Freddie

What sad news. Thanks for sharing so much wisdom, Grant, and rest in peace.

My shop is way too crowded with tools and machines, so I spend a lot of time organizing just to be able to get anything done. I also have a 20' shipping container outside for overflow storage, which I try to go through once a year or so, but that's a job I truly dread. I generally clean up after finishing a project, but as far as thoroughly cleaning the shop, that happens whenever I get really frustrated after a half hour of looking for something that I need. At that point I try to just stop and take the time to put everything where it belongs, sweep the floor, etc.

Yes, a weekend gig could work out well, especially if you need to keep your day job. Sounds like a great opportunity where there may be room for creative options... it sounds like the owners have a historic shop which is a potential visitor/customer attraction, but they aren't making it work. I wonder if you could find a win-win business solution, where you could take advantage of the history draw and turn it into a metal arts "destination" that would bring customers to the owners' other businesses, while bringing them to your door. I don't think lack of experience is a problem, but it might mean it would be a good idea to find more experienced partners to work with you. Don't know if any of these ideas would make sense, without knowing your situation and the owners' motivation.... but just brainstorming: 1. Could you find a more experienced smith (or smiths) interested in coming in now and then and working with you as you gain experience? 2. If the shop has the space and power, etc. to be a good light industrial workspace and the owners are flexible, there might be a small guy ornamental ironworker around who's ready to move out of his garage for a low enough lease. Having some metalworking activity in the shop during the week might be attractive to the owners for the sake of visibility & public interest, even if its not 100% forging... and you could still do the traditional demo stuff on weekends. You might be able to set up a partnership and win-win deal for everyone. 3. If you have a local blacksmith guild in the area, you could look at establishing a home shop for them; you could be the shop manager and go-between with the landlords, the guild could have a permanent space... maybe host open forge nights and business meetings on weekday evenings and do open-to-the-public meetings/demos on weekends. 4. You might be able to establish a collaborative arrangement with several artist-blacksmiths... give everyone their own work area and everyone share "community" tools (power hammer, drill press, saws, etc.)... demo/exhibit/sell your stuff on weekends...

Somewhere around $200 (as I recall... sorry, I'm a victim of CRS).. and worth every penny!

That is one cool looking saw!

Guy Lautard wrote up a good piece on Cole drills in The Machinist's Third Bedside Reader. I ran across the company's website several years ago and they were still selling both the Cole drill and vise. My foggy memory is that they were both going for around $250. Link to a brochure: http://www.rustyiron.com/literature/ColeDrill.pdf

Thanks for the comments. This was a present for my mom. Need to make something for the wife now, soon!

Dogwood flower Brooch made from 1018 and 10N20. Built up mosaic star pattern for the flower and chevron pattern for the inlaid heart. Deep etch and then buffed. Pin back was silver soldered onto the back.

Thank you- great photos.

Rasp asps are cool. A big bolt or a piece of allthread will also forge down into interesting scales.

One thing to keep in the back of your mind if you go the reinforced route is the possibility of escalation of force from the vandals. My dad put up a fabricated steel mailbox several years ago after having the same problem at his home in CT. The punks evidently got mad after they hit it (hopefully someone broke a wrist). My folks were awakened by bricks smashing through their living room and bedroom windows. VERY upsetting as you can imagine. I still think all the bash-proof box ideas are great- and if you ask my dad, he'd probably say go for it, but make sure your shotgun is loaded and handy...

Really nice, Lyle. I looked through your Picasa albums... is there a step-by-step somewhere that shows how you make the flower head on the aluminum flower bangle? I tried to copy it back when it came out on the cover of Anvil's Ring, but never got one looking that good...

Cortland Machine & Tool Co. has put up some Bradley hammer catalogs on eBay. No idea if they're worth the price... only 18 pages, according to the auction description. http://cgi.ebay.com/Bradley-Hammer-Forging-Catalog-/170622574195?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27b9e5de73#ht_499wt_1159 In case the link doesn't work, its auction #170622574195.

I don't think what you want to do is a bad idea, as long as you are smart about safety and design. A hanging, swinging target is probably the safest place to start, as long as you don't use too-heavy plate. Remember that the closer you hit to the "hinge" end, the less the target will swing and deflect the round. If you are going to be making multiple targets for competition (the real fun), then you'll want something that gets knocked down or moves to another position, like a dueling tree, pepper poppers or headplates. My favorite is a stand with a row of 6 round headplates @ 8" diameter. This is a common design and you might be able to find one to copy. It has a lever hanging down from the back that resets all the plates when you pull it forward with a rope. I've shot quite a bit with these; mainly 9mm, and guys did get dinged now and then by pieces of copper jacket. The only serious injury I saw was when a piece of jacket went through a guy's pants and into one of his nuts... they cut it off at the hospital; the docs decided it wasn't worth trying to save it since he still had another one. Besides normal range safety precautions, I'd recommend: 1. Use unjacketed ammo 2. Like VaughnT said, don't make them too heavy for what you're shooting. Also, inspect the plates frequently and scrap them when they get deformed. 3. Don't make them from unknown scrap; not just the plates, but everything in the line of fire... this is where I'm ignorant... I always thought mild steel was best, but I googled steel plates and it looks like the major manufacturers use hardened plate to resist deformation. If that's what they use, I suppose its the way to go. I think the worst material would be a soft steel that work-hardens- then you get deformation plus hardness. We got some targets like that once and they started shooting back at us... scrapped them before anyone got hurt.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7sbkyWQrnY&feature=player_embedded#at=12 Great video from a Polish rolling mill...

Reminds me of something Mark Aspery said about marketing one's work in one of his books. I can't remember his words, but the gist was, "good design poorly executed will outsell poor design well executed".

That is a really nice organizer. I use the cheaper alternative- tap & drill stand at the bottom of this page: http://www.mcmaster.com/#tap-organizing-stands/=alfnzj It holds drills and taps from 1/2" down to some teeny sizes I never use. For each size, it holds NF taps and tap drills on one side, NC taps & tap drills on the other, and nominal size drills down the middle. I agree with buying good quality taps & drills, and would say that good drills are even more important than good taps. One thing I didn't hear mentioned is a drill sharpener... that's something I couldn't live without. Even top quality drills need to be sharpened when you use them in a lot. One other tool that's probably out of scope of this discussion but I'll mention because I love it so much, is a Bosch tapper http://www.amazon.com/Bosch-1462VS-3-8-inch-Tapper/dp/B00181LECS I can't remember where I got mine- one of the blacksmith supply houses, years ago. It has a clutch just like a tapping head on a drill press... goes through holes really fast without breaking taps.

Oscer, FWIW, here's a picture of the table crank on my shop press... The winch has two cable spools- one for the right side of the table and one for the left. The cables go from the winch through holes in the side of the frame and over pulleys mounted inside the top of the left and right side members, then they go down and are looped and clamped around the bars that hold the two sides of the table together. In the second picture, if you look at the two removable pins on the left side, under the red switch: just to the right you can see two bolt heads. That's where the bars are that the left cable attaches to. If you look inside the right side of the frame, you can make out the cable coming down and where its clamped just above the table. Hope this helps.

Phillip, That's a great looking hammer. Depending on your floor, you may not need to pour a foundation. I have the same hammer on a base of 4x6s, sitting on a regular 4" reinforced concrete shop floor. Haven't had any floor problems in 5 years. Best of luck!

Grant: The legs have tenons that are welded into slots cut into the anvil. Some others I've seen have dovetail joints.

If the whole thing doesn't need to be hardfaced, I think you would be fine filling in the broken edge with your MIG welder... I'd probably even try it with your regular wire and no preheat.

It is 48" long x 26" tall; the face is 7" wide. It was bolted to a piece of 5/8" plate for a base. No markings and it doesn't ring, but it is hard with good rebound. I saw it in a classified ad in the paper in Johnstown, PA. I had been doing some consulting work on a project to preserve an historic steel mill blacksmith blacksmith shop in Johnstown, which contains several of these big bridge anvils. The ones in that shop sat on a dirt floor on similar bases. They are quite solid that way... in fact you couldn't budge them without a forklift. I removed the plate on mine and mounted it on a wider base made of channel that a pallet jack can go in when I need to move it around on my concrete floor. The guy I bought it from worked at Bethlehem Steel in Johnstown. When they were winding down their operations there, they started demolishing buildings to get them off the tax rolls. He saw this anvil in a machine shop they were scrapping out prior to knocking down, and got permission to buy it for scrap price. Pretty sad when you think of all the old iron they sent to the scrapyard. He said he saw a machinist turning a part on a lathe; the supervisor told him to step away, and a demo guy with a big torch cut that lathe in half right there... Anyway, my best guess is that my anvil, along with the ones still sitting in that blacksmith shop were forged right there. You can see the shop at http://jaha.org/BlacksmithShop/restoration.html In the top picture, you can see a couple of similar bridge anvils that were temporarily moved outside during restoration work.

Very cool anvil! Is it cast? I've never seen one this big with integral legs. Not that I've seen that many, but the ones I have seen have separate legs that are either slotted and welded or else dovetailed on. Here's a pic of my 840-pounder...

Here is a link on grinding drills for brass & copper that might be helpful for next time: http://yarchive.net/metal/brass_drilling.html

As the buyer of this forge, just wanted to provide a (long overdue) report: This is an outstanding forge! I had been using a homemade freon tank single burner atmospheric propane forge, and a coal forge for bigger stuff. I'd been wanting to build a blown forge ever since I used a friend's to make damascus. After pricing parts and material, and considering the learning curve, it was an easy decision to just buy one ready to go from Jymm. The best thing about this forge is its controllability. It easily adjusts from welding heat down to a whisper for forging small stuff, with as much reducing or oxidizing atmosphere as I want. The cast interior is solid as a rock. There has been no cracking and it is impervious to flux. It seems to be a bit more economical on propane than my atmospheric gasser as well. For anyone who's on the fence about atmospheric vs. blown, or build vs. buy, I heartily recommend talking to Jymm.