Ted Ewert

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.

My daughter said she wanted a necklace hanger, so I mulled it over and came up with the unit below. I think the design has promise, but I used 1/2" stock and it got a little more massive than is appropriate for a jewelry accessory. 3/8" would have been better. You could hang engine parts in this thing.

Thanks Das, you want one? :-) JHCC: There is something very therapeutic about being in the shop, especially after a stressful day. My father used to come home from work to a couple of Martinis. As soon as I get in the shop the rest of the world just melts away. No hangover either.

I got an idea for a double hook the other day and decided to see how it would turn out. Don't know what I'll use it for but I kind of like it.

Thanks, I thought of a loop too. I'll try it if I build another one.

Here's a couple of openers I made with 1/4" (6.3mm) rod. The braiding is all torch work. I welded the three ends together and drew them out into a hook. The tang is bevelled on the underside to catch the lip of the cap. Something a little different anyway...

Nice Billy, good to try new things. Tried a few myself. I saw a picture similar to the opener on the top, so I thought I'd try it out and see how it works. The tang is a bit weak, but does the job. I started thinking and came up with the bottom one which I like better. I used 3/8" (9.5mm) round stock, but I think 1/4" would also work just fine.

I tried some copper to see how it would turn out. It's hard to shine up after heating, and doesn't provide a lot of contrast. Nevertheless, the 1/8" brass turned out pretty good.

Used the brushes today on some stubborn scale and they made short work of it.

Well said Glenn. I consider the wire wheel to be the most dangerous tool in the shop. I've been bitten a few times, and it happens so fast there's not much you can do but try and get your hands away. The little one wasn't too bad, but 1 hp will show no mercy. These things are not to be trifled with. To answer the question about wheel size, I would not use anything larger than what the machine is designed for, which is 8 inches. That's plenty big enough for any job I have.

I do a lot of my finishing work on the wire wheel, mostly descaling. I've had a Delta bench grinder for many years, but it's only a 1/2 hp. With an 8" wire wheel on it it bogs down, so I decided to upgrade. I found a good deal on a 1 hp Jet, so that's what I got. So far I'm pretty happy with it. It certainly doesn't bog down, and it runs quite smoothly. I bought a twisted wire wheel along with it and that thing scares me a little. It will take any material off steel, even the steel itself. I had a piece of old rusted 3/4" rebar with concrete still stuck to it and it picked it clean. I put the wheels that came with the Jet on the Delta for sharpening and grinding tools. I now have a pretty decent grinding station.

Can't complain about the weather here in the SF bay area. We got a little dusting of snow on the hills last week, but it rarely freezes down at sea level. Nevertheless, California keeps burning up during the late summer months (many of the fires being quite suspicious in origin).

Thanks, those inlays are real easy. Just drill a hole the size of your brass rod and pound in a piece of rod about 1/16th longer than the width of your material. Sand or grind the excess off and you're done. The brass expands into the steel and locks itself in.