Dax Hewitt

Thomas I don't know if this will help but my Mrs is type 1 and even a simple cold sends her levels wappy. She finds the best way to manage it is porridge, nice slow release carb / sugar that helps her stabilise things.

Not sure if I have posted a pic of this guy before. My best pal Spud. He travels all over the place with us in the tank bag on the bike, it has a flap so he can get his head out and air vents for summer that can be closed for winter. A better pal a man could not ask for.

I do mine with a hammer and anvil and the final loop is formed with a pair of long nosed pliers. The best way I have found of tightening the spiral is hooking it over the horn and a few taps with the hammer. Probably not the most efficient way but I'm still learning to move the metal.

The first thing I forged when I went on my first course was a scroll / snail key ring. I thought it was a great first project. 6mm round bar, draw out and taper both ends, coil it in to as tight a scroll as you can (I took great pride in not having gaps in mine) then a reverse loop on the end to form the head that goes on your keys. It's been on my keys ever since. It's a great first project because it only takes a hour to make, has a few different skills and every time I pick up my keys in the last few years I remember making it. That was the first hour of the course, after we all made a dragon coat rack. 25mm flat bar, isolated a head off the edge of the anvil, split it to form a mouth, punched an eye, drew out and tapered the tail, bent the whole thing in to a more sinuous shape, made 3 hooks, punched holes in them and the dragon and riveted them in place. That sits by my door with the dogs lead hanging on it.

5 cfm at 90 psi from a 1.75hp sounds about right. Makes a change seeing a company advertising the actual air delivered rather that the free air delivered. Free air from a 1.75hp would be about 7 cfm so I can well believe 5 cfm at 90 psi.

CGL I think we all suffer from blindness. Things look great in the forge (or whatever else you are doing) but once back home you notice a little flaw, then another and then another. The more it niggles at you the more you notice them.

Thanks for the kind words guys. I though I had taken good precautions, flame proof overalls, full welding mask and gauntlets, eye protection behind the mask just in case, scaffolding so I was not cutting above myself. For some reason though the fact that hair is very flammable slipped my mind. The problem was block back when I got to the root of the I beam, I didn't slow down enough to compensate for the extra thickness so a bunch of sparks came back at me and having checked afterwards my beard was poking out of the bottom of the mask. It will be used as a learning experience though and I'm going to turn the event in to a tool box talk safety briefing for me service engineers in the new year. All good fun though but a tad strange to see flames out of the corner of your eye then realise its your own face. (I would put a smiley emoticon here but my phone and this forum don't like doing that)

Interesting day today. I took some I Beams out of the roof space of my workshop (old and very dodgy lifting beams left from the last owner) using a plasma cutter. I managed to set fire to me beard in the process, one side is still bushy but the other side dips in now. Fortunately I noticed the flames before I was burned but it's very annoying.

Nothing to do with smiting because she wouldn't have a clue what I need / want but a very cool gift anyway. She got me a half day horse archery lesson.

Very nice work, looks very professional

Nothing even close to photo worthy but I fired up my forge for the first time in 6 months this weekend, a combination of an insane work schedule and injury has kept it cold for too long. I thought I would share the fun and games lighting it. I built my pile of kindling, lit it and packed the coke round it, slowly opened the air and after 10 minutes of messing around it went out. Start again, new pile of kindling, lit it and packed the coke around it, started adjusting the air and after 5 minutes it was close to going out. I couldn't understand it until I realised I was opening the lever for the Ash dump rather that the air intake. Once I stopped the air venting away and got it to the fire it was away with the fairies.

Saturdays plan was making a couple of oak leaf hooks cutting templates with my new plasma cutter, unfortunately work has raised its head so that's not going to happen now

JHCC, that drill in the photo looks very like one that did its best to kill me. The torque was massive and when the bit stuck in the hole it dragged me round with it. The one I was using had a 3/4 chuck on it rather than your 1/2 chuck but I thought it might be worth a heads up.

You have to love some of the old laws. Apparently in the UK it is still legal to shoot a Welsh man as long as you are inside the walled city of Chester (Welsh man is old English for foreigner so be careful where you visit) It's also still in the law books that every man in England has to archery practice once a week and the church has to provide the area to do it.

She has a look in that photo that say I'm going to be a right handful but I'm so cute that you will forgive me anything.

Aus they are excellent. I particularly like the one on the flower rather than the cog but both are great.

Eventlessbox I like your hangers but have you thought about making the tong one a bit smaller? My thinking is if the sides were a bit closer together they would hold on the handles a bit higher up making it easier to lift them out, they look a bit flush with the top right now.

Grumpy Biker, what did you use to clean the swage block? You have done a great job. I have one that I dug up in an old quarry, haven't got round to cleaning it yet so any tips would be great. I think this is the problem, certainly in the UK, people with more money than sense watch decorating programs and will pay silly money for what they see as decorations.

The lads cleaned up our workshop and threw all the scrap steel in a 45 gallon drum for me. Should last me a wee while once my elbow is playing the game again. Spanners, punches, files, various flat and round bar and the frame on top is 2/2 solid bar. Don't know what I'm going to do with it but it will find a use.

Alexander, you sir are a true craftsman. I love your work and have to be very careful to not let my Mrs see the screen otherwise I will either have to step up my game by 1000% or commission you to build her stuff. Billy is your mouse okay? Seems to be taking a very long time to eat that nut. When we had one living in the house it decimated any food it found.

A very good policy to have, the world would be a much better place if people took the time to help others.

Doddle then. I will knock out 20 on Saturday

I thought that would be the case but they look so well finished I can't get my head round how you would get round them on the anvil being so close to the head

Das those letters are top drawer. I can only imagine how much of a pain in the bum they must have been to get everything so uniform. Ausfire, love the hooks, especially the steer one. Did you split and draw the horns out or weld them on after? I can't imagine either way being easy.