Bantou

What size/alloy steel would you recommend to make hangers to put my long stock on? I’m thinking an “L” shaped bracket of 1/2” A36 round should be ok; but, I can’t seem to find WLL data. They will be bolted to the poles along the right side of the building (one one closest to the neighboring building). 
 

Something like this

9 hours ago, ThomasPowers said:

Keep your eye out for some rolling barn door track and fittings.  It can easily make half of one wall moveable to let air in and heat out, yet close up for bad weather and be lockable against "casual theft".

I’ll definitely do that. Theft isn’t much of a risk but having something solid to keep the wind off would be nice.

6 hours ago, TWISTEDWILLOW said:

I had a stove pipe burn out last year and it dropped embers and caught the field on fire…
 

maybe line that side of your smithy with sheet metal or nail up a big welding blanket just for added safety! 

I’m planning on putting and ember guard on top of the chimney to prevent the odd spark. The risk of starting a grass fire is significantly higher than a fire in the smithy. There is a field next to the smithy that only gets mowed a couple times a year. There just isn’t enough combustible material in the smithy itself to create a large fire even if one manages to start. I don’t keep fuel (with the exception of a metal trash can of coal) or accelerants in my smithy. 

I’m not all that concerned about my shop catching fire. There honestly won’t be much in there to burn. It has a dirt floor, no walls, the poles are relatively fire resistant (I’ve seen similarly treated poles barely smolder after being subjected to serious prolonged heat), and the roof is tall enough to not catch without a veritable bone fire under it. My coal is stored in a metal trash can with the lid on unless I need to add another scoop to the fire. The building will only have power when I am there working. I bought a decent sized ABC fire extinguisher to mount in an easy to access location; and, I always keep a 5 gallon bucket full of water handy. Worst case scenario, the fire is still unlikely to spread to the building next to mine. The other building is all metal construction with fiberglass insulation; it would take quite a fire to transfer over. 
 

The window unit is rarely used and would not be used at all during the period that I would have the wall tarps rolled down. My brother and I installed it when we were using the “shop” area of the garage as a reloading room. That area is now mostly used for storage. 

I’m in the process of building a new smithy. The city shut down the one at my house a few weeks ago. (political content removed)

Fortunately, my folks offered for me to build something on their place a few miles outside of town. I’ve decided to go with a lean-to pole barn. It is 10’x12’ with a 10’ roof on the tall side and 9’ on the short side. Once complete, the roof will be salvaged metal R-panels. During the “cold” months (like we have much of that in Texas), I’m planning on tarping the sides to keep the wind off of me but allow me to open things up if it gets too hot. Total cost so far is a little over 100 USD, mostly on lumber (the poles and R-panels were free). I still need to get  the stove pipe for my new chimney and the stuff to run plugs on the outside of the existing shop. 

Poles staked out and rough locations for forge (half barrel), anvil (pool filter), and post vice (broken fireplace).

Holes dug using a boom-tip digger borrowed from work (with permission)

Poles set and tamped

First set of rafters installed. Hopefully, I can get the rest of the rafters up, the R-panel installed, and my stuff moved over tomorrow. I’d like to be up and running again by next Friday.  

I need to look into that stuff. The last few weeks have been brutal at work between the humidity and lack of breeze. 

Had a pretty good haul from a boat shop and the mechanic at work. I see lots of bottom tools, drifts, tongs, and punches in my future (as soon as this dang rib heals anyway). The auger teeth are going to be turned into plank mounted bottle openers. 
 

Ignore the galvanized bolts, they are for my anvil stand (if I ever get around to building it)

It was more her mother’s charm I was referring to… Let’s just say there is a reason I’m a single dad. 

Thank you Frosty and Anvil. I think I have a can of Meguiars carnuba based wax in my car washing stuff.

On 7/3/2021 at 12:29 PM, Frosty said:

I also have forgings outside finished with the "wax, soot and turpentine" recipe in "The Art Of Blacksmithing" by Alex Bealer.

Frosty, can you explain this mix? I don’t have that book yet. 

What do y’all use to finish a dinner bell/triangle? I tried BLO but it developed rust spots after the first rain. I’m debating using a clear coat. My concerns are:

1) The clear coat being damaged/cracking when the bell is rung.

2) The thickness of the clear coat hampering the bell’s sound. 

That just means their tartans are set at a “kilt”. Sorry, I know is horrible but it’s the best I could come up with 

I will when she gets a little older. I don’t trust her around hot steel yet. She is four and bounces around like she is made of flubber. 
 

Knowing my daughter, she will probably walk out without paying a dime. She got her mother’s looks and her father’s charm. She is incredibly fortunate it wasn’t the other way around 

With my youngest, I’ll be surprised if I make it to the home. She is all the mischief of a little boy rolled into the cuteness and sass of a little girl… I swear I get a new gray hair at least once a day. 

2 hours ago, Frosty said:

Going to a steel mill is a bit more to the source than I meant! 

The squirrels in my head were having a party when I wrote that. I meant steel yard. 
 

5 hours ago, ThomasPowers said:

A-36.  Did you buy it in a big box store instead of a steel dealer?  But I'd bet it's A-36!

Ace is a franchise that fills the gap between big box and mom and pop. They have a better selection than your average mom and pop with better service than a big box store. 

1 hour ago, Frosty said:

Convenience costs. I can buy a 20' stick of anything available at Home Depot, or AIH for about the same as two 4' pieces. I do have to drive about 15 minutes each way,

The closest steel mill to me is ~45 minutes away. The next closest is over an hour. Ace is about 10 minutes from me and TSC (Tractor Supply Company) is about 15. When I’m doing single pieces, it doesn’t make sense to make the drive. I also don’t have a good place to store large quantities of steel right now. When I start prepping for the city fair in mid-September, I’ll buy in bulk. 

The opportunity cost of lost time is something else I have to take into consideration. I’m a single dad with custody of two kids. I’m lucky if I get more than a handful of days a month that aren’t consumed by chores or kids. Unless I need large quantities of something, I’d rather pay a little more and spend the saved time at the forge. 

The steel I used is sold as “weldable steel.” I haven’t been able to figure out if that is mild or A-36. TSC lists theirs as A-36 but I’m pretty sure that bar came from Ace. Ace does not specify the alloy in their product information. Googling the name brand didn’t help either.

Edit to add: since I’m going to have the forge fired up to make a drift anyway, I’ll probably try quenching the corners and see what happens. Worst case, I’ve wasted a couple minutes of my time. 

I think they came off a set of trailer ramps. I didn’t realize quenching mild had any effect. I’d rather make them out of mild anyway. Do you quench it in water or oil? 

The legs are all different lengths. Starting from the long side and working around they are 12”,9”, and 10.”

The original idea was to have the ends cross so that the loops formed a heart on the top (this was made for a lady friend). My jig was giving me fits though and the bends came out uneven. When I got the bends reasonably close, my lengths were off so this is what I wound up with. What is it Bob Ross says, “There are no mistakes, just happy accidents”? 

The ends aren’t actually touching. I know it looks like it in the photo but there is 1/8-1/4” between them. The decorative loops on the ends do double back onto the bar though. I might make a drift and try driving it through to open them up a little. They are thin enough that it should be relatively easy to do cold. 

Well my idea for easy offset tongs was a bust. I was hoping to modify the easy to make tongs blueprint into a functional set of offsets. I figured out pretty quickly that, that was going to be more difficult than just making a set of tongs. On my second attempt, I smashed the boss the wrong direction and gave it up for another day. 
 

I wound up making a dinner triangle out of 3/8 round instead. It doesn’t ring as well as I would like but it’s good enough for a backyard BBQ. The ends are close together (~1/4”) but not touching. The next one will be made out of the 1/2” spring steel I have laying around and will have quenched corners. From what I’ve read, that should make it ring better. The hook is made out of 1/4” round. 
 

Edit to add: the loops on the ends do touch the bars. I wonder if that would be enough to kill the resonance. 
 

The practice is why I want them to be similar if not matching. I figure it’s a good skill to have for other projects. 

I squared it out of personal preference mostly. I think the square looks better on something with an integral handle. If I were putting a different handle on it like antler or wood, I would have left it round except for where the twist is. 

I haven’t had the chance to test them. They will probably get tested this afternoon at my family’s Father’s Day cookout. I imagine they will work just fine, though. 

I misjudged the length of the handle for the second one. If I had made it about an inch shorter and made the curl at the end about a 1/2 inch shorter, it would have been a much closer match to the first. I started not to put a handle on them, but it didn’t feel comfortable to use that way. 

The second one took me less than half the time of the first though. With better measurements and a little more practice, I should be able to turn them out fairly symmetrically in a little over an hour. If I can get some 3/8 square, probably less than a half hour. Most of my time was spent squaring up the round stock.  

Made a couple steak flippers today for Father’s Day. The first one actually turned out better than the second. I didn’t get good measurements off the first one and I was trying to streamline the process when I made the second. 
 

I’m still planning to work on the crosses. My time has just been very limited lately and this was a higher priority.
 

first

Second hanging next to first

1 hour ago, rockstar.esq said:

The second half attempts to apply this understanding to morality and leadership, without answering the most important question of all.

That question is pretty simple.  "What practical purpose can any of this serve?"

It serves as a lesson on leadership. Every leader (be it in politics, military, or civilian) should periodically spend time out in the field actually working with those under them. It is a common theme, at least in my trade, that a leader seems to forget what life in the field is like after a year or two in the office. Spending a month or so every couple of years actually doing the work might help correct the problem. 

On 6/7/2021 at 11:59 AM, JHCC said:

When I was little, I once stood so close to a bonfire that the heat radiating out through the ground melted the soles of my boots and they mushroomed out all the way around. I loved fire even then.

I did pretty much the same thing to a pair of cheap boots as a teenager. Sat next to a campfire and propped my feet against the metal fire ring. Apparently the fire was closer to the ring than I anticipated. My soles started smoking within a couple minutes. 

I think everyone needs to take a deep breath and say a few ohms for meditation.

I don’t have my welder set up yet. I have an old buzz box but I don’t think my meter base or wiring will handle the load. My house is currently only wired for 100 amps. I’m pushing that limit as it sits during the summer. The wiring is also mostly the old cloth insulation stuff. I don’t trust it to handle the kind of load a buzz box can pull. 
 

I’m planning on upgrading to a 320 amp service sometime in the near(ish) future. With a 320 meter base, I can run two 200 amp main breakers. One will go into the house, the other will eventually run underground to a shop. 

On 5/30/2021 at 12:20 PM, Frosty said:

All my cast iron is new, less than 30yro, Lodge and Deb hates cast iron, so I put it away. <sigh> 

Frosty The Lucky.

If you will grind the Lodge stuff to a mirror finish, you will get better results out of it (or so I’m told). All the Lodge stuff I’ve seen was still rough from the casting process. Wagner and similar “old” brands had a smooth finish straight out of the factory.