Yup. Honestly if Frosty hadn't mentioned it I would have used the angle grinder with a cutoff wheel. And the bolt cutters were quicker! That's the great thing about this site and the great people here. I don't think a day goes by that I don't learn something. Or get reminded of something I'd forgotten about. 

So very true! definitely reminds me of things I had forgotten. When you geared for learning and always looking for the next "greatest way", one often overlooks the tried a true methods!

18 hours ago, Daswulf said:

This one was a bit of a pain. Once I got my acetylene tank filled I ran out of oxygen lol so I had to toss this guy in the forge to bend his legs. 

 

 

That happened to me with a praying mantis I made. Bending fine legs in the forge is not really the best way. It's hard to isolate the heat to a very small area to make a sharp bend, especially when the legs are attached to the body and in awkward positions. That's where the oxy torch is the go!

I think you are probably like me and a bit impatient. You want to get the thing finished rather than wait until the oxy bottle can be replenished. Patience is a virtue!

9 hours ago, ausfire said:

That happened to me with a praying mantis I made. Bending fine legs in the forge is not really the best way. It's hard to isolate the heat to a very small area to make a sharp bend, especially when the legs are attached to the body and in awkward positions. That's where the oxy torch is the go!

I think you are probably like me and a bit impatient. You want to get the thing finished rather than wait until the oxy bottle can be replenished. Patience is a virtue!

That it can be!  Yes this one I wasn't waiting so into the forge the spider went. The legs would have bent way easier and better with OA torch. 

 

Great photo, Das. That's a prizewinner!

5 hours ago, Daswulf said:

That it can be!  Yes this one I wasn't waiting so into the forge the spider went. The legs would have bent way easier and better with OA torch. 

Those pictures remind me of the movie Arachnophobia

Those are crazy cool pics Das.

Couldn't help but snap some pictures Yeah it looked really cool. 

I don't blame you one bit!

That's a great spider trivet(?) Das. Deb would make me go live in the shop if I brought one home. Spiders creep her our almost to the scream and run point, won't even have a web looking thing around.

Still. . . Frosty The Lucky.

I've taken a couple of fire brick and laid them across the top of the coal fire with a slot between then to isolate heat for some delicate tweaking.

19 hours ago, ThomasPowers said:

I've taken a couple of fire brick and laid them across the top of the coal fire with a slot between then to isolate heat for some delicate tweaking.

That is one of the best things about a solid fuel forge, you can shape the fire as you need even to the point of building a furnace enclosure over the fire for heat treat or really large stock.

Frosty The Lucky.

well I've done similar with my propane forge too.....

Thank you for the suggestion! lol, The things that you just sometimes dont think about. but once ya know, you always know.

Maybe not efficient as the previous methods, but I could see getting the arcs from slicing thin sections of pipe and the cutting the slice in half or thirds. 

Would probably only make sense if you had a band saw or big cutoff saw. 

Carlson, That sounds like a ton of cutting and slicing no...

swage would be a simple traditional method and one where a swage block would be handy to work increasing sizes.