Hammer and Tongs

[John Martin]

What do you all use to keep your hammer and tongs organzied. Do you use long shelves that you can hook them onto, or do you make a standup post with rings for them, or something else????

[gerald]

Lot's of tong/hammer racks in the blueprint section. Check them out. Good ideas.

[Candidquality]

Mine are currently on the floor as i'm in a new shop. Think about where you want them to be for easy reach. Then you also want the heads to be visible so you can switch out easily. It can actually help quite a bit to have a place for each hammer so you know when one goes missing. Either needs to hold the head on 2 places or the head in one place and the handle in a second place. Doesn't have to be exceptional, just functional. The best thing for you to do is to think up a few designs on your own BEFORE you look anywhere for an idea. Then, if you don't feel comfortable building an untested design, look up some other designs here in the blueprint section. Use the information you see there to adjust your design if you can now see flaws in it. otherwise, just build it and be happy.

[John Martin]

I am going to make three rings, put them on a post, and add some other stuff to them, and then add my tools to it as i get them.

[Finnr]

Check the BP on Vise stand that I did . BP0491 Vise Stand It is a simple way to keep your hammers handy. You should be able to adapt it to what ever you want to hang up.
Finnr

[ThomasPowers]

For a round tong rack I use old steel wheelbarrow wheels. For a linear hammer rack I took the base from an old aquarium and bolted on a couple of pieces of scrap steel pipe, water or gas doesn't make a difference, seperated by just enough space for the hammer handles---it held over 70 of them and is sturdy---aquariums full of water are heavy too!.

In my new shop I have a steel wheelbarrow wheel rack for the tongs I don't use often. The tongs I use all the time hang on 1/2" rod that I bent out like an old curtin rod "]" and bolted to my hammer stand; a heavy welded angle iron support for a not very wide workbench that I was given that I bolted some pipe too. It even has a shelf underneath it for hardy tools.

[Brian C.]

I set the gasser on top of some firebrick on the top of a Sears utility cart. The tongs go on the handles at each end and the hammers go into a rack I made across the front. Heavy but functional and portable.

[John Martin]

Well, I've made up some different designs, for when my parents move, we are moving to 13 acres of land, and they said that they would build a shop with me, my dad and i. I'm to have a central forge in the middle...forget this, i'll post the blueprints later tonight.

[Candidquality]

Sounds great. Good luck with the shop. And remember, it's never big enough. ;)

[Pault17]

Brian C,
I like your setup. that looks like it would work well in my own situation.

how much time do you get out of a twenty pounder on average?

[Brian C.]

Pault17- I never really checked to be exact. When I had the NC whisper daddy it seemed to do quite well. The last 3 burner I had (in the photo) was a real gas hog, even just running 2 burners. At Quad State I bought a new single burner, mid-sized, forge from the nice folks at Chile Forge. I havent got to use it but once yet so I cant say, it can run on a much lower pressure so I expect it to be quite a bit better on fuel.

I realize that was a long post & still didnt really answer the question, just my experience.

[ThomasPowers]

My double aspirated burner pipeforge ran a bit under a gallon an hour when I had it turned up for teaching a class recently

[Jmercier]

for small work I use an NC Tool Co Whisper Baby single burner venturi forge, and it's about the most frugal propane forge i've ever seen. After getting it up to temp, I can turn it down to ~4 to 5lbs pressure and I can get around 20 hours of forging from a 20lb tank.

My welding propane forge (single burner, blown forge) however freezes a 20lb tank right up after 10 to 15 minutes.

As for holding tools... I'm using a mid 1800s blacksmithing bench I picked up for 40$ this spring. the whole top, and the bottom shelf are each one massive 2 foot wide by 2.5 feet long boards. You just dont see boards that size anymore.

http://www.tharkis.com/images/toolbench.jpg

[Quenchcrack]

Brian, I like the cart, too. In fact, I made on exactly like it about 4-5 years ago! I even have the hammer rack in front. Great minds think alike! Of course, my gasser is a single burner and now I have forge envy....

[Brian C.]

Bob- it should look familiar, I emailed you for directions on how you made the rack on yours at the time. That 3 burner is now on stand-by duty while I use the new mid-size single burner from Chile Forge, it is a dandy.