John NC

They look great Don. What's the finish?

I round to the nearest five dollar increment. Makes the math easier. I hate math.

...Which is why I posted a link to The Electronic Freedom Foundation earlier. Much more trustworthy, IMO.

John, thanks, it worked. Rich it's not going to be under much load, but the wire was so soft I was worried the links would pull open. It hardened up enough that that shouldn't be a problem, but it's not so hard as to be brittle. Should work, thanks guys.

Thanks John, I'll give that a shot.

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I've got to make some lightweight chain, and I've got some annealed steel wire that's just the right diameter that sure would be easy to make links out of, cold. Can I make up the chain, then harden it? I'm thinking something like "Heat to XYZ degrees then quickly quench in PDQ." TIA

It has carbonized, like a cast iron frying pan. Like the computer geeks say "That's not a bug, that's a feature".

Computer geeks would say "That's not a bug, it's a feature!"

Ok.

Thanks guys. Wai, its about 14" dia. and about 2 1/2" deep.

This is my Helianthus bowl. Hopefully it will retail for around $120. I'm pretty proud of this one, and plan on doing a little production run if my retailers like it. Comments and suggestions are always welcome. Thanks for looking.

Here's a side view.

I'll second (third?) the cold bending suggestions. Just heat the ends to do your taper or whatever, then cold bend the rest. Take it from me, taper both ends before bending. It's a royal pain to rotate a big piece with a heavy scroll on the back end.

Thanks guys. Bryce, I'll get a side view pic tomorrow (Monday).

I have seen people drill a hole at the junction before forging, never seen a punched hole there but it's certainly possible. I just file the area a little so it looks nice. I don't mind seeing evidence of the hot cut.

Good points all, and thanks for looking. John

My gas forge is about eight inches across, which is a bit of a limitation. But, when life hands you lemons, you should make lemonade, right? Made a 7 1/2" bowl, then added 'leaves' or 'petals' to it to get it up to a decent size. It's about 12" in diameter. I started a more elaborate version along the same lines today. Pics next week. Your opinion please, Should I have used more rivets? 3? 5?

Man, that's a real forehead slapper! I now have something to make on Monday.

Great story, really enjoying the pics.

Good idea jimmy, that would certainly be faster than my method!

I'd suggest you start shopping for a welder. Or rivet the whole thing together, but that's going to be a lot of fiddly riveting.

Ok folk, here's what I came up with based on an amalgam of your ideas. Introducing the Super Tri-Star 3000! (R.I.P. Billy Mays) First, draw an equilateral triangle on half a manilla folder (thin flexible plastic would be more durable, but I couldn't find any around the house), then bisect the sides. Then, cut out the star shape, punch a hole in the center, and every 1/2 inch down each leg. To use, apply to bowl with magnets or masking tape. Choose the holes you want to use to mount your legs and mark. Bada bing, you're done. Thanks again, all.

Lots of very good ideas here. Thanks all! Considering the un-uniformity of my bowls I'll have to try a few of these to see which ones work best in which situations. Mike, I love flexible plastic rulers. I have one right here in my desk, one downstairs in my wood shop and one at the shop. Couldn't do without 'em. And the bend-a-facsimile-out-of-wire trick was one of the first things I learned when I started smithing! Thanks again, all.

I searched the forum, got nothing, Googled, got nada again. Let me ask y'all here: Is there an easy way to lay out the triangular pattern (spacing of the legs) of a tripod? I'm working on three legged bowls and am having trouble getting the 120 degree dimension between adjacent legs even. What I'm looking for is a quick way to draw an equilateral (equiangular?) Y on the bottom of the bowl. Some sort of stiff-yet-flexible template maybe? :confused: Thanks in advance, John