the_sandy_creek_forge

Last I heard, central Illinois places were buying for about $100-125 a ton steel. The very few places that'll still let you come in and rummage around to find what you need were selling at 15-20 cents a pound...so...$300-$400 a ton. Not bad considering I just picked up 1-20' 2.5x2.5x3/16 angle and 2-20' 1x1x1/8 angle New steel for a customers project and it cost 'bout $90.
-Aaron @ the SCF

Kinda carried over from the welding spatter thread. I never-seize the whole bolt, put it in place and wipe off any never-seize that will get in the way of the weld. Helps the bolt release from the nut AND keeps the spatter off of the threads. I usually just weld on two opposite flats, but have welded around the whole nut depending on the application. And ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS grind off any coating that is on the nut or bolt before welding. ALWAYS.
-Aaron @ the SCF

I've used CAT brand high-temp antiseize (the copper colored type) when welding near exposed bolt threads. It's kinda pricey, but it worked great though. I like the PAM idea, I'll have to give that a try. And as far as my welding bench or welding table.... well.... their both rusty enough that, for the most part, the spatter doesn't really stick at all. When I do have to remove spatter, I have an old cold chisel that has a really acute angle to it, it works great for scraping it off.
-Aaron @ the SCF

Hey Keith,
Let me frame this with a disclaimer *I am in no way a machinist. I just happen to utilize a small lathe and a metal shaper to make jigs, dies, etc. for my blacksmithing work*

I started out on the lathe with some of the cheapo brazed carbide bits from HF and a set of the cheap indexable ones from grizzly (all 3/8") Then when I got my shaper, I discovered HSS bits. I personally prefer the HSS for everything that I do now. I can get a pretty decent finish, but my tool grinding skills do need some work. One of these days I'm gonna meet with the local high-school shop teacher to get some pointers, just haven't had the time yet. Right now I grind my bits on a regular old 6 inch bench grinder and then touch them up with a medium grit pocket stone to make everything nice and smooth. Making an adjustable work-rest and setting up a dedicated grinder for grinding tooling is also on my list. I also like HSS because, If you keep an eye on ebay, you can sometimes get a large lot of gently used tooling for a decent price.
-Aaron @ the SCF

ya know... I opened this thread thinking "this is gonna be some grisly story about someone getting smacked in the mouth with a hammer" nah.... that would go under the safety thread. Then I thought "maybe it's something about an old west blacksmith who doubled as the town dentist" nah... that would be more under blacksmith>history or something... and while my my first thought was closer than my second thought... I never expected this. All I can add is this quote (which just happens to come from your's truly)

"Pauly, in the long history of bad ideas, this is right up there with the time we went down those three flights of stairs on that plastic sled that one night."

-Aaron @ the SCF

Thanks Mike,
I downloaded "paint.net" mostly to use for working on my website design, and one of my buddies from work (I work with stock photography) came over tonight to give me some pointers. He's big into photoshop, and that was one of the first images I've doctored up on my own:)

-Aaron @ the SCF

Hey all,
Not sure how I've managed to not mention this here yet... but on or around May 31, 2008, the Sandy Creek Forge will be getting a new apprentice.

Image #1


Image #2
This image confirms that the new apprentice is, in fact, of the male persuasion, but wasn't real sure about posting the image here, as the ultrasound tech did a most wonderful and professional job of labeling it.....

Image #3-a solid fist with a nice strong grip.


Image #4- The ultrasound tech almost fainted when she saw this one.... I, however, wasn't a bit surprised


-Aaron @ the SCF

Hey Sam,
Nice looking hammer head.

As far as what it does? (and someone correct me if I am wrong on this). The sawyer would use the hammer on a COLD circular saw blade. With the correct knowledge and skill, he'd use the hammer to stretch the steel to put a certain amount of tension into the blade, this helped the blade spin "true," in other words it took the wobble out of the blade as the mill was running. There's as much of an art to it as there is to blacksmithing.

My grandpa and great-uncle made a living doing many things, one of which was running sawmills. We still have the remnant of the tracks from one of the old mills, and a very much workable setworks (all the gears that run the blade and the feed). We also have the tracks and carriage off of a newer mill that we will HOPEFULLY be able to eventually set in line with the old setworks and have an operating mill again. Our solution for taking the wobble out of the blade? Speed the engine up or slow it down until the blade runs true:) I know, it's kinda cheating, but like I said, there's an art to tuning a blade and having a blade tuned by a professional isn't cheap, when a professional can be found.

-Aaron @ the SCF

Hey all,
Found the google book I was talking about earlier. It ended up being the Buffalo Forge Company and NOT the Champion (leave it to my memory....). If anyone is interested do a search on google books for "1896 illustrated general catalogue" and it should be the one at the top of the list.
-Aaron @ the SCF

Jayco,
There USED to be either a Champion or Buffalo catalog on Gogglebooks. I know I have it downloaded at home, but can't remember off the top of my head which one it is. If it's the champion catalog I'll send it along this weekend when I get a chance. If it's not, I'll send it along anyway cause it's full of all manner of neat things. I just checked googlebooks and can't seem to find it again, but it seems they've lost alot recently (over copyright issues???) anybody know what's going on with that?
-Aaron @ the SCF

To make the money: Data Entry Specialist (Keywording and Captions) for the third largest stock photography company in the US.

To stay sane and make a little money besides: Blacksmithing, and helping my friends/coworkers with "their" home improvement projects.

-Aaron @ the SCF

Wonderful vid.
I especially like that "slide hammer" tool the were using to seat the rings and to open them up over the cone. I might have to make myself a set of those for using on my little cone (someday)
-Aaron @ the SCF

Nice idea. What's all that white stuff?

There's one in every crowd.....
-Aaron @ the SCF

Got any pics with the jaws closed?? Have you tried them on lighter gauge material, like maybe 1/16 sheet or thinner? Those do have a beautiful pivot joint on them though, I always liked the pass-through type joint.
-Aaron @ the SCF

BTW a 'Crescent' (adjustable) wrench is a brand name, as is an 'Allen' wrench (hex key), or 'channel lock' (slip jont) pliers, I am sure there are more out there but can't think of any off the top of my head.

"Vise-Grips" is a big one. It's amazing how many genericized trademarks are out there. My day job is captioning and keywording stock photography, and we have a huge list that we gotta make sure not to use in certain instances. My personal favorites are Popsicle (frozen treats/ice pops) and Hula Hoop (plastic hoop toy).

Back on topic: I've always been told the same as everyones stated above. Something about the fulcrum and the movable jaw being weaker.

-Aaron @ the SCF

Hey John.
Thanks for answering the questions. As for the die block I am guessing you mean what can be done with the particular shaper shown here. I haven't tried it (and probably will never have a need to) but I am almost sure my 14" Walcott would handle a 12" long die block with a little patience on the operators part.
I asked about the orientation, because when cutting die stock for my IrnSrgn style guillotine tool, I have the vise jaws parallel with the ram stroke. I've been cutting 10" of 3/4x3" HR die stock at one time (putting more or less a tenon on each edge), as I find taking a 10" stroke is easier (and faster) than cutting each 1" thick piece separately. I then just chop off however much I need for a particular die from this longer piece. Anyways, I was worried that running the vise oriented like that might be doing some harm to the machine I wasn't aware of. But with the total area of the 8"x2" jaw bearing down on the workpiece, I think I have enough of a grip to prevent much .

Thanks,
-Aaron @ the SCF

Nice grab Bob!

Hey John, Just a few questions.
1). What's wrong with the vice in that orientation?
2). not being sure of you background with powerhammers, what is your definition of a "very small hammer die block"?

I'd have to agree with Imagedude on a lot of points. For the 140ish dollars I spent on mine, and about 30-40 dollars worth of cutters from the 'Bay, I've got enough to cover probably 80% of the BLACKSMITH related machining I need to do. No I am not going to try to plane engine heads with it, or try using it to machine something with 0.0001" clearance. I am using/plan on using the shaper mostly for jigs, dies for my IrnSrgn style guillotine tool, stuff like that. For that stuff, 0.01" is fine, 0.001" is a thing of beauty.

Imagedude: "blacksmithing levels of accuracy" Can I get permission to use that for my signature line? I love it.

-Aaron @ the SCF

I've got an old Harris torch and regulator set, and love it. We go through Airgas for my bottles. The way it works around here is you take a long term lease (like 99 years, you more or less buy the bottles) on a set of bottles, and then pay a set fee to exchange them for a refilled bottle when they run out. We just added another acetylene bottle to the collection. We now have two of each (a smaller set that's handy outside and a larger set for dedicated in-the-shop use). Kinda nice that way so if one runs out in the middle of a project, there's no mad rush to the store to get a refill.

Without looking at the receipt I couldn't say what size the acetylene tank we just added was, but as far as price it was somewhere around 140 bucks. First fill complimentary. Not sure what a new Oxy costs.

-Aaron @ the SCF

Will snap a few this weekend for ya... Just don't mind the other,um... resources... or brush in the background of the images, ok?
-Aaron @ the SCF

keith,
can't really offer any advice as to which would be better. I've got a steel workbench set aside for the lathes when I get to actually setting up the "machine shop corner" part of the shop (number 10, 11, and 13 on the list right now). 3/8" top with storage compartments underneath. If your interested I could snap a few pictures/grab a few measurements for ya. It's still sitting outside right now so I won't have to move anything to get a good picture.
-Aaron @ the SCF

Personally I've never had a problem between blacksmith websites. There are some that I don't check as often, mostly because of the format they are presented in. Additionally I don't think I have ever run across specific instructions on any blacksmithing website to the effect of "don't mention other webpages."

That being said... I always kind of assumed that linking to/suggesting forum B while posting to forum A is, while not necessarily rude, somewhat in bad form. Therefore I kind of picked up on a habit that I'd observed in others. Instead of referring to another website by name, I'll generally use the term "across the street." In my view there are generally three major blacksmithing websites, so it isn't too hard to figure out which of the other two is being referred to.
-Aaron @ the SCF

That 9x20 that Jr. posted a link to isn't to bad off a deal. We picked up the Harbor Freight equivalent that had been a remanned so we got a decent price on it. There are a couple of groups and webpages out there that are dedicated to the upgrading and accessorizing of those 9x20 lathes. One thing that I highly recommend upon getting one of these is going through and replacing as many of the bolts, nuts and fasteners as is possible with decent quality equivalents (grade 5 or better if possible). It seems the Chinese company that turns these out uses cheap mild steel fasteners that tend to wear out/strip out very easily. But, just for use making jigs, turning jack-shafts, etc. it's not a bad little deal. And making some of the mods to improve the lathe itself are great learning projects.
-Aaron @ the SCF

I will probably get more than 600 back. But it's already spent on the property taxes. (Ain't it funny how THEY end up getting it either way?). BUT, if it wasn't going to that... I'd probably sit on it until I found a nice huge chunk of scrap. I'm thinking somewhere around 6 inches square and about 7 or 8 foot long. That'd make a nice anvil for an air hammer AND treadle hammer. Or I'd put it in the get-a-bigger-anvil fund. I don't really need a bigger anvil... but... bragging rights and all that.
-Aaron @ the SCF

Hey Chris,
Let me frame this comment by saying that I DO NOT own a power hammer at this time, let alone one as large as the 3B. That being said, I am in a somewhat passive planning/scrounging stage for building an air hammer (actually once I find a suitable chunk of anvil, the dirty work will get underway.) During this planning phase I've had time to think about a suitable foundation. What I think I've settled on is, for lack of a better term, a big wooden block type foundation. We've got plenty of hedge (that's osage orange for some of ya) rows on the farm. I plan on cutting a couple good sized hedge and squaring up the trunks with a chain saw. These logs will be cut into 2-3 foot length and will probably end up somewhere around 5x5 inches or 6x6 inches square. I'm gonna join these all together into a block the same size as the base of the hammer by the aforementioned 2-3 foot thick and dig out a hole big enough for it. the hammer base will mount directly to this block. Should be relatively solid and rot resistant. I think this technique might be something to think about in your case, as the wood would do a pretty good job of absorbing the vibration. I'd think you'd still get some vibration regardless of what foundation you use, but this type might go quite a ways in cutting back on it. And, hedge isn't a necessity. Oak or any hardwood would probably work just as well.

Just my $0.02 worth and something to ponder/discuss.

-Aaron @ the SCF

really though, the name of the business and your name don't have to be exclusive. I always mark projects with my initials "ADL", or sometimes with "LINDSTROM" if there is enough room on the project for it. If it is something that was produced by way of connection with the Sandy Creek Forge, it also gets "SCF" stamped on it. Example: if I make up a christmas gift for a family member it will usually just get the "ADL" stamping. If I build a railing or a set of hooks or whatever for a paying customer they get the "SCF" stamp and the "ADL" stamp. In the case of a railing there is probably room for "LINDSTROM" so I'd use that instead of "ADL." So, in summary, I think it's very much acceptable to use both a "business" name and your own personal/artist touchmark.

-Aaron@ the SCF