Millhand

Great build! Nice and clean fab! Im a bit envious I must say!

What frosty said,.. I have cut huge amounts of iron on many different types of bandsaws. I have never changed speeds always just cut by sound and feel. I'm always worried about being square. So I set up and tune my saw by feel and her tune.

Thank you all for the great informative replies! Good stuff! Gave the atf a try and it works great! I'm bringing my lathe home tomorrow and have some other new toys coming soon. This information will come in very handy.

Yes roof, walls and ceiling are metal. Hahaa, I can arrange that as long as there is room for me a wife and two young ones

I've never had this much moisture in any of my shops before. It's been a warm damp winter but this is ridiculous! I tried linseed oil first it didn't stop the rust. So Monday I coated everything in good motor oil. Water is literally running off my anvils and such. Closed up uninsulated pole barn. Should I insulate and heat it? Big dehumidifier? Worked 6 hours on this girl last night. Come home from work and it's rusty. Gotta love living in the swamp I guess lol

Did I mention I absolutely love my forge? The deep pot and the insert I made to make it shallow made a 2 inch drop to the clinker breaker. It's a strange pot but it works awesome!! Hood works great as well and I'm getting good to fire management. Been mixing tractor supply coal with charcoal as fuel. Works great. 20 gal of hard maple charcoal I pulled from my boiler this am. Starting to amass my mandatory tools. Feels good to have only started with a few hammers and one set of usable tongs. Cut up some semi trailer Spring with the band saw for some more punches drifts and chisels. The one I cut to shape will be a stone chisel of some sort...

Yeah, booo.... I missed it too

Sorry TP, he builds walls, flowerbeds, walkways and chimneys. I have the complete modern blacksmith. I made the first chisel from memory of his description. I'll make a bush and single point as well.

Your first one looks alot like my first! But I was using a piece of mystery steel. Water quenched. Put on the anvil and first hit it was in 3 pieces. Thought it was mild but actually was high carbon. Whoops. Won't do that again.

Started on a stone chisel set for a stone Mason that works for me during the winter. He doesn't know I'm making them for him. First piece of the set is hammered outhe of semi trailer Spring steel. Still alot of work to do. Any ideas for different types of chisels to complete the set?

Thanks C-1 that sign came with the "new to me" pole barn. It's wedged in quite solid and I haven't bothered to remove it. It's funny, my son cranks it 115 and my daughter cranks it 15rpm! Think I'm in trouble! Sand/clay is best! It doesn't need sweeping and keeps the taxes low! I still have to plumb that blower in. Figure it will be something for the kids to help with. I'll use my daughter for small work and son for welding lol

Shop is coming together, my daughter and I unloaded and set the welding bench today. We also swept and cleaned the shop. Good day!!

Nuff said??

A nest,.. in a super plush hot tub room with the wife for two days. Had room service and didn't go out much. Was a nice mini vacation.

I can't believe your actually using that anvil! It's as old as the earth itself! Please stop hammering on that and take it to the smithowenitallaum ASAP!!

Glen is 100% correct,I fought hard for my first anvil. I no sooner picked it up and the next day one was setting on my doorstep for free. It's quite strange how it happens. Now I have 3 anvils. I'm using the tpaaat approach to finding time to put hot iron on them, Doesn't seem to work as well for that...... I do envy your stand jhcc! Darn nice work!

Elephant in the room is striking a arc on a anvil. .... .... no thank you, I'm not doing it!

I like! Wish I had thought that way when I started, but I tend to put things into what i call "estate sale prospective" I want my kids to have a unique experience at that point in time. So I try to build items of conversation, maybe value. Prolly morbid idk...

Glen said what I failed at saying lol

That book is a great start. If it were me I'd weld up a pot and table and get to hammering iron. The forge doesn't make the Smith it only makes iron malleable. Best of luck and keep asking questions. These guys are great!

Have you located a good source of coal? It can be hard to locate in some areas.

Sounds like you have a great start! Dave gave you sound advice. In relation to my project, I thought that there was something romantic about a coal forge and spent way to much time making it "perfect" wasted to much time building it and not enough time hammering iron. Get some smaller hammers as Dave said and start on small projects first. Make sure hooks n such. Whatever you do,,,, ,...... Don't attempt that axe for a long wile lol . One more thing, read read read. Get the free books you can download. The links are all over if.

Frosty, your cool I like you but dude! I checked on 3 different platforms. My phone, tablet and laptop all showed the pics. Logged in or out. I suggest a large sledge to your console. More than likely that will cause a trip to the store and I know it's a hike but in the long run it will be worth it!

Links? Im lost, my pics seem to work on all 3 platform's i have. All good, I said alot of things friday, i cant post here. I was already frustrated before i lit the forge. I have had one of those weeks..... Had a mait guy instal a wrong clamp in one of my large chippers, studs broke and it ate it. Ive never been scared of a piece of machinery quite like i was of that chipper when i ran to the e stop.... 300hp spinning a 9 ton 6' disk with the pto side bearing blown up. All the wile trying to eat a 3"x5"x32" tool steel clamp. Needless to say he no longer works for me and im rather depressed. Some lessons are very painful........

Thanks for posting that mark, that explains alot of what is wrong with my hammer technique. I struggle with another problem. I'm ambidextrous so my mind constantly wants to switch hands. Sounds silly but, it's like I want to switch from South paw to a right hander constantly during a heat.