Yance

Thoughts?

First one is that you've done a beautiful job bending that wide flat stock.
Second, the depth created by the three layers looks great!
Timewise, I'm impressed. It's taken me an hour to do a simple split and turned heart finial on a flower pot stand.

Good work!

WOW! With membership only $10.00/ year, how could you go wrong????:confused:

Too cool! That's a great job on the skull. I'm pretty sure you'll be making several more of those in the near future.

Awesome project. Looking forward to the finished product.

Hey Yance, I was taught gun control is hitting what you aim at.
Ken

Yeah, that too. I hope I have it for tomorrow's BPCR match. I'll be buring some "high sulfur coal". The match and travel eats near the whole day, so no more hammerin' 'til Wednesday dangit!

Wow Mike! You HAVE been busy! All looks good for your camping trip.

J; then proceeded to grind a few grooves and notches along the edge here and there. Once finished, Bill looked me square in the eye and said, "and now I will show you how to use them too". Thanks Bill they do come in handy for "special" tasks.

Stan;

Any chance you could post a few photos of those special grooves and notches, along with explanations of their uses?

I've been using straight 30 weight in the Champion 400 I run and it leaks out the front pretty badly.

Does using grease like Lubriplate cause more drag, and then what do you do about lubing the shafts, especially the worm gear shaft in the 400?

Nice set of grabs Frosty. After freezup you can use 'em for ice tongs.:D

Mike;

Thanks for posting the pics of the Chuckwagon fire irons. I'd seen that style a good while back, (before I ever thought I'd be making 'em) but didn't remember how the tops were made, or how they went together. Guess I'll be making a set like that in the near future.

Since I doubt I'll be doing any "period" pieces for reenactors any time soon, rebar will still serve my needs nicely. If someone just HAS to have nice, new HR stock it'll be priced accordingly.

Just add the campfire? How about the beans? I should be able to smell them from here.
Ken

Actually Ken there WERE beans in in the pot, my Texas buddy's recipe for Camp Beans. If I had a fire under 'em you probably could have smelled them. Easy enough to do over the fire, and quick enough to get fed in a hurry.

3 16 oz cans of your favorite beans, pintos, whites, Pork 'n' Beans (no kidney or lima or "baked" beans)
1 cup each, brown sugar, Pace Picante sauce, your favorite BBQ sauce
1 lb of so of ground beef seasoned to you taste with Lawrey's Seasoned Salt

Brown the seasoned beef, (I add a chopped onion), add the beans, brown sugar, and sauces. Simmer 'til thickened to suit yer taste.

Grant, I was beginning to think I was the only one removing studs by welding a nut on.
Actually i prefer 1in flatbar as long as possible. drill one end weld then tap other with a hammer. Locals here are amazed.
Ken

Yep, some of us are easily amazed, but we can learn new tricks. Thanks for the flatbar tip.

Been wanting to make a nice campfire tripod since I saw this design on one of the forums a few months back.

Since rebar's cheap and plentiful at the scrapyard I figured it'd be good enough for the prototype before I go buy 5/8" HR.

'Course if you're gonna hang a bean pot off the thing you gotta have pot hooks, so I made them, and a fancy twisted S hook to get it close to the fire.

I would love to see how you do this CBrann do you think you could post some pictures or PM some to me? If not maybe a description. I have been trying to figure out some knew thing to do with RR Spikes instead of knives and figurines. Thanks.

How about a pigtail steak flipper?

Got the idea from another local smith. He'd put a steer head on the top of his. I tried but broke off one of the horns while drawing out the shaft. Rather than try to weld on something to make a replacement horn I cut the other one off and drew the head out to about 1/4" square, put in a twist, and formed the loop.

Overall finished length is 20 1/2". Time involved...WAY too much. Will I do another one? Sure. Good exercise.

Dick L, I took a few pics of forging the tines on the diagonal. I hope this helps explain it.

Great photos Brian. Guess I can't grasp written instructions well sometimes and your photo series are always a BIG help.

Beautiful work...as always.

A spoon forged from a 16d masonry nails and a fire striker forged from a tire tool.

Nice on both pieces! I'll have to try a spoon in the near future.

Is the striker made from a regular old tire tool, like lug wrench on one end blade on the other? I've twisted the blades trying to use them for large screwdrivers before so I didn't figure they'd be hard enough for strikers.

How did you harden and temper that material?

Yance is that the result of the computer crash at work. Nice save my friend.
Ken

Nahh, "my" computer seems to crash all the time. Sometimes I don't pay enough attention.

Been by the shop a few times but it seems you're always somewhere else. No sign of life around. I'll catch you there before long though.

Sounds like the August Guild meeting may be somewhere besides Falling Creek. Just have to wait and see.

Any scrap yard is a LOT more fun than Walmart .... My dentist is more fun than China Inc. Shopping at Walmart is unpatriotic and unAmerican.

True, but it's a great freakshow, especially on Friday nights.

Been wondering how to get a dome on a nail header!!
Thank You
Billy

Thanks to everyone for the nice comments.

Billy;

Here's my "doming tools". The "block" or base had been bored and internally threaded like a big blind nut or cap. The flange is something I found that looked like it would make a good "foot" for my vise since my floor is hard packed earth. The ball pein is a 32 oz so the pein is a good size for the hole in the block.

I've finally gotten to the point where rather than just looking for "specific" materials for projects I have in mind I notice bits and pieces I might could use for tools or to make tools from. My "raw stock" inventory continues to grow and my Wednesday quandry is "If I'm scrappin' I'm not hammerin', and if I'm hammerin', what kind of goodies am I missing at the scrapyard?!" Our local yard is a LOT more fun than WalMart! ;)

Looks Good Yance, Did you make your nail header,, Thanks for sharing with us..

Wagon Master;

Yep, I made it (crudely) from a piece of about 3/8" thick leaf spring. Drew out the handle then domed the head end with a ball pein over the hole in a piece of lathe drop I found at the scrapyard, driving it with a "softer" hammer. Cheated and drilled an undersize hole, then used my square punch to drift it to size.

I have "refined" the tool since these pics so it doesn't look quite so "crude". Doesn't work any better, but it looks better.:rolleyes:

Fine work as usual mike. The bucket is really neat. Lotta work in that one.

I especially like the "coiled snake" Viking strikers. I tried to make a couple that style last week by forging sections of 3/8" round spring flat so my peaks weren't high enough. Next time I'll try cutting a couple of sections of leaf spring and go from there.

BTW, the shovel frying pans in you gallery are really neat too.

Nice work.

Well, it was GOING to be a weenie roaster. 3/8" square, tapered and split tines, had 'em nice and even with nice curved bends.

While deciding what type handle I wanted to make I thought I'd try my first pineapple twist for the middle. Somewhere around the middle of creasing the third side I got it a little too hot. Well, I got it a LOT too hot and only the lower half came out of the fire.

After a short discussion with myself about my intelligence level I decided all was not lost. Referring to the copy of The Iron Menagerie given my a couple of weeks ago by my friend/mentor I decided I had a decent start on a steer head.
It also just happened that this morning's work included making some of the shaped carving chisels and punches for the projects shown in the book.

Anyway, here's how my hot dog fork finally turned out. I'll probably drill mounting holes and drift them square for the nails I've made with my new nail header.

Yeah, That's what I intended.

Been using it this afternoon, and it actually doesn't swing too bad. I can wind up using it for a flatter since I'm missing that third hand.:D

Thanks for the critique, that's pretty much to a "T" what I was planning on changing on my next one. This was a "lesson" hammer, just to see if I could come somewhere close to the idea I had in mind.

Since we're supposed to have a very good chance of rain today, and I work outside, thought I might make a "shopping" trip since it's been several weeks since I checked out the scrapyard. Hight get lucky and find a couple more hammer "blanks".

I'd decided a good while back that a diagonal pein hammer would be really good to have, but with the price of good hammers it'd have to wait a while.

One of my "shopping" trips to my favorite scrapyard turned up some offfall from a local machine shop. 55 gallon drum of short pieces of solids in round, hex and one NICE piece of square 1 3/4" X 5" "mystery metal".

Last Thursday I punched the eye and rough cut and ground the pein end, today I refined the eye, forged the pein the rest of the way and slightly radiused the face.

After lightly grinding to the best finish I could and finishing the face and pein with a file I mixed up a batch of Super Quench and hoped my new hammer would harden. Well, it did, nicely. A file would just slide across the surface removing nothing but a bit of scale.

I then used my OA torch with the cutting head to heat the area around the eye until the pein face started to turn straw colored. By the time I got the torch shut off and got the tongs on the head it had reached dark straw beginning to show purple on the far corners. Quenched only the first half or so of the pein end keeping a good bit of heat in the eye area. Repeat process with the face end, again quenching only about 2/3 of the head portion hoping the middle would stay soft enough to not break. So far it looks like it's working. Couple of missed slicks and I got really good bounce, plus no "dings" in either the hammer face of anvil.

Except for the weight, (right at 4 lb) I'm pleaded with my first attempt at making a hammer. Maybe next time I'll start with stock a little shorter, hoping for around 2 1/2 lb.

Great way to spend one of my days off.:D