Show me your shop!

[Dave51B]

On ‎3‎/‎6‎/‎2018 at 7:17 AM, lyuv said:

This is a chicken koop abandoned for 40 years. So the "soil" is mainly chicken droppings, and smells like it

 Any danger of hystoplasmosis?                         dave

[lyuv]

2 hours ago, Dave51B said:

 Any danger of hystoplasmosis?                         dave

Thanks for the comcern, but there is no histoplasmosis around here. It's mainly in America.

But this IS a good point to concider for the americans who use old farm ulility for a smithy.

[doorcreekforge]

Moving my equipment into another building.

[ThomasPowers]

Turn left at Albuquerque! (if you are east of Albuquerque, right if you are west!)

[Stew1803]

Thought I'd show some of you my smiddy (smithy) 

It's a farm bothy and the original structure is from around the mid 1700s.

it's been lived in, used as a piggery, for chickens, as a storage shed and is now my smiddy. 

 

also is a photo a wrought horse shoe I dug up in the fields the other week, the area has been farmed for as long as human have farmed in Scotland so has a bit of history.

[Daswulf]

Very cool. May we have a picture of it from the outside?  I love old structures like that. I'd be metal detecting all around it if I could. 

On a side note I tilled up an old horse shoe where my potato garden in. It's from my great grandfathers time there as far as I can tell. It now resides on my forge hood for good luck. 

[Kevin Olson]

4 hours ago, Daswulf said:

It now resides on my forge hood for good luck. 

Hey das. I have one on my chimney too. Mine points down to pour the shoes luck into the shop and one on the house to collect the luck of the shoe. I read this somewhere.  Please correct me if my folkyor is incorrect.

[Frosty]

Yes please I'l love to see it fro the outside too. Structures that old just don't exist around here except maybe as archaeological digs. That's very cool Stew, thanks for the look.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Stew1803]

Ill certainly get some photos of the outside, (Im working offshore for another week and half unfortunately) though it has been renovated over the years obviously. our local original blacksmith shop for the farming area here still stands about a half mile from me. I would imagine it would be even older, though it is now only used to store spare farm equipment.

And if you're real lucky with a metal detector around some of the farms you will find buried anvils, there was a time when blacksmith tools couldn't even be sold so people scrapped or buried them.

My two anvils (one larger than in the photos with a cracked face) cost around £40 ($55) and the leg vice was free.

[jlpservicesinc]

At one time stuff like this was thrown away by a lot of people or back during WWII everything went to scrap for the war effort..  

if blacksmtihing equipment is still cheap or inexpensive now would be the time to amass your collection..   When I started to become serious about smithing back in the mid 80's , locally it was hard to find anvils over the 150lbs range in good shape, unless you were in the Know..   

I missed out on a few I would have loved to add or used..   And unless you get lucky or are in the "know" now the prices are threw the roof.. 

[Stew1803]

Prices were good and things were easy to find about 5 years ago when I started, but I also had no money (apprentice wages aren't great), but now, after all these shows on tv the prices have hiked up and are not worth it now, my time making things is less than the cost usually.

[Daswulf]

8 hours ago, Kevin Olson said:

Please correct me if my folkyor is incorrect.

Ok, it's Folklore...  

but as far as the horseshoe I have seen and heard both. 

[Jspool]

On 3/7/2018 at 9:30 PM, Frosty said:

Dad wouldn't let me fire my cannon at home so I had to come up with other gopher methods I don't wish to talk about. Cleaning out the ant hill though, now that was exciting! There was a BIG red at colony in  field next to us and the ants owned about half an acre, crossing it was done quickly. Well, I mixed a 1 lb. can of black powder with 3 lbs. of powdered sugar and started laying out a small pile every day. Before long there was a 4 lane ant highway packing sweet black powder into the hive.

When I was about out of powder I tossed a match on the highway. I was relieved when it didn't explode, instead it burned like a rocket engine with several vents. It blew smoke and burning ants several feet in the air for maybe 5 minutes. I only had to put out one burning bush and the field was pretty cleared off so I didn't screw up in spades like I could've.

That was that for the ant colony but I don't think it's practical, even in a vacant lot in the desert. Ants can tunnel quite a distance.

Frosty The Lucky.

Thats a fantastic story Frosty. Especially the ingenuity of getting the ants to carry the powder into the nest for you!

Now my gasoline blasting of mole tunnels doesn’t sound so cool anymore.

[ausfire]

Frosty, that's a cool way of getting back at those ants. X xxx xxxx xx xxxxxxxx xxxx xxxxxxxx xxxx xxx xxxx xxxxxx xxx xxxx x xxxxxxxx xx xxxxx xxxxx works wonders too.

Edited May 13, 2018 by Mod34
Highly toxic method used in WWI trench warfare removed.

[Frosty]

That's awfully close to how I got rid of gophers Aus. Being too dangerous for kids to mess with is why I don't like talking about on public fora.  Warnings on household products gave me the idea. Yeah, I was one of THOSE kind of kids, see gun powder and sugar and treats story.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Jonnytait]

On 5/4/2018 at 5:45 PM, Stew1803 said:

Thought I'd show some of you my smiddy (smithy)

Nice smiddy, good to see others in scotland here.

This is my new place, still have stuff to move yet but its taking shape

 

[Stew1803]

10 hours ago, Jonnytait said:

Nice smiddy, good to see others in scotland here

it's great to see I'm not the only one over here! 

would love to have a catchup if your free anytime? 

 

also noticed your in Shetland, I work at Sullom voe.

[jlpservicesinc]

jonnytait, Nice shop with a nice selection of equipment.. 

[Dave51B]

johnytait, very nice.....only thing that looks questionable to me is, your forge. Sitting in a corner like that, how long of a bar can you heat in the middle?  May not be an issue at all for the work you do. Over all I envy you.                 Dave 

[JHCC]

I've actually seen quite a few photos of old shops with the forge in the corner or even enclosed on three sides. I guess if you never work more than a couple of feet into a bar, it's really not an issue.

[stockmaker]

On 5/20/2018 at 5:32 PM, Jonnytait said:

Nice smiddy, good to see others in scotland here. This is my new place, still have stuff to move yet but its taking shape

Hello Jonnytait, your big anvil and anvil stand looks impressive, wish I had one like it.  I love to watch the TV show "Shetland", it only comes on here for a short time each year, fantastic scenery.   Nice to hear from you.

[Jonnytait]

8 hours ago, Dave51B said:

johnytait, very nice.....only thing that looks questionable to me is, your forge. Sitting in a corner like that, how long of a bar can you heat in the middle?  May not be an issue at all for the work you do. Over all I envy you.                 Dave 

That is correct, I did wonder about that when I was installing the forge, but I do also have a propane forge tucked away under the work bench which I could set up if I ever face that problem, which i dont think will be very often. Long work pieces can be passed through it, so that should solve the issue I hope!

5 hours ago, stockmaker said:

Hello Jonnytait, your big anvil and anvil stand looks impressive, wish I had one like it.  I love to watch the TV show "Shetland", it only comes on here for a short time each year, fantastic scenery.   Nice to hear from you.

Shetland is a good TV show although its a bit odd watching it when you know the place well

[Dave51B]

6 hours ago, Jonnytait said:

but I do also have a propane forge tucked away under the work bench which I could set up if I ever face that problem, which i dont think will be very often. Long work pieces can be passed through it, so that should solve the issue I hope!

AND THERE YA GO......a perceived issue is now a non issue...enjoy yer new shop.              Dave

[ausfire]

Had a bit of wasted space below our blacksmith shop so I decided to add an extension to the shop to display a bit of stuff I rounded up. The first pic shows an area I set aside as the blacksmith's scrap. Pic 2 shows some of the things I found to display - some old bellows, grindstones, a few leg vices in various states of repair and a couple of portable forges. Pic 3 shows an area that I have called the wheelwrights - the machine is a jointer of some kind I think. I am thinking of adding a fire pit there with some steel rims being heated before they were placed on the wheels.

Pic 4 is an overview from the viewing window in the blacksmith shop above. I found some old bullock dray chains and hooks to hang over the beam. The first beam collapsed under the weight so we installed a beefier one. Heavy those chains.

My next job is to rearrange the adjoining mine workshop so we can have visitors walk through.

[Grandpa]

Seems to be a waste of time, as no photos are showing, just a 404 page. (so nothing here to see)

Wow as soon as I make the statement the pages refresh and Loo-la pictures:

so it looks like it may not be a waste of time: so here goes,

this is my hobby shop that works for me,

I have a engineering work shop being the shed, so added this lean-to, for the hobby. will expand soon to include the foundry that is near completion, (its for aluminium solid rounds for the lathe.  and depending on the temp reached, maybe, Copper and Brass). .