. One of the local scrap yards is open on Saturday for a few hours and has a wide and open parking area, so I might just use the trailer then. I'll probably tape 'em together though, as I want to get 20+ sections. Great feed back and great ideas. Thanks all :)

Yes, I am very aware of that. Yeah, thats what I was thinking above.

Steve, I see them on plumbing and electrical trucks all the time. Thanks for the anecdotes. Do you think it is just a 'bad idea' in general to try and transport stock this way? I was thinking about 3-6" PVC. Right now I am working on a small fence, and I want to pick up about 20 sections of 1/4" round stock. We have an SUV that is mainly the family van type of vehicle. This is what I was planning to strap them to. Maybe I could just feed it inside the vehicle, and then not have to worry about the stock busting out of the PVC or getting the inside of the vehicle dirty, scratched or torn up... I almost dropped about 2k for a diesel truck a while back, mainly for this very type of thing, but I just couldn't justify the cost of the solution :)

Howdy all, I am thinking about putting together a 10' long pvc tube to strap to the top of my vehicle. I plan to use this to carry stock in from trips to the scrap yard. What I'm unsure about however, is how to attach the caps to the PVC tube. One will obviously need to be removable. If I'm driving around, the metal would slid around a bit (to a degree I'm sure). This would likely create the occasional force against one of the end caps. I would hate to have a cap come off while driving, resulting in long pieces of metal flying everywhere. Has anyone else done this? What did you use? How did it work? I do have an 8' trailer, but to be honest I don't really like the idea of driving the trailer to the scrap yard. It would be very hard to maneuver and find good parking... Thanks for any insight!

I like side blasts better for a lot of reasons. One of the reasons is that in my experience they handle clinker better.

Sam, are you drawing the reins of the tongs out by hand or under a power hammer? Maybe your treadle hammer I guess?

I picked up some nice old ATHA tongs at an antique mall for only 8$ this weekend. They are for about 3/4 inch round bar and have a nice opening for a bent bar, etc.. Decent find around here..

He's four months old and has been trying to kick pneumonia. We just found out it has been getting worse. If the latest increased batch of meds don't work, then it will likely be off to the hospital. Sure goes a long ways to leaving us feeling quite a bit depressed... :(

Around here there is an "Industrial Fastener" store. It sells all sorts of rivets, among other things.. You might try some local searches for that.

Husband, Father, Software Engineer. I wish I had at least 48 hours a day to work with... Father Time and I were never on good terms ;)

Thanks for that Frosty. Nice tip! I'll be sure to use that one in the future. It makes a lot of sense. To the original poster, I use a hot rivet for tongs, and the round end of a small ball pien hammer to upset it. Like AM said, light taps, etc..

I'm very pleased with a 3# rounding hammer I picked up recently. Seems very nice, I'm enjoying using it. After that I have an old 3# cross pein flea market find that I use quite a bit. I have a small, 1# maybe, ball pein that my dad made, and I use that for light work or small work or riveting, etc.. I used a HF 2# cross pein for quite a bit. I've redressed and re-handled it. Needs a new handle again though, this one has a nice crack in it now..

In My Humble Opinion

There once was a great write up that I read online. It had to do with the length and thickness of metal and the note or tone that it would produce when struck. I wish I had book marked it. It told how to lay out the length to get a specific note..... hmm...

Can I buy time so I can work in my shop more?

A local smith in town has a 4b set up that I've used. Didn't really pay attention to the vibrations, I'm not sure how much of a problem he has with it. But I do know, that he poured about 21 cubic yards of concrete underneath it as its foundation. My understanding is you want a good solid foundation that is not attached to the rest of your floor or shop.

I have done a fair amount of forging in a shop that had one chimney, a coal forge and a woodstove. The forge had a very large hood over it, and the woodstove had a short stack that just directed the smoke under the forge hood and into the forge hood stack. The forge had a draw pipe hanging down. We never had many smoke issues in the shop, it seemed to work very well. The forge stack was probably oversized though, and I think there was a fan in the stack somewhere that was sometimes turned on.

Hmm.. it would make sense, seeing as how people here have forged with corn. I bet you might be able to find extra olive pits down in Northern / Central California. They grow a lot of olives there...