IronChef

Great tips!

Thank you all for sharing your opinions, knowledge and wisdom. These forums are priceless.

Well as luck would have it a piece of hot metal flew under my safety glasses and stuck on my eye lens today. (I might have been leaning closer to see better but I’m not sure) I thought I was going to have to spend the day at the E.R. But thankfully after repeated flushings it got dislodged. so anyway, I am now using goggles instead of glasses. I will look for some with ir protection. I’m happy to still have all my senses (even if not all 100%) and I’ll be diligent about safety moving forward. take care all!

I use a cold chisel, punch etc to lay out sometimes too. I guess most of my issue is seeing hammer marks, for example if I’m trying to continue with a taper I already started. I’m probably over thinking it but every time I forge I find myself struggling to see details and I usually end up hitting where I shouldn’t have or losing my heat because I’m trying to see exactly where I need to hit.

Hi I’m looking for some guidance. I’m having trouble seeing marks and details in the glowing metal until the heat fades. This makes it difficult to be precise and efficient. Should I look into shaded safety glasses? Does anyone else experience this and if so , any suggestions? Thanks

Hi all, I purchased Clay Spencer’s plans for the Clontz tire hammer and I am currently collecting parts and studying the plans. I have some questions and I’m sure as I go along I will have more questions so I will post them here. Hopefully this helps me and any others to build the hammer. So first I need to find material for the anvil. I would prefer not spending the money for new. I’ve heard rail yards might be a source, any other suggestions? Also the crankpin in the plans calls for a 1” bolt but when I see builds online I never see the bolt threads coming through the pillow block on the front of the hammer. Are people changing the part and using 1” shaft instead of a bolt? Using a bolt in a bearing seems odd to me. Or am I missing something completely. Thanks