Shainarue

This is more in like with what I was wanting. Not that anyone will ever see it, lol

I've been in a fairly low funk lately and haven't even wanted to forge since Friday. Last night I decided to whip out something simple that would help clean up the spray bottles we currently have grouped in a corner of the kitchen. I've been wanting to try that reverse twist pattern in flat bar and this was the perfect project for a fun twist. Well, a few critiques of my own work: 1. It's not even. I don't know how that happened. I measured, I marked, I VERIFIED (but obviously missed it, lol). One end has a shorter leg than the other, creating a slanted opening. 2. I think it would look better with the twists closer together. Or maybe even twisted 3/4 rather than 1/2. I'll play with that. 3. I measured the required length but it didn't occur to me to measure the depth required for dropping the spray bottle handles in there! So, it doesn't really work for its intended purpose. I'm going to mount it in the basement bathroom to replace the cheap plastic towel rod that's currently in there.

Haha, I should have remembered those!

Congratulations on the commission! Have you done a railing before?

I like that candlestick.

Good enough for me, lol I did try a quick search using site: iforgeiron.com and then "rigidizer" and "dilute" but kept coming across posts just instructing to use rigidizer, not commenting on whether diluting was good/bad/other. So I appreciate your working memory

One follow up question. "Wet the insulation with water" as in mist it with a spray bottle or douse it with a sink sprayer? I mean, I know it doesn't need to be dripping wet, lol. But wet all the way through or just the surface?

Just about every time I post, I try to imagine what Frosty would have had to say. Thanks for the advice, I'll try that tonight.

I have some INS-TUFF ceramic fiber rigidizer. The instructions do not specify to dilute but the two online kits I've gotten in the past that came with an unbranded rigidizer instructed to dilute 50/50 with water. Does anyone know if diluting affects the hardening?

John, that's awesome. Your son is fortunate to have a father who can make that for him! David, nice work. I haven't seen the spiral iron before but I'm guessing it's for heating things like a slice of bread? We had our Free State Blacksmiths Club meeting today and part 2 of the gas forge building workshop. He covered insulation, refractory options, and burner placement then set us loose to get to work. I didn't know I needed to bring a sleeve for the burner to attach to the forge so I had to finish mine at home. I didn't have any flux core wire so I had to use the stick welder, which I'm obviously still pretty bad at, lol. I guess I could have practiced some patience and waited to weld those on until I replaced the flux core but ... well, I'm not patient Hoping to get the rest of the accessories (plug handles, latches, side supports for the top portion, rail for the bricks when ends are open, and the extendable work rest) finished tomorrow. Then add the insulation and apply the 1st coat of Greenpatch 421.

Looking forward to the progress, John! Tonight I stripped the rust and paint from the vessel which will become a new 2 burner dual function forge. Then I painted it with heat resistant stove paint. Inside, I took nice pictures of the finished paperclips.

You have been smiled upon indeed! That is a heck of a score! Regarding the table - can you take a picture showing the full table? I'm thinking it'd be easier to just use the frame to make your own firepot but seeing the full table might get better advice from others in here.

I feel you gewoon. I only get 2 hours each night and if I'm lucky, up to 8 hours on Sat/Sun but that's assuming we don't have any other plans. It seems it's never long enough, lol Billy, I like that. It's simple and clean. Last night I tried my hand at brazing. I didn't want to clean the spatter of flux core and I don't have mig. I also thought my friend would probably appreciate the little splashes of "gold" throughout. I practiced on some scrap of similar sizes before taking a run at the actual trellis. Could be better - for sure - but it's definitely holding! Next up is to use the torch to spot heat the stems and wrap them along the structure, give everything a good cleaning with degreaser, then Ospho & wax. I would love to have this done by Saturday but of course, this is the week that I have appointments after work 3 of the 5 days, lol. So probably won't. The only full size pic I have - complete with a messy shop in the background, lol

Today I welded the paperclips to 2x2 plate bases. I cut some 4x1 board into square blocks, ran them through the router to fancy them up, torched them and coated with blo. Tomorrow I will paint the plates and affix them to the blocks. I finished the boot scraper. I decided to heat paint and clear coat. I gave the Sasquatch a good brass brushing.

Nice work on the hinges Billy! Irondragon, that's a nifty use of materials for your door handle. Rust-Away sounds like Ospho? If you've used Ospho, can you speak to how it compares? I have made considerable progress on the boot scraper. I'm pretty happy with the rivets and tenons. All that remains is to attach the little sasquatch, clean, and apply a finish. I also remembered to grab a pic of the paperclips with their various finishes.

The friend whose shop I work out of sometimes requested some of my jumbo desk paperclips to put in his retail shop in time for a big event he's having soon. Up until now, I had only made 3 and each time was as a one-off mentality but his request spurred me to make a jig. I made one on Tuesday night but phone died and I didn't get a picture. That night, I also tried forming one cold with the jig. It's 3/16 round and apparently that's just barely too big to get nice graceful bends. Maybe if I had two small bending forks - but the one I have (and I'd consider it small) is too beefy to fit inside the jig bits. I went ahead and cut the remainder of the 12ft bar into 18" lengths since that test piece (while a bit rough looking) proved that it worked well with that length. I also chiseled on the underside of the jig to indicate the length and diameter rod intended for the jig. Last night, I heated up all pieces and wrapped using jig. I ended up with 7 total finished (plus the one janky one making 8). I was running really low on paste wax so I decided to try an experiment. I coated three with the last of my Johnson's paste wax, two with boiled linseed oil, and two with canola oil. The event he wants these for isn't until the 15th so I'm curious to see if any of these finishes will show any differences between now and then. At some point, I need to attach them to bases as well. My phone died last night while applying the finishes (the live streaming sucks that juice right out, lol) but here are some screen grabs from the live stream I was doing while working.

I'm at BAM Conference this weekend and a couple people have suggested jaw plates and didn't even bother repairing the piece that broke off. And honestly, I'm leaning in that direction at least for now because I have stuff I want to start on, lol I will keep your recommendation in mind though, when I get to addressing it. I could cut a groove into the good side so the bolted side has something to sit on.

Happy belated birthday Asa! That's a pretty nice haul! Chad, good thinking on that hammer/tong rack. I made a similar style recently but used a grill rack in the center and store tongs in the center, hammers on the outside - but the tongs like to pinch as I pull them out. I like the grid option better and then I could switch tongs to the outside and not get pinched! David, that setup really worked out! (other than the wood stump falling apart, lol) Regarding the forge welding hot spot - I struggle with the same thing on my trench style side blast so I'd be curious to know if this gets resolved and what the changes were. Last night was a night. Oof. BAM Conference is this weekend and I've been trying to get the trellis finished so I can bring it to display in the gallery. Doesn't look like that's gonna happen. Last night, the recently repaired vise jaw broke again (bolt sheared off) and then the recently reset handle broke off from the largest hammer I have - which I need to start the bird I'm working on. I'm borrowing a friend's shop tonight to use his power hammer but I still don't think I'll get this done by tomorrow, lol I received advice from a KS club member for attempting to remove the sheared bolt and also advised that I replace the bolts with black hex drive screws which are tougher than standard bolts. I'll work on that after conference. I'll also work on making a few more hammer handles & wedges after conference, lol

I suppose I could change up the design to have a "plug" style door rather than a hinge. Or maybe just an easy drop in hinge style so the door is easily removed if desired. Hmmm Also, just for transparency, this concept was inspired by this video. I liked the idea of using it like you would a coal forge, but I wanted to also be able to use it as a typical gas forge rather than have a single purpose forge. https://www.facebook.com/reel/905941445287433/

Yes, both ends well have latches that can secure the doors closed

It was a really old forklift propane tank. Cut off the ends and replaced with sheet metal ... Maybe 14 or 16 gauge. The square opening is actually on the top, and will serve as an additional use option. So it can be used traditionally from the ends. Or I can close both ends and open the top, for using similarly to how you would use a coal forge. Would come in handy when working on things like square corners for a grill or spot heating on a large scroll. I plan to add way to hold bricks on the top which I can arrange to control the opening size. I'll definitely continue to update here as it develops.

Flowers and a few leaves for the trellis project. Still quite a few leaves to go

We built the burners at the March meeting. He had a funeral to attend the same weekend as the April meeting so we'll do the burner placement and insulation and stuff at the May meeting. Here's my vessel so far: https://youtube.com/shorts/mxdjxerRxjU?si=kTL5HU6ZfGmQMY8d

When my vice action gets 'sticky', I will squirt on the threads some of the lightweight oil I use on the blower. Then I lay a shop towel over the screw box to catch any fillings, etc for awhile. Dunno if I really need to do that part, and eventually the towel ends up on the ground and I've forgotten about it, lol

Thanks Billy! I do have a leafing hammer but these I just did cold and with the most convenient hammer, which happened to be the ball peen. I'll have to save your image and make sure I have some version of those tools for when it comes time to forge larger leaves.