Blacksmith Jim

I've found craigslist out west to be hit or miss. It's hard to find blacksmithing tools, and when they are posted they are usually pretty spendy. Now normal tools on the other hand, can be found pretty easy on craigslist. I got my horizontal band saw and welder offa craig's. It was a great deal on the bandsaw too.

I'm planning on starting to keep a hive next summer. I'm really looking forward to it. If I get much honey from it I think it will just go straight into mead I've used solid blocks of bees wax and rubbed them on to black hot iron. I have been pleased with the results from that. I have also been surprisingly pleased with using sprays like PAM. They were simply at hand and I wanted to get the pieces coated.

Looks great :)

You might have an easier time arc welding the ends of the stacked blanks together instead of wrapping them with a wire. Otherwise, sounds like fun :)

I love seeing this post. I stock piled about 20 junker bikes a while back for parts. I have a few designs I'd love to build. Haven't had the time or space lately though, so all the bikes do now is annoy my better half :)

"Dog House Forge" - Cause that's where I end up when I don't stop smithing soon enough....

Thanks for all your feedback everybody!

Ya know, I've never thought about it before, but I can't imagine smithing IN a mine. I would think the ventilation would be horrible! :o

If only my dreams payed good money.. like tomorrow... then it would be a lot easier!

Time and Space. *sigh* But I'm happy to settle for the good health of my family.

First I heard about a school in Portland. That's mighty interesting..

Howdy all, My friend is in the market for a hammer, and he happened to find a line shaft driven hammer made by Novelty Ironworks from Dubuque. Neither of us had heard anything about this brand, and it looked a little different. Does anyone know anything about it? Thanks!

I ended up using the clear coat suggested. It worked well. I was pleased with the results. I hung up the piece, and sprayed it from all angles. It gave it a little darker, and wet look. The darker shade stayed after it dried, but not all of the wet look did. My sister was happy with the present. :)

Probably so he can weld up the jig I'm guessing..

Well for 10$ you ain't out much, so ya got that going for you..

They look real nice.

I'd second the recommendation to take a class. Not only will you get a chance to learn a lot, from someone that knows a lot about welding, it's just plain fun. You have a totally valid excuse to play around welding random pieces of scrap together for 3 or 4 hours. In the class I took they also showed us how to cut with a torch. A very entertaining way to spend a Saturday morning.

Thanks for the advice guys. There is an art store right next to where I work, and this time they actually had something useful for me. I picked up a can of Krylon Crystal Clear Acrylic Coating 1303. We'll see how this works out. The whole thing is one big test anyway :)

Say, does anyone have a suggestion for a finish to apply to this? I tend to just use beeswax on most of my pieces, but this will go outside. So should I use something else? I have sprayed on black rustoleum on a small fence piece a while back. Not horrible, but unsure if I want to cover up that much..

Looks cast, which can be a big pain to weld.

110 welders can be very deceiving. Even though they only need 110 volts, they likely need more amps then your standard house hold circuit can handle. So you can plug it in, but if you weld with it, you will keep tripping your circuit breaker. Very annoying. It is worth it in my opinion to get 220 installed.

I have not yet. My friend has some, and we discussed using it on this project, but it was late, and out buried in his van somewhere. We talked about making one, etc. Seems like a handy thing to have. The rivets I did over the horn of an anvil, as I could slip the end of the horn in between the scrolling.

The freezing process might break or deform the metal. Water does expand when it freezes.