Michael Posted September 29, 2014 Share Posted September 29, 2014 Wife and daughters were out dress shopping Saturday, so I was able to get a good 4 hours of forging in at the backyard smithy. Trip to the scrap yard first was a little sad. Still plenty of bar stock, even octogonal steel, but the rack of drops, plate and the odd machine tool have been replaced by recyclable alumimum and copper. I get most of my project ideas from the online files of various smithing groups newsletters and all three of these projects came from that source, mostly BAM if I recall correctly. Business card holder from angle iron, more sawing and bending than hammering. The woodworking friend said it looks Greene and Greene, the daughter said it looks like a couch. Tree hooks for a friend who has a cabin in Big Bear, CA, And since EVERYTHING up there is bear motif, I thought some trees might be a nice change of pace. Finally a candle trammel that's been on the list for a while. Learned a few things-the bottom whole the rod slides thru doesn't need to be a tight fit-the adjustment holes need to all be pretty square to the plate and the same size-the hook on the rod needs to bend a little past 90 degrees to hold well, and you need to upset the rod the candle cup sits on BEFORE you bend it round and rivet the cup on. Still trying to figure out to to both rivet the candle cup AND leave a spike to hold the candle. thanks for looking Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DSW Posted September 29, 2014 Share Posted September 29, 2014 Do you have any more picts of the business card holder or a link where you saw it? I need a new one for demos and that looks like it might have promise if I can figure out how it was done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ausfire Posted September 29, 2014 Share Posted September 29, 2014 Yeah, the card holder does look a bit like a couch! But that's OK - very stylish. Comfortable cards.I never thought of forging a card holder. Mine sit in a crummy plastic thing from K-Mart. Maybe we should start a thread of creative card holders or something. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Posted September 29, 2014 Author Share Posted September 29, 2014 Its just a 6 inch piece of angle iron, with 6 cuts in it. a half inch from each end, both sides of the angle iron, almost to the middle, and one inch from each end, on one side of the angle iron. Hardest part was getting it to sit level Tony Austin's Real Nice Business Card Holder from the January 2004 BAM newsletter. looking at the plan I made the cuts twice as wide as directed, no wonder it looks like a couch! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DSW Posted September 30, 2014 Share Posted September 30, 2014 Thanks I saved that for the next time I have the forge fired up. I have plenty of small pieces of "scrap" angle iron in the shorts bucket to work with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rashelle Posted September 30, 2014 Share Posted September 30, 2014 To fit the candle cup and have a spike. Forge a sharp point on the end of the bar where you want the spike. Use a monkey tool to set down the candle cup onto the spike. (Pre drilled or punched hole please.) then use a undersized hardened monkey tool made out of a tool steel to cut down on the edges of the spike as it widens. Thus making slivers fold back onto the cup. Note do not drive the cup far down onto the full width of the parent stock. Leave it sitting on the taper otherwise it'll go down to far or go crooked. You can ask me how I know .......... Heehee. Hope that made sense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimsShip Posted September 30, 2014 Share Posted September 30, 2014 Awesome idea for the holder! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Posted September 30, 2014 Author Share Posted September 30, 2014 Thanks Rashelle, that's a good idea. I was thinking I needed to keep the spike square ended, upset just below the candle cup, make a tenon and then, maybe while heating with a torch, upset the spike above the candle cup and finally point it. Monkey tool sounds easier, got some 5/8 drill rod that will do the job perfectly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rashelle Posted October 1, 2014 Share Posted October 1, 2014 You can run a separate spike through the bottom and monkey tool that also. So that the tennon piece becomes a bottom plate too. I'm too tired to try to explain at the moment though. There are variations. Brian Brazeal teaches how to do it the way my brain isn't explaining very well at the moment. You're welcome and I think I'm out. Blah typing while tired is hard to do.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimsShip Posted October 1, 2014 Share Posted October 1, 2014 I just noticed the widest side of the card holder is on the top of the one you built, but in the diagram it looks like they folded the "arms" of the holder down so the smaller edge is on top. I wonder if doing it that way would decrease the couch look if that's a concern. (I think it's still a great idea either way!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beammeupscotty Posted October 3, 2014 Share Posted October 3, 2014 Not meaning to hijack your thread, but I also needed a business card holder recently. In my case however, I needed to use it outdoors at a location known to be very windy (middle if San Francisco Bay on Treasure Island). This was my solution, before I cleaned off the scale and colored it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Posted October 3, 2014 Author Share Posted October 3, 2014 Nice, love the mini door knocker style. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ausfire Posted October 3, 2014 Share Posted October 3, 2014 Great idea for a windy location. I still think we need a thread for card holder ideas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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