Ted Ewert

Thanks guys, I appreciate the feedback! Frosty, I think he'd gotten hold of a bottle of Absinthe at the time.

Nice work everyone, great to see so many people making interesting projects. A buddy of mine wanted me to make him a campfire poker after his friends showed up at the last camp-out with pokers "made by a real blacksmith". His only requirement was "something twisty in the middle". Sooo... this is what I came up with. I forge welded the head on and pinned the horns through the top so they wouldn't move. I told him that it was patterned after the greater horned roadrunner. Known to inhabit isolated areas of the south west, it is often seen in the company of the famed Jackalope. I was in a bar once in Tucson and a gentleman told me of a rare encounter he had with one of these critters. As the story went, the horned Roadrunner was surrounded by a pack of hungry coyotes, circling in for the kill. As they approached, the roadrunner took off like a bullet, went straight under one coyote and sliced him open with them horns like a ripe tomato. The rest of the pack scattered with their tails between their legs. People may wonder if this story is true or not, but this guy was a full blooded Irishman and swore he only had a drop or two before witnessing the amazing event. So there ya go.

I tried welding a couple of pieces of 3/8" square bar using the techniques suggested in this thread and both welds came out real good. I used both no scarf and a sloped scarf with equal success. I even drew out the scarfed piece with no separation. I then ground and polished the pieces along the welds and could only find a very tiny line where the welds were. A lot of places I couldn't find any line at all. I guess it's ideal to have no line, but these welds were solid nonetheless Up to this point my forge welding had been spotty at best. Big thanks to everyone who has contributed their knowledge and techniques! I still have a lot of practicing to do, but I'm much more clear on the concept.

One thing I've come across with HR is inconsistency in the hardness. Every now and then I'll hit a hard spot while drilling through a piece. I assume this is a piece of recycled alloy which got in the mix and didn't blend well. Doesn't say a lot for the quality control, although in most applications it wouldn't matter.

Thanks George, filled a garbage can with weeds while testing it. I thought the sharpened "V" was just to grab the root so you could pull it out. Shows how much I know. LOL GB, I bought a big snipper from HB and ground some "V's" in it and welded some angle iron on for holding stock; cheap and dirty but it worked. I admire you doing it the traditional way. Looks like it'd be awkward to work while the two parts are still connected. I'd probably wind up building 4 jigs just to get it done.

Nice pieces Billy. I was watching Torbjor making a ball peen hammer yesterday and marveled at what a complete craftsman he is. I told my wife afterwards that I wanted a power hammer and she gave me the "over my dead body" look. Sigh... Das, I don't know what they are but they look cool. I was doing some weeding the other day and thought about running down to the hardware store to get one of those forked weed pullers. Then I remembered that I could just as easily make one. So I did. Of course I had to embellish it a bit so I added a handle and a free swinging fulcrum. After a minor adjustment, the fulcrum works great. The weed in the picture was easily pulled out of dry ground. It's a little over 2 feet long and I built it from 1/2" square stock and 1/4" round for the handle (where I came up a little short on material). I hot cut the forks which makes a nice bevel, which I then sharpened up a bit more. It's not beautiful but it works like a charm.

I was looking at some benders, deciding if I wanted to buy one, and chose to make one instead. I'll usually just heat up whatever I need to bend and do it on the anvil, but there are occasions where a little more precision would be nice. This is not a big, heavy duty machine because I don't need one. I'm usually bending flat stock which is 1/8" to 3/16" thick. This will bend 1/4" square bar (haven't tried anything wider) and I haven't tried round stock yet either. Anyway, this is it: The pins are 5/8" mild steel, with a couple of collars for the pin on the arm. I made the body from a piece if 1" x 2" (1/8" thick walls) tubing. I partially filled that in on the business end with some 3/4" x 1 3/4" flat bar for strength. I also welded on a piece of angle with some 1/4-20 bolts on the side to hold the work flat. I found I needed a stiffener in addition, so I'm using a length of 1/4" x 1.5" flat bar you can see in the pic above. Here are all the bits: I didn't need the second hole on the arm. I used the hardie hole because it will withstand a lot mote torque than my vises, and it's easy. I bent a piece of 3/16" x 1" into a decent 90, although the radius is slightly bigger than on a real brake. I can see that there is a whole lot I don't know about these types of brakes. Nevertheless, it was fun to build an a whole lot cheaper than buying one. Ted

$10K for a violin bow??! Holy moley. I started out with an old beat up 70lb Vulcan and it was perfect for a beginner. I made a lot of bottle openers, hooks and mistakes on it. It takes a lot longer than you think to be able to wield a hammer accurately and effectively. This is where having an old beat up anvil is good because it will get a lot more beat up during the learning process. When I have friends over who want to try beating on a piece of hot metal, they do it on the Vulcan. It has become the guest anvil.

@ North State, I just read this thread and wanted to say that I built 3 forges before I got it right. I tend to build first and ask questions later, much to my chagrin. The guys here are quite knowledgeable and won't steer you wrong, but it's a bit of a gauntlet to the end. Once you fire up your forge and start using it, you will then go through another series of " I wish I did this and that". For instance, you'll find that your combustion chamber is probably a lot longer than you need it to be. Mine went from 18" down to 7". Anyway, you seem to be a good fabricator so don't worry about it. It's all part of the learning curve. BTW, refractory "cement" will not stick well to anything. It has to have some sort of mechanical bond in order to stay put. I've used wire, bolts and screen to hold it in place. If you're going to pour a flat floor in your chamber after the cylinder cures, make sure you have something to hold it in place sticking out of the cylinder.

Reminds me of a racehorse. I wish you all the happiness and contentment which comes with finally getting that special something you've been wanting for so long. I remember the stand you built. I'm not a structural engineer, but I have the feeling that widening the holes a bit will most likely not compromise the integrity of that thing.

Probably true, but I didn't have any at the time. It'll still hold pretty much any common hanging plant without a problem.

CGL, bending is also much easier with a torch. I bought an old OXY-Acetylene rig and set it up with propane instead of Acetylene. This makes bending of just about anything much more accurate since only a small section of material is being heated. I don't know what you have in the way of a torch, but it's something to keep in mind for down the road. One way or another, I use this torch on almost every project I do.

Having only 1 anvil I actually use makes hardie tools fairly straight forward. I could see where multiple sizes would be a challenge. Sounds like you have it pretty well figured out though.

Thanks all, glad you like it. pnut, it's welded at the base. Those stems provide support, although not as much as I'd like. It's probably good for 20 lbs.

I finally finished the project this bick was made for. The flowers were made from 1/8" sheet metal, which was necessary to be able to have enough material to draw out the curl. I did add some shims to the square bar on the bick which fits into the hardie hole. That made it a lot more solid. I'm sure I'll use it for something else in the future

I know, I run the same type. I have it 90 percent choked off at start up and decrease it as the forge heats up. This design needs very little air to get quite hot. I have more trouble keeping the heat down than anything else. This means choking to 95+ percent resulting in a pressure / velocity loss at the nozzles. I've plugged up all but 5 nozzles and that's about right for my rig. I've also noticed that the more nozzles I plug, the higher the efficiency of the forge. At a high amount of choke, there is relatively little gas velocity in the bigger pipes. It's only when the diameter is reduced sufficiently that the gas velocity surpasses the flame front speed. Nevertheless, if you have both ends of the combustion chamber wide open and flames shooting out everywhere this is of little concern. You could probably have a 2" nozzle and get away with it. I look at my forge more as an oven, where there are no flames exiting anywhere, thick doors on the front and a small exhaust hole in the back. I do everything I can to keep the heat inside and it has paid off. At 95% choke I can have a bright yellow/white combustion chamber which reheats most work in 15 to 20 seconds.

The only thing I worry about with increasing the diameter of the nozzle is blowback. There has to be sufficient gas velocity to overcome the flame front. I turn my flow way down when the forge gets hot, which also decreases the velocity. I've had blowback issues in the past under these conditions when I had too many ports in the burner and not enough velocity. Something to consider anyway.

I'm forgin' in the rain Just forgin' in the rain What a glorious feeling I'm happy again...

I like the concept, and use a similar forge myself. I'm curious about the nozzle (pipe?) entering the combustion chamber. Steel doesn't tend to last long in that type of environment.

I wear jeans 99 percent of the time, but it's still a drag when holes get burned in 'em. I like the new apron, although it's still a bit stiff. Btw, the bick didn't work out as well as I hoped. I find it easier to form the cones on the anvil.

Lol, mine just arrived today.

Amen. I needed a very specific size cone and trying to pound it into that shape seemed highly unlikely with my level of skill. It's not beautiful, but serves the purpose.

I'm making some little cone shaped flowers so I needed something to form them on. I made a sort of bick out of a piece of 1" steel rod turned down to the size cone I needed. I drilled a 5/8" hole in a piece of 1"x1" square stock and turned the same size pin on the other end of the cone. I made the pin a little short and welded it in. I also put some angle iron on the bottom to give it more stability. It still flops around a little so I may shim the hardie shank. Maybe I can put some weld beads on and grind to a tight fit. It was a fairly quick job, and I only caught on fire once while doing some grinding. A little singed hair but no burn. I might invest in an apron.

I use a wire wheel for most scale removal. I also have wire wheels for the drill press as well as the die grinder. When that doesn't work, an acid bath is probably your best bet.

Don't mind at all, that's what the forum is for. If you or anyone else wants more detail on a particular jig, let me know.