JW513

^Thank you. I hope I can attend this year. I have a family reunion in New York in July... So I don't know if I can do both...

Got a stupid question... Do you need to be a ABANA member to go? I plan on becoming one, but I'd like to bring my Dad, uncle and bro in law..... Do they need to be members?

got up early, made 4 letter P's. it may be 13degrees outside but, you wouldn't know it in the shop.

We watched you the whole time, might have seen my feet a couple times.. Will have to watch the full videos later. Can't wait for this years competition.. In the future, I'd like to compete. My instructor competes, and has won first place a few times.

Thanks for the responses... Here is a picture of the outside.It is attached to his garage, that actually looks like an old barn but was built in the 1980s, with wood from the saw mill right down the road. We recently re-roofed it them small room, (I obviously paid for it). When my brother bought the house, our plumber came up and my brother was showing him around and when he brought him the little room our plumber said "whats going in here a blacksmith shop"... My brother laughed and said "actually yes". There are no neighbors, only an apartment complex 500 feet away separated by trees. That is just a shed or something for the complex, behind the trees...

That is true, and something I've thought about. But I will just work with what I have for now.. This is in a room off my brothers garage.. Hopefully in a few years I have my own place and can set up there.

^I get it, believe me, I have my ways too. I wish I had the patience to experiment like what you discussed here.

All I know is, the little time I have, I wanna spend it forging, not converting leaves into charcoal.. The idea is cool, but at end of the day, what is YOUR time worth?

Finally, got my forge moved into the shop. We hooked the vents up to the Chimney. We lit a fire with some wood, to test the draw of the chimney, and the chimney works but it did get smokey. Next week, I need to patch the old hole in the chimney. Hopefully that should help with the smoke. I'm also going to put some roxul insulation behind the forge and chimney and some Hardy backer, which I believe is rated for fire. Its nice, the place his a high block foundation.. The chimney has only an 8inch flue, so hopefully that is ok. I will light an actual coal fire in it next week. Is there anything you see wrong with my set up? Besides the hole in the chimney obviously..

Looking good, if I had time Id love to come by and help. Unfortunately, I don't right now. Its been a year and I still haven't been able to get my shop up and running. Hopefully this weekend! Good luck its already cold and rainy in 'eastern Mass and lately all I"ve had is outdoor work.

Very true. You can never be too careful.

i just made a thread a week back with a picture of me at my forge. I had a scally cap on and stood off to the side with my dad, brother in law, brother and his fiance. My brother in law was way more excited and interested than me and he's never picked up a hammer. If you ever offer one day classes, I will totally drive out there for one and probably him too.

You totally stole the show, and there was some other great smiths competing. Great job yesterday. Also, I envy your setup.

Yeah you are totally right. I will see what feels right and cut it off there, i did feel like the handle encroached on my work space. I hurt my groin once moving a very heavy statue a long distance. Took about 4 months until it didn't hurt to use the bathroom, it humbled me and made me more cautious.

Thanks, I was going to move the anvil closer, but had no one to help. I'm pretty sure I could move my anvil myself, but its 220lbs and I don't really want to find out if I can or not. I have to small anvils I can use when I'm outside, but no base for them yet. The handle moves very smooth, I was pumping with my left hand and swinging the hammer with my left, I could have done it all day. It didn't even cross my mind to shorten it. I'm going to line it with kitty litter and look into splicing rope soon.

After 2 different blacksmithing courses and many months, I got my forge lit. A welding friend gave me some square stock, and I was making it move but it was 1x1 inch and I'm still a rookie, even though I work construction and exercise a lot, I don't want to give my self tendonitis, so I switched to smaller rebar... I surprisingly squared it up very nice, the taper was pretty good as well. I tried putting a scroll on it and wasn't happy with it, so I was trying to fix it and boom the belt gave out on my rivet forge... So now I have to fix that. But I got a couple hours in and it felt great, I love blacksmithing and next year I plan on going to meets. I need some fire brick for the forge, and I knew the clay bricks would crack but they still worked. It was nice doing it without the pressure in class. I have a big buffalo forge to set up in the room. I lost too much time from the forge to anvil. That is the next project, debating on putting a concrete floor in or not, I can probably get free concrete and we do concrete work so why not.

I think that may of been part of my problem. Even in class my teachers would have to remind me to crank slow...

Thanks for the help. I am really eager to get this thing lit and make something. This weekend can't come quick enough.

This has been 15 months coming.... I'm sad to say, i've yet to light up my rivet forge or big buffalo forge I plan on hooking up in my forge room once i get it ready. After 15 months, I've finally had a chance to light it up. I've spent practically every weekend the last 3 years working at my sisters and brothers houses.... Anyways, I have bituminous coal, and couldn't get the rivet forge going. I never had a hard time in class with the same coal, but we used coke to start it. I'm thinking I need some bricks, so the fire can be deeper, and some news paper. I was using napkins and kindling all while 3 people who've never even lit a forge where trying to tell me what to do (i wanted to use their heads as anvils)... So i only spent about 30 minutes trying to get it going. I was wondering if lump charcoal is easier to light? I could bring some up, get the fire going with that and as my coal turns to coke us that. Thanks

they are good to use as a weight to hold down something your working on. drive a spike in your anvil base, with a chain attached to the window weight, toss it over the piece your working on. Not the most ideal way, but it works.

So I bought a Rivet forge a year ago, a belt driven one with lever. I never used it but it worked. 6 months ago I brought it from my garage to my brothers house where I'm setting up my shop. It wouldn't pump air anymore.. I adjusted the legs a little and sprayed some belt lubrication on it and it worked.. So a week later it still worked, I bring it outside to use and now it stopped working... So I adjusted the legs again, sprayed more belt lube on it and it worked.... Same thing happened.. It seems like maybe the legs move a little and loosen the tension on belt? I don't know. I'm temped to take it off and put my hand crank blower on it. Anyone help would be much appreciated. Thanks

Thanks for the responses. I'll contact the seller later on today.

Someone is selling this in my area, this is the only picture. Its listed as bituminous coal. Could someone please confirm that it is or isn't, or that its too hard to tell from the picture? I think it looks like it, but I'm still a novice. Thanks

from a making money standpoint, if you only need one, then one... If you can more money and get more done with 10 anvils, then 10. Whatever gets the job done faster. From a collectors point of view, 1 is too many, 100 is not enough.

On paper that sounds good. But your time is your time. The time, it took you make an item is the same amount of time, whether your making it for a lawyer, doctor, or hobo... Its okay to give some people a break once in awhile, but your time is your time....The lawyer/doctor, they might have friends who are interested in having you make something which equals more $$$$ for you.