December 24, 201312 yr Looking good, now hang your stocking with care inside and St Nick might finish it for you!
December 26, 201312 yr Awesome looking shop. If I might offer one bit of advice, it would be to tear down that retaining wall on the left side, as facing. You don't need it now that you have the building wall there (the roof will shoot rain water past the drop off) and it will do nothing but act as a trap for moisture, leaves, bugs, mildew, rot, etc. Even if kept clean of leaves and the like, it will still prevent good air circulation around the base of the wall, and that encourages rot.
December 28, 201312 yr Author Good observation Vaughn. I've been meaning to clean that mess up for a while and now it's more important than ever. On the left side is actually the timbers I was planning on using for the shop, but thankfully Frosty talked me out of it and convinced me to use pressure-treated wood for the posts. Those are just stacked there until I can start building the wood shed with them. I'm going to build a wood shed up the hill as soon as I complete this project and do some major clean up around the shop. And you're absolutely correct, my firewood stays wet there as it is and it will be even worse now that the shop is up. Got the windows installed, Cedar shaker shingles put up on each end, and finished up all the trim work. Next step is to build the doors and forge the strap hinges -
December 29, 201312 yr Author I got the doors started, waiting on my metal to arrive so I can forge the strap hinges. These doors are pretty heavy so I'm going to go a little overkill and step up to three 48" long x 3" wide x 1/4" thick strap hinges per door with 1-1/4" diameter hinge pins.
December 30, 201312 yr A-36 steel has a yield strength of around 36,000 psi and a tensile strength of around 60,000 psi. How heavy are those doors? 1.25" diameter hinge pins are WAY overkill. Blacksmiths from before the dawn of time have made pintles around 3/8" to 5/8" in diameter, or up to 3/4" or 1" (or a little more) in wrought iron for castle gates made of HEAVY timbers. It's ok if you really want to learn how to work big stock, have at it, I'm just suggesting that you can save yourself a ton of effort. What is the crushing strength of the timber you will be screwing the pintle into?
December 30, 201312 yr Author A-36 steel has a yield strength of around 36,000 psi and a tensile strength of around 60,000 psi. How heavy are those doors? 1.25" diameter hinge pins are WAY overkill. Blacksmiths from before the dawn of time have made pintles around 3/8" to 5/8" in diameter, or up to 3/4" or 1" (or a little more) in wrought iron for castle gates made of HEAVY timbers. It's ok if you really want to learn how to work big stock, have at it, I'm just suggesting that you can save yourself a ton of effort. What is the crushing strength of the timber you will be screwing the pintle into? Maybe 250# each - 8' tall x 6' wide each. I'm sure it's overkill, suppose I wanted to make a statement with them :D The pintle pins will be welded to 5"x5"x1/4" plates that are sandwiched & through-bolted to the 6x6 posts with four 3/8" bolts per plate.
January 1, 201412 yr Author Waiting on the metal for the door hinges to arrive and a load of crusher run for the floor. Got the strap hinge jig fabricated, heat shield installed and wood stove set today.
January 10, 201412 yr Author Got the pintles finished up today. Going to start making the straps tomorrow.
January 20, 201412 yr Author Well.....unfortunately I ended up cheating in every possible way to build the strap hinges (plasma cutter, mig welder, drill press), but they are built and they work. So it's mostly a mental defeat. I had every intention to forge these in their entirety, but I didn't have it in me to do this many hinges of this size by hand. Forging the barrels was enough of a challenge for me, but they ended up fitting the pins very clean & tight. The jig I built for the hardy worked well. This is the first time I've ever used a 4 lb sledge hammer on the anvil, sure glad I had it handy :D These started as hot rolled bar stock at 3" x 1/4" x 60" each. I folded the centerline of the barrel at 13" from the end, which yielded approximately a 48" long strap hinge. I welded the flap back to the hinge and then heated and hammered the weld. I also tacked the edges close the the barrel and at the midway point on each side to ensure they wouldn't separate under weight. So they're a fake, but a strong fake at least. I feel slightly better than ordering a set of hinges from Lowe's, so I suppose that's a win of sorts...... The doors swing smoothly and there was no real detectable sag once hung (which surprised me). I'm now working on handles, latch, and cane pin assemblies.
January 21, 201412 yr Ain't cheating if it got the job done. Smiths back in the day would have forge-welded a lot of that strap to the actual barrel for the same reasons. It's a honkin' bunch of iron to be moving around!
January 22, 201412 yr If they hang your doors, then its a win..... and as we all know. A win is a win. If you still feel guilty after your shop is built you can always go back and forge replacements. Nice job on the shop.
January 23, 201412 yr I've just ran through this entire post. Your building looks great. Can't wait for more pictures.
January 25, 201412 yr At the end of the day your doors will open and close that's what you wanted. If it bothers you that much later you can do something else and when you replace these send them to me. Nice Job.
January 27, 201412 yr Author Finially got it dried in yesterday, next step is to install the pavers for the floor -
January 31, 201412 yr Looks fantastic. Congratulations on a job (so far) very well done. I've enjoyed watching the progress of your shop.
February 2, 201412 yr Author Got our sign hung and the floor finished this weekend, it's getting close to being finished.
February 6, 201412 yr Words cannot describe how awesome this is! You have no idea how jealous I am. :D
February 6, 201412 yr That's a great looking shop! Can't wait to see it full of smithing gear, fire going and sparks flying. Great Job!
February 6, 201412 yr Have been following this thread and it's time to compliment this man & his work. That's a real neat job fella, fair play to you. I'm looking forward to seeing it up and running. Great job.
February 8, 201412 yr Sorry if I missed it, what is your flooring made of? Beautiful shop, it's a very well executed plan.
February 10, 201412 yr Author Sorry if I missed it, what is your flooring made of? Beautiful shop, it's a very well executed plan. They are 18"x24" Allen Cassay Ashland pavers from Lowe's.
February 12, 201412 yr Now it's time to start filling it up with stuff. What are you going to do for a stock rack? Are you going to sink your anvil stump or just set it on top of the pavers? Very jealous!
February 12, 201412 yr Author Now it's time to start filling it up with stuff. What are you going to do for a stock rack? Are you going to sink your anvil stump or just set it on top of the pavers? Very jealous! We're still working all those details out. At first it's going to serve as the workshop for my wife's part of our work. I can't afford the downtime required to move the entire smithy at the moment, so that's going to come a little later. Once it does get moved, a few pavers are getting pulled in various spots and concrete footers installed for equipment mounting. Still hoping to be able to afford a power hammer someday.......but the shop construction kind of depleted the funds for that for a while. The wood stove isn't going to be installed afterall, due to insurance reasons and space requirements.
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