Ted Ewert

If I had to do it again, I would make it so that the alignment rods are outside the jaws of the vise. Then I could drop the whole frame down into the vise. That would alleviate a lot of the creeping; having the clamping force closer to the work. It still works fine as is, and I don't think I'll go to all the trouble of rebuilding it. Ran out of 1" square stock anyway.

I decided to make a ring roller for a couple of projects I have planned. I looked on YouTube and found a couple of videos of simple rollers you can use in the vise and decided to go that route. I used 1" square stock for the frame. I ordered some 1" diameter roller bearings, and 12" of 3/4" axle steel. For the rollers I got some 1.5" inch OD, 1" ID tubing. I had to clean up the inside of the tubing on the lathe for the bearings to fit (basically just to make it round). Nothing is a press fit, but it's all fairly snug. To keep the whole assembly square, I used a length of 1/2" round bar through both ends of the frame. The off center pressure from the vise will cock the rollers out of alignment otherwise. Lessons learned... The crank roller needs to be a bit taller than the other rollers so that the handle will clear. Also, the two side by side rollers should be as close together as possible. This allows the ends of the work to be bent as much as possible without getting jammed in the mechanism. The 1/4" bar over the back of the two rollers is there to keep them from riding up on the axle. Despite the two alignment bars, the rollers still want to creep up. Pressed fits would take care of this, but my machining skills are not up to it, and I don't have a press. I also put a couple of springs in to open the assembly when I back the vise off. This is very handy. These are the first two rings I made. I didn't design this roller for big stock since most of the stuff I need is going to be 1/4" square. It takes a little fiddling to get the ends to line up square. After welding and grinding, I run the ring through the rollers again for a final rounding out since the ends don't get completely bent right. This thing cost me about $80 in parts, the rest of it I had in the shop. It works pretty good, and will be a handy tool for making odd size rings that I don't have a pipe size to bend around. Ted

I found that I had to sand down the diameter of a couple of my hammer handles after suffering hand fatigue. That seemed to help a lot, even though I don't have small hands.

My son told me he needed a hanger for his wireless headphones he uses at work, so I built him this: Simple, but it serves the purpose. I finished this Jewelry hanger for my daughter too...

The perforated tube is something I made myself. It slides right into the gas valve. I have subsequently made another one with more and smaller holes. That seems to work even better. The more thoroughly you can mix the gas and air, the smoother it burns. I am now only using 5 ports on the ribbon burner and I can still get the forge as hot as I want. My propane usage has dropped to about a third of what I was using with all ports open, with no degradation in performance. I'm coming to think that most propane forges are grossly over fed. It seems that there is an optimal level of fuel for a given forge volume. More burner openings, even when turned down, waste fuel. I already have a modified design in mind for the next forge I build. It will have just 5 ports, or less, in the burner and they won't all be parellel. I'm going to focus the heat differently. Btw, the blue handle unit is a needle valve, used for fine tuning of the mixture. I highly recommend including one in your gas line. Ted

I have a 200# TFS double horned anvil and I love it. I've been using it now for about 6 months, and it has meet all my needs and expectations. The ductile iron is plenty hard and has held up nicely. The little side table is very handy too. It's dead flat in both axis. The only thing I did was to radius the edges and remove the paint on the horn (which is useless). I also bolted it down with some silicon underneath and it is very quiet now. A very nice anvil overall and a lot cheaper than competing models.

Great spider Das! I got tired of the cheezy TP holder in one of the bathrooms so I decided to replace it. I did a TP theme in the end. I even put little perforations in the wavy piece but they don't show up well. I also built a flatter. I used a piece of 3/8" 2x2 4140 for the flat part, 1-1/4" round bar and a piece of 1/2" for the handle. Golf grips make great handles on 1/2" stock. My back itches when I work up a sweat. Solved that problem. Works even through the tee shirt.

I screwed up the mortar mix and a chunk cracked off the handle. Haven't got around to redoing it.

Looks like a hand grenade, German potato masher and a torpedo. I like it.

Aus, I went ahead and built an opener with a "ceement" handle. It's in the curing stage so I'll post a pic in a day or so. I used mortar since the aggregate in concrete is too big.

Nice openers Aus. Maybe you could add a concrete handle to the rebar. Put a couple of brass rivits through it for decoration.

MC... I don't do any heavy forging, and don't even own a hammer larger than 3 lbs. I just wanted to see if it would work more than anything else. It's fine for what I need it to do. Joe... I mixed my own mortar so I couldn't tell you exactly how strong it is. The internal steel bracing takes most of the shock while the mortar stiffens things up and helps distribute off center stresses.

I don't make a lot of the stuff you do, like chains or thumb latches. Hinges I can make with what I have, and I use a torch for rivets. If I have an oddball piece I'll usually just weld a handle on it. Nevertheless, I could us some offset tongs.

What's so confusing Here is my usual configuration. Hot part in the forge, cold part outside. No tong needed unless I have a small part to heat.

Nice work Hoj, anything new takes a bit longer. Don't worry about heats, it takes as many as it takes. I have a few of those tongs and they work well. I don't need as many tongs as a lot of the other guys seem to. I don't know if it's the gas forge or what I build, but I could get along fine with only 4 or 5 tongs.