Blacksmith Jim

There was discussion about chimney stacks on the the Forge mailing list recently. A lot of people seem to be of the opinion that 8" is too small and that you need 10" or 12". I would think (don't know for 100% sure) that reducing from 12" to 8" will only cause you problems. If you want to stick with 8" I would do what Don suggests, and make the stack tall.

See someone that knows what they are talking about! I should just stay outta these threads :P

Not knowing what material it is made out of, and not having hardened and tempered hammers, I would heat it up to non-magnetic, and then oil quench it. Then shine it up so you can see colors run. Then heat up a drift real hot, and hold the hammer head on the drift through the eye. Watch the colors run out from the eye to the ends. When the ends are straw, quench in oil again... Someone who actually has experience making hammers can probably offer better advice or correct mine or what not..

Grizzly sells an anvil with their name raised on it. Maybe JET is doing something similar? Is it cast iron? On an aside, while looking for the Grizzly anvil online, I noticed that grizzly owns the domain anvils.com. :(

A lot of people will tell you that most automotive springs are somewhere around 5160. I don't know anything about that specific make or model though.

Whats the easiest way to get the paint off of the strapping? Sand it? Seems like I don't want to be too aggressive since the strapping is already thin.. Thanks for the advice :)

Do I need to worry about paint on the strapping? I snagged some stuff from work today that was black and looked like it might have been painted. I'm planning to cut everything into 10" pieces and tack weld the ends.

Around here its hard to get coke, but easy to get propane. Propane forges limit you to the size of your piece too. You have to be able to fit it in there. Personally I like a side blast coke forge. It gets things hot, quick, right where I want it to, with much less scale then the propane forges I have used in the past.

Hah, nope. My shop is a popup car port in the back yard, so it ain't me! Wayne Goddard is the resident knife making expert around here. I just do functional or ornamental stuff, when I actually have time to do anything.. There seems to be a decent community of smiths around here though.

I've heard that it is difficult just to find people that are capable of cutting a 4 lead thread...

I would want to use top and bottom dies and start with larger stock. I think its great though, that there are about a dozen different methods being rattled off :P

It helps me out a lot! Thank so much for taking the time to take the pics and explain what you did. Very impressive :)

Good job Dr. Dean :)

Welcome a board! I think you'll find we're a friendly bunch Good luck with the move, I hate packing up and hauling. With any luck I'll only be doing it one more time in the foreseeable future..

Welcome welcome It is always nice to see more Pacific Northwesterners!

and from what I've heard, that is a difficult thing to machine. Most machinists don't have a need to cut threads like that. Therefore they end up a little hard to find, or so I've been told anyway..

I was thinking about the need to equalize the force of the press. Would having a very thick die take car of the problem on it's own? That way the outer edges of the die would have no chance of bending, or not pressing fully...

That would be hugely helpful NeatGuy, thanks When you say rubber pressing, is the female die just a rubber pad that is pressed into? I was wondering about using something like rubber or wood for that...

Howdy folks, My wife and I are planning on eventually installing pressed tin ceiling tiles in our house, and we were playing around with the idea of making them ourselves. The only information I've found about the process was on wikipedia. They mentioned that they were originally produced using drop hammers and cast iron molds. I was thinking of making mild steel dies and using a shop press. Has anyone done anything like this? It would seem like I wouldn't need to use that large of a press? Any info or advice is much appreciated :)

I've used vaseline and been happy with the results. The oil products just soak into the skin nicely.

You could sift black sand with a magnet. It would give you iron filings. It just might take a while!

I bet someone on the forum could send you some. I could, but I don't know when I will have time to get to the scrap yard next. It's only open 8-5, the same hours I work :(

I was in Hawaii a while back and found myself wondering what I would use for fuel if I lived there. Propane? I guess anything will cost to have it shipped out there, except for charcoal which you could make, but only in limited supplies... Sooo.. What kind of fuel do your forges run on?

McMaster sells them I guess, but you could probably get someone to send them to you for cheaper I would imagine.

The local scrap yard around here has a 55 gallon barrel full of them. They charge about $0.35 a lb for scrap. I think at a tailgating event, 25 cents a spike would be about right. Some people, who have access to them anyway, might still pick up a buck or twos worth since it would be convenient.