Michael Cochran

I'm not sure just how much of a joke it was meant to be but I couldn't help but chuckle thinking about all the grief youve been given lately.

Frodo, what exactly are you wanting to do? I think you're asking about a forge and firepot design. If that's the case I'd make it easy on myself until I knew for a fact what I needed. The best thing to do is look at the 55 forge and build one of those. They're easy to make and work beautifully.

I realize I should word that a little differently. He was doing part of the heat treat when he was tempering. I usually don't think about the first few steps as heat treat, just the hardening and tempering. I know that I'm wrong and that normalizing etc is also part of it. Librarian, I am definitely interested in in the finished product here. I tend to favor the more 'basic' knife shapes such as the one you called triangle shaped. Maybe one day I'll try making somethin a little more interesting but that's what I'm comfortable and familiar with so that what I make.

I've heard several stories like that about wire wheels. I won't even use wire unless I absolutely have to and even then I barely put any pressure to it. It takes a long time to get anything out of it but I'd rather take a few more minutes with it than have it take the workpiece out of my hand and deposit it at an unpredictable location.

I wasn't ready for that picture. Like you said it's somethin some of us need to see. I know I'll see it the next time I turn on of those on. I've caught myself looking down the blade and then I quickly pull my face away cause a chill and a visual much like that pops in my mind and I'd hate to have somethin like that happen and kill me and my wife or son find me dead because of my stupidity.

You're right, I'm sorry I forgot.

He was doin a 'heat treat' he was heating to draw temper.

Just imagine what a piece about 8'x40' would weigh. A quick visit to a calculator says 38,000+lbs. no wonder he only had two on the trailer. I doubt looking at the weight that it was that big. I have to admit while I might be good at estimating sizes when something's sittin in front of me however, goin down the road at 40mph it's hard to get a good estimation of size.

You're makin me jealous now. I was just about sick a couple days ago, I was headed to work and saw a semi truck parked on the side of the road with plate steel almost as big as the trailer and what looked like close to 3 inches thick. Not that has anythin to do with what you have here, just another example of me bein jealous. Lol

I'm gettin there, Charles. I have a few little things im tryin to get just right then I can finally show somethin off. After following you through all this here idk if I should make something similar with my longer piece of rail or if I should use it for other things. You guys make it so hard for someone like me

I might make one of these instead of the timber one I was planning. Something about it just speaks to me and you guys talkin about how good they are isn't helping.

It'll be ok, DSW, there are a few of us OCD types here. Btw that's why I haven't shared any of my work yet, it isn't nearly perfect so I can't show it off

Thanks for sharing this. I love watching videos like this, the ones where you learn something even though you didn't know you needed to know it lol. I've always been curious just what a spot weld looked like on the inside and now I know. And friction welds have intrigued me every since I first heard of them.

I like the stand and still really like the anvil too. Can you tell me why you have the oak lying down like that?

DSW, the taper would be much much more work but I think you might be on to something. I think it'll probably do just what I want/need and look good at the same time. Thanks for that suggestion. NJ, I kept expecting to see you pop up before now. I was a little worried about the price and drive at first but then I realized the price wasnt that bad and no ether was the drive. I was supposed to have a babysitter watch my son but they canceled 20 minutes after they were supposed to have him and mate me late. We ended up having a good amount of family time and played 'see it.' Thats my sons new favorite thing to say, 'see it' as he points at something but only he knows what he sees lol

I use my debit card for scrapping ice. I've only got 72 cents in that account for close to a year so it's not like I'm risking losing anything if I mess it up lol.

Reuse the pieces you already have. There's no need in redoing what you've done to get to this point. Just reheat nice and hot. Just make sure you don't use one of those soft magnets when you check to see if it's hot enough.

My arm is tired just watching that video and seeing him use a hammer marked as being 8lbs. It is quite impressive a task to forge out a hammer like that in 11 minutes.

The only steel pie pans walmart sells are either nonstick which I'd never use as discussed here, or an alumized steel which I know only what I found at Wikipedia and makes me a little nervous. Amazon has stainless steel pie pans for about $8 each. If I find any local I'll let everyone know and I'll 'take orders' if anyone wants one lol.

I keep a big strong magnet from an old cb antenna mount right by the forge just for that reason. I usually check it on the magnet and put it back in the fire for a couple seconds before quenching, unless it stuck to the magnet in which case I leave it a little longer.

Did you make sure it was hot enoigh before you quenched it? I had some known steel that didn't harden the other day because I messed up and pulled it out of the fire just a little too soon and didn't double check my temp before i quenched.

I was starting to wonder what happened o this project. I'm jealous, your welder is much bigger than mine. Bet it makes it easier to get deeper/stronger welds.

No, I'm goin to cut them down to length and stand them vertically and bolt them together. Or I might try opening them up at the bottom a few inches like table legs for a little extra stability. Definitely vertical more than horizontal. For now it's sitting on the stand I had my rail mounted on but once I get the new stand built I'll share pictures of it.

Thomas, what pieces aren't oriented the right way? Are you referring to when I tilted it up long enough to show where it says fisher? As far as the hot cut goes it looks like two piece construction. Looks like the shank is welded to the body and the body looks almost like it was ground to shape. Of course I haven't got the trained eye of someone more experienced. I can go get a pic of it if you want to see what I'm talkin about.

Biggun, I have some ~4' lengths of scrap 6"x6" im going to cut to proper height and bolt together, I think that'll work great. I'll be looking in my scrap pile to see what I have to hold the anvil down securely to the base. After all that I'll be sittin in high cotton and enjoying myself. Bo, it was a family road trip, my wife and our 2 year old went with me. It would've been nicer but it was a little warm out and my old '86 doesn't have a/c. We all seemed to enjoy the ride though we were glad when it was done.