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I Forge Iron

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well we have just moved from country back to town in a older section of town. I know long story why. Anyway fixing to set my forge back up. I am going from coal to a gas forge to not have the smell or smoke complaints. A little concerned of the noise issue. I mostly make knives and small items.  Will try to do what I can to keep noise down as much as possible and work during reasonable hours. Just wondering if anyone else is in town and how you are handling it. H

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Welcome aboard, glad to have you. If you'll put your general location in the header you might be surprised how many of the IFI gang live within visiting distance.

Lots of folk here with city folk issues, lots of solutions been written about already. Not to worry though, lots of folk will chime in, we're a talky bunch you know. ;)

Frosty The Lucky.

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Like the others have said, there are several very good threads on this topic, it's been discussed quite a bit here.  I work in a very typical suburban neighborhood, also, it is not without it's challenges but definitely do-able.  Look up those threads, there's a lot of good info there. 

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Who is crazy enough to complain to Steve? ;)

Frosty The Lucky.

there have been a few mainly one partially insane neighbor that is the sister of the last person to live in that house, remember the equally nutty person with the 2 pit bulls that attacked him a few years back... Their Mom owns it and she still aint sold the property, she wants too ,much for it, so she just lets her kids live there until it sells.   I cant blame her, I think she feels its better than have them move in with her I suppose.  

She keeps calling the police because of where I park in front my my house, she feels it is too close to where she wants to park, there is very little off street parking here.   Lucky for me the local police have some brains, and stopped waking me up in the middle of the night when she calls to ask me about it.  I offered to call their bosses and wake them up to discuss it with them... 

The code enforcement officer served an apprenticeship as a general blacksmith, so he is aware of smoke vs no smoke from the forge in my  shop, So that avoids  most problems there.  As long as I watch the noise late at night I am good, the rest of the neighbors and I BBQ together often.

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Had a couple chew me out for parking in front of their house on a public road.  They then moved their vehicles to lock me in.  Didn't like it when I called the police to have them towed. Somehow they thought they owned the public street.  The police differed in opinion.

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she cant parallel park, so she wants  a full car length on her bumpers. she will park all 3 of her cars, in a space normal can get 5 easily.  And then here comes this long hair that used to live in Uptown Chicago, parking a foot away and she panics.   lol I even told the cops if there is 6 inches extra space on my car we know how to park there :) maybe I should plant a birch tree on that side of my property to watch her for me?  I hear they can be dangerous around strangers.

Frosty I grew up in Michigan, on the big lake and I like snow :D

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Before the bowling alley bought them out there was this GREAT little cafe on the docks over the water in Ketchikan called the Roller Bay Cafe. It was perfectly placed so we ate breakfast there every morning and  when we were drilling on the slope right above it we ate lunch there too. Well, there was a local who ate lunch there every day too and her method of parallel parking was to go till she bumped the vehicle hard enough to feel, then turn the wheel and go the other way. It usually took 3 thumps to get close enough to the curb for her. No locals batted an eye and said good morning when she walked in, by name without looking up. Funny how the same two battered vehicles parked either side of HER parking space every noon. You gotta love small towns . . . Well it's a good sized city in Alaska.

Are you going to plant a birch tree in her parking place? That just might work but I must warn you the thump to my head only made me a little crazier. :blink:

Deb was surprised her first winter when she discovered the 60" snowfalls were winter averages, not average snowfalls. Last winter we didn't get a whole foot here and only went sub zero for maybe 5 days total.

Frosty The Lucky.

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Have you met the neighbors and told them what you do? You can gauge alot about their feelings on the subject by bringing it up casually in a conversation.

Also try not to use the term "hobby" or "weekend". When you talk about your forging. The term "part time" sounds alot better. you are asserting that you do this to help pay the bills but at the same time you might consider any special requests like waiting till a certain time on weekends or something like that. 

People will usually complain quicker  about a noisy hobby than they will a noisy profession. especially if its just during hobby hours.

 

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Good tips Redd consider them added to my tool kit.

A little good PR can go a long way towards making you a friend of the neighborhood rather than a nuisance. None of my neighbors had a dull knife, lawnmower blade, etc. and I frequently did small repairs broken chair leg, etc. all gratis. I got invited to more dinners than I could eat. What neighborhood was that? A mobile home court in Anchorage, my closest neighbor was less than 30' from the anvil.

Frosty The Lucky.

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My neighbors are close, To help with noise I put a chain around my anvil. Some anvils ring louder then others, I'm lucky my anvil is not to bad unless you are pounding on the horn then it rings pretty loud.  I also went from a cut off saw to a band saw to help cut down on noise and dust. 

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