Strine

I thought folks that are not full bottle on Australian rules footy might like a gander at this snap. Taken over the weekend and published in the morning paper (The Herald Sun) it shows what grass-roots suburban footy is all about. This is real footy... no hype, no advertising and no huge pay packets, just the glory of playing for your club and a pizza award if you manage 'best on ground'. It's been raining for two days around here, temp about 11 degrees C and well, some of the grounds are no better than cow paddocks at the best of times. But look at the grin on all their faces - they love it. Oh to be twenty again!! and not over fifty, paunched and balding. For those unsure of the scene, the man in white is a white maggot aka an umpire, the players in the dark coloured shorts are the home team and those in white shorts are the away team. Oh and Mt Evelyn and Wandin are located between Chopper and myself. "BORRRRRRLLLL"

Thanks heaps fellas. There is a lot to absorb here. Jr, The Electricity supply company graciously allow us to get 240V. and I'm guessing here, I think it's 50 Hz...whatever a hertz is. By all accounts it's as easy as making a cuppa BBB what are you doing this weekend, praps you could pop round...I'm only just around the corner....of the globe

This subject was raised elsewhere but I've started it again here to seperate it out. I have gone to a lot of trouble bringing to life a large bandsaw that was run on 3 phase. I don't have 3 phase but can see the usefulness of a 'converter'. There's a lot of heavy duty machinery out there that generally goes for a song. (32" wheeled bandsaw = $200) and would be very handy in the shed. So what's the go with converters. Are they easy to build? Do you need a degree in electronics? Are they pocket sized or will I need to extend the shed. At what point should the electrician become involved. Or will he have to do the whole lot negating any saving of some hard earned.

I'd like to know more about the phase converter?

Our group has a 300lb Bradley. It's ready to go, soon as someone puts their mind to it. We simply mounted it on a bed of railway sleepers on an existing conctrete floor. But it's untested.

This hasn't followed me home yet but it will when it's replaced as part of the redevelopment of the background. Another simpler gate at the rear of the property also has my name on it. I asked the site manager what will happen to the gates and sensing that they'd end up in the tip I put dibs on them. He told me yesterday that they were mine for the taking and the doing with what I liked. All I have to do now is not stuff up any surveys on the site. Moral: nothing ventured nothing gained

Not sure if you are aware or whether I speak for the majority but us lot from down under have had it ingrained for so long that we are an inferior lot. The ingraining has gone on for so long that the ingrain-ees believe it to be absolute truth much to the happiness of the ingrain-ers, who ever they are. I blame the 'media'. We even accept the name given to the phenomenon...cultural cringe. Add to that a general reluctance for the fair dinkum bloke or sheila to blow their own trumpet and you have a couple of reasons why you might not see much of our work.

LOL, I have the original pigeon hole from the Pigeon Forge Tenn....gotta be worth a few thou... 'will post world wide' as they say.

Always get one what :confused: But Ian, I heard you flew the chopper coup.

G'day Smudger, I haven't been away or anything; just been using up all my posting time on reading a particular 'introduce yourself' thread...37 replies at the time of writing. That has to be a record. And TH, history other than our own has been shoved down our throats for years so I have a fair idea of the importance of old Abe to you people...probably at the expense of our own leadership history... how many Aussies know that Billy Hughes (PM) was a striker or that Ben Chifley (PM) was the son of a blacksmith (who's ever heard of Ben's old man?). My point though, was that the father of someone famous is not famous for his own deeds (well maybe one deed) so such a price shouldn't be commanded for his anvil.

Letters opened with that are going to stay open I reckon. Nice job. On letter openers I thought folks would like this entrant in a letter opener competition. I wanted to get away from the knifey thingy with a handle-y thingy.

$75000 requires a little more substantial evidence than that offered in relation to the authenticity of the anvil. My anvil is fairly long in the tooth and I bet if I came up with a good (believable) yarn I might be able to make a dollar or too. It would have make it belong to some one important though. Who's this Thomas Lincoln bloke anyway. What's he famous for? I've heard of Abraham, famous for wearing a funny hat isn't he? Now that I've saved $75000 what will I spend it on, siting better half's theory on shopping.

Welcome Cracker, BAWA must be on a recruitment drive...there seems to be quite a few new names here associated with the group. Goodonya from this side of the 'sweeping plains' and ABA(Vic)

HW. I notice you are quick to quote the price of the new knife but fail to mention the price of the old one which leads me to add to the pot an addage I live by albeit with a struggle at times justifying the purchase of a new 'toy' with she who must be obeyed. "The quality remains long after the price is forgotten"

Looks like an ear marker for really big cows

No Glenn you right on the money. But why confuse the issue with decimetres centimetres. For more than a metre I talk in metres for less I talk in millimetres. The reason for quoting three places was to overcome a language barrier as well as the confusion mentioned earlier. It worked and the trenches were dug in the right spot. The sewer flowed on a dark and stormy night which was the ultimate quality control back in those days Man of many wives, Full stop or comma? I dunno the origins except that conventionally we seperate thousands with commas and wholes from the part with a full stop. eg 12,345.456 In my game that's still not the convention... the dot has to be in the centre of the numbers. not down on the line as shown in the example. Froggy. You're right.. a rose by any other name still jabs you with its thorns. The tropical system of length (banana skins) could be used just as accurately as long as everybody was working off the same standard length of a banana skin. I'm still trying to get my head around this one. There's a fillisofficle dilemma hidden in there somewhere I'm sure. For the buffs, the current metre standard is how far you travel in a vacuum, at the speed of light in 1/299 792 458 seconds. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metre#Timeline_of_definition And lastly, Smudger...not fuedin, not even fussin, just having a good ol' yarn over an ale or too. Well at least I am.

Beware, there is imperial and there is imperial. The Poms' version is different to the US version. In anycase Jr's link copes with all that.

Gee I love it when people are barking up my tree Sorry Glenn...I do it all the time :confused: Hopefully it's all covered by the very handy "UON" = unless otherwise noted! Anyway, don't be too disheartened because you use an out dated system of units. The crux if the matter is you could use anything as long as you're consistent and as long as you cut, punch, draw out, upset, drill, etc etc etc to the length required. Another interesting twist to all this. While setting out for sewerage work ie for trench digging and pipe laying and all that jazz we always had to appear to quote to the nearest millimetre. Ye gads! you say, the sewers are layed very acurately in Oz. Not really. If you quoted a length at say 5.9m it would be taken as 5m plus 9mm similarly, 5.91 would be 5m plus 91mm which amounts to a fair sized error. To overcome this we'd always say 5.900 or 5.910.

That's OK. We are both a couple of old dogs and wise to boot no doubt. It has to be a really worthwhile trick before we start thinking about learning it. I too grew up with feetres etc but chose a field of endeavour that used the other as well so had to learn it. But it wasn't so bad. I feel for the youngies who don't know a foot from an ankle but invariably will have to have a knowledge of it sooner or later. Like when they work with me and I askthem to move the peg 0.5m left then 1/2 inch right then a bees diaghram left again ;)

I understand any reluctance to change to something new when the old seems to work just fine. But...the metric system is so so so much easier to work with. I say this from the point of view of having to work with both the imperial and metric system especially in terms of feetres and metres. Oh dear..all those fractions. Surveyors need to make a lot of calculations involving lengths and angles. The fractions are such a pain that all feet and inch measurements are converted to decimal feet. Even plans dating to early settlement of Victoria quote decimal feet. This gave rise to tape measures showing feet and only ten "inches". Many is the time I've heard about the tape measure going for a song at a junk shop cos it was missing two inches in every twelve:). The change to the metric system was a boon to the game. I would recommend anybody to use every opportunity at the forge to adopt it. On the other hand spare a thought for us free thinking forward looking folk who have to tow the line the leader of the free world throw us, and have to work with both systems.

IForgeIron Blueprints Copyright 2002 - 2007 IFORGEIRON, All rights reserved. BP0246 Door Wedge by Strine from OZ Although this blueprint explains a little door wedge I make it is more to do with demonstrating Blacksmithing at a festival or the like. Demonstrating gives you the opportunity to interact with the onlookers many of whom are young of age and may be influenced to become interested in the craft in the future. This is a better track for them to follow than some of the others available…drugs, alcohol etc. It's a chance to have a bit of fun, yet leave the kids with a serious if only small insight into the art. It takes three or four heats which is about the maximum attention span of most of the public and it doesn't look like a horseshoe! Material required: 12" of thin MS, 3/4" or 1" wide by 1/8". Taper 'one end' to a feather edge about ½" wide. By feather edge I mean that as well as tapering the face you really should taper the edge. Not razor sharp, more like butter knife sharp! It looks a lot better in the scroll. "What are you making Mista." "Not sure yet laddie, I might have to change my mind half way through. It's yours if you can guess before I take it out of the slack tub." The next step is a scroll. Begin by tapping the very end over a rounded corner of the anvil. Gradually feed the work forward tapping it over the edge of the anvil. There's probably a lovely mathematical formula relating rate of feed against weight of blow to give the perfect scroll. Alas I have to guess. Don't be afraid to turn the thing over and virtually roll the scroll up by hitting on the end. My favorite tongs help here with a final tweak where needed. That should just about be right. “Now, that's ‘one end' finished” I say, and turn it end for end. “If that's one end what's this?” holding up the yet to be forged end. Give a suitable reaction to the answer “The ‘other end' Mista”. I did mention that you could have a bit of fun with this. Shape the ‘other end' into a similar scroll, but fret not if it's not quite the same size as the other end, not the current other end but the other other end. Both scrolls should be on the same side of the work. If you end up with an elongated fancy S shape, start again digging into your grab bag of excuses at the same time. I have certainly used a few for this purpose! Whether you make a tapered scroll as shown here or a fishtail, blown over or other fancy one is up to you but take care to produce a well proportioned scroll with nice flowing lines because it will virtually stand-alone i.e. you can't hide it among a heap of other scrolls say in a gate or fancy candelabra. And don't muck around with it. Here's a chance too, to explain the difference between mass-produced cold bent scrolls with the tell tale straight bit that goes into the jig and a hand forged scroll. Speaking of jigs, leave them in the toolbox. You are demonstrating your skill as a smith not how easy it would be for a three year old to make a scroll. Measure the distance from the outside of one scroll to the inside of the other and mark half way with a centre punch. Before you do, direct another question to those who might know; or to little Johnny Smarty-Pants in front of you who seems to know everything. “What's half of 7 and 11/16ths?” or have some fun with the littlies. Why imperial?…because blacksmithing is an old craft and that's what was used until only a few years ago (in Australia at least). Why not use cubits you ask? Good point but somebody nicked my cubit rule from the toolbox. Take a yellow heat in the vicinity of the punch mark and quench both ends to within say 1/4” of the mark. It's best to grab the short end as it will end up on top in the next step. The three dark spots are the punch marks digitally enhanced. They're actually quite hard to find when the whole thing is at a yellow heat. A quick scrape across the rim of the tub helps a bit. Now bend the thing so that the scrolls head toward each other. It should become obvious here where the punch marks would have been. Putting three marks in seems to concentrate the bend at the right spot. With the same heat forge the point of the wedge into a blunt chisel point. If you have to take a second heat for this last step be sure to quench to 1/4” from the chisel point end, oh… and refine your methods cos it really only needs one heat. That's it. Give it a bit of a brush and you're done. Your door wedge is your door wedge and you must decide whether you've made a good one or a dud. I like the scrolls to be the same shape, and that they are just touching each other. I like to see that the straight bits between the scrolly end and the pointy end are straight and that overall it's not twisted or cockeyed. You might like to leave a small gap below the inner scroll to give it a bit of spring to better hold the wedge in place under a door. How much do I charge? I give them away to the kids and feel that I have been paid in full if the recipient is genuinely grateful for their little unexpected gift. If they place an order for one about $5.00 or what ever they reasonably offer. This isn't my living it's what I do for the fun of it. View full article

I don't call it the shop because that's where you nick out to to get a loaf of bread or pint of milk! ie not the place to go to immerse yourself in your own little world. "Workshop" is OK I suppose but it contains one of those four letter words. I can't imagine going to the workshop to indulge in a bit of fun, mucking around with hot metal or a lump of fine timber. "Funhouse" ...now there's an idea. It's been The Shed for so long now I don't think I could change. Besides there's a lot of Australian literature about 'men and their sheds' and God forbid if I was un-Australian eh mate? I'm not sure what Richard was alluding to but my wife suggests there must be a few ladies of ill repute that visit occasionally. I really don't know what she means .

IForgeIron Blueprints Copyright 2002 - 2007 IFORGEIRON, All rights reserved. BP0233 Eye Punch by Strine from Oz My wife caught me staring into her eyes the other day. “What” she barked. “Nothin' luv,” I replied, “can't I look lovingly into your eyes without copping the third degree?” In reality it had dawned on me at the tea table that the hollow round punch we all use for eyes was the wrong shape…at least for most animal's eyes. The nearest animal to me at the time was my wife and sure enough, her baby blues were enclosed with eye lids that formed a shape like the edge of a quarter segment of orange peel; not round at all. So then how do you replicate an eye with a punch? You will need: a ball bearing the size of the eye-ball of your chosen subject, some scrap wood to set the bearing in, punch stock (I make my punches big enough to hold by hand without gloves and not get burnt), and access to a grinding wheel. Place the bearing in a suitable sized hole in scrap material to keep it from rolling away. Shown is a piece of wood which worked OK. There be a scrap piece of steel placed betwixt the anvil and ball bearing lest thereafter, bearing dents will adorn the anvil face. Drive the punch over the bearing to create a spherical indentation in the end of the punch. Give it a dead blow with a heavy hammer; otherwise you'll be chasing stuff all over the place. The dent doesn't have to be deep nor does it have to be central but it helps if it is. That's actually a rivet set shown in the picture but it should give an idea of the concept. It doesn't really have to be a ball bearing, a ball peen held in the vice would do. Shape the end of the punch on a grinding wheel. The length of the punch should be held pretty well at right angles to the wheel. The desired effect at any point around the “rim” is much like a sharp side set, so you must at least grind off the flat area around the dent in the rivet set. Refer to the second photo in this blueprint. The eye. The project for which I needed an eye punch had what is best described as cat's eyes so a tap with a sharp chisel vertically across the eye gave the necessary realism. For realistic human eyes the treatment given to all those blokes at Mount Rushmore would look pretty good, but that would mean making another punch. Another improvement would be to put a handle in the punch. This would greatly improve alignment accuracy. And don't forget the appropriate heat treatment. Finally, the loving gaze into my wife's eyes revealed also that there is definitely a left eye and a right eye so consider making two punches. Have fun Strine, from Australia View full article

"The Shed"

I'll be blowed. $450 for meals, wow :eek:. Chris, if you smuggled in a loaf of bread you'd get away with the $750 plus the cost of the bread. Good on ya Anglesmith. Fly the flag high won't you.