Chenier

Thanx. I found a reference on the internet that gives angles for many different kinds of metals. It being the internet, I'm planning on a test bit or two and a test piece or two before digging into the real thing. It's not like I'm a pro at this ...

Thanks for the tips, Frosty. Didn't know lathe bits for copper alloys were different. I'll go hunting for that info. Glad you came along before I made a disaster of it!

Got to fire up the forge again, this time coated with Plistix (thanks, Glenn!). Wow, does that make a difference. I decided I wanted a third eyestrap and quickly learned what happens when you overheat bronze. Got the timing right on the third try: Overheating wasn't so much a problem on my next piece: I need to make a 1.75-inch sheave (pulley) to go in the mast head. Closest suitable material at hand was a 1-inch x 1.5-inch bronze bar left over from making another boat part. So I beat one end of the bar down to make it wider. That hunk of bronze soaked up a lot of heat before it was maleable, and it took a lot of re-heating and hammering. Got the billet out to 2 inches wide. It gave me a nice 2x2 blank with which to try out my new (to me) lathe. I'll also be making some 1-inch pulleys from the remaining bar. More on them later.

Borax flux melts at a temperature that's good for silver brazing. That's way too low a temperature for welding steel.

Look for grills fueled by wood pellets. My dad had one, made by Traeger. An auger fed in pellets at a controlled rate while a blower kept the fire going. Both were multi-speed so you could have different heat settings. The setup worked OK and Dad loved it. Dunno if there are other manufactuers of wood pellet grills.

I purchased an NC Tool "Round Horn" anvil in February. My prior experience was a 1-day blacksmithing class two years ago, so I don't know enough to know if it's a "good" anvil. But it hasn't been a bad anvil for this beginner. You can see a photo of the anvil and my setup in this thread. Oh, and I don't have to worry about the neighbors calling the cops. They are the cops.

If you don't understand machine language, how do you grasp what the machine is doing? I programmed for about 50 years before retiring from the field. The underlying logic structure of what the machine can do is common to all the programming languages that live on top of it. For a long time the rest was syntax and function calls (subroutines for you BASIC folks, macros for Microsoft Office). Windows, Mac and object programming were simply different ways of packaging the same stuff. Artificial Intelligence and the underlying chips that support it have really begun to change the game. I'm here because in retirement I've decided that pounding on physical things is a lot more satisfying than pounding on keyboards.

Here are the last two bits of forging for the boat. A bracket to hold up the center of the splash coaming: And a bow handle: I'm going to resist the temptation to forge the mast and boom so I'll be off carving wood for a while...

Spent the weekend making a 6-brick forge. Copied the "no weld" design that Frosty posted. Not positive, but I think it's somewhere in Forges 101. Anyway, it was straightforward to build just from a photo. It worked fine for my purposes. With my Zoeller 1/2" burner at the lowest level I've been able to sustain fire (4 psi) it got a spot on the wall opposite the burner glowing orange. Since I'm forging bronze right now that's good - not too hot. I imagine when I apply Plistix and crank up the BTU's it'll be hot enough for steel work. That bit of 1/2-inch rod you see next to the forge transformed itself into a bow handle for the boat. Here it is, patterned (loosely) after the commercial one on the right. Still needs to be ground, drilled and polished to become bling-worthy.

My plan is to hit the "Rescue Me" button, lay down horizontal and take a nap.

I'm with George. High visibility in the wilderness is generally undesireable unless it's hunting season or you need rescue. The personal satellite beacons are good - they'll summon help quickly. I carry one on my person when I fly myself over wilderness terrain or ocean as the beacons in planes are notoriously unreliable. The ones that let you send texts require a subscription. Target market for those are people who want to send home an "I'm still OK" message when on a multi-day trip. Or just want to tell the home front when to get dinner ready. They can still summon help.

"Chenier's Custom Crafted Boat Doodads" has a nice ring to it. Did I mention I use traditional methods?

Thanks all. I'm tackling these projects in order of (anticipated) difficulty. More to come. Pnut: One of the tricks to forging bronze is don't let it get too hot. Dull red is the max. That's not hard when your heat source is an open-air gas burner such as I'm using. I was able to get the 1/4-inch rod for the padeyes to show some color. Not so much the gudgeon. But that got hot enough to be workable. JHCC: Yup, gudgeon are fish, too. Frosty: No requests yet. All of these doodads are available off the shelf in plastic or stainless for way less than I'd charge (if I were making a business of it, which I'm not.)

Hammered out a couple more doodads for the boat: This is an Open Fairlead. Basically a hook that you loop the mainsheet under. This is old school, the way Sunfish did it back in the Sixties. Nowdays the use a block (pulley). Rudder Gudgeon. A bracket that holds the rudder onto the back of the boat. It turned out my anvil was just as wide as the gudgeon needed to be long. That made shaping it a lot easier than I expected.

When I moved to North Carolina in the '70's, liquor-by-the-drink was still illegal. When I asked why, the general concesus was that moonshiners were making so much money they could afford lobbyists to keep it that way. If you wanted drinks with a meal, you brought your bottle in a bag and took it home with you if there was anything left. IIRC it changed in the early '80's and went county-by-county.

BillyBones, sorry I missed your post. You're probably on the right track. I decided experimenting on something other than the real lock might be bright idea. Steel cover plates for electrical boxes are the right thickness, so I drilled and chamfered holes in a few. The stunt double for the lock part was some 3/4-inch rod on which I turned a 1/2-inch end and drilled end-to-end the same size as the doorknob shaft hole. Then I started hammering. Peening worked, but it was pretty ugly. What worked best was a mandrel with a short taper to expand the "rivet" from the inside. It's the mandrel on the left: Crafting the part involved a bit of cutting, turning, broaching and filing, but no hammers. Sorry. So the part goes in the lock shell, poking through its hole. A piece of bar acts as a backing plate as there are other parts attached to the shell that need to clear the anvil. A block of wood with a hole keeps the mandrel vertically aligned. And bungee cords keep the whole assembly from wandering around the shop. (I knew I put those chains around the anvil for a reason!) A single, healthy wack with a 3-pound hammer did the trick: Here's the flip side with the latch parts in place: The whole thing is back together now and on the door. Whew!

You could try commercial insoles that you can buy at larger drug stores or Wally World ... This. I’ve learned the hard way I’m susceptible to plantar fasciitis. Those off-the-shelf insoles have made several painful pairs of shoes useful again.

>> open fairlead. What is it made from? << It's 655 Bronze. >> Do you have any pictures of the boat you are building, other than the one in Introduce Yourself? << Just a few. The photo of the fairlead is #356. I've been documenting the build in a thread on the plan designer's website. If you google "hybird moonfish" (including the misspelling) you'll find it. Registration might be required.

While contemplating door lock parts, I had the opportunity to bang out another boat part. Called an "open fairlead", it's basically a 1/2-inch hook that one loops a line (aka "rope") around to change its direction. A bit simpler than a pulley, to say the least. Used on the early versions of the boat I'm building.

>> Is it a lock or a door latch? << The overall mechanism is both. The part in question belongs to the latch side of the contraption. Doorknobs are attached to a square shaft which passes through the middle of the part. The part's arms push on the actual latch to move it. >> Does the rivet ride in a groove in the rotating ring to hold it all together? << The part itself is the "rivet". It protrudes into a chamfered hole. The narrow side of the hole is on the inside, it's wider on the outside. The part has been smashed to match the chamfer, which holds the part in place in the lock. >> I would try treating it like loosening a rivet on tongs. << Thanks, good suggestion. All other suggestions are welcome. I'm going to try experimentation on surrogate set-ups before I bugger up a 90-year old lock!

I'm aspiring to repair an old broken rim lock in our house. The internal part that turns when one twists the doorknob has broken in two: That lever is supposed to be attached to the hub at the arrow. Here's what the part looks like in a good lock: The part is firmly fixed to the lock's base plate, although it rotates - there are no other parts holding it in place. On the outside of the lock you just see a rotating ring, flush with the face of the lock: Dissection was required. I cut the broken hub in half to figure out what held it in. Turns out it's a glorified rivet: The hole in the lock base plate is chamfered: it's 0.5 inches on the inside and 0.6 inches on the outside. Obviously the half-inch part was inserted, peened to the shape of the chamfer, then ground flat. I haven't done this before, but probably can figure it out. But the question remains: How do I make sure the riveting job rotates when I'm finished with it? It does me no good if I peen it so tightly you can't turn the doorknob...

I was distracted for a couple of days. An acquaintance moved into assisted living and his family is cleaning out the house. A bit sad. He told me to look in the basement and take anything I wanted. The electronics and carpentry buffs had already been there by the time I arrived. But a few things followed me home. A 9-inch lathe ... An arbor press ... And an old 12" Craftsman bandsaw. The latter needs some work, but I don't have a bandsaw and the price was right. It came with a set of reduction gears so it can be rigged for metal cutting. These aren't exactly blacksmithing items but IFI does have a "show your lathe" section. So there you go. It did not escape my attention (how could it?) that both the arbor press and the lathe have a lot more mass than my new anvil. What am I thinking? SWMBO and I have learned a bit about moving heavy objects.

Thanks, Frosty. >> Heck I think I remember the difference between: stay, line and tackle. << Oh sheet! (I'll get to the main sheet soon...)

Here's a shot at pictures (fingers crossed!) This is my primitive smithy in the driveway. You will see a Zoeller 3/4" IV Burner hiding in the shadows. Because this is a residence, the propane bottle has to stay outside. Everything else goes inside when I'm done for the day. And, yes, the sun is a problem. Fortunately this time of year that spot only gets about an hour of sun in early morning and late afternoon. There are other shady spots I can move to if needed, but this one has the convenience of being right outside the garage I use as a shop. Here's the first creation: It's a pair of padeyes to hold the sail bridle. The sail bridle is essentially a piece of line ("rope" to landlubbers), each end of which is tied to one of these padeyes. Here they are finished and cleaned up. The workmanship is a bit crude, but they're shiny! Dang, it worked! Almost forgot. Here's the boat:

Thank you, George. One of the reasons I'm using *only* a burner and no forge is to help me keep the bronze from getting too hot. Two days into it: so far, so good. But I'm sure mistakes will be made. Ain't doing no casting! >> We LOVE pictures. << I know. I've read Glenn's blurb on how to post pictures, which is a bit convoluted. Once I figure it out, I'll post them. I have a few ... ps: If I don't have a forge and I'm pounding on bronze am I allowed in "I Forge Iron"?