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I Forge Iron

New Shop at Gidgegannup


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On 22/05/2017 at 1:05 AM, ThomasPowers said:

A handy thing is to paint that front piece with chalkboard paint to allow you to sketch ideas on it. (I have used old rusty steel, knock the loose rust off and the surface will take chalk pretty well)

I do agree Thomas and will find some black board paint. Thanks all for the interest !!

 

cheers from down under !!

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 I am hoping to get a mongosling  ( I assume a baby mongoose ). I drilled and drove in bridge spikes, which were reclaimed from the bridge timber though the posts  each end into the timbers.  I have since covered in the holes from the inside using sheet tin and  copper clouts that were given to me.  We used to have mongooses  keeping verging down in  the East End Markets in South Australia back in the 1920's, they are only in zoos now down under. Pity about the king brown and tiger snakes. 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Gents,  fired up the forge yesterday, had a few mates drop around, one worked the bellows for me, and also held the tongs while I cut a length of file with a cold chisel, then made a nice attempt at a herb cutting knife, also two hoof picks which a farrier mate swiped as the one I had made for his wife who is a riding instructor had been pinched by one of her students !! Hoof picks are something that you cannot buy a decent example of from feed or saddlery stores and can be made out of old horseshoes !! we then sat around and told lies over a few beers so consider the Gidgegannup Forge christened !!

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7 minutes ago, Irondragon Forge & Clay said:

Sounds like an excellent christening. Did anyone say hold my beer and watch this?:D

Surely you JEST IF&C! Can you imagine any Ausie asking anyone ELSE to hold his beer? :rolleyes:

Sounds good Heeler it's not right till you've blown the suds off a couple with some mates. 

I Can NOT express how happy I am we don't have poisonous snakes, bugs or such to worry about here. Sure the bears are dangerous but you can smell them a ways off.

Frosty The Lucky.

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  • 3 months later...

Gentlemen, I am now on holidays and have been with the help of my potential son in law, putting up the front stoop on the smithy, we finished all the timberwork today, and will tomorrow order up the roofing iron. I reused old verandah posts from our old house, and old jarrah rafters. A few Millers Draught afterwards !!

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What, no Fosters! Lol

sorry about that I have a buddy who seems to like the stuff (I think it's the fact it comes in big cans) but when He wend down under her found the stuff universally reviled! But MGD? Don't you lot have decent beer? Lol.

Shop looks good, potential SIL looks like he could father some descent looking grand kids and is smart enugh to butter up the father of the bride to be. 

Try slitting and drifting the heal of those hoof pickes for bottle openers...

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The Pasty Pom, he is a roof leader from Bedfordshire. David will lead flash where the verandah roof joins the wall, he has already leaded in the forge chimney.  He is quite keen on shooting muzzle loaders and is learning to ride, might even team rope one day.

    Nobody drinks Fosters down under !! We do have plenty of good beer, don't worry, I just got a taste for Millers on the rodeo circuit years ago,  and it stacks up quite well against our own beers. I brew my own Coopers which is from my home state of South Australia.

   That is a great suggestion about my hoof picks doubling as bottle openers !!  We will in due course set a concrete floor down under the stoop,  I am also fitting a donated window into the shop opposite where the vice is. Thanks for the interest 

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Gentlemen, nearly finished,  still have to flash the stoop where it joins the smithy, and sheet metal flashing down each side of the stoop.  Roof now all screwed down, gutters on, and hood on over the window. Just the right amount of stygian darkness in the smithy, Hephaestus would be best pleased.  Last thing now is to concrete in the floor of the stoop and put up a hitching rail for the nags. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Gentlemen,

                     end of my holidays, and David finished off the lead flashing, linking the stoop to the smithy, we also stuck on a lucky horseshoe.  The final job will be to concrete the floor under the stoop. 

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  • 8 months later...

Gentlemen,  have done a bit more to the  smithy, hood over the window, guttering and downpipes, a rectangular iron tank on a stand, holds about a yard and half cubed of rain water. This coming Saturday morning at 0730  I am having the floor of the smithy' s stoop concreted.  I have packed down a lot of rubble as fill, there will be at least 4 to 5" of concrete, so no trouble tying up a horse to be shod. Will post pictures next week. We are having a nice wet winter and have had a couple of short sessions making hoof picks, and a herb knife 

 

Cheers 

 

Heelerau

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Update,  the chaps called on just after I posted to say they won't now be over for another 3 or 4 weeks, twice they have begged off, its just a small cash job, but because the weather has been so wet,  the building companies they sub to keep calling on them to pour on the weekend as they are well behind on their schedules,  big pours of more than 25m3 . I am a bit peeved but understand, so a little more patience on my part. Will post photos when it finally does happen. 

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Nice to hear you're getting some wet over there, Gordon. With NSW 100% drought declared and pretty much the same up here in Qld, we could do with some of your weather. Thanks so much to you guys trucking over 1000's of bales of hay for our starving stock.

And your shop looks great. Love the slab wall and the turned posts.

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ausfire, you have my sympathies, " old man drought" is a dreadful character.  Funny when we get a normal wet run of years, the last 3 or four, its dry in the east, when you blokes get rain, we are in drought.  I hope it breaks sooner than later. I have been messing about making a few hoof picks for the local feed store, good practice and it pays for the charcoal. 

  Plenty of hay over here,  hopefully we will send more as needed. 

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Thanks Gordon. No end in sight to the dry. Wonder if new Prime Minister Sco Mo can make it rain. He's been out touring the drought areas and promising help.

You said your hoof picks help pay for the charcoal. Just wondering where you source your charcoal. I use charcoal exclusively in my side blast forge and get it for free by following the bushfires. We haven't had much of a fire season and it's getting harder to find. There is a place near Charleville that produces charcoal from Gidgee and I imagine it is of high quality coming from such a hard wood. It's not cheap though, and freight costs to up here are savage. I'm thinking of making a charcoal pit and making my own.

I assume you have a supplier and not those small bags you can buy in Bunnings.

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Mate funnily enough I have been using the big bags of lump charcoal from Bunnings.  When I first used it I though it was too big a lumps, funnily enough i breaks down in the forge into smaller pieces after awhile and seems to work quite well. A mate up the road has built me a retort, just have not had a chance to try it out.  When we do I will post some photos.  We have wood fires in both houses on our hobby farm,  I save any charcoal from  cleaning  them out.  I really would like to get a bulky bag of coke sent over from Qld but the cost at this stage in transport. I will go that way eventually when I have a few spare sponduliks !! Gidge would make excellent charcoal, would burn my stove out if not carefull !!

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Dale thanks for the link,  have just emailed them,  as I am only 40 minutes from the city center and the royal show grounds, I might see about dropping down and seeing them on a Wednesday. I have seen them at work during the Royal Show in the past and they have a nice little smithy with a power hammer. 

 

Cheers 

 

Gordon

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