Goods

I may have to do that myself, but I’ll have to use the hardy hole. I’m often using a hold down in the pritchel hole.

Made a little more progress on a fire place set. These piece still need a lot of work and need to make the broom and stand. Anyone have any recommendations on what to use for the “brush” end of the broom?

David

You could alway PM Glen to buy some kast-o-lite in reasonable quantities from this site. Could get the ceramic blanket also to reduce the volume and up the insulation amount...

I’ll probably do that if I ever get around to building a gas forge.

Looks like you could cut that into thirds. Draw out the reigns more and still have stock for another project.

I’m with you Steve! I wouldn’t even mind buying up some of the scrap... Honestly, just looking around an old shop would be fun!

55 minutes ago, Glenn said:

It can generate CO and you do not want to put CO in a closed space or where it can get into the house.

My next question was if it’s an attached garage... We’ve all heard the stories of families never waking up after someone got home late at night excited about something, left the car running in the attached garage, and flooded the house with CO... Dangerous stuff!

David

What is you indoor area and how much ventilation do you have in that space?

David

My neighbors have a huge old Ginkgo tree. I’ve spent a lot of time looking at the leaves for my project and there seems to be two variations on this one tree. The lower branches have leaves similar to what I forged (shown above). Small random splits long the outer edge. The upper branches have more of the leave type with a deep split in the outer edge with a ~1/16” radius at the bottom of the split. 
 

Also the leaves all sprout from a the end of the woody twigs in groups including the fruit. (I hope this description is understandable?)
 

If there is interest, I’ll try to get pictures...

David

A couple of the many ginkgo leaves for a significant project that I really need to get back on...

Nice clean work on that gate!

A drift is typically a long smooth taper about 1/2 the total length of the tool. Then a smooth section the size of the desired finished hole or slightly larger to compensate for shrinkage when cooled about 3/8 total length. Final section is a taper to the struck end for the last 1/8 of the length. This final taper allows it to fall through the finished hole to avoid the need to grad another punch to drive if through. The cross section of the drift depends on you starting hole and shape of the finished hole (round, square diamond, hearts shaped...). You can use mild steel for drifts, but they won’t last long. I’ll often just make a quick mild steel drift for a project and just toss it into the repurpose bucket when done, just to keep in the rhythm rather than stopping and looking for the material to make more durable tool. Normalized spring steel should last a long time.

David

If the tongs fit good, try using tong clips. You can set the clip really tight, and not have all that stress on your hand/arm. I found my elbow on my tong holding arm bothers me if I’m holding something odd and with tong clips there’s no issues. (Its kind of funny that I’ve never had problems with my hammer arm...)

David

Inspired by one of Joey van der Steeg’s videos, I made one of the scribes from it. Didn’t get a picture of it before I passed it along to a friend at work, but I made another one last night. This one was more of my take. Almost want to paint it yellow with a black lettered “No. 10000” on it.

Keep it fun!

David

Is the 4.5” the bore diameter or the outside diameter? You may want to contact Eaton to see what motor size they recommend for that pump. If they system was modified, the current motor could be overkill or to weak...

David

I like that use of expanded metal for the punch holder. Creative reuse...

David

Not today, but yesterday. I finished up a tomahawk and made a few s hooks for a neighbor from some very old pitted 3/8” round. Also, not picture, but I welded up a bending jig with some angle iron, and little 1/2” square stock to use a set of flea market 1/2” drive sockets. Worked well after re-welding one of the 1/2” studs. Funny, my forge welding is now better than my MiG welding. (Of course that doesn’t really say much.)

Hawk is not really what I planned. It is just rough filed, leaving some deep scratches. I was checking for hardness after the tempering and had to file pretty far before getting to the hard layers. Then, just got carried away and had to see the edge polished and etched. The 1095 I had for the bit seemed a bit thin so I wrapped in piece of 1/16” thick band saw blade (originally 8” wide blade!) and welded that up before welding in as a bit. Looks like I lost some to scale, but what’s left stand out well. 

Over all pretty pleased. I was able to get it welded without fighting with it, and I’m getting better about moving the metal where I want it without too many corrections. 

Handle needs work yet, but I think I’m going to let the rough scratches there. Looks go in a “get ‘er done” kind of way. I even forgot to touch mark it...

David

On 8/10/2020 at 10:37 PM, Tradguy said:

 

Frosty help please

 

Frosty, I noticed in the first picture of the post when zoomed in that there’s a bright spot on both MiG tips. It could just be light from the forge, but when light is coming through so is heat. Couldn’t tell if it was hot or not from the picture. Maybe just an odd ball observation...

David

Just an observation, and something I’ve never noticed before, but it looks like you are getting some very hot spots on the MiG tips in the T burners. Could it be that the when the higher forge temperature is achieved, it starts over heating the MiG tips increasing the diameter throwing the mix ratio off. The result being a delayed drop in efficiency and forge temperature?

I can’t remember ever seeing a hot spot inside a T burner. (I’m a solid fuel user...)

David

Going slow, which I find frustrating!

Now going with a 200A service for the shop. It’s basically the easiest way for me. House has a 200A service and the next step up is 400A with separate 200A feeds. So, one for the for the house and one to the shop. (If I really wanted, I could do 3ph on my property, but not in a hurry to spend another $10K. Much lower than most due to having high voltage 3ph on the pole within 100ft of the new building,)

Decided the in floor heating is the way to go, at least for me. I’ll make sure I know exactly where the lines are!

Hold up is getting zoning approval. Current garage is maybe 30” from the property line but need 9.9ft on the side by code on my property and maybe pushing it for the 22ft clearance to the back out the property. So survey, site plan, and design all going to the planning commission. Sound like it will work out fine, but the surveyors ran into issues with finding and property makers in the neighborhood (long story there), and bad weather. Not enough time now for the notice period before the August meeting. So, no more progress until the end of September when the next meeting will be held.

Waiting (almost patiently),

David

If it’s only slightly magnetic, probably 300 series, not harden able. But I would check with a quench and file test to be sure... If it hardens looking more into the 400 series or something else altogether and may take a lot more caution.

David

It may be best for you to start with long stock, so no tongs are needed. After that it comes down to money or skill level. Tongs can be difficult and frustrating for beginners. You could look into twist tongs and the are plans for those in the blueprint section. Tong blanks are also a good option for beginners. Honestly, when I am at other blacksmith’s shops, one thing I pay close attention to is there tong collection and many are purchased. When things clear up, find a local hammer-in and ask for help making tongs. That’s the best way to learn, but the video link here can help also. I personally believe it is a good skill to have. (Even though most of mine are self made and crudely functional.)

David

(ps, if you have a welder available, welding a hand on works out great in many cases. Of course for some things that can be a pain...)

Fraser, the hot cut is not a bad idea, but forging the remains into a stake anvil/hardy bic (not due if I’m using the right terminology) would be another use. Heck, most of the shape is already there. If there’s not enough mass to set a stable shoulder, you could weld a mild steel shoulder onto it.

David

I had to wait till I was home to get this picture, but I saw this will thumbing through to books that were gifted to me. When I saw this post I thought it could be an interesting option for making a cross. From “Werk Ind Werkzeug fed Kunstchmieds” by Otto Schmirler.

David

Tracemaster,  

None of us are in your shoes,  but there are a lot of flaws in this design. We all have ant the best for you. Every post here has been to try to help, and I wish you were near by... If you truly are working within a situation with real limitations, built it. It’s going to have lots of problems, but at least you can get started. The main thing is that you stay safe! Wear you PPE, including good shoes and no synthetics. One good injury, and at best your forging privileges will be revoked. Worse, you could be maimed permanently. If you setup starts getting shakes, STOP until you can upgrade it! Finally, look up an organization near you, and get to a hammer-in. The smiths there will make sure you’re not making dangerous nubbie mistakes.

(Where are you going to get you steel to forge?)

Safety first!

David

Finally, had a chance to meet up with one of the smiths in our IBA chapter. He was holding some blacksmithing books for me.  Aside from just really enjoying the visit (no metal working this time), I’m overjoyed with the collection he saved for me! They survived a shop fire and some are in pretty bad shape, but from what I have thumbed through so far, these book are going to be an amazing resource. Couldn’t thank him enough.

I did feel a good that, although I can’t make our meetup this weekend, he is going to bring two die guide posts to our iron in a hat for me. They could be used as is, or as a source of two 2” diameter by 10” section of 1045.

David