HojPoj

The photos didn't properly capture the magnitude of the misalignment as it's in two axes. If I took care of it by grinding I'd be left with a center punch!

That was great, thanks for that!

DHarris, I'm not concerned about the crooked eye, I can deal with that. I'm more concerned with the business (punch) end of the tool being crooked relative to the body.

I'm just a stone's throw from colonial Williamsburg, so yeah, it's probably a long list.

Frosty- One of the mounting tabs was off kilter, as well. The hinge is welded on, so no adjustment possible. Was hoping to avoid having to do major modifications to make it work properly. Usually I spend money on other people doing the work so I don't have to... just a little irritated, is all.

Saw the concept from the guys that sell the RX tongs blanks. They sell something in the same configuration that uses hex nuts instead of spacers, I just used the spacers since my hex nut supply was either too small or too large.

In that configuration does it rotate relative to the handle? I was anticipating having to grind a flat or groove into them so there's something to index off of. My thinking was "they're already heat treated, so I'm not going to reforge them"... if it can't be ground into shape then they'll stay as they are!

I guess my biggest concern about it is that I'd have to upset the area around the weld on both parts- that'd be around 3.5" down a 5/16" round bar!

Thomas, That's what I would have tried, it's just that I distinctly recall seeing that the material overlaps over a large area on the examples I'd seen. I didn't think it would be able to be worked down in such a fashion if it wasn't already wrapping. Steve- I thought I'd try it that way to see if it would work, and if it didn't at least it would look like what I'm after so I could ask the question! I know a guy in the area that makes the hooks with this type of weld, but given the 'rona and his advanced age I won't be able to pick his brain for quite some time. Anyone recall seeing the process illustrated anywhere?

Haven't used them much since I don't have pair of tongs that fit them well... yet. I have used one that was oval-shaped for starting the tabs on a bottle opener. Another I tried using as a hole punch as-is, but it definitely wanted to get stuck in the hole since it didn't have any taper to it. Many of them look like they're already set up for being eye punches (especially for a reptile), but I've not messed with that sort of work yet. There's a couple that I plan to make into precisely what you describe, though.

Having recently gotten set up for solid fuel where I'm not fighting the setup, I've been doing the occasional forge welding practice. I've got some future projects that could use a looped eye like pictured below. I know there's a name for hooks used in draft animals and wagons that use welded eyes done the same way, but for the life of me I can't dredge up the proper name. Regardless, my cursory searches haven't come up with anything that details the process or how the material gets prepared to do the weld properly. It didn't blend in properly, but seems to have stuck a little. I haven't properly tested the strength of it yet to see if really did weld.

Dangit, lost all my text when I added the last photo. Got a firepot for Father's day. Came from FieryFurnaceForge, not sure if their fitup when welding was off, or damage was sustained in transit, but there are a few things that didn't line up. In retrospect I wish I had gotten the mini forge pot from centaurforge since this slightly larger than I need. Got a rolling metal table from the scrapyard and dropped it in and put it to work. Did some tool-making with my impotent flux-core MIG. 1/2" Smoosh-a-matic for small and light work. Overarm tool guide. Small hook bending jig (to be used for bottle openers). Tong adjuster tool. Using some scrapped tong attempts for illustration. Worked on this hammer eye punch, first go at slit/drifting a tool. Unfortunately the eye's a little crooked and the punch is off the axis of the body and struck end. Need to fix it without boogering up the eye. Put a handle on this texturing hammer I made from a small hammer head. First attempt at drop-the-tongs weld. putting a 1/2" handle on a 3/8" neck. Will test its mettle when I add a twist the handle.

Well JLP, it *is* a rather dull purpose, isn't it? I mean, it just sits there and holds stuff.

tom_ET, It may be that the metal is/was too cold when you're hitting it. That may have started a crack that propagated along a weak plane in the material. Or it's just junk bar. Try cutting it off a lot further back and stop hitting when it gets red. Your bar might have some unexpected alloying that makes the proper forging temperature hotter than low alloy steel.

Yeah, it's likely a function of duration. Seeing as I was using a gas forge even if I only wanted to heat the tip of the stock, most of it got up to heat anyways :-\

The 304 and 316 Stainless I've been using for some hooks doesn't get the big flakey scale you'd see on mild, but I do usually end up with a surface that is roughened and black. The black coating seems even more tenacious than scale, so I've had trouble getting things back to 100% shiny.

Awrksmokey, looks like it'd make a decent small top fuller, too.

Oh, I meant the non-thermocouple one. It's actually a sort of handheld optical comparator. You actually tune the brightness of a bulb inside which is calibrated to a known temperature, when you look through it and the brightness of the furnace and the bulb matches, there's your temp!

I suppose it is time I finally invested in some cold blue solution. Phrase of the day was "Booger hook off the bang switch!". Trigger discipline will require work, but she definitely got the hang of engaging the safety before going forward of the firing line.

Looks like a Hofi face with a fat swedish peen. What is the balance like on that thing? Looks like it'd feel more like a dog's head hammer.

Whoops, accidentally posted this in 'It followed me home today'. Not exactly stuff I did today, but rather things that've been done since I last posted: 1) Got tired of futzing with the JABOD and dropped in the brake drum bottom-blast I had messed with before. Finally had something that worked well enough for what I needed (will be dumping all this and moving to a metal construction for the mobility and time savings- it's not a knock on the JABOD concept, I just have too many other competing factors that make it impractical for me at the moment). Tried out some corn, was fun to mess with, but certainly burns up quick. Switched back to coal and finally managed to get my first successful forge weld by myself. 2) Messed around with completing the welded fire poker. Made an attempt at putting a wooden (Black Walnut) handle on it. Everything looks like a dog's breakfast, but I had expected it to for the first go round. Over-expanded one rivet resulting in a crack, couldn't shape the handles without taking off the blackened finish. I suppose I should do more research on the process of installing scales and get my order of operations straightened out. While there are a lot of things that could be improved upon, I'm satisfied by the amount of stuff learned (the hard way) in doing it. Gave it to my neighbor to keep in his RV when he goes camping. 3) Took a scrap protective cage that came off some HVAC equipment at work, cut off the corners and welded together some brazier style firepits out of them. One using a piece of heavy pipe and a propane tank cutoff, and the other some rebar legs the feet flattened out. Makes for a nice ambiance, but doesn't contain the ashes worth a darn. Gave the tripod one to another neighbor, should probably look at selling off the other one. Had fired up the gas forge to blacken some hooks and hardware, and found a short piece of angle iron. Decided to go ahead and try my hand at making a feather hook. The white balance is way off in the pictures, but I'm reasonably satisfied with the resulting hook (definitely figured out a bunch of things to do differently the next time). 4) Not really shop related, but finally got to start teaching my daughter (will be 6 in a couple weeks) about gun safety. A daisy BB gun was her introduction to the fundamentals, and she at least got to walk away feeling some success. And yes, the backstop (carpet) is adequate for the task.

Drove an hour to pick up a Champion 400. Cost me 250, but everything appears to be in really good condition. Is quiet, but will require some cleaning up, and maybe a new paintjob.

From the photo it doesn't appear as though casting anything into it could be extracted. Might have just been a random piece of something that was clamped in the vise and used as a swage.

Different method of reading, but wouldn't a pyrometer used at a foundry get you a better estimate of the forge temperature without breaking the bank?

Yet another great one, Joe. Please don't stop!