jlpservicesinc

you don't need a drift to make bottle openers.. it can speed up the process but as long as you have a round punch or a slotting or slitting punch you could just open up the hole to get to the correct size.. The making of and enlarging a hole is a basic skill and one well worth understanding. I in 40+ years of smithing have never made a bottle opener.. LOL..

I love the artist nature of the forge. Looks like it is out of the Victorian age with the graceful curves. Are the pipes that connect to the forge pan just welded into the plate or is the plate threaded as well?

Preheat is ideal, also bead matching for thickness.. In other words proper wet in, bead profile and such. if the metal is 1/2" thick, the bead height should be 1/2" thick.. I'm not explaining very well, but ideally the bead toes need to be the same thickness and width as the parent metal as is the varying sizes.. 1/4 is that thick 1/4" but the 1/2" leg is 1/2".. When welding thicker materials the prep and weld bead layouts need more attention anyhow, On my 500amp mig machine I can cover a pretty large variety of metal thicknesses in one pass, but with a smaller unit multi pass welds need be done.

Hans, that is so cool.. I just looked at your photos again. Nice work and I love the forge setup.

Great work right.. I had been doing some work on the old tent or what have you at a demo.. I got flak in the paper as someone had taken a photo of the table and I had a couple of pairs of vise grips and an electric drill on the table.. Someone made the joke of how much were the vice grips.. Someone I knew of course. And the photo taker heard the whole conversation.

Alex. I'd love to see photo's of your metal shop..

Thomas you could always extend you friends outwards. I'm looking for a few items.. Of course I'd say to document the find but I know how you feel about cameras.

Das, I have changed maybe 10 cats in the last 11 years on all sorts of cars and trucks. I have some that were the Racing type and installed for better flow. I have also installed factory and aftermarket direct replacements.. I have also installed OEM aftermark types that are welded in. The direct replacement are the easiest to to with nearly 0 customization.. If your had 4 cats to begin with you will need to go with 4 cats again at the federal level.. (can do what ever you want but).. With this said it is really dependent on the age of the vehicle and how sporty it is. My 1991 SAAB SPG I could use any Cat I wanted to and it would not throw a code nor did it need any kind of tuning to make it be ok. It is also a fairly clean burning engine. After 96 things started to get interesting at the Federal level and this created a different aspect of what could be done. It's been awhile since i looked up the laws as I used to design and install custom exhaust systems (larger, custom fabricated out of stainless). I can tell you depending on the car or truck many have a 2 or even a 4 cat system because of how dirty they are and needed the extra cat for the clean up. the spacing or location where they are is important for proper heating of the cat. For the most part the easiest are the direct replacement. Reasonably easy to install. And today are fairly inexpensive. Cats really have a 10 year life span and are warranteed as such from the factory and from the MFG/dealer.. So if any car sold in the USA has a cat that fails before then they technically are part of the emmisions system and covered under warranty. I think its 10 years or 110K. Here in MA we have a 15 year law that any car older than 15 years does not have to pass emissions and is not checked.. they visually check for a Cat but that is it. Federal law has no limit of years and states if the car had one from the factory it has to have one the life of the car in a functioning role. Many won't bother after the time frame of 15 years to keep it active. I run Audi 1.8T and they are a dirty engine as are Jeeps.. I just buy a factory/OEM replacement for the Audi as a direct bolt in and they work fine. On Audi's and other euro centric cars I usually just buy a direct replacement that has a good reputation and has the right looks as they last the longest and easiest to install. the weld in types don't last long as the exhaust pipes have terrible HAZ problems when welded in.. So the pipes end up rusting out around the new cats. Even if tig welded. With your problem the cats failed due to overheating and the adhesive inside as well as rusting breaks the catalyst and it makes or plugs the honeycomb.. the other problem with really dirty engines is the carbon that comes out the exhaust valve and can actually plug up the cat slowly with little flakes of carbon that build up over time and then overheat and melt the cat. I had a cat that was eroded away 1/2 from this carbon hitting the cat. The last 3 I bought were from a major online retailer One of the largest and the prices were good.. For after market Audi it was 250.00 for a high flow cat. You've all ready done the hard part.. Well until you have to fork over the cash. Use plenty of good quality anti seize on assembly.

Robert, Larger holes? Better spacing?

Nice work CGL, It is always better to start over if there is any question as to quality. Keep track of your hours and keep a journal for sure. (measurements, startign stock sizes, times) It will be one of the best strategies for making coin to put into your pocket. FYI, forks should always have the prongs face outwards some at the tips.. :: A fork that has the tines pointed away will release consistently. ::

Hansen great setup and thanks for showing the work. I particularly am impressed with such a masterful job on that 12point wrench..that is pure mastery of you craft and inspirational.

That design was as a pair of pickup tongs.. They have morphed into hammer making tongs as per Brian Brazeal.

Nice work Mark. Great proportions. I finally finished the chisel and it is now complete. I might do a little embellishment but for now it's done.. So, is video #2. the original washer broke when I tried to make it larger inside while cold. Wrought iron has a tendency to do that.

JHCC that is cool.. You have the stands figured out very well. Nice to see. That is going to be excellent to work on.

Thomas for sure.. This tread was geared more towards regular work, I was talking about regular sized tongs in the 1/8" and up to 1" sizes. Not larger sized ones for strikers or larger sizes for use with power hammers and such. Just plain old tongs. I have some really heavy tongs for making hammers that are wrought iron they are huge.. I think they were made out of wagon tire. Wrought iron is a weaker metal than steel and many of the older wrought iron tongs were made heavier to negate this weakness. The other thing that is pretty cool is that when they started to move away from wrought iron at the factories and others they also made the steel tongs nearly as large It wasn't till later that the items started getting smaller. I had some shoe pull offs that were the size of log or ice tongs.. LOL.. As a long time smith, there is a factor that many won't understand.. Many a long term smith will make and item that is marginal on purpose.. In other words they will make a tool that if barely finished offering only the desired action vs a completely finished tool with all the fine details. It works perfectly for what they want to do and many times is a fast, down and dirty tool that finds it's way into the tool tray. I have seen tongs that don't have forged reins and are just retangle sections and the jaws turned to hold stock. I've seen tongs about as crude as could be and you can see they were quality or used to make quality but the tongs are about as raw as they can be. Anvil well said as always.

It was something I started doing years ago believing a higher quality product has more thought put into them.. LOL.. More finish.. A really nicely made set of tongs is right up there with a really nicely made hammer, or hardie, etc,. etc. A quality tool is just that hitting all the checked boxes.. Looks, feel, function, form, etc, etc. I also think it's a modern steel kind of thing.. All the wrought iron tongs I have ever used have been over sized for the stock size. this means aligning the reins is nearly impossible.. All but the hammer/axe makers tongs I had found.. Which was neat because I went to the shop in bolton, MA and they had the very same tongs.. Coincidence??? these are designed to be bypass pivot/boss tongs. when I say aligned I mean at just behind the boss/pivot.. All of my tongs align where the hand is put at the ends of the reins. Thomas all of my tongs are size identified. And arranged as such.. I found that same problem when I used tongs that were ill tempered.. Much like slip joint plumbers pliers. Well until they designed them with stops.

I"m sorry, but lining up the reins does not work that way.. LOL.. Like I said. should it matter and should I even care.. In a general discussion.. LOL.. I align all of my tong reins to be in the middle unless I'm being lazy.. I can tell right off without looking if they are righty or lefty tongs as soon as I hit the metal on the anvil.. I've had a few times when I go to demo where the owners have lefty tongs mixed in with the righty's and it bites me everytime.. As pointed out earlier the jaws are on the opposite side.. LOL.. the only time I make a set of tongs in both righty and lefty is with scroll tongs.. When you apply pressure against a righty pair the wrong way it will spread the jaws as the boss.. so need a lefty pair so the jaws are pulled against the boss.

LBS lovely work. Each time you show your work. I can see the refinements in your forging ability. Wonderful to see.

Oh, it's going to be crazy.. I have no idea how they are going to fit it all in.. Watch, this or that.. there is going to be so much going on.. My stuff is in the afternoon so at least Ill be able to catch some stuff. '

nice find in that special safe place.. Seems like the stamp was modified on purpose.. Was this the only one left?

Today with the interenet there are a bunch of different smiths, different levels of understanding and different understanding of what they think they actually had seen when so and so did such and such. This post is spurred on by the fact a few people out there are claiming that a left hand jawed tongs work for both lefty and righties. and just to make what ever. I get tired of talking about which is right or wrong from a traditional point of view.. A righty tong is, flat, turn 90 to the left (counter clock wise) , then 90 to left ( again counter clockwise).. A lefty tong is , flat, turn 90 to the right (clockwise), then 90 to the right (again clock wise). it's not hard.. its even easy to remember.. The only time the tong jaw and boss can be put to the other side is when the boss is a reverse profile.. LIke in the World Blacksmiths tongs. the boss is pushed up. And/or when there is no jaw boss. Then what makes them lefty or righty tongs is which jaw is actually on top. A righty will have the jaw on the bottom or torwards the left hand, and a lefty will have the jaw on top. or towards the right hand. Does it really matter.. It sure does.. Just like lefty and righty scissors. Question is does it matter to any body else???

We train on the ice as much as possible.. it is fun, fun, fun.. Luckily we are surrounded by ponds and now with the ice everywhere we have ice on hills too.. IFC. I'll check it tomorrow..

We have high winds now.. 13F is the prediction for tomorrow morning , but it's always 3-5F cooler here than in Worcester.. We have about 4" of solid ice.. I was lazy hoping the snow/ice combo would melt after last storm and it melted all right.. Into a sheet of ice everywhere. Fun for Martial arts practice. But now it won't melt for awhile. I did get the trailer setup before the snow and ice came in. So now can at least get some forge time if not to tired after horses..

oh, snap.. Are you in the cold belt?

that was really cold.. I felt so bad.. Your a tall person so all of my winter gear was out.. Forging in the surroug was neat.. You did great though.. Got those chain forge welds to stick even with the cold anvil.