Donniev

Thanks for the prayers guys, she's FINALLY out of her drug haze! Even when she was awake and not miserable she had "druggy eyes", but she's gotten past it, hopefully going home Monday or Tuesday

That is a beautiful piece of work!

Would using chainmail create an issue with the pieces wanting to sit flat though?

This is my first, made from 1045. Unfortunately it gets jammed in the Hardy hole, and as my use of it has increased somewhat recently, it's irritated me enough that it's going to be the first thing I throw in the fire next time I light up, gonna fix it. Did you drive it down into the hole to get it to fit? I didn't, I just tapered it down until it fit snugly. We'll learn as we go, right?

My 8 month old daughter Everly was born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, meaning the left side of her heart is worthless. She had her 3rd open heart surgery 3 weeks ago, things didn't go as smoothly as planned due to her awful pulmonary arteries (part of the deal with HLHS). She spent 2 weeks on the vent and finally got it out, but now she's going through morphine withdrawal. Pretty hard to watch her twitch and retch, but she's gotta go through it. She only spent 2 days on the vent the previous 2 surgeries, so it's never been an issue Say a word to help her get through this if you would, docs say some kids withdraw for as long as 2 weeks, were on day 3.

"I'd like to get book value for this vehicle, very clean, no accidents new tires and brakes. Also, the transmission is out, but aside from that it's fine"

Mine took an hour to build with a welder, and it works great as a table as well to hold tongs, material, and excess coal piled around the fire to coke up Made it out of steel plate that had been demo'd out at a job site, it was free. What I have works, why would I go searching for a $100+ forge? It's only purpose is to warm up steel, a job its done well so far.

Thanks Michael that's awesome! Tried the basket twist again today, for some reason I fought it a LOT more than the previous one. Think next time I'll attempt to weld the spirals together like you guys have mentioned. A few pics from today's try, first one is next to another spike I've welded the back into itself. Daswulf I also tried to copy technicusjoes bolt tongs from Rr spikes, mine aren't pretty, but they work great!

Appreciate the kind words aus but I literally have about 6 months experience is all. I lurk on this site quite a bit reading old threads though and YouTube helps occasionally, but head knowledge only gets you so far right? Always trying something new out there, but then again everything is new to me lol

I'm wondering if that twist would look better if I went around more. For the one posted above, I twisted it 1.5 times around, then went back 1/2 a turn. I would like my next one to be opened up a bit more, but since my spirals differed slightly in thickness, they were not cooperating in opening evenly and stopped after the 1/2 turn back. I'm going to experiment with it, but will try to go around twice on my next one, and back a full turn. Any thoughts on this? I've only tried it twice, just was curious how others go about getting a nice even and open basket. I also used a grinder to cut it the whole way through, figured slitting it the whole way through would take time and deform it some, but maybe I'm wrong.

It's just your standard rail road spike, I fire welded the head back into itself. Tapered both ends and tried to leave about 4 inches untouched in the middle. The whole thing was about 16 inches long end to end before I did the twist and hooks. I was wondering if I should make the hooks first and then twist, or vice versa. I ended up doing the twist first, then for the hooks I dunked the twist in water before putting the piece to the anvil, and it seemed to work as fsr as not screwing up the twist. It probably took me close to an hour, and half of my time went to tweaking/ fixing the twist and getting the whole thing straight. I may be a rookie, but I feel I learn fairly quick thinking later about why something didn't go right the first time around, and then I'll change it next time. It was fun, definitely going to try doing this particular hook again Frosty, that sounds handy, now I'm thinking of how I could make something like it lol

My 2nd try at doing this particular twist. Took 2 heats to get the spirals fixed though, still learning, but it ended up looking ok

Mines at waist height but as everyone else has already said, use what works best for you. If you are able to cut 3" off, I personally wouldn't think 33" tall would be awful. If you used the old forge at anvil heighth for a long time, it probably looks like a tower to you, just something to think about. If I saw a forge at anvil height, I'd question why the dang thing was so low.

I agree with the ones saying take the chances when you are young. I quit my job to play online poker for a living years ago, and while it lasted, I enjoyed it for the most part. Even if you fail, it sounds like you have a degree to fall back on, as long as you at least stay somewhat on top of any major changes in the technology you would be using. Go for it

I thought it would be interesting to see pictures of everyone's forges. Every forge is basically the same in that you need a firepot and an air source, but beyond that the builds can be very different, and as someone still fairly new I would like to see what everyone else is working with. I need to be able to move my forge 15 feet out of the shed and back right now, but I'm hoping to build a permanent one in the shed in the next year or so. It may also help newcomers to get some good ideas to help them out with their design. There are a lot of individual threads, some with pictures you can still see, others with lost pictures, but I thought it would be interesting to see everyone's own forge. I just built a larger forge, still using the original brake drum from my original smaller one, pictured below, but I didn't like that the lip of the drum stuck out like it did. It was intentional at the time, but live and learn right? The new one I built is 24"x30", and now the drum will drop straight through so the top is level with the table, held up by two brackets I welded underneath. I haven't cut slots in the sides yet for longer stock, but I will when the need arises. Still using a T underneath with a blow dryer. Obviously, i went for functionality vs looks, because who cares if it's pretty as long as it turns steel orange and yellow right? I did weld another piece of pipe to the bottom of the T that you can KIND of see with the original forge, instead of my ash dump just being the bottom of the T, I'll try to remember to get a picture of it

And the new guy bought his first anvi! Thanks again Matt. I'm hoping I can get up there for the swap meet early June. (Don't remember the date but I still got the flyer.) You going to be there?

I worked as an electrical apprentice for about 4 months while I was laid off for the winter pouring concrete a while ago. I hated it. I enjoyed the work, and the people who I worked with, but most all of the other apprentices had the same attitude- why would I work hard or strive to do good when it takes 4 years to get my license? That company left a bad taste in my mouth, only one guy that I rarely worked with tried to teach me anything, everyone else put me to work on the hardest (labor wise) job they had once they realized I would actually work hard and show up every day. Now I'm a certified pipe welder, and this is probably one of the best companies around. Owner of the company told me right away "I don't care if you have a degree, can you weld, can you read print/ run a job?" 0 years needed, if a guys got what it takes to run a crew after 2 years, he's going to run jobs. Got $4 in raises after I passed the 6g tests, and they normally give $1-$2 raises on our 6 month reviews. I've always been a hard worker, if I needed a job I've got 3 guys I can call and start the next day. Problem is, 2 of them are for pouring concrete, and headaches that being a foreman bring (residential side, not the big projects) isn't worth $19 an hour for me.

Found a video on YouTube for the twist, same as the wizard.

These are my first 3 tries, posted from 1st to 3rd. Really disappointed in the opener on the wizard (or at least my first try at the wizard) when I slit the hole for the opener it wasn't dead center so ended up with more meat on one side, hence it being drastically off. Wizard was 1/2 inch mild bar I had I didn't get a perfectly uniform heat when I did the cube twist, currently scavenging through the forge forums to come up with ideas for a better forge, as I'm using a brake drum forge right now. I had fun and learned some things along the way though, any additional thoughts/ constructive criticism welcome. Might try the cube twist on my first RR spike opener, not sure yet. I also bought a can of the clear carnauba paste wax Frosty was talking about a while ago in this thread, cube twist is currently sitting outside taking a bunch of rain we've been getting here in Nebraska last few days

I was convicted of robbery and attempted robbery about a year out of high school (cracks a xxxxxxx drug) and did 6 months in and then 6 years on probation, but my girlfriend and wife now stuck with me, why I don't know. She's a registered nurse and works at a hospital. Been around 8 or 9 years clean now, with no desire to go back. I guess I'm in the small group of statistics since I didn't go back to prison. Poured concrete for about 6 years while I poured another 40+ hours a week playing poker, hoping to be able to go pro. Some days I would go to bed at 5 am cuz that's when the final table ended and wake up at 6 to go to work. Typically put in 18 hour sessions on sunday, playing 60 or so tournaments, everything from a $5 buyin to $50. Finally did go pro, went well with no prolonged downswings for 6 months until the Fed gov stepped in and seized the domain names of the site's everyone played on. (Since the site's are offshore they didn't report anyone's winnings and uncle sam doesn't like thinking about the few dumb enough not to report them to the IRS and thought they were costing him billions) Any way, after the feds stepped in in 2011 I finally decided I had to get a "real" job, one that would pay anyway, so I went to school for welding and got a job as a pipe welder for a company out of Omaha. I've got 3 certs now, and it's OK- I enjoy it, I just need to find a company that's more local now I've been intrigued by the thought of blacksmithing for years now, but I finally got into it just recently and love it- just don't have the kinda time I wish I did to be outside in front of the forge. I'm 30, been married 8 years and have a 2 1/2 year old boy, and a 6 month old daughter. Daughter was born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, which in a nutshell means the left side of her heart is worthless. She's had 2 open heart surgeries and has at least 2 more to go.

Depends on the person I guess. I quit my job and played online poker for my job for 6 months when I finally had the skill for it (fed gov shut it down, I was making money) and while it lasted I enjoyed it. If I was having a terrible start, I'd unregister from all my tournaments for the day and do something else. I enjoyed being alone for the most part, and to play mentally focused poker you have to be alone with no distractions, esp when your playing 20+ tables. Working with people again now is OK, but if they regulate poker and allow people in the States to play again I'll quit my job and go back. Working alone suits me best, but that obv will vary from person to person

Face is 14" x4" with the horn it's 23" long

Face is 14" x4" with the horn it's 23" long

Just got it mounted today using 4*4s and all thread

Got this from Matto this last weekend at a meet- can't wait to get it mounted. I'm thinking 4x4s will probably be the easiest for me Also got the post vise in the deal as well- thanks Matt!