easilyconfused

I wish! Show up for coffee breaks, lunch then go home early after collecting my check.

Of course, you could always put the electrical wires above the pipes so if you were to drill into them, you're drill would shut off if you were going to hit them . AND you'd get that perfect new hairstyle!

Sorry dodge, those 2 cents will be going to the next piece of sand paper. I'll have to keep an eye out for something better in the right size and grit. Gonna make a straight edge for the 1" belts and use it like a draw file like I've seen some people use because 1" belts are easier to find in the area than sheets. Another question, does emery cloth go below 200 grit? I've yet to find any that does around here and that's where I use the Al-Ox.

Good tip for the piping for radiant heating frosty. I'll have to remember that for my shop when I'm out of school. I'd suggest hooking up with your guild members and seeing what they have and what they would do differently if possible. As many shops in the area as possible without cutting locks to see them. Always remember ventilation, lighting and a good water source in the building which I would have a hose hooked up to as well as good fire extinguisher stations. And a second exit is possible. I would disagree with the smoothest possible cement, yes it does make sweeping a pain but I've worked on smooth cement and if it gets any oil or water on it, you're walking on goose droppings the whole time which gets very dangerous. A good shop vacuum gets over the sweeping issue. Your call though. Sweeping can be a pain but so can a broken wrist. Depending on your size, you might want to think about making sure your rafters can handle an overhead track for moving heavy metal. For power outlets, retractable boxes hanging from the roof are handy too. A light near every planned work station wouldn't be a miss although you can always put up a movable worklight. Make sure it is done right the first time though. Plan, plan and then plan some more. Come up with all sorts of scenarios and work through them.

Half the fun in hobby blacksmithing is the scrounging so I say to heck with it being wrought or not, I'd be giggling to whole time I was cutting them apart.

maybe its to get the last of the hairball from the last cat fido ate :rolleyes:

Being your own worst critic is usually a good thing. Keeps you improving and a humble head. That being said, you are your own worst critic. It looks great and I'm sure it will be loved. Now get the stand made like frosty said.

Kind of a silly question because it depends on the sandpaper quality but how long does yours last on average. I use the find-everywhere Norton quality all purpose aluminum oxide paper that isn't too pricey but it seems like I'm switching every 10 minutes and not getting the last grits scratches off before I am frustrated with it not cutting anymore. I'm going by hand by the way. Anyone else seem to wear out so fast or is it just a matter of poor quality and the better stuff lasts longer? Or is there a different type of grit that wears better when used with metal?

I'm no expert on using rose-buds. I only use my acetylene torch for cutting, brazing and welding but I would be willing to wager you're winding up with it getting too much oxygen in there, either from the rosebud or the air. A good welding fire doesn't let much to any oxygen in contact with the metal. Any scale created will prevent a weld. You would also need a flux in this instance for sure, commonly just mule20 borax, to reduce the amount of scale. Do a quick search in the forum and homepage for forge welding if you haven't already and it will help you indefinitely. There are also some good free books linked on here too that give good advice.

A bucket of ash is good for annealing metal in as it is a good insulator. Lumps of clinker can become "dragon manure or hairballs" and another guy I forge with take warhammer and the like miniatures and make little scenes out of the lumps.

You could always try heating the joint up and getting them moving that way. Otherwise, soaking in some good penetrating oil or I've heard of diesel or kerosene. Just don't use around any sparks or open flames. May not get them moving again but you could also do a search on here on electric rust removal using a battery charger and water with an elctrolyte of sorts. That would get the surface rust off and possibly some of the joint rust too.

Shoot, we just had a speaker come in and tell our college that kids these days don't work long enough hours and want too much. PS: I'm a vet student by day, superhero by night!..........or studying.....yah, mostly studying at night.......

Unicornforge, all you can do is get the information out there and hope one person listens. If they do, you've won because that's how mindsets change. One head at a time. Unfortunately that's how the misinformation starts too. Just know you're doing the right thing for you and that's all you can do and don't expect miracles from people, considering everything else society does for fun (read: Jackass the TV show, break.com, etc). Me and my girlfriend were talking and we're thinking the recession may help things a bit. Yes there will be the ones that still shop at walmart because they have to, heck I'm one, but garage sales and kijiji have been getting pick over more and more and we're thinking that the recession may just push the arts and craft and green movement more mainstream as people have started wanting stuff to last. Thanks to the smiths before us pushing through, more people are looking at handmade stuff for its uniqueness as well as the care that usually goes into it.

I think I just heard a collective groan from all the smith's significant others. "Great, now he doesn't have to come into the house for the bottle opener.":D

I've only made one so far and it seems to have gone missing in one of the moves and I didn't take a pic. :mad:

That's a good point Mike. Don't be afraid to adjust your your prices, especially raise them if needed to cover costs. Most people will understand if you explain why, just don't do it mid-negotiations. And don't forget the customer service side. That is as important in the sale as anything IMO, particularly our area of more custom work. Another thing I've noticed is that, with the advent of ATM's, up here at least, the $20 is becoming the staging point for most things including entertainment, so anything less than $20 is cheap these days. Everything seems to be sold for a total of around the $20 so people don't need to make change or carry it.

Everything's pretty much been said that I could say but I would add that there will be some items that you can make more on that cover the lost cost on another and those items vary with the market your targeting. For example, my leaf keychains I take a bit of a hit on for $/hour but I make it up on the horseshoe hoof picks because the market would rather buy the one over the other so the value changes in their eyes. Another thing is, I've had to lower my price to make a larger sale but it was a matter of selling 4 vs 14 as the club wanted gifts for volunteers so they wanted to match the gifts to groups of time volunteered. By dropping my price, I made over $50 more for a small hourly wage drop. Right now I'm working on a candle set that will take me at most an hour when I have a good hacksaw and forge time following. All said and done I should get $50-$100 for them. Mind you, I'm a hobbist in university so it is grocery money and I don't mind getting paid for what I would be doing normally to give away. That said, I do price based on local professionals, the internet and local mass produced options. However, and that's the beauty of being self employed in a craft-type trade, I can make deals to maximize total income at the time rather than trying to make sure my hourly wage is met and storing things for longer. And always remember that if it's custom, people will pay more than if they're buying something you're offering. One last point is that, especially in this recession, there will be some areas that just won't support many, if any, full-time smiths which is what my area is like. As well, until you get a market, you may need to take a bit of an hourly wage hit like I did to make a sale because the next one might take a while.

Before we had the internet on our farm, I'd spend hours at the library. They usually have access to blacksmithing books too. I assume you've read a bunch of books on it?

I have one too and never used it either. Could you elaborate more warren?

How come I never found it? Need to look harder I guess!:p

Up here, most garden stores sell half wood barrels for yard planters. After peak garden season, they come on clearance usually.

I was going to go with all one piece but it would have been way to heavy to maneuver on the end of a handle. Easier to get all the brand done if you lose heat in one part too. All one piece and you run the risk of the center not being hot enough sometimes. I'm the neighborhood brander so I've had that happen a few times at the neighbors. You'd be hard pressed to call it a running iron. It's a definitely half diamond which, incidentally most people call a rafter. Up here there's no rafter, it's only half diamond. I didn't know that until I got the job and did some research. Don't know about the USA though. The connectors are welded to the backside anyways, so a bar would have gained me at most 1/4" on I think it was 2-3". Problem is, now dad wants me to remake our calf iron because it's getting worn out and too much rocker to it. Which is saying a lot because I hate perfectly flat irons on calves. Especially big ones like this which is why I gave it a slight rocker to the 3W. No more than 1/16" but enough it rolls side to side.

Hope you can return it! That's pretty hard on your anvil too ;)

Not sure of exact length but a few inches over 1/2' of 1/4" round. Stands about 1' or so tall. Tall enough for a bunch of bananas to not touch the counter. Before a guy does a blueprint I need to figure out how I made it too! Second one to replace it in our appartment didn't turn out so good. That's how I know it's over 1/2' of material.:D

He's the 3rd generation W last name. It is for cattle. The edge is actually rounded and <1/8" and is thinner than any of the ones we use in our area due to complexity and we haven't had any problems with smudging or anything. His dad is a brand inspector in Alberta so I think it should be good when he gives the specs and he wanted 1/8" contact surface and gave the size for the calves too. The back side is 1/4" for heat retention. The angle iron naturally tapered in to 1/8" from 1/4" and I thinned it a bit more with an angle grinder when I went to notch it. The shingle was partly to show him what it looked like and because he's just getting started I figured a shingle to hang would be good luck for the farm.