Tim695

My though of tig over mig was that mig would be default add filler material that would be more difficult to blend in, whereas with tig you could just blend the two metals together to tack weld them with no filler metal that would require blending in during the forge weld.

David, would it be better to gig weld the leaves instead of mig weld. You could tig them together with no filler. Should make it easier to blend.

Nice hooks John.

Also David love the picket. I always have trouble forge welding thinner material to the thicker pieces. I always seem to melt the smaller ones.

Also Chad, love the shape of the bookshelf.

3 hours ago, Goods said:

Tim, is that swage block 2” A36 water jet cut? If so how do you like it?

Hey David,

It is 2 inches, not sure how it was made though. When I picked up this hobby I did a quick search and found a local Smith who was selling these. He had some others as well. I like it. It does what I need. I don't really have any experience with anything else to compare it too.

Well I saw someone on youtube was making small forged figures and thought I would give it a try. I didn't watch the whole video as I wanted to figure it out myself. My first attempt was kinda ok. I realized all my tooling is too big for this small work.

So I made myself a bick for the next one. That way I can get something between the front and back legs.

I also am working on a smaller fuller, an eyeball punch and a few more small tools that are currently being annealed. 

I also finally got around to finishing the holder for my swage block.

Smart man!

Alexandr those wood panels are beautiful. what are those for?

I was speaking with a blacksmiths shop near me about finding a power hammer and was offered this. Apparently it had been given to them by somebody and they had no use for it and so they gave it to me. 

I had planned on getting a fly press at one point, and I know it's not the same, but I plan to make some dies up for it to hopefully accomplish pretty much the same thing.

On 11/9/2023 at 8:11 PM, Jason L said:

I've never had problems with the heat before but in the south it's always a possibility. I also keep subtitles on, it seems there are certain frequencies that I have trouble hearing and they make the music so loud and the voices so low that I simply can't understand what they are saying.

After careful consideration, I've decided the best thing for me to do is not play with the dog while I'm forging. I never had a problem till I threw that tennis ball so that must be it. I'll just have to concentrate on forging more and throwing tennis balls to the dog less. It breaks my heart but I have to do the responsible thing. I've got to have priorities. 

Get one of those long handle gall scoops so you don't have to bend down. As I get older i find that I have to work smarter not harder. It used to be easy to draw out a set of reins, now i find the press makes short work of them and all I have to do is clean them up. I find that I also have trouble with the heat. I now work in the forge for an hour, take a 30 minute break to sit down and hydrate, then go back to the forge. things take longer but at least I can still get them done.

6 hours ago, BillyBones said:

No, i still have not cleaned my bench off, but at least i can see part of the top.

Come on Billy. Don't lie to us. you just put the board over top of everything on the bench just like we all do.

I do like the book holder. Simple but elegant.

JHCC,

doesn't that make a lot of noise in the hotel room?? I usually just annoy the people in the next room with my snoring.

Thanks Mike,

It never even dawned on me to consider 3/8" burners but that makes way more sense.

Larricino,

I wasn't going to bother insulating the doors, but I think I actually will insulate the back door. I won't bother with the front door as I will probably leave it open most of the time. I originally put it on there to aid in forge welding, but I decided to just use the hard brick forge for that. The flux would reek havoc. On the Fibre insulation if it bets past the refractory.

Hi Everyone,

I have made a second forge out of a 20lb propane cylinder. It has 4" or ceramic wool, 1" of Kast-o-light and then I coated it with ITC 100. It has 2, 5 1/2" openings on either end. the back side has f full door that covers the hole, and on the front it has a half door. both are made out of 1/4" plate. I currently have a 3/4" naturally aspairated burner in it that I kind of cobbled together from multiple designs. I think I got all the bad quality of all the designs so I am going to replace the burner with a Frost-T type.

The question I have  is should i just use a single 3/4" burner as a replacement or would dual 1/2" burners be better. I am not planning on doing any forge welding in it as I have the other forge for that. but I still want it to get pretty hot while still being pretty efficient as far as gas consumption goes.

Thanks in advance.

Sweet! love my Bosch hammerdrill. you should be quite happy with it.

Thats awesome. did they happen to mention how much water the water wheel used and how they got the water up to the tanks on the roof?

I love seeing this stuff.

Duckwalk that looks great. I love the leaf on the end of the folding arm.

Thats a really cool bottle opener JD

I got bored today so I decided to make a demascus driveway. Now if only I could figure out how to twist it.

On 6/26/2023 at 6:25 PM, BoardMoreThanUsual said:

tried my hand at a mini rail spike knife i saw on BBF on you tube... its a knife like object not very sharp as i never forged a knife let alone sharpened one so thats a needed to learn skill. I dont plan on making more than occasional knife for household use so have time for that. some like pictures as i have read so ill post the 2 "knives" i did so you can see my work. 

If you explore his channel you will find John also has a couple of videos about making a RR spike tomahawk for fun. the first one he made was just the spike, the second he forge welded a hardened bit into the edge. I made a couple and they are actually quite fun to throw.

Tommy, 

Another way I find helps me keep a straight line is to partially cut the line with a chisel when the piece is cold. That way you can use your arm holding the chisel to help steady the work. Once you have the line started, its alot easier to get the hot chisel to line up once its hot.

Hey Thill Welcome aboard.

If you look on Youtube you can find alot making tongs without tongs vids. Great work on the hooks.

I think I would make the support hinged so I could open it, get it around the bush and then close it and fasten it with either a pin or a bolt. 

On 6/3/2023 at 7:09 PM, George N. M. said:

Actully, tape measures,  along with socks, translate themselves to a higher astral plane and then randomly return through rifts in the space/time continuum.  The time, as percieved here, of the round trip journey is random as is the locus of where they return.  It could be moments or it could be years.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Don't forget screws George. the fall and the floor and magically teleport to the other realm

On 5/28/2023 at 9:46 AM, JHCC said:

Someone gave me two five-gallon buckets of screwdrivers and Allen wrenches a few years back, so I can attest that having MORE than 3 or 4 of the same tool isn’t necessarily a good thing. 

The only tool I think you cant have enough of is tape measures. As soon as you put one down, it goes into chameleon mode and blends in to everything else in the shop and you wont find it again for at least 3 weeks.

I find that mounting an anvil tightly to the base really helps stop the ringing. that was the only reason i fastened mine down.